But are there really a "ton of people" actually “humblebragging” about avoiding the Super Bowl? Yes, anyone who would use social media to be self-righteous about that choice is obviously an insufferable prig, and maybe I’m just lucky to have avoided such exhibitionism. To me it just sounds like an obscure subset of…

Dictatortot, I'm conflicted whether to see this as a distinction with a difference—even conceding that there is a sizable portion of GOP voters who would sooner identify with traditional conservatism due to its emphasis on social/religious values, the economic system most espoused by the GOP during my lifetime and…

While a definite irony, I think the anti-capitalism of Confederate leaders is a shade of nuance that would only make most modern Southern Republicans shrug. Ones with whom I've argued would compliment the Confederacy only for its assertion of states' rights and/or challenge of supposed federal oppression (not that…

Mrs. Alger, assuming you're serious, there is no thought process. Far more effectively than any ad could do, MM has made all these classic destructive behaviors utterly sexy on a subliminal level, especially to disillusioned twenty-somethings who subconsciously assume they have nothing to lose and will live forever.

They're my friends…if they weren't, why would they offer to wash my brain?

Well, I wrote a hit play and directed it. So I'm not sweating it either.

All Work and No Play, the Tony-winning rap …
http://www.youtube.com/watc…

Yes, we should consider reaching out to those who spend these dreary months alone. But, Vizzini had a wife and young son, and it bears remembering that many people aren't so very isolated, but are suicidal even amidst families who love and depend on them. In cases like this, it's very tempting to feel anger towards a…

You mean a "sweetbread," or glandular delicacy? Or you mean he killed a guy and stole his candied fruit? I'm cool with either.

But I'll be damned if that apple doesn't look mighty tasty…bet it's a honeycrisp.

I don't really read the second piece that way— rather than deeming the characters excessively "quirky," she considers their nonconformity fairly tepid:

I understand that you'd prefer to dismiss criticisms of WA films lacking grit and realism (btw, not my central criticism compared to privilege) and suggest that I'm refusing to evaluate them on their own terms. For the record, I do like Rushmore and Tenenbaums, and assess each film on its own merits, but this book…

Alexander Payne also makes comedies, but ones that do seem more sociologically atuned, gritty, realistic, etc. So I don't assume that working in any genre precludes offering such societal range, reflections and insights.

There's obviously no shortage of bright, awkward kids from poor families. But the absurdly precocious Max and Sam are hardly plausible depictions of under-privileged youth; they're written as cute, sympathetic Horatio Algers destined for achievement. Max lost his mother and Sam is orphaned, but both clearly had doting…

I figured someone would argue Max or Sam as under-privileged, but I think they're given those backgrounds to make them more sympathetic. Their actual characters, meanwhile, certainly have the precocious intellects and rarified sophistications to make them fitting company for both the well-educated and well-funded. I…

On the one hand, the fussy curating of every set and somewhat wooden
characters could be construed as post-modern acknowledgment of the artifice inherent in filmmaking and the relative futility of straining for more
plausible realism. But I wouldn't quite buy that argument, and I do find his films grating depending on…

I agree with most of your points, but also think that, ironically, a show offering a starker downfall could have actually been smarter rather than dumbed down. What seems dumb to me is that Walt's improbable schemes went exactly as planned for the umpteenth time rather than finally backfiring. The neo-Nazis didn't…

Yes, it's a fair point that anyone that ignorant had a higher probability of becoming a miscreant anyway, but I still think Gilligan can't wash his hands of letting anti-hero glorification trump potential for a starker cautionary tale, and the resulting likelihood of a net negative impact. Likewise, I think the show…

I'm fine with people getting vicarious thrills from the show, and agree that's how it was designed. Even critical viewers could get a little "drunk," since Walt was certainly "ivory tower" in intelligence, and it became a pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-scientific thrill-ride. My point is that many viewers clearly aren't…

I'm glad VanDerWerff wrote about the moral and religious dimensions of this show, esp. since both his and Gilligan's upbringings are so obviously steeped in conservative Christian morality. However, I suspect that in its overall impact, this series fails precisely as the sort of exhaustive moral cautionary tale and…