Even if Sorkin isn't establishing a causal link between the relative decline of Great White Men and America, his drawing back to an imaginary Golden Age is exactly the kind of "everything was so much better back in my day" sentiment that, ironically, populates conservative journals.

The Newsroom is the very opposite of challenging. It's pandering paternalism directed at the kind of people who hold Buzzfeed as the nadir of Western civilisation and claim that American Idol killed democracy. The kind of people who hold 'the masses' in such contempt (conveniently elevating themselves above them)…

And he was saying it to people who watch Aaron Sorkin shows on HBO - the choir.

I sure am glad that the Supreme Pontiff can reach out to so many lost souls via a poorly-rated show on a niche network.

Is there a timeframe where it becomes 'okay' to exploit an atrocity for pop culture? The Salem witch trials were as much of a tragedy as 9/11. Why is it then ridiculous to be offended when they're used for pulpy supernatural drama? People died, and legitimising their deaths just because you couldn't come up with an…

I find it inherently objectionable how hack writers exploit history to write the plot so they don't have to without the barest respect for their source material. And I'm not just talking about hysterias like Salem; even Elizabethan costume dramas are based on real people who lived, suffered and died. I'm not saying…

Really? I thought that scene most explicitly drove the message home: that the Basterds were indistinguishable from their opponents. Just as the Nazi regime treated the entire Jewish people as an internal fifth column, so did the Basterds refuse to differentiate between Germans and Nazis, denied the humanity of their…

I always thought the most insidious and disturbing act of "product integration" was Liberty Mutual and Kings, which wasn't even blatant product placement (that could safely be ignored) but them actually enjoying creative input to promote their 'themes' in dialogue.

Wait, Coke is conspicuous consumption now?

There's absolutely nothing wrong in loving Weekend - I definitely know that I hold a minority opinion (and I don't mean that in a snide "God, I'm such an iconoclast" way). But yes, more films where gay characters actually have other personality traits, please.

My distinction between LGBT films and films featuring LGBT characters is that the latter are films that I would actually want to watch in their own right, while the former are films distinguished only by their LGBTness.

A B+ isn't exactly muted.

I do wish that gay cinema could escape the dichotomy of "harshly depressing accounts of death by HIV/AIDs" and "saccharine sex romps". Netflix's Gay and Lesbian section is a strange collection of misery porn and borderline actual porn.

Less fun fact: While the attribution to Marie Antoinette of "Qu’ils mangent de la brioche" was a post-revolutionary falsehood, the actual phrase was coined by Rousseau in his pre-revolutionary Confessions (which was mostly bollocks).

Al Jean also claims to know the real solution to Fermat's Last Theorem and who shot Princess Diana.

So the criterion of success for a modest arthouse flick is now equal to that of major blockbuster behemoths?

As of today, its worldwide gross was nearly three times its budget, but okay.

Speaking of series with endings that you liked but left everyone else cold, I continue to maintain that, with the exception of being unnecessarily long and that ill-advised dancing robot coda, Battlestar Galactica had a great finale.

According to Wiki, he's an "infamous and dictatorial" philosophy professor who refuses to give his students a passing grade unless they sign a statement declaring that God is dead.

Really? People thought Dauntless and Erudite were made up fantasy words? Aaaaaaaagh…