I admire the show for its willingness to swerve the audience—they did this back at the end of season 1 by bringing in Richard Schiff, the sort of actor you'd expect to have a major recurring role, and the killing him off suddenly.  I like that they were willing to take this in such a weird direction.  That doesn't…

Billy Joel is kind of awesome
But maybe it's just because I'm from Long Island. I've always enjoyed "We Didn't Start the Fire," so I might be giving him too much credit, but the silly rhymes seem tongue-in-cheek to me. The point is that they're crazy words to rhyme, and it comes out a little funny. But mission…

The show definitely started off darker. Michael cared about getting paid, for one; as time went on, it got almost embarrassing that he would turn down money even from people who could afford it, even absent any other sources of income. Michael went from anti-hero—with a fairly strong emphasis on the anti—to just…

Decemberists
As a member of "the group's cult-like fan base," I'm not sure that it was "a vocal contingent" of _us_ that wanted a return to simpler stuff so much as "critics such as those at the A.V. Club." To be sure, some fans agreed with you, but in my experience they were a not-so-vocal minority. The closest I…

Rockstar's plotting
I like that the storyline tends to be "overlong" because I like spending a lot of time in the places they create. The Mexico chapter might be my favorite of RDR. I tend to like the wildernessy landscapes—the badlands chapter of San Andreas is my favorite in that game—for something that this…