Was it supposed to be a romantic comedy? I completely missed that part, specifically because of what you mention. I just saw it as a little naval-gazey slice-of-life that was several degrees too pretentious for its supposed target demographic.

Don't forget Crystal Pepsi.

I just found it weird that Steve Buscemi is in that movie as a member of a metal band. He's a full decade older than the other two members of the Lone Rangers, and LOOKS 20 years older.

Whenever I think about the stars of that movie I start humming "One of these things is not like the others . . . one of these things just doesn't belong." (Brendan Frasier! Adam Sandler! Steve Buscemi?)

I'd have to go with PCU for the purest representation of both 90's over-eager do-gooders and 90's don't give a shit slackers. And it might be the only time David Spade was funny in a movie.

To be fair, that was the Gen-X reaction to most things.

I just said almost exactly the same thing . . . 11 hours after you did.

Empire Records was a movie about a record store made by people who hate music.

I worked at Blockbuster during that era and ID4 was among the largest releases ever, up there with Jurassic Park. We're talking half the New Release wall of nothing but copies of that movie, always checked out, and mobs of people camped out for hours next to the return section waiting for a copy to drop in.

I really want Fantastic 4 to be a period movie. Those characters belong in the swingin' '60s.

This "Cleave-land" you refer to sounds like a fascinating and dangerous place.

It also makes sense in terms of cultural impact, where "normal" and "American" are culturally synonymous with "white" since that's the only ethnicity cast as a lead 99.9% of the time.
And don't forget how quickly people absolutely LOSE THEIR SHIT if the opposite happens and a previously "white" or even indeterminate…

And as we all know, "American" exclusively means white. Or occasionally Will Smith.

Eh, I don't know, some of the older "early serialized" shows like Buffy and Farscape pulled it off, and managed some impressive character work that would be tough in a ten ep season. The trick is to alternate burying some serialized elements within the case-of-the-week with "puzzle-piece" episodes that become part of…

Umm, point of order, that sappy last song with the piano and strings was in no way a "Power Ballad". This is a power ballad: https://www.youtube.com/wat… What Barry sang was just a regular old ballad.

You've gotta remember the Springfield rule about tap water. If it's brown, drink it down. If it's black, send it back.

You're not thinkin' of getting rid of the dank, are ya Moe?

Dear God, so many terrible 90's songs (Bryan Adams, anyone?) and all sorts of kinda disturbing stuff from my musical theater years, but the one that first sprung to mind was The Tossers. "No Loot, No Booze, No Fun." A concert at the (recently defunct) Double Door in Chicago with a new love, we were at that stage where…

Simple escapism. My mom, for one, says that when she watches TV, she wants it to be something nice. The world already sucks enough as it is, she'd prefer her evening wind-down entertainment to not add to the misery.

Between this and the "circumcision" story turning out to be true, I'm starting to think that all the plotlines from "Blunt Talk" were all autobiographical.