It could be the reverse: if you write a book about a kid or a teenager and it's not too bleak or sexual, it automatically gets labelled as YA. 

It could be the reverse: if you write a book about a kid or a teenager and it's not too bleak or sexual, it automatically gets labelled as YA. 

I think there's always going to be room for broadly popular entertainment.  The Internet makes it easier to enjoy niche programming because you can find communities of people who share your excitement for any obscure interest you may have, but people still have to go out in the real world and interact with random…

I think there's always going to be room for broadly popular entertainment.  The Internet makes it easier to enjoy niche programming because you can find communities of people who share your excitement for any obscure interest you may have, but people still have to go out in the real world and interact with random…

"You Can Call Me Al" by Billy Joel springs to mind, about a depressed, lonely middle-aged fellow:

"You Can Call Me Al" by Billy Joel springs to mind, about a depressed, lonely middle-aged fellow:

It was in the barrow where Merry got his sword, specifically designed and ensorcelled to kill the Witch King of Angmar, which he used to stab the Lord of the Nazgul in the heel.  It's suspected by some that Eowyn could not have killed the Nazgul without Merry's sword breaking through its protective enchantments first.

@avclub-8d0cb398135902fbbe6fc9c7a6b86655:disqus Alley Oop is still around: http://www.gocomics.com/all…

It could've been worse; I know I've seen sitcoms that simply ended with a milquetoast male character being dragged away against his will by some (generally beefy) woman, with no mention of the repercussions.  This episode dealt with the repercussions, made it clear that it was not fun for Monroe (but…but…men always…

@E.Buzz Miller: To me, the fact that these shows are from a different era are *fascinating*, little glimpses back in time.  It's like watching a sitcom out of Britain or Japan or something.  And there are always points of commonality: humans are human everywhere, and we haven't evolved all *that* much in 50 years.

But you don't have to watch an entire series to get an appreciation for it, especially since story arcs weren't such a big deal back in the day.  (They couldn't be, because if you missed an episode back then, it was gone: you might be able to catch it during the summer re-runs or if the show makes it to syndication,…

A Song for Lya
A Song for Lya is a wonderful and brutal story; it haunts me to this day. I had forgotten that it was Martin's.

It's dated, but it's also fascinating to see how Rob wrestles with the changing gender dynamic: several episodes focused on what it meant to "be a man", and how that had changed from previous generations, how it was more complicated than it used to be.

Looks like
they're planning on breaking copyright. This might be a good logo for Creative Commons, but not Comedy Central I don't think.

Chemistry
If a reviewer doesn't like a show (or if they love it), they should state that upfront; once I got to "no chemistry" and "meager charms" I had to take the rest of the article with a large grain of salt. Not so much of a problem when it's an ongoing series of reviews, but for one-shot reviews like this one,…

Fred's voice
I'd never heard of Fred before today, but just watched a video. Am I the only one who thinks Fred sounds like Kristen Chenoweth? :)

Any film you watched as a teenager?
One whole class of media which fits this description must be anything you watched, listened to, or read as a teenager: after a span of a decade or two, it has the added benefit of taking you back to that time period, for good or ill. Music particularly does that to me: being…

Sometimes suspense gets in the way
I'm not a huge fan of suspense: obviously some is good, but I have a hard time reading George R.R. Martin (for example) because of his "anyone could die" attitude. If I'm reading a book and there is a serious threat towards a character I like, therefore, particularly if it's a genre…

It's possible
With computer animation, surely it would be possible to program it all beforehand and do the voices live; or if that doesn't count, you could have each character controlled by an "animator" a la World of Warcraft; maybe even by the voice actors. It might not be very good, but would it be novel?

Frasier
When I feel the most uncomfortable is when I want to go into the TV, sit the character(s) down and say "Don't you see what's going on here? Don't you understand?" And it has to be a sympathetic character; I don't really care if Dwight from The Office (US) gets his comeuppance, but watching Michael can be so…