The only realistic thing portrayed was having the interns do most of the writing (though the fact that they were given no oversight was ridiculous. It would be interns doing the writing with a senior policy adviser making most decisions). Beyond that…that is not how congress works. Starting with the fact that they…

Well it sounds better than "Regarded with ambivalence"

Yeah I feel like they should have gone for something like Health Care or Immigration to better reflect the political climate. Though, education reform is definitely needed in the US no one seems to want to address it in anything other than the absstract "We need to fix it!" we get in the State of the Union every year.

I think the whole thing with the speakership was when I decided to stop taking any of the politics seriously. Yeah, there may be a situation where the party in power ousts the speaker (though i can't think of a time it even came close to happening mid-term) but the idea that the African-American congress would side…

Yeah, Democrats support several things that teachers unions oppose, but they would never declare war on the teachers unions. Teachers form a massive percentage of the Democrats electoral coalition. They need them to vote democrat and turn out in massive numbers. That whole arc was absurd.

If you think that show portrays how real politics works let me assure you it is not nearly that exciting. I worked on the hill for a year during undergrad and there was practically no backstabbing (or political maneuvering for that matter). Everyone votes on party lines unless their district could really use whatever…

Jesus, Sheen was absolutely brilliant tonight. I wasn't entirely enamored with his performance until now.

I need to watch Rectify. I saw the pilot a few weeks ago and loved it, I just haven't had the chance to pick up the season set yet.

Honestly its not a critique I understand either. If this series is similar to any other "prestige drama" (and I'm not saying it entirely is) it would be Mad Men. And think about it, would we have any clue where a season of Mad Men was heading 5 episodes in? Probably not. Narrative momentum is not necessary for what…

Damn

Yes, exactly

That was the same as my experience. I ending up reading Catcher in high school and found it lacking so I steered away from all of his works. Then I had to read the Glass family narratives for an undergrad writing course and fell head over heels for them.

The Glasses definitely were insufferable, but they were still good people at heart. Salinger himself forgot that at times.

Sir Ian McKellan, possibly?

If Charles Dance narrated a movie I would be in a constant state of sexual arousal which just wouldn't be comfortable.

Yeah, the word is that Scott was incredibly interested in the metaphysical stuff and steered the movie more in that direction. I know people are quick to blame Lindelof for everything but I just don't get it. Yeah, the ending to Lost was lacking but he was also the principal writer for most of the shows best episodes.…

I think the show is surely interested in that, but one of my favorite things is how it juxtaposes all of those political maneuverings and musings on the nature of rule with the plight of the commoners just trying to scrape by and hoping they don't get killed by one of those "great man's" soldiers.

I did get the feeling that when writing this Todd thought to himself "Okay, which shows can I compare this too that will give notifications to highest possible percentage of the AV Club"

Honestly, though I disagree with you, the best TV is so good right now I think it would be unfair to begrudge anyone personal preference.

Boardwalk Empire is like that team that seems to make it to the playoffs every but seems to fall one game short of wining it all. If it didn't have the talent to be one of the best we wouldn't be disappointed. I think if we thought that Boardwalk was the best show it could be we would never make these comparisons.