The Boltons. *shudder*

That's not the point the reviewer is making. The details and context for the violence and rape in this episode invert the typical way film, television, and even literature choose to handle sexual violation. The victim is a man rather than a woman, he's physically capable and typically self-preserving, and he's a…

Yes. It was definitely one of those moments when I was fairly confident the show was playing on the actor's filmography for ironic effect.

*SAME SPOILER*

Really? You find Randall one-note? He's certainly obsessed with Jamie (though I would consider him a sexual sadist first, homosexual-leaning second). He's worked their encounter during Jamie's floggings into a seminal myth, of sorts. Jamie's line this episode that Randall's the one who sees HIS face every night…

Yeah, so I think the holiday is mostly being used as an excuse to "marathon" all the other episodes, drum up excitement for the finale, and encourage more casual viewers to catch up. It's not likely that the holiday would effect viewing numbers in any significant way for this show.

Does Time Bandits (or any Terry Gilliam, for that matter) even WORK if you don't have a substantial cultural corpus against which his absurdist satire plays? Surely Terry Gilliam can't actually serve as your baseline.

I just remember being CONFUSED by that movie. For as vividly as I remember some of its imagery—room of heads—I can't for the life of me recall ANY MEANINGFUL PLOT DETAIL.

I would say more that The Dark Crystal was more interested in the mythology of the world than character-building. No, Jen's not much of a character, but the scope of the world-building is much more elaborate and sophisticated than anything in Tron (more of an idea) or Labyrinth (more about a fantastical romp). The…

I'm sympathetic to this perspective, and I certainly agree that "Outlander" presents multiple depictions and descriptions of a myriad of different manners of sexual assault, and that all of them are gross. But, I think that Gabaldon is interestingly silent about them in a way that is ultimately kind of sophisticated.…

Fair points all around. My point was more that Hepburn sounded like a Hollywood actress more than anything else, a foreign attempt at a prestige register. To me, Hepburn sounds like most American actresses on film in the same era, because they were nearly ALL taught to speak the same way. In "Outlander", Balfe…

Part of the way some shows work, including I think "Girls", is to provoke polarizing reactions, so it's not surprising that community boards and comment threads would attract a lot of ire and hate. It's also a show that succeeds and fails on a sharp pendulum. When it works, it really works. When it doesn't, it…

Re: the accent.

Mann's known for having almost exclusively men in his films. And he's one of my favorites. "Thief" is one the greatest movies ever.

"I'm iffy on the surgical explicitness, even though I have no problem with other types of gore"

Largely yes. And for a lot of readers—at least many of the most vocal ones online—it remains that way. But he has considerable flaws, or at least personality traits that are variably noble and stupid and cost him and others dearly, and he most definitely belongs in the 18th century, as his actions will come to…

While it probably still irks her on occasion, I love the way Claire has more or less wrested the power away from Angus and Rupert, Dougal's spies. They started out as wardens, got bored like children poking around in her stuff, and by the end Claire's bossing them around to dispose of the useless medicines and hold…

I think it's somewhat misleadingly assumed to be "aimed at women" (an accusation of sorts that I often take issue with anyway, not just because it's limiting and reductive) mostly because there's a love story told from the perspective of the woman. Instead, though, think "The Last of the Mohicans," though it shares…

It's an "A" like all A.V. Club reviews are "A"s. It recognizes the subtle, interesting and ambitious excellence of the show within the genres it's in, of which romance is only one, and it's not even the one the reviewer was interested in. This is an adventure story with Claire as shipwrecked surgeon Gulliver in a…

And don't forget her pseudo-friendship/dance-flirtation with handyman Walter last season. It seems like Libby is very much struggling with her own attractions, ones she doesn't want to accept.