Well, I was born in Chicago, but Italian beeves are just not my thing. I’m kind of the opposite of Dennis, in that I just can’t stand a hot sandwich with sloppy / disintegrating bread. (This has also has kept me away from meatball subs all my life.) And I’m not a big fan of giardiniera, which some folk around here…

In comics, Kingpin habitually wears bullet-proof armor under his clothing, a sensible precaution when one of your recurring adversaries is the Punisher.

You didn’t see it as much here as you did in the Daredevil show, but one of my favorite character choices is that, more than any other MCU character except The Hulk, D’Onofrio’s Kingpin fights like a gorilla. In the comics he is sometimes shown practicing judo or other martial arts, but for me at least, it is MUCH…

Indeed, plus things like director Mel Brooks playing a character called President Skroob (“Brooks” spelled backward, or nearly.)

This is why, for some films, the AV Club used to provide “Spoiler Space” reviews where the reviewer would have a more open discussion — with the understanding that everybody reading it had either seen the movie or didn’t mind being spoiled on it.

At one point in Spaceballs, the characters watch themselves on a VHS tape of the movie they are currently making so they know where to go next.

The thing I find hilarious about Cobra Kai is that in terms of the story being told, it belongs to the wuxia category more than anything else. Sure, the “Redemption of Johnny Lawrence” stuff is a strong thread, but as the series goes on, ultimately the central conflict is between the different martial arts…

...the scene on Dragonmount when Rand is being born might be my favorite. The unspoken performances by both actors, the editing, the music, and Min’s voiceover - I found it to be quite lovely and sad.

The “Mia Queen shows up on a quest of her own” aspect of the episode reminded me of the experience of reading comics crossovers. They always wanted you to pick up one issue of a title you don’t read just so you could have “the full story,” whether or not the hero of that book was currently in part 3 of their own…

See, for me, the trip to the future should have happened in the first season if not the first episode of the show. It makes so many things about the timeline easier — if the super-secret spore drive ship mysteriously disappears on its first flight, a la Voyager, it goes a lot further toward explaining why Kirk,…

Vaguely comforting is a good vibe to have these days, to be fair. Clearly Snoop is adept at feeling (and making himself) welcome in any company and lending his considerable charm to cameo appearances up and down the entertainment dial. He did the opening trailer to the first NFL game of the season too, and if that…

Reason enough to link the reference:

Honestly, the assumption that the constituencies of the different planets will accept Burnham in a role of significant authority doesn’t bother me — she’s a legit galactic hero, who solved the Burn and brought back the dilithium, so her approval rating is probably the envy of all. We’d expect the Ni’Var to be a harder…

It seems pretty clear to me that Burnham defines “politics” as “other people getting a say in my plans.” Placing herself at the top of the hierarchy saves her the trouble of disobeying orders or outright mutiny later -- we have to do it her way, for the good of the Federation!

I gotta say: Nominating yourself as the person (one of the people, OK, but) empowered to keep a galactic alliance accountable between members is a 5-D political chess masterstroke we haven’t seen since Dick Cheney’s Vice Presidential Search Squad delivered Dick Cheney as its first choice.

I mean, you don’t want the dog looking at ya!

I think what the LARPer scenes are supposed to demonstrate is that Kate’s “superpower” is charm; people instantly trust, like, and want to help her, and she knows how to use that to her advantage. It contrasts her with Clint, whose temperament and history both incline him to fade into the background and view people…

As somebody who has never liked beer, Old Style is my favorite beer. You can make it through a whole can without grimacing at the taste (as long as you don’t let it get warm), and people think you’re being a Chicago homer rather than somebody who can only drink beer that tastes almost, but not quite, entirely unlike…

I was also fond of Dave Herman’s impression of him for MadTV — the “Dole campaign commercial” from the first season where Dole tries to relate to the Gen X youth vote by showing off a nipple ring and making out with a gothy Nicole Sullivan has stuck with me. To this day, any time I hear his name my first instinct is…

I saw True Grit when it was in theaters, and I’ve been a Hailee Steinfeld fan ever since. Holding your own in scenes with Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, and Stephen freakin’ Root at 14 years old? That young lady is going places, I told myself.