I've been watching "Vera" - English, based on books by Ann Cleeve. It stars Brenda Blethyn and I love hearing the northern-English (I think they're northern) accents. They're really well done, but so so SAD.

What a fantastic episode of Elementary that was! Great character stuff, fun case, sparkling dialog -- one of the best the show has done. And that letter at the end, oh my.

Vonnie, I really enjoyed this episode too. The not even veiled references to Anonymous, not withstanding.

I love the Victorian romance in Holmes' behavior...and his ingenuity. Especially, the free weights + bicycle rim + fireplace cooking. I doubt it would actually work, but I love the idea of it.

I'm the anti-cross-poster what cross posts at midnight: Elementary and Sleepy Hollow writers twitter fight. Spoilery to the degree of photographs of antagonists of each series, and socks.

So many sparkly hearts!

I enjoyed this Elementary. I was annoyed by the gratuitous slamming of Snowden. Yeah I know, fictional character - but labeled Snowden in blinking neon. Only the real Snowden went out of his way to avoid exposing people in deep cover - not only agents but sources. Also the real Snowden had no trouble getting dates - had a live in girl friend who was very conventionally attractive. So a minor annoyance. They plot did not required making Ezra/Snowden an exceptionally loathsome murdered. If they decided to make him the bad guy, they did not need to take the gratuitous swipes. I get the impression that the episode writer really hated Snowden, and decided to just make him a cartoon villain. Still like the espisode, cause if I let political disagreement stop me from watching otherwise good stuff, I'd have a pretty short sad list of things I could watch. But still going to bitch about it.

See, I read the making him a murderer as a way out of having to deal with the moral quandry of whether finding him and turning him in was ethical.

That's how I took it too.

And the reason they had him threaten to expose uncover agents, and have trouble getting dates?

I missed a couple Mentalist things and don't have interest/energy to go back:

1) Why didn't Jane attend the wedding?
2) Wait, I forgot the other thing. Shit. Right! Where did the wedding dress come from?

About the Mentalist:

1. I believe Jane was outside coordinating the re-enactors for the 21-gun salute and the carriage. His misty-eyed appearance at the door during the ceremony lends itself to believing he had wrangled that job for himself as much so that he wouldn't fall prey to a public expression of his own pain (such as was seen as he walked away after having viewed pics of baby Benjamin right after the birth) as to give the gift of Capital-R Romance to the bride and groom.

2. I don't really know for sure if the audience is supposed to assume Van Pelt just drags the thing around with her. Napa is not that far away from Sacramento. They might not have needed to stay in a motel for the investigation, even. It certainly would not have been difficult for her to make a quick run home to get it. Hour and a half, each way. Less if she lets Jane drive.

ETA: 3. I just realized I just explained California geography to a California resident. Sorry. I spend wayyyyyyyyy too much time explaining California geography to other fan fic writers in the fandom from other parts of the world.