Curtain

Excuse me.

Excuse everyone, all the time. There's no need to deal with this on a case-by-case basis. There should be a culture of excusal in this country. Except for the people who have done bad things, or who watch The Big Bang Theory.

My feelings on excusal have mellowed in the past few sentences.

I'm just going to excuse myself and move on.

I have things to talk about, but nothing that I feel like talking about at any length.

I've been watching a lot of the sitcom Community, so I could talk about that. But not at any length. It's inconsistent, occasionally brilliant, but a notch below the cream of the crop.

However, it's much braver and more interesting than it needs to be. It's like a slightly above-average sitcom that has become sentient and is trying to evolve into something greater. The cast are all excellent, and it tends to avoid the obvious (or embrace the obvious in a non-obvious way).

I've also been watching the first season of The Twilight Zone on Blu-ray (HD comes into its own when displaying a close-up of a character-actor's face - as I continually point out to the people with whom I'm watching it).

I haven't seen most of these before (or at least not for a long time), so it's been very enjoyable. The Blu-ray is packed full of extra features so in-depth that even I won't be able to watch all of them.

The best part about it is it gives me a reason to do my Rod Serling impersonation. All the time. Long after everyone else has become tired of it.

It's a really fun impression to do. Just try it!

Are you trying it? Good.

***

I don't think most sneak previews deserve the name. If the preview is authorised by the studio in charge of the thing being previewed, there's nothing sneaky about it. If the sneak preview is on a major television channel, it's 0% sneak.

A true sneak preview would be a hidden camera filming from behind a curtain, taped to the head of a sneak (that's a kind of mouse probably). The microfilm would be smuggled into people's homes in a camouflaged box, concealed in the colon of the Invisible Man's wan younger brother.

That's a sneak preview. And you can only look at it for five seconds. And then you're killed.

That's sneak. Full-on sneak. So much sneak, that it's obtrusively subtle.

That's the end of my satire of sneak previews.

Join me next time, when I'll be casting my wry eye over a minefield.


***

It is now later. And later it will be later still.

I have to go and do a stand-up gig now. I'll let you know how it goes. Even if it goes really badly.

Godspeed.