I definitely think that the idea of the Avatar as figurehead rather than active force is a compelling one, and one that the series has provided ample evidence for to date. This season also introduced the idea that the White Lotus, setup as an organization for good and balance in the original series, is inadequate and…

I was super down with this finale, A+ all around team.

A!

Lion Turtle-granted bending seems very rough and unrefined; Wan is a gruff Firebender who lacks discipline and deliberation at first. But eventually he begins to learn the Dragon Dance from a dragon spirit, and his bending improves dramatically, becoming an extension of his body.

Given that IASIP has been having an amazing season, it's likely that South Park's entire live audience (DVR and On Demand plebians excluded, the scum) is comprised of disgruntled Always Sunny fans who have been screwed by their cable company.

I don't think it's necessarily fair to blame the book for the crossover events. Snyder has reiterated numerous times that the only book one needs to read to get the full story is Batman, and that the other tie-ins are all DC-mandated and are not critical to the story. Snyder has a penchant for telling grandiose…

@avclub-a17bf70c7cfc521094e5cf8bc02bc04a:disqus Definitely agree re: Gus as Walt's greatest adversary, but I feel that season 5A was necessary as a sort of coda to the end of that conflict. With Gus gone, how does the new power vacuum resolve itself?

I feel kind of bad for Parsons, because by all accounts he's an interesting, intelligent, and really nice guy. He's just saddled on a show with some of the absolute worst writing imaginable and being forced to play a one-note role with almost no chance of comedy.

Add this one to the growing list of "A.V. Club references that I should have understood immediately but took me an embarrassingly large number of seconds to understand."

That's not what it's called.

Yep. Especially in the case of Super 8, which was actually a really exciting and fun movie for the first two-thirds or so until the pointless E.T. meets Transformers sequences at the end threw it… shall I say… off the rails.

I like you a whole lot.

Actually, he says "DAMN. YOU. WALT. FREAKING. WHITMAN," in time with his kicks, but then he pauses and shouts "Leaves of Grass, my ass!" to its own tune, adding a kick on "Grass" and "ass."

Lisa the Simpson is the holdover episode in season 9 that was produced under Bill and Josh's tenure on the show. Easily just as good as the rest of their episodes.

I liked a lot of the Before Watchmen stuff - Minutemen, Silk Spectre, Ozy, and Doc in particular - but Nite Owl is probably the worst dreck that I've ever read. I was horrendously disappointed in that.

[counterpoint arrested development reference]

I caught a prescreening, and found myself enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I found the Rapture bit at the end a tad over the top, even for this film, but overall I think it worked quite solidly as a bit of self-aware comedy. Danny McBride managed to steal the show here, however, in his capacity as an…

@avclub-0ae7484a9f3bbd2a21df420050c032ae:disqus I was so certain that Alan Dale was Christian Shepard and that John Terry was Widmore, because I started paying attention to the credits very, very late in the show.

@avclub-6a39664e3119f973f6f230fb66f4c0a5:disqus I think it more relates to R'hllor and all the Red Priests running around. Ice, being the inevitable winter and the Others (White Walkers in the show) arriving, and Fire, being the forces of R'hllor and the reincarnation of Azor Azhai, and their ultimate conflict, which…

@avclub-5dedb42b34e50082065a783265ce28a8:disqus My own personal hell.