Others will take you to task for the other parts of your post, but as someone who hates false, baseless pedantry, I have to talk about this (which I understand is Card's position, and lots of others, I don't know if it's yours so this isn't necessarily directed towards you):

@avclub-2ada31fe193c3a8c3f18a2d15c64362c:disqus An action sequence isn't good because it solidly displays how a conflict plays out in the most realistic and sensible way. A good action sequence is like a piece of music—it has a rhythm, high notes, a building cadence, bridges, quiet sections, hits, climaxes, crescendos…

Okay, I realize this is ridiculously outdated, but it's so specific to me that I had to weigh in.

I think they were probably just concerned about being on the TV doing it.

I think what we call "reality television" is a style of presentation and production, not a genre or type of show. So, you have game shows (Survivor, Top Chef, The Amazing Race), documentary shows (Gold Rush), exploitation shows (Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Real Life) and even scripted shows (The Office) that use the…

This was my first Doctor Who, I probably saw it around the time Christopher did, and watched it with my father. I became a Who fan for sure, and liked the show very much while being extremely conscious of (and audibly laughing at) the cheapness of the special effects and the green bubble wrap in particular.

I feel like she was by far the best part of The Life of David Gale but she's in only one or two scenes and someone might accidentally take this to mean watch that movie (actually I didn't hate it).

I've been thinking about this more (not really about whether Bert and Ernie "are" gay, because there's no "reality" behind fictional characters), and while I think you make a decent point, there is also a common phenomenon where this was the way male couples have often had to live their lives—with "companions", "close…

@avclub-eee6e49e09ab1c283e2d7689d45a7b4b:disqus I really really appreciate you telling me that. (Well, and the AV Club, I guess, but I'm selfish).

No, my kid calls me "Dad."

@avclub-1e850f6bef0bc36ca1f64e95ff1cbd2e:disqus It's the exsanctification. A vampire exsanguinates your body, a gay couple exsanctifies your marriage and drains it of all the delicious sanctity that was slathered all over it.

@avclub-eee6e49e09ab1c283e2d7689d45a7b4b:disqus  Were they hostile or just leading separate lives? How old were you? Were you aware that mommy and daddy sleeping in separate rooms was kind of weird, and did it seem natural that they split up, or was it traumatic and surprising?

This would make sense if everyone's mom and dad or cohabiting/married couple on the show were also just friends.

Presumably a reference to a common "cynical" idea that marriage is a form of long-term prostitution where sexual services are exchanged for goods and services, e.g. new refrigerators.

I didn't like it as much as you do, but for me it benefited hugely from lowered expectations—I heard so many bad things about it that when I actually saw it I liked it quite a bit.

Stop saying that I hit that bitch's dirty car—desist!

@avclub-640609f68a3a7ad969c33b253da640a0:disqus : The adaptation is one interpretation of the subtext suggested by the book.

It's people who have the good one, they like the movie.

I disagree, in that I think it's a film very much for children, it just isn't a comedy. It's a children's drama, which I think is very rare, if not unique. I think there's a lot there for kids to identify with, in spite of (actually because of) the fact that character's motivations and emotions and actions are…

For me, the difference between a snob and a hipster is that a hipster is enthusiastic about things (positively or negatively) because what it says about him/her. The hipster likes the obscure band because he thinks it shows credit to him; he derides something popular (or likes it "ironically") not on its merits but…