P-I's TV Critic Is Changing Channels

We just read Melanie McFarland's farewell column and we're a little choked up. It's good news for her -- she's off to become a TV editor at IMDB. But we're out a reviewer who likes all the right shows for all the right reasons.

McFarland's that rare breed of critic who has high standards and knows when to check them at the door. She won a place in our hearts forever with her reviews of NBC's disasto-epic 10.5 (the movie that opened with the Space Needle falling over and chasing some guy down) and CBS's Category 6 ("The highest measurement for windstorm damage is F5, you see. This one's an F6. And, yes, theoretically, it's possible. So is an Alan Keyes presidency."). The last, canny sentences in her paragraphs so often say so much:

In disaster movies, intelligence doesn't take a back seat to computer graphics extravagance; instead, it is pushed out of a speeding car and left for dead in the gutter. No one's going for Emmy nominations in these cheese wedges except, perhaps, the guys making our favorite landmarks explode. Throw in a Quaid and you're golden.

Our roommate burst into laughter on reading that, and then read it out loud for our benefit. "Throw in a Quaid and you're golden." Shit. That's priceless. Good luck, Melanie!