Yes, Typo Boy. Nothing wrong with Don't Impress Me Much. The thing I like about Shania Twain is she has a real live womanly sexy twinkle in her eye (as well as a hell of a voice). Not one of those plastic Faith Hill types.

Good country music: Roseanne Cash singing Elvis Costello's Our Little Angel, Kris Kristofferson singing Lovin' You Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again), Steve Earle doing The Mountain. And any great female country voice doing Stand By Your Man and Angel of the Morning.

Bugger that for a game of soldiers.

Lord, how I love this expression. I want to marry it and have its little expression-y babies. t /random

What does the "for a game of soldiers" part mean?

in my world it translates to, "bugger that for a fucking stupid idea" ... as in, being a soldier and being shot at and blowed up is a stupid idea :)

I love juxtapositions of sublime and ridiculous. I love language, and action, and bravado. I love storytelling, and I love swashbuckling

But Fay, Wimbledon has all these things!

What does the "for a game of soldiers" part mean?

My impression is that it's "a silly thing"-- compare the similar expression "bugger this for a lark", which I sincerely hope refers to a lark in the "silly game" sense rather than a bird.

Hmm, I just saw Shiny Happy People and twas interesting, if not a particularly great ep. Some people apparently found it dreadfully boring, but I was too busy have naughty thoughts about worshiping Gina Torres to engage the higher brain functions which recognise things beyond 'Guh'. Okay, I was de-thralled momentarily by the ugliness of the yellow shirt, but it went away before I needed to pull out a fork.

I also loved Fred, and I've decided that I love Fred in general, gorgeous vengeful sweetie that she is--plus, she shot Angel and made him change out of the blinding shirt of pain, so extra bonus points for that. Oh, and I like Connor again, poor lonely boy. (My rage is odd and fickle, and I should probably do well to remember that before I bother getting so het up about things--because while on one hand he's a bit slow on the uptake, on the other, his life has fucking sucked.)

This next bit contains end of season spoilers: Being spoiled made watching this episode particularly sad w/r/t Connor. Poor Bon Bon--I think of all the Jossverse characters, Connor got the worst deal. To have even the remotest chance at happiness, he has to give up everything which made him who he was and even that's going to be fucked over at some point, one imagines. Angel's running a close second in terms of life suckitude, I think, but he at least got to have 25 plus something years where all his problems were of the type that could be mollified by strong alcohol.

Not really spoilery but a reply to something that is so:

Well, plus Angel had another 100-some years of greatly enjoyed unlife.

Huh, that's true. Makes you wonder how much of Angel's extensive guilt stems from him feeling bad about all the dead people, and how much is related to the fact that he probably has creepy fond memories of how they got to be dead in the first place.

Re: Shiny Happy People...

I have to admit, I found the episode pretty boring. I mean, it was confusing and disturbing and some cool things happened, but, ultimately, I was bored. I fidgeted and clock-watched, rarities when it comes to Buffy and Angel. But I'm willing to forgive it because I'm guessing the show is gearing up for bigger and better things.

I really liked the vampire bowling at the start. I like being reminded just how grotesque and evil vampires can be, but in a kind of ridiculous way. Plus it was From Dusk Til Dawn ish, which gave me happy flashes to dirty, snarky, tattooed George Clooney.

I liked Fred in this episode too. I especially liked how how she shot at Jasmine without dithering when she saw the others turning on her.

I'll be interested to see if the jasmine flowers have a significance beyond becoming her name. It was mentioned so many times. Also, I have a vague memory of Drusilla talking about jasmine to Angel or Angelus at some point in Buffy. Anyone else remember which episode this was in... or if it even happened at all? I might have made it up. Mmmmmmmm, imaginary canon.

The yellow shirt was indeed frightening. I loved Fred's red jacket though.

And I'm studiously avoiding the spoily talk..... It's so hard staying spoiler-free, knowing that all my questions could be answered in an hour or so of gluttonous reading.

Edited because italics must not be allowed to roam free...