This is yet another example of what appeals to me most about The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson at the helm: He's not satisfied going through the motions or adhering to a formula. Just in the last year-plus we've seen an all-puppets episode, the one-on-one interview with Stephen Fry, a brilliant, Peabody-award winning interview with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and now this guerrilla-style week in Paris. And the thing I enjoy about these is that they're not gimmicky episodes calculated to boost ratings, but rather artistic experiments.

Also, I watched the clip of his recent appearance on Letterman that Rypro 525 shared and it was a striking reminder how much more organic Ferguson's interview style is than all his contemporaries.

I liked too that for the emails segement, he gathered up a little crowd who prob had no idea what was going on, and it played to the 'on the cheap' thingy they were going with

Last night was awesome! The Secretariat bits do not get old. Looking forward to tonights episode!

I thought this was a great way to start the week.

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If only my life came with a bikini horn section...

I think it might be worth a trip to Paris just to visit the Shakespeare & Co bookstore.

I loved the old opening, not so much the recent one, but I really love the version of his theme that's being used this week.

Hmm, I've seen 2 eps so far and they're ok.

Damn, now we have two weeks without new Late Late Shows.

Watching the Paris shows, I was wondering if the French were seeing these as we do and what they must think of all this.

To me the best segments were the interview with Sylvia Whitman and the dinner with Kristen and Jean Reno. Eavesdropping on a dinner table conversation was so much more interesting than the usual late night fare. Craig should just convert his studio into a restaurant and invite his guests to dinner.

The wife became board w/ the eps unless he was on screen w/ those three.

Finally watched the Paris shows. Wow, what a disappointment. Though the vast majority of it was very boring and unfunny. Oh well, I love his usual show and he's the best late night host right now, without question. I can give him a pass.

Wow. The only parts of the Paris shows that didn't work for me were the couple of times where he tried to recreate the regular show, except for the email segment with Sylvia. The rest of it was "outside the box" and, while it wasn't all falling down funny, it was interesting and, in some parts, fascinating to see a late night guy step outside the comfort zone and try something truly different.

There were some things I would do differently:

1. Leave Geoff at home (or at least unplug him more often).
2. Leave Secretariat at home. Some gags run their course and this one has.
3. Do more with Eddie Izzard. I would have invited him to dinner with Kristen and Jean.

So I missed most of last night's episode (damn weather alerts ) but I did catch a bit at the end. What the hell did Craig do to his hair? It was all slicked back and odd looking.

Does anyone know what the deal is with the so called 'white powder' that he talked about showing up during the day. Hense why they didn't do the cold open.

and to Mike86, he just said, got a hair cut, and Geoff just called him Don Draper

My first thought was the "Don Draper" look.

Yeah I'm watching it now and it's sort of grown on me more. I still like his old look better but it's not that bad I guess. I don't think it would be as bad if it wasn't slicked back but whatever. I liked Geoff's Don Draper comment .

Also apparently the white powder was sent in the fan mail. Not sure what it was I think they said it was corn starch but I don't know if they were being serious about it. They called in the authorities and stuff though to investigate apparently.

Alice Eve

Secretariat has run its course. Time to let it go.

No way, I love Secretariat. I hope he stays around for a while longer.

Loved the Alice Eve interview, especially at the end with the awkwardness.

I think it still works because now he doesn't use it on a nightly basis. It's more a once in a while gag now.

Once Bianca mentioned about having to do something sexual, Craig could no longer keep focused on anything except that.

I thought Eliza Coupe was going to be on there last night? I guess the directv information was wrong.

The awesome and adorable Lindsay Sloane on the 9/2/2011 show

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Brie Larson...

I've always enjoyed Craig Ferguson when I caught the odd episode here and there, but for some reason never became a regular viewer. So I've been catching up on some old bits finally, and I have to say Geoff is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. I can't believe I was missing this. Definitely going on the DVR series record list.

I thought it was funny that he and Kelly MacDonald worked in the same restaurant in Glasgow.

"There's no fall in LA. Here's what it is in LA; hot, hot, hot, fire, rain. That's how we roll in this town." - Craig Ferguson

"It's a great day for the animal rights group PETA whokve announced today that they're launching a #!@%*# website to promote the cause of protecting animals. PETA you know I love you but this is a terrible idea. Porn website only going to lead to monkey spanking and chicken choking and goose strangling, Gopher wacking." - Craig Ferguson

"I gotta pay more attention to the CBS schedule. Do we still have Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman? Is that still on?" - Craig Ferguson

"I'm PMSing. That's postmortem syndrome." - Geoff Peterson