liked the West Wing, at least for first 4(?) seasons when Sorkin was onboard.
I had initial problems with the uncynical view of the powers-that-be, but I pretty soon bought in to what Sorkin was trying to do, which was show politics as what it could be, rather than what it is.

It's not the corruption per se I had difficulty believing, but that the characters were so brazen and flippant about it.

Great scene. Karloff's delivery of the story is brilliant.

Next to Clarence Boddicker, Ray Wise's character didn't seem all that bad.

I can't watch any of those shows. My faith in humanity is teetering on the brink as it is.

Anyone who thinks Braveheart is awful, should try living in Scotland, where the film is revered by the masses and "Braveheart" is in common use as a term for anyone who's patriotic.

@ Dan, love the "Baz Luhrrman's idea of Doctor Who" insight. It's spot on. The lack of subtlety or any sort of faith in the audience's intelligence too makes me bristle.

You have to exercise caution with The Simpsons on TV… there's a lot of bad Simpsons episodes out there. Kartaloz, if you know anyone who has, say, Seasons 4-6 on DVD, ask them for a loan. You won't regret it… unless you're some sort of complete mental (which you don't appear to be).

I only watched the first couple of episodes of The Shield and couldn't really get past its ludicrous nature.
Maybe if it had been set in the 1950s, I could have bought into that level of blase police corruption, but it seemed just so unbelievable.
Not that unbelievability is always a problem, but it is when your show's…

The AV Club should run a pain test to settle this once and for all.

TARGETS
Good to see Bogdanovich's debut getting a mention.
It really is a great movie… loosely based on that Texas clocktower sniper (whose name I forget).

I'm as keen on Portman as the next internet geek (well okay, almost as keen), but the scene did nothing for me. It was pretty clear that she was uncomfortable with the whole thing… and that's even before she came out with the statement that she wished she'd never done it.

I agree re. Kubrick. I find his films very cold and inhuman. It sometimes works, like in the HAL portion of 2001, and in Strangelove (black comedy requires no heart) but by and large, his stuff seems pretty soulless to me.

X3 is pretty mediocre, but then so was X1.
X3 reeks of studio interference, and spends most of its time writing out characters (or rather, putting them in a position to be written out) so that the studio wouldn't be over a barrel when it came to renegotiating contracts for the 4th movie… which they then decided not to…

"Preverbial" is a word. It describes the neolithic era when man had to survive solely on antelope meat and nouns.

I'm a hygenic person. You wear those panties, they're yours.

And how bad is the photoshopping on that first poster? And why does a comedy have a straight-up crime noir poster anyway? And above all, Cillian, why?

SAW: An American Carol.

I haven't seen the original Towlie episode… so for me, the Oprah Winfrey episode was even more surreal.

Scoonie is right; the monkey's paw came from that stall right over…. there??