Yeah, up until Airplane!, Nielsen was a serious actor in a lot of TV and film. The first serious role I saw him in was Forbidden Planet. It was a mini-revelation. The Zucker Bros. used his serious acting background to great effect in Airplane! by having him play all those ludicrous lines completely straight. Later on…

The first season is fantastic. It's theme of reform vs. revolutions, personified in the conflict between McManus and Said that builds over the course of the season, culminating in the riot. After that season the show seemed to eschew any kind of subtext and became a straight up violent soap opera. Which was also…

Getting so excited about finally having a job again that he got a little overzealous in his effort to promote the store seems very much in line with Giles at that time. Plus, how can Giles being an out of touch doofus ever be out of character?

Based on my own personal experience the best introduction to Buffy is… Firefly. Friends who would never have dreamed of taking something called "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" seriously, had to seriously reconsider that position after watching it.

Yeah, as much as I like to read my own progressive politics into the shows, there are some times where I think they venture into strange territory. I had the same reaction to what oddpal's talking about when it aired.

I'll just add myself to the chorus of people saying thanks for the great write-ups and damn that will be a long wait. The high quality of analysis from everyone here has made me feel a little bit less insecure about engaging in intellectual discussion about a weird show centered around a teenage vampire slayer with a…

oddpal re: the disturbing nature of S7

I don't know. I get the feeling Whedon and co. are holding off on the eventual Buffy/Angel/Spike meet-up. Whedon has said that S8 is canon and I bet he wants to save the big reunion for some live-action future venture. Although, I imagine Whedon reserves the right to disregard all S8 stuff if a new project arises, so…

Very slight spoilers

That's a good one, but in my favorite Giles' moment he doesn't even say anything at all: standing in the middle of the Magic Shop wearing a wizard costume exchanging dead silence with Buffy. Removes hat. Walks away.

Yeah, I've been picking up the Buffy S8 TPBs and really enjoying them for the most part. The dialogue still clicks for me and I like how the comic book format has given the writers a limitless budget and an opportunity to really cut loose. Helicopter air-drops, giant battle set-pieces, Dawn vs. MechaDawn, sprawling…

The series finale on Angel is pretty great. Its just unfortunate that the writing staff got the cancellation news late in the game. A lot of the back-end leading up tot he finale seems pretty rushed.

The WB censored a lesbian kiss? I thought the reason it wasn't shown was Whedon wanted to thumb his nose at the whole lesbian kiss event episode trend that had developed in the late 90s. I like that when Tara and Willow first kiss on screen it is (mid-sentence spoiler) in The Body episode. Its not exploitative, its…

Slight Spoilers

Well Michael, you're the big marriage expert I guess. Oh, that's right. I forgot. Your wife is DEAD.

Regardless of whether you use single or double blade, Schick or Gillette, you should always buy name brand razors. I tried to save some money by buying a Rite-Aid store brand of the razors I use, and it was a horrible mistake. Very rough, cut the shit out of me. Not at all like buying store brand aspirin.

Wow. I loved the movie growing up and considering all the 80s pop-culture ephemera I consumed as a child, how the hell did I not even know that existed? I feel shamed.

My ideal Fantastic Four movie…
Would be set in the early 1960s and involve the F4 foiling a Skrull invasion plot to replace President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev. Jon Hamm as Mr. Fantastic, Carla Guigino as Invisible Woman, Ryan Kwanten as The Human Torch, and a slimmed down Vincent D'Onofrio as The Thing.

The only major qualm I have with JLU is the lack of an orchestral score. The cheesy guitar doesn't really do it for me and I get the feeling it will not age very well. Other than that, JLU is hands down the best thing Bruce Timm and Co. have ever done.

Isn't Pixar branching out into more adult fare? A Pixar Marvel action movie of… well, just about anything would be pretty amazing I imagine. I'd show up for The Rawhide Kid if Brad Bird was involved.