@avclub-87caf7c42aedbada42572e2374eed08d:disqus 
Oh come on, society doesn't change that quickly. The 1980s weren't the 1950s. The Jesus-freak side of Flanders was always meant to be an annoying side of the character, even if it got exaggerated later.

I tried reading the first book but it just seemed so poorly written (at a level sub-Dan Brown, who has mercifully vanished from pop culture) that I couldn't go on. And people recognized this at the time. The great novelist A.S. Byatt had a essay about why Potter just didn't work for her (even though she was actually a…

If there was a fault to Ebert is that he didn't warm to certain surrealistic styles immediately. But he did eventually get them. Yes, he didn't like "Blue Velvet" but later became quite a Lynch supporter. He also didn't like "Raising Arizona" (if I recall because he felt it was "unrealistic") but again, later became a…

Don't most people blame "Jaws", which came out two years before "Star Wars", as the origin of the American summer blockbuster movie?

Kael didn't like "Star Wars" for crying out loud. If not liking one of the most entertaining movies of all time isn't the definition of pretentious, what is? And as far as I know, she never recanted it. At least Ebert acknowledged he was wrong about missing the point of "Blade Runner".

I know the hip thing is to say the original was better. Maybe in the case of The Office, this was true. But let's be honest. The problem with the original House of Cards was: Who cares? The Prime Minster of the UK is less relevant globally than the governor of most US states. There really was no tension. So Francis…

Yes, I liked the Romansh reference — and as someone who once tried to make headway into the language but was stifled by the lack of decent teaching materials, I love the idea that Archer was able to pick up a tape for it the way people do for popular languages like French or Spanish.

I *am* a history buff, and I love time travel comedies (even really silly ones like Bill and Ted), but "Time Bandits" just didn't click for me, even when I saw it in the theater as a child. I'm not sure why — the humor just felt forced.

George Orwell, who was a product of Eton made the veiled comment in his essay about boys' weeklies that they avoid all mention of sex, "especially in the form in which it actually arises at public schools"…

But it clearly hasn't been reclaimed as of yet. Yes, you can imagine a future where it is, but in current modern America (where HoC is presumably set), singing Dixie is *exactly* like driving around in a car with a big old Stars n' Bars painted on it like them there Hazzard boys: probable political suicide even for a…

What was wrong with Day & Age? It was more of the 1980s-pastiche that people love about the Killers, wasn't it?

I've never seen Revolution, but it was interesting that that statue toppling scene in the trailer was from 1985. I would have expected it from a 1990 film, fresh from the Lenin topplings of 1989, but not from a time when European Communism was a current thing.

I kind of thought it was to marry Cyril, given the marriage theme of the episode and the fact that it was Cyril she was upset with.

Yes and no. It's always been clear that Archer excels at action. He always sucks at anything requiring planning, though.

And the fact that the British wouldn't have been there if France hadn't fallen so quickly — it's basically a version of the old "surrender monkey" joke. Although in the anachronistic world of Archer, Mallory actually has a personal stake in WWII…

@hornacek:disqus 
It's weirder than just two — 1988-1989 had a *ton* of underwater movies even if many of them were obscure: DeepStar Six, Leviathan, The Evil Below, Lords of the Deep, The Rift and The Abyss. I used to be obsessed with why. Yes, two of something (two Wyatt Earps, two killer asteroids, two dark and edgy…

Weird. I had no idea who Run-DMC is (I'm still somewhat unclear, actually), but totally knew about Kraftwerk — our German teacher, who wanted to make clear that German music wasn't all stereotypical polkas or classical stuff even played it in class for us.

Columbus did discover a US territory — Puerto Rico.

That's exactly what I thought too! I think the expression aides the resemblance.

That's exactly what I thought too! I think the expression aides the resemblance.