The grade itself may have been a bit harsh, but you said everything that needed to be said. The conceit/cross-promotional necessity of forcing every single person on the show to refrain from mentioning the obvious—this is a puppet, not a person—made for a creepy and frustrating episode. I felt infantilized while…

You can give me back my taste points, and deduct a few math/memory points. Ed Wood is amazing.

Burton? But then, I'm of the opinion that despite the damage Depp and Bonham Carter did to the songs, Burton managed to turn in a satisfying cinematic translation of "Sweeney Todd." (And think it's the only good movie he's made in twenty years.)

I always get confused by The Baker's Wife infidelity. It seems like the show has already resolved the "careful what you wish for" idea at the turn into the second act, and though her infidelity is presented with a refreshing lack of moralizing, she does end up (SPOILER) squished by a Giantess's foot pretty soon after.…

The book is a bit of a mess in parts. But the best songs in it are absolutely mindblowing—"Lament," "Children Will Listen," "Agony," any of the big all-cast numbers—and it goes to really deep, dark places thematically. And as much as the second act becomes kind of chaotic and unfocused, the idea of stranding fairy…

Ugh. If you're going to adapt "The Firm" for television—which, you know, you probably shouldn't—why on earth would you set it AFTER the events of the book/film? There's no story left to tell… certainly no interesting story left to tell. I'd imagine you might be able to make a reasonably interesting procedural inspired…

Another callback to the pilot: a character, driven to extremes, raging to get at another character through an elevator door. Only now, Amy is no longer the rager: it's Dougie, the man she has driven to the point of a breakdown.

No, my point was much simpler. I was saying HBO cancels—or decides not to order to series—all of their shows with female leads.

God Bless this show. I think I had a headstart in "getting" it because I was a fan of White's little-seen "Year of the Dog," which has a very similar approach and a similarly difficult main character. (If I hadn't been familiar with YOTD, it probably would've taken me until the stellar "The Trip" to fall in love.) As…

As much as I blame HBO for not promoting the show sufficiently, I blame the press and TV critics more. Most of the reviews of the pilot could've been boiled down to: "I didn't get it. I doubt anyone wants to see this after a hard day of work. Are we supposed to like Amy or hate her?" All perfectly valid things for the…

If you go the miniseries route, please include "Fresno," a bizarre "Dynasty" parody miniseries from the 80s. Also, what about "I'll Fly Away?"

I completely agree with your assessment of Krista's handling of her relationship with Amy, but it's a testament to the show—and to the actress—that she is never completely demonized for it. I've behaved in similar ways with frustrating and demanding people in my life; sometimes borderline cowardly…

Laura Dern's character is getting progressively more mature and less irritating episode by episode. It's incremental progress, as Todd notes, but it's there. The whole idea of the show is that she was reborn during her stay at that retreat, and she came back into the world like a squalling infant. With each episode,…

"Since I'm betting not, I'll pass on this stupid show. The character Amy is an insult to thinking enlightened empowered women everywhere."
Well, glad you're "betting" the show is stupid, and saying so loudly, instead of reserving judgment until you've actually watched it and seen how it develops. You, Vicki, are a…

I wrote this episode, and I can honestly say that a good deal of thought went into this question. But for a number of reasons, the scene in which we establish how Charlie periodically unties and assists Gemma in relieving herself of human waste never made it to the shooting draft. (I, for one, was heartbroken.)

She wrote a very favorable review of "Up in Smoke." And her review of "The Road Warrior," though mixed, was quite positive about George Miller's wizardry.

Oooh, thanks for that link. I was always mixed about "Saving Private Ryan" but had a difficult time accounting for my own reaction. This piece nails it…especially this paragraph:

I'm with you. It feels to me like the show's greatest strength—its sweetness, its overwhelming affection for its characters—has wound up becoming a bit of an albatross. Everybody's so sweet and decent and lovable there just isn't a lot of friction left between the characters. Ben and Chris, originally introduced as…

That was a beautiful episode of TV, funny and sad. And pretty brave too, in its willingness to risk being misunderstood. And the only real comment it's yet received was a joke comment, likely from a non-viewer, about how there are no other comments, and nobody's watching the show.

"Enlightened" has been getting a lot of puzzled or middling reviews, which is irritating because "Hung" was given the benefit of the doubt in its first season with an even less immediately compelling pilot and a WAY less clearly defined POV. You guys'll get what you deserve when this show gets prematurely cancelled to…