Chick
Really wish we had more of Chick. He was criminally underdeveloped. I honestly expected the carnival to collapse because he grew a pair and walked away from Arty. Instead, he blows the place to kingdom come, still serving as Arty's tool the entire time. He honestly felt more like a means to Arturism than an…

Agree that Lil and Al were simply too absent for it to work very well. It almost made sense with Lil - though I would have enjoyed more description of her descent into incoherence - but with Al, who had been so hands-on, it was simply inexcusable. The novel would honestly have been better served if Al had died…

Finished it about a week ago. But things like Mr. F's comment will keep me from forgetting it. *shudder*

I think "really, really dark" is an understatement.

That's where I got mine. Though I did see like three copies of it at Barnes and Noble the other night. Can't imagine they ordinarily keep that many copies on hand.

So…
Who's the mole? Nothing tonight suggested it was Alpha.

I think there's a past between Topher and Whiskey. At the very least, she's the active he used to have fun with once a year. But I'm actually thinking she *is* the person Topher has fun with once a year, but he can't stand to look at her because he blames himself for what happened, etc.

Drinky - did they call you on a regular phone line or on a cell phone? If they are only calling landlines to get people to do the surveys (because of legal restrictions on telemarketing to cellphones), then this could totally skewer the ratings of shows watched primarily by younger people. I haven't had a landline…

The worst part of the Oliver episode was that Paul never made him the sandwich he asked for. Come on, Paul, the kid's hungry.

Benjamin Button isn't awful or anything, it just isn't really that great. I agree with the above posters that it's solidly in the B range - depending on my mood, I might sway from a B- to a B+ 9or vice-versa), but I don't think I would ever move into the A or C ranges.

(A quick example - I watched the first season of Heroes and thought it was decently good. Then the second season sucked ass and the first half of the third season continued the suckitude. I kept watching for so long because I hoped it would get better again. When it didn't, I gave it up entirely. But if I suddenly…

I can actually see both sides of this argument - I'm obviously not going to watch four seasons of According to Jim because I think maybe one day it will actually be funny. I'm probably going to base my entire decision off of one episode. But, if after I saw that one sucky episode, I heard a lot of critics, etc.,…

You know, I've mostly enjoyed the recent eps of Dollhouse, but I'm not convinced it should be given another season. I want to know what's going to happen next week, but I'm not convinced that it would be a good long-term show. In other words, I've bought that the current plot line is interesting, but I'm not sure…

So it suffered from the same flaws as the Wolverine movie?

And here I thought the apogee of the genre was Interracial Hole Stretchers 2…

I can understand the reverence - there was a period a few years back where my taste in film mirrored exactly what the AV Club said, to the point where I went to see Josie and the Pussycats in the theater. And was in no way disappointed. Of course, that was before the institution of the grades…

Yeah, but sometimes the grades can give you a much different impression than the review itself. Like, the D on the Wolverine movie made me think it would be so atrociously bad that I should maybe go see Ghosts of Girlfriends Past instead (since it got a C). But, if I instead focused on the actual writeups, I would…

I might watch that.

My Name is Searl, about John Searl and his perpetual motion machine?

So what you're saying Phel is that I should not emigrate to Canada until you guys have Netflix and Hulu? How about iTunes - does the Canadian store have TV shows and movies yet?