Maybe you should watch a few more episodes.

I think it was supposed to be clear he knew, but they still wanted to offer the trophy as somehow a "surprise." It was the weirdest, most off-balance way of trying to keep the audience in suspense about what happened. But then I also thought the episode required you to check your brain at the door in order to buy…

it's been years
I don't think I've read a Crichton book in fifteen years, but it seems unfair to judge him on this one. Didn't they find it on his computer, password protected, after he died. It doesn't sound like this is anything he ever intended to publish. It's his version of Nabokov's The Original of Laura.

Okay, Leeharvey, it was more a joke than anything, mostly b/c it seems like one of his more forgotten albums from the 90s. I enjoyed Mirror Ball at the time. Pearl Jam being loose and appropriate is a good way of describing their work there, but even when it came out, I always felt like it was just Pearl Jam doing…

pearl jam
So why hasn't he put out a release of only live performances from Mirror Ball, his album with Pearl Jam? Oh. Wait. The question contains the answer.

what HIMYM shouldn't do
A montage with people we've never seen before and never will again. Especially when it's introduced by Ted saying it's the second most romantic story he's ever heard—because said montage can never live up to that kind of hyperbole. Maybe because it has people we've never seen before and never…

so what you're saying is . . .
. . . I made a wise choice to avoid last night's episode, right?

There's quite a bit of difference between public dialogue and private.

Poor Dushku. You can see her trying so hard to be different with each personality.

Alurin, actually I was fine with Perrin and wife. We expected maybe she was a doll, then it turned out he was. So their interactions didn't bother me. But the show also went to great pains to point out that Perrin isn't a doll, that he's far more complicated. An enhanced version of himself. But even if that…

Ah. Gotcha, Professor. A lot of the problem is tell vs. show. When characters are debating what's going on, they too often spell out the philosophical conundrums in such explicit terms that it feels unbelievable. I'd just love to see the writers go for more subtlety in expressing them and trust the audience to get…

John Barleycorn, then we're not talking about the same things. Most of the things you list ARE great. (Though I'd take issue with Olivia Williams crushing balls. Kind of a cliche scene, that.) Dollhouse has lots of great individual elements and moments. I'm talking about how poorly it integrates the philosophical…

Thanks for your response Professor. Maybe it's just I hold Whedon up to a higher standard. Since both Buffy and Angel needed quite a while to develop, maybe Dollhouse never got the time it needed to turn into what it could have been.

Eh, I don't know if I'm down with that deal. I'd honestly rather hear the counter-argument. Or if there isn't really a counter-argument, if it's just that we're seeing the same thing there, but it's a matter of personal taste.

I'm going to get lambasted
I guess I'll be the dissenting voice. For all the things that went right in the two episodes—good plot, surprising twists, double Topher, intriguing philosophical ideas, etc.—I was surprised at how . . . clunky it all was. The first episode was especially excruciating at times with poor,…

Wow, I didn't know there was Serenity dislike out there. Damn. Yeah, the series was better, but I still loved the movie. Even saw it twice in the theater. And I liked how Walsh died. How Whedon handled Book's death (and his entire role in the movie) was my main disappointment. Oh, and Mr. Universe. He was a…

True, but disliking it doesn't make it a bad show, either.

Mister Truman, I don't hate to be THAT guy. And Hank1, I wouldn't normally expect to enjoy an earnest family drama, but Everwood was a good show. I've only seen the first and last seasons (though I can correct that partly now that the second season is finally out on dvd), but most of the time, it earned its…

Huh. Order of the Phoenix is my second favorite of the HP books (Azkaban being at the top).

I too . . .
. . . love Everwood. Never thought anything would make me like Treat Williams, but I was happily proved wrong.