Someone better tell Crackle, now is the perfect time to not be so absurdly sucky.

Please don't encourage this stupid joke…

No… That's NOT what I said, gramps. Sledgehammer's a great video that elevates a lackluster song. Shock The Monkey is a song begging for a music video, and the music video delivers. It just adds to the charm. Tears For Fears videos are superfluous but I don't see how they hurt or helped the band, frankly. I'm going to…

The Killers, duh. Southland Tales as a movie is a mess but there are a lot of isolated examples of brilliance and that Justin Timberlake arcade scene to "All These Things That I've Done" is definitely one.

I see it the other way, I think the dance-music energy of the original gives much more of the sense of alienation, like "life is a party and I'm not invited." it's comical in a sense, but I think Roland Orzabal is in on the joke.

Yeah, you know what? I totally agree with you, and I wouldn't have considered this as the reason why before but you really nailed it. There's a whole school of taking New Wave (or Alternative or whatever) songs with melancholy lyrics and making them dour dirges by playing them slow and straight. And they can be…

Yeah, I know. He was saying the videos took away from Peter Gabriel's music and I was Shock the Monkey wouldn't be nearly as great without the accompanying video.

Peter Gabriel Counterpoint: The "Sledgehammer" video is a masterpiece (well, as far as 80s music videos go at least) but the song is one of his worst. His worst still being pretty good and it's better than "Big Time" which is a still worse song and derivative video. And "Shock The Monkey", how could that song NOT have…

You know who's also great in Holes?

Not really. Moore vs. Kirkman was a lot messier and involved a pretty common dilemma with creative types when a property created on faith and with not much in the way of legal agreement goes on to make a lot more money than anyone imagined possible.

Uh, excuse me- have you ever heard of a little someone named.. JIMMY BUFFET?

Possibly Tim and Eric too.

I noticed that when Brody wasn't on screen, all the other characters were asking, "Where's Brody?"

I can't believe nobody brought this up, but I thought them playing "La Cucaracha" while Brody was dangling there was just really bad taste.

Based on twitter, a large segment of people don't believe he's dead anyway.

This episode really reminded me of The Walking Dead’s recent finale. Both featured events that should have happened a season ago (SPOILER) (Governor attacks prison, Brody dies) and both were at the tail ends of seasons that had some great moments but ultimately felt unnecessary, like they were only written to appease…

I'm aware of that, but I think including some acknowledgement of the AV Club's part in this "backlash" would have been appropriate.

Agreed, and I think "backlash" is more a thing that happens when something is praised and beloved for a good amount of time, then people start criticizing it because it's TOO beloved or TOO successful. "Backlash" is unfair and undeserved.

"Man Men", that's the new dark and gritty reboot of Home Improvement, right?

Wasn't there a lot of this "backlash" in the AV Club's own reviews? I seem to recall a lot of negative reaction tempered with benefit of the doubt.