Around the dial

Short and sweet this week; without further adieu let's get to the meat on today's menu.

At The Ringer, Alison Herman asks the question "When should a prestige TV show end?" Good question. It ties in to the discussion we had a while back on whether or not shorter TV seasons are a good thing. But in this day and age, when every series seems to contain a story arc that runs the length of the show's run, I think a better question is this: do we really need to tell stories this complex?

Made for TV Mayhem's Amanda gives an insightful review to the 1973 teleflick Cry Rape - a movie that has an essential place in television annals as one of the early movies to deal with the sensitive subject matter.

"The Trade-Ins" is this week's episode on The Twilight Zone Vortex, and Jordan takes us into a story that, despite some flaws, remains a moving testament to the power of love, featuring powerful performances by Joseph Schildkraut and Alma Platt as a couple who discover that neither life nor death are worth being without the one you love.

Manimal on the podcast Eventually Supertrain - need I say anything more?

Comfort TV takes an affectionate look back at the '60s rock duo Chad & Jeremy. Poor man's Beatles? No, but it is fun to see how they managed to stand in as symbols for the Fab Four in various television series of the day.

I really like what John has to say at Cult TV in his look at The Avengers episode "Propellant 23" - "A blog about TV suggests the blogger is blogging about what he is watching. I have always aimed to make this blog more about what I think is good TV." My sentiments exactly, and I think John does it very well. Having said that, read what he has to say about this episode!

At bare-bones e-zine, Jack is back with another installment in the Hitchcock Project. This time: the first-season episode "Breakdown," written by Francis and Marion Cockrell, and starring Joseph Cotten in what amounts to a one-man performance.

Back tomorrow, right? TV