TV

Damages
2x08 They Had to Tweeze That Out of My Kidney
Again, Damages almost seems to tread water; and again, I'd blame this on the sheer volume of plot threads, where some have to be left untouched in order to devote enough time to others. I'm beginning to wonder if this season is a lost cause, one which we should stick with to its end in the hope they can more successfully emulate season one in the already-commissioned third.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
5x05 (2/4/09 edition, uncut repeat)
It can be quite interesting -- or quite odd, depending how you see it -- watching this a week after recording, because all of the topical jokes are a week out. Guest-wise, this one was a bizarre affair, as Oscar-winning Italian actor/director Roberto Benigni manfully struggled to understand and speak English while being irrepressibly enthusiastic, and Patsy Kensit was... just bizarre.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Wire
1x08 Lessons
It seems like every episode someone is trying to shut the team down, only to be defeated by some technicality near the end. Perhaps it is realistic that such a large operation would be an annoyance to so many, but it begins to feel like a disappointingly stock TV trick when it almost-happens-but-is-thankfully-stopped so neatly within every episode -- so much for grand overlapping plot arcs, eh?
That said, it's a relatively minor irritant in what is by and large a brilliant show. Lots of memorable bits in this episode -- McNulty getting his kids to follow Stringer, for example, or rescuing Bunk from a drunken one night stand -- but the best of all has to be Omar's efficient, violent revenge.