Last night's TV

The second guest on Charlie Rose's talk show yesterday was one Guillermo del Toro. Ostensibly, he had come to talk about "The Strain," the vampire novel he's written with Chuck Hogan. Del Toro discussed the book, which I'm reading now and which, so far, is like reading a creepy print-out for the genetic coding of one of his movies. He also talked about the philosophy of monsters, notions of pleasure, and how long he'll be filming "The Hobbit" (answer: forever).

To Charlie's bewilderment, del Toro is totally cool with his girth. And while, Charlie was being Charlie (hostus interrupt us), he was also in good, borderline European form, a feat all the more impressive for a man who clearly had not read his guest's book. At some point, he asked del Toro about what hurts more, pain or love (or something like that), and del Toro went off into a lyrical consideration of both. I was waiting for Conan and Letterman reruns to heat up, and as much fun as del Toro would be with either of those two, he was a deeper, truer version of himself on "Charlie Rose." Regardless of what one thinks of Rose (I like him), his is still the only show anywhere on television where a conversation like this can take place.

You can watch the interview here.