Nah, the main cast in Taxi all worked at Sunshine Cabs, Cheers had staff and patrons together, although I'm not really advancing a "who did what first" argument here. My point is that I think nailing-down framing devices like the ones being discussed is a bit specious when it comes to talking about the impact certain…

I'm just impressed that the Cheers writers came up with the revolutionary idea of combining the work-com with the hang-out com a good decade or so before the latter was apparently invented.

Whatever you think of JK Rowling, she did at one point express a succinct, instructive description of depression where she described as not feeling very sad, but feeling as though you can never be happy again. That explanation really conveys just how crippling the condition can be.

I actually think it's kind of a shame that we're at such a late point in his career, since Al has always expressed a desire to give his fans as much material on as many platforms as possible and social media has really facilitated his ability to do so. He's always been on the outskirts of the pop culture landscape…

I found that article a few years back when I for some reason decided to search The Onion for anything Weird Al related, and remember feeling quite shocked. When the news about his parents' death broke, it felt almost disorientating that something so horrible could happen to someone who had become a figurehead of fun…

I see Vlad Tepes is sporting that Slim Goodbody style of armour that his Gary Oldman counterpart has on at the beginning of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Does that getup have any basis in reality?

It's not my theory particularly, but I think those that advance it would probably argue that the 'can't take X seriously' aspect is part of the problem, since the light-hearted nature of the films make the scenes in question come across as a kind of comic male wish-fulfilment.

Even by sex-comedy standards, Kevin truly is one of the most loathsome characters ever belched onto film, for the reason you cite as well as his demented compulsion to make his friends as sexually anxious as he is. One of the better moments from the first film is when Jim calls him out and questions why they all…

I was surprised a retrospective on this franchise didn't have a bit more to say about that webcam-spying scene in the first film. I always hear that paired up with that oral-sex-by-deception scene from Revenge of the Nerds as evidence of a culture that tacitly condones men taking sexual advantage of women.

The show's main selling point is that it is a sincere ode to kindness and Derek is championed as the foremost practitioner thereof, but much of the action contradicts this to the point of kicking its own Aesop to death. The tumblr started off as a showcase for the most glaring examples (like Derek shooing one of the…

"Was it me or was this Jim's most malicious prank ever" - Jim's treatment of Andy in this season always wrankled with me as well and (jumping ahead here) it's compounded when he smirkingly refuses to call Andy 'Drew' as per the latter's polite request upon his return from the anger management course. It brought to…

No no no no no. Piers Morgan is a prime example of a disliked media
figure who has a history of behaviour making him genuinely worthy of
contempt. In fact, this comments section serves as a handy precis of his rap sheet, since most of his better-known sins are listed here - the
shares scandal, the publishing of faked…

I was referring to this part of your OP: "Derek's pure and infinitely-compassionate heart". The Derek we see onscreen fucks with his friends to their vocal exasperation, attempts to extort toffees from elderly people in return for a basic grooming service and generally bumbles around exhibiting no more kindness or…

As soon as the series aired, Gervais was publicising every piece of positive writing about the show, right down to barely-literate Wordpress articles written by Twitter nobodies. Some guy who made an adulatory fansite found himself being granted interviews with the cast, including Gervais, within about two weeks of…

You and Gervais need to recalibrate your compassion meters. Being a mostly harmless cretin is not the same as being the personification of distilled kindness, no matter how many times Kerry Godlimen insists otherwise in a talking head.

http://www.tvgohome.com/xma…

"You Americans have had your first, very rare sight of the brilliant Sally Phillips" You what? Did Bridget Jones's Diary never happen?

I immediately thought of him as Danny Alexander with a Scottishness-ectomy (sort of like a reverse of Campbell/Tucker -  and yes I'm aware Campbell's parents themselves were Scottish). Both are cheeky, nose-tweeking ministerial upstarts. Also, his hair is dangerously close to being ginger.

I immediately thought of him as Danny Alexander with a Scottishness-ectomy (sort of like a reverse of Campbell/Tucker -  and yes I'm aware Campbell's parents themselves were Scottish). Both are cheeky, nose-tweeking ministerial upstarts. Also, his hair is dangerously close to being ginger.

I always assumed the allegations of incompetence were just a false pretext to bitch about a generally disliked member of staff, something I've seen go on in many a workplace. The first Terri grumblings ("She's shit") are from Malcolm and Hugh in series 1 right after she reasonably requests they stop making rushed…