Primetime Preview

I'm off to grab lunch, read the papers, mass and then see "Capote" one more time before finally compiling my Best Movies of 2005 list this week. Tonight, "Desperate Housewives" is a repeat and "Grey's Anatomy" is new. But my main recommendation is "Bleak House" on PBS. Oddly, they're only showing another hour of the eight hour miniseries (will they drag it out for five more weeks?). On DVD, it's clear the British series was broken up into half hour segments, so at least we can be grateful it won't take another 12 weeks. Well-acted all around, with Charles Dance a great villain. But I've yet to see a single review mention the LUDICROUS direction. When switching scenes (say from a law office to the estate of Bleak House), they invariably cut to three different shots of the home, complete with thudding, ominious music to "jazz" it up. Not to mention the crazy zooms that pop up out of nowhere. It's a credit to the actors that I haven't stopped watching.