TV

Derren Brown Investigates
1x03 The Ghosthunter [season finale]
Verdict: no proof here. Though at least he seemed like a decent guy, unlike the money-grabbing conmen of the other episodes.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Dexter
3x05 Turning Biminese
Thanks to various series ending, I'm finally able to resume a couple that had fallen by the wayside -- namely, this and (shortly) Damages and (hopefully before too long) Sandbaggers (nearly a year since I watched that!)
I was particularly keen to resume Dexter, though, having already had to restart it once. Last time I'd only watched one episode and left it 9 months; this time I'd seen four and it was only 2½ months, making resuming it that much easier -- no need to rewatch. Not that rewatching Dexter would be unrewarding but, y'know, been there before 'n' all that...
Um, so, self-obsessed and largely uninteresting babble aside... good ep. Ayup. Moving on...

Articles

Derrick Bird and the price of infamy by Anton Vowl
(from Enemies of Reason)
Vowl is, as ever, spot on, this time about some of the media's ghoulish reporting of the recent Cumbrian shootings.

Laurie: 'House was undone in the finale' by Catriona Wightman
(from Digital Spy)
Hugh Laurie's thoughts on what went on in the most recent House season finale.

Mark Kermode on Godard's latest

Selected from the comments section:

Godard feels that English is the language of political and cultural imperialism

Just to establish that, because this is the reasonable response, I feel:

Isn't it slightly unreasonable of [Jean-Marie Straub, a director mentioned in an earlier comment] to refuse to subtitle his films because he "feels an audience should learn the language the film is presented in"? Considering there are several thousand languages in the world, and it takes years to master a language to the level required to fully appreciate all the nuanced dialogue in a film script, aren't the filmmakers practicing a far more blatant level of cultural imperialism by insisting people learn THEIR language before enjoying THEIR film?

At best, he's creating a pointless cultural apartheid, and severely limiting his audience, which might explain why I've never heard of him.

If people want to self-importantly withdraw from international markets then good luck to them. If they want to continue cutting the world into little mutually exclusive sections then they are free to do that, safe in the knowledge that they are contributing absolutely nothing to cross-cultural understanding or awareness.

Put it another way: which is more culturally imperialist -- showing an English-language film to French viewers with French subtitles, to ease understanding for non-English-speakers; or showing a French-language film to English viewers with no subtitles, obscuring understanding for non-French-speakers?