My advice would be to start with The Elephant Vanishes and then his earlier works, such as A Wild Sheep Chase. They're simpler, easier to get into, but still offer a dose of that delightful Murakami style. (Wonderland aside, his style is really what keeps me reading his books.)

And here I was hoping she was into Philip K. Dick.

Well, now I know my new band name.

Michael has always been rather bad at deceptions and schemes. He's TRIED, many times, but he never fools Maggie Lizer and his plotting never seems to succeed. (See: roommate vote)

I dropped Burn Notice ages ago. So it's gotten good again? I wanna believe, but you know, Dexter's 7th season had me fooled, so….

She's much, much better-looking than Ygritte is described in the books… who am I kidding, I'd hire Rose Leslie to play The Hound.

@avclub-2195d1bcffa0604371aad817c13f7a66:disqus reminded me of Betty's bizarre rape-themed bedroom talk with Henry. It seemed freakish at the time, but looking back, I'd say it's another sign of the looser, more playful and irreverent Betty this season. Even her short-lived flirtation with dark hair was telling us…

"Troubled male lead with a wife whose character is underdeveloped and is ancillary" is not exactly an issue with Mad Men. Though it's true that Betty feeling ancillary to her husband was a major plot arc in the early going, it's not the same thing as Betty being an ancillary character. Peggy was always a co-lead, it's…

Both weddings were mentioned in a recent AVQ&A, which is probably why they didn't make this list.

Surely not even the Starks can be dumber than the Griffins.

Yeah, Michael has always been an asshole (though not without a conscience). He is stubbornly delusional in his self-image as a "great dad" when he doesn't truly know his own son. (The school election episode was stark proof of that.) His "jerk" arc this season never bothered me as much as it did some fans, coz I've…

Archer for "Best in Televised Pope Election Discussion"

@avclub-1d04064d540beb34e0cc414561bc6f35:disqus Maybe not with each other, but the USSR, China, North Vietnam, North Korea, and Khmer Rouge have waged wars and committed terrible atrocities.

@avclub-52daa17a306006563a5361c316f87c7b:disqus Quickly checked Wikipedia, and it notes, "The song's title and chorus refer to the moon landing conspiracy theories as an oblique allusion to rumors that Kaufman's 1984 death was faked." Not sure it says anything about what the band believed, though.

Goddamn Love Shack. You're so fun to dance to at parties, but any other time, you're a horrible, grating earworm.

I get why people don't like "Shiny Happy People"—no wait, actually I have no idea. Is it too mainstream pop for REM fans? Whatever, I'll pick it over "Everybody Hurts" any day. That song is a funless morass.

The film is not so much bad as forgettable. Its main problem is that it continuously gets the tone wrong. Its attempts at humor all land with a dull thud, with little entertainment to be had.

The Garnett translation of Crime and Punishment describes a whole family as having "cleft palates" but the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation uses "tounge-tied" instead. Which is it? What does the original Russian say?

I wholeheartedly agree about Adler. I believe it is a case of fans wanting romance in stories that are almost utterly devoid of it, and Adler is the only female character that Holmes has shown interest in (not even romantic interest).

I think the mention of Sherlock Holmes in this article was a bit off-base. Doyle's stories are clearly the only legitimate stories. Sherlock and Elementary and the films are adaptations, and they can be considered worthy (or not), but they don't hold the same legitimacy as the original stories. Doyle may not be the…