@avclub-e61aa34d4fdadea6be28371410ba224a:disqus Nothing from the books is actually canonical to this story: since Fuller is making this show as a reboot set in the present day he can use or not use anything from the Red Dragon book as he pleases. The show has actually already contradicted many, many details of that…

This makes sense, considering that about half of Skyfall was desperately trying to be The Dark Knight. I hope he turns it down though, I feel like it would be too similar to his Batman films, and James Bond movies are really best done by more workman-like directors who are good with action scenes, not auteur types of…

Plus the movie doesn't just have one big twist: the whole thing is basically a series of twists, both big and small. Essentially every scene you have a preconceived notion of how the character got to this point, and what's going on in the scene, and then the movie goes in a different direction. The ending is the…

It gets released as widely as it's going to today, so you might want to check and see if it's expanded near you yet. I imagine it'll be playing in any major cities.

Yeah I hate when reviewers hedge their claims like that. Just put it all out there and make a bold statement dammit! Even Vanderwerff does this, and that guy is crazy.

It's not like he was gone that long (Jeremy died in episode 14), and the actor appeared as Silas in a few episodes. I'm sure that this was the plan all along.

@avclub-7cbdf9bce9a6ebda0988f7c45702c176:disqus Yes! That would further confirm my theory that TVD is not so much the second coming of Buffy, but rather Dark Shadows. Can we get some time travel and alternate universes in there as well?

@avclub-7cbdf9bce9a6ebda0988f7c45702c176:disqus Yeah the Silas is Stefan stuff could get really old, I hope they don't draw it out too much. Remember the beginning of this season when Klaus possessed Tyler and everyone figured it out almost immediately? The twist was cool in the moment but I really have no clue how it…

Definitely worth reading as an adult, especially if you like the movie (which really never gets old in my opinion). I think I was about 14 or 15 when I picked it up… it's pretty interesting and complex, plus you can breeze through it very quickly. It really should be more widely read, despite the dip in quality in the…

It was actually only released a year after the series ended, which seems incredibly fast for Lynch. Of course it came nearly two years after the show had ceased to be part of the cultural zeitgeist and was more of a curiosity, so it became an easy target for former fans that got frustrated with the show for becoming…

Ever the contrarian @avclub-cfe912f5cb3aa572bd1c9ae2a9b82207:disqus … at least you didn't pick Dune. I'm late to the party, but here's my rankings (the first three I basically think are equally great):

I really liked the stuff in that book where the plague is killing everyone: it's really terrifying and effective. I find post apocalyptic narratives pretty dull though so I gave up on that book about halfway through. I keep thinking I should go back to it given that was an inspiration of Lost and other stuff I like….…

The Last Battle really doesn't work because the allegory is all that's there: it's the only book in the series that doesn't function as a standalone story taken at face value, and thus the characters and narrative feel empty and pointless.

Eh, I didn't care for that twist at all. It was kind of a silly take on Ra's "immortality" and Neeson really just isn't a compelling or interesting villain. The motivation for the League of Shadows in those movies is beyond idiotic.

I can't really agree: I thought the book became significantly less interesting after that fairly mindblowing (for a kids' book) metatextual bit in the middle. That part seemed to indicate that it was going to go in some strange and unexpected places, but the second half seemed really repetitive and more of a generic…

"I don’t mind that the books are a kind of counter-allegory to Paradise Lost, but it seems to me Pullman was a little coy about his intentions."
I get what you mean, and this is probably just poor phrasing Cruikshank… but you must have noticed that this series was called "His Dark Materials" right? That makes it pretty…

I was so happy when he said that: my boyfriend and I live in Virginia and go to wineries pretty often, and the wines here really are way underrated. If only they weren't so expensive…

This show is very clearly based on the book versions of the story.

Interesting fact: Julie Plec was a writer on all the episodes you mentioned (and this one of course). Maybe that crazy lady knows what she's doing after all… her episodes have definitely been big highlights this season.

Or Enlightened.