Ah hell's bells, they even shot the dog.

A) I feel like the Bond novels are better at this, but Bond himself always felt slightly past his physical prime; B) I think you’re onto a key insight about what’s traditionally made the character work in movies, but that’s been a little worn for a while now.

really lean into homoerotic tension in the scene where Smiley sings his heart out to the silent/immobile Karla in Delhi

Great thread, and I think you can say Clinton's style came out of white Southern Protestant churches (informal, funny but not too funny, interactive). Nixon's style was lawyerly in a more modern, less theatrical sense (eg his '78 speech to the Oxford Union).