Loved him ever since Goodbye Lenin. That was like the movie of a generation, which was more or less adjacent to mine.

I miss my gratuitous, knife-twisting Happy Endings notifications.

Richard used to be relevant. He was Jimmy Darmody's friend. Boardwalk Empire's arc has been about a show centered on characters in Atlantic City and their gangster associates and then just kind of unspooled out from there. Which is great. BE went big and it actually works for them. If the show suddenly drifted over to…

Well just as clearly since Elizabeth was warmly received in the reviews and you're literally the first person I've seen who disliked her, I can just as legitimately say Elizabeth is likeable.

It was basically a fun swift moving space opera movie anchored by some strong performances and a fairly decent Star Trek story. It has a lot of weaknesses, most of them having to do with its desire to riff on Wrath of Khan - it's stronger when it's actually trying to do its admiral conspiracy plot (which also isn't…

I wouldn't compare Wadjda to A Seperation because they're two very different kinds of film. Wadjda is a lot sweeter and frankly more engaging though and also amazing.

It's nothing special though. It's the sort of sci-fi allegory I've seen a thousand times before, which would be fine if it was built around a better movie. As it is Elysium is a lot of sound and fury signifying fairly little.

I can't get over the fact that the Tom Cruise sci-fi movie this year is just plain better than the Neil Blomkamp movie. Oblivion is the surprisingly good movie of the year and Elysium is the disappointingly hollow one.

And honestly it's just fun. There wasn't an action movie I saw this year I had a better time in. It's a pretty vivid depiction of frustration, impotence and powerlessness, a beautiful, personal and weirdly off-beat movie, all-in-all one that may not be what people expected after Ryan Gosling played that badass in Drive…

Also: Eyeballs on a car are illogical wherever you put them. There's just nothing sensible about the premise of Cars and of all the things to complain about, 'a movie about anthropomorphized cars has not done internally consistent world-building' is the bloody weirdest.

He never left. He just changes names a lot. Manny Rodriguez, Albert Chris… see a commenter with two regular names and an irresistible urge for back talk, you have your man.

Bingo. And Rome feels a bit like a lesser tier Grand Strategy game, if I may speak subjectively (and I love the period, but that it didn't even get its own title says something.)

Oh he's in Utopia?

Well now I feel like an idiot. But thanks for that.

You're absolutely right on the mythology but X-Files - weirdly, as it was popular for its allegedly innovative serial elements - has its strengths in its heavily episodic storytelling. It's probably best sampled with greatest hits episodes.

I'd say the unlikeable and obnoxious stuff was all on Schmidt's end, quite frankly. Elizabeth was good at reminding us that under Schmidt's douchiness he used to be a pretty good person.

…me too.

How curious? Because I do like rambling about TV, even if I don't live in England.

Aw. And I so wanted to watch more Israeli shows. Sky Arts needs to get off their ass and give me season two of Hatufim goddamnit. (I do find it amusing Wales is grouped with the foreign countries but whatever.)

Well she'd be good for Schmidt, but the reverse is not really true, though she is the kind of New Girl character you wish would join the ensemble somehow. I thought the hivemind all agreed that Elizabeth was sweet and great.