I don't think Hannibal Lector is really representative of real-life serial killers.

Is it being "politically correct" when conservatives on Fox News complain that The Muppet Movie has a CEO for a bad guy, or insist on same being referred to as "job creators?" The anti-PC crowd had a point back in the 1990s, but these days it seems to me that the right wing version of political correctness is the…

I confess to always being a bit disappointed at seeing Dutch and Corinne go kaput. Would love to have seen the fallout of that continue between Vic and Dutch (and Vic and Corinne.)

It has 13 episode seasons, a morally repugnant protagonist, is heavily serialized, and looks cinematic.

Absolutely. Also, in their function as warlords of a sort (something the review picked up on) they allow for a very primal sort of political drama, charting the collision of power, order, and different moralities (to borrow an idea from you) in the same way dramas about royalty did in classical and Renaissance times…

For whatever reason (probably because they're, you know, entertaining) gangsters have played a huge role in modern cable serial dramas, being the focus of The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, and arguably Breaking Bad, and a major element in Oz, The Wire, The Shield, Deadwood, and even Rome. Antwon Mitchell is one of the…

For all of Gilligan's protestations, I think the finale demonstrates that Breaking Bad didn't ever decide how it viewed Walter White, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. While The Shield may not be sure about the morality of Vic, the last season shows it understands his motivations inside-out.

I just finished (finally) watching the show, and the reason I held off for so long when post-1997 serial dramas are one of the great pleasures of my life is the one you articulate. It really does get really, really good though, and I was struck by the enormous debt Breaking Bad owes it. I also detect Shield DNA (in a…

I've heard this argument before, and I just can't agree. I thought the entire finale (and actually the last few episodes, beginning with the death of you-know-who) was fantastic.

The Wire finale was fantastic, but the season preceding it was easily the weakest the show ever had.

Amen, Todd.

Not sure if it's true, but I heard they actually had to due to losing a false advertising suit, with the judge declaring "Speed 2 is not a classic."

Seriously, the soon to be finished Mad Men is the only thing keeping them clinging to the "quality" rep. They deserve their fate, too, for shitting all over showrunners.

Damn right, and one reason (among many) is that Winter doesn't feel the need to force every single member of the huge cast into every single episode like True Blood does.

Right; shieldmaidens are already more legend than reality from what I understand, so why not have an epic sword fight?

I love The X-Files to death, but I just can't imagine considering it the best show of all time. A big reason for this is inconsistency and, perhaps worse, filler. For all the new conventional wisdom about how the MOTW eps are the true strength of the show, a large proportion of them are utterly forgettable filler, and…

I disagree about this one being forgettable. It's partly the circumstance under which I saw it—this was the first episode I saw, as a rerun in the middle of the night when I was sick and couldn't sleep, and it creeped me out so thoroughly that I decided to get the dvds and watch the series from the beginning. In any…

Agreed, and this also applies to the new conventional wisdom that the MOTW episodes are the real strength of the show. The Golden Age of the show for me is seasons 1-4, and while there are amazing MOTWs there, there are also a whole lot that are just pure filler with very little to recommend them, whereas in the…

Agreed, and this also applies to the new conventional wisdom that the MOTW episodes are the real strength of the show. The Golden Age of the show for me is seasons 1-4, and while there are amazing MOTWs there, there are also a whole lot that are just pure filler with very little to recommend them, whereas in the…

Be honest fellas…who hasn't jacked off to flirty Scully here?