Kalinda is the new Omar
She's a larger than life superhero dropped into a world of real people, hyper-competent and always one step ahead of everyone else. Like Omar, she's an element of wish-fulfillment fantasy in a relatively grounded show.

They are clearly modeled after the Watchers from Marvel Comics, right down to the character of the main observer, who like Uatu is a rebel who can't quite follow his people's rules.

Doctor Who is a fairly formulaic show whose formula seemed completely bizarre to me when I first started watching it (there's always some inexplicable problem, and it is always the fault of some rubber suited alien, and the Doctor always defeats it by talking very quickly. No matter it seems like is going on, it is…

The New York Times review is wrong to dismiss fantasy so casually, but she is absolutely right that the Game of Thrones series isn't really about anything. What is Martin trying to say? I've read and enjoyed all the books, but I'm not sure I know.

SPOILER

I think we're on the same page, Moonshine. The only character that I'm not sure about is Tyrion. I suspect he's important enough to live through the whole series but I wouldn't bet on it.

SPOILERS

Sweeps are really dumb, to the point that I don't understand why they still exist. Are they representative of network performance in any meaningful way? Don't reliable ratings exist for every week, not just sweeps week? Who are the networks trying to fool, are they fooling anyone, and if so, why?

I agree with most of what you said, but you should acknowledge that Glee, while its less successful structurally, is funnier than Community. It just has more and better one-liners. The more self-indulgent and "meta" a Community episode gets, the more they forget to put in the jokes.

I agree with flashheart, Evan, and legally concrete blonde: this was a relatively strong episode. I was really glad that the show let itself be cooler than Justin Bieber instead of bowing down sycophantically like it did to Madonna and, bizarelly, Britney Spears (actually, which is cooler, Glee or Bieber? I'm not…

I disagree — I played it on the PC and found the level design just ok, but the controls absolutely perfect. You'd think accurately simulating momentum would be the way to go, but if you've ever played a fiddly flash "physics" game you can see why they went with the swinging behavior they did. With a little practice…

Archmage, do you actually fry your waffles and pancakes? Also, it seems to me the debate should center around external vs. internal toppings.

The question the AVclub needs to ask itself is
Is there some kind of systemic failure or organizational flaw that led to a review being posted of a book which was not yet completed? Do you need to rethink the way you hand out editorial assignments or evaluate pitches?

The AVclub hedged their bets by giving this an A- and Robyn an A. I know letter grades don't matter, but is there any doubt about which one of these albums is more of an accomplishment?

My wife is an educated woman with sophisticated tastes, and she also loves Newsies. So did all my female friends in college. Maybe I can get her to take our niece to this show so I don't have to go.

Joseph Campbell
Before you review Joseph Campbell, make sure you do a little research and get an idea of the current academic consensus on his work. Short version: he is incredibly reductionist; his schemes tend to reduce our understanding of individual myths by imposing a deep structure on them; in the end he is…

The plot summary of the "Skylons" episode linked above doesn't seem particularly complex or sophisticated to me — some magic stones made a storm, and pushing them again made it stop? I don't get it. Can you tell me what I'm missing?

Cloud Atlas is a very ambitious novel. Whether or not it's "pretentious" depends on if you think it achieves its ambitious goals (I think it does, mostly.)

Cactusjack, I agree, that is clearly the only viable reading of the finale. I hope my post didn't suggest that I think otherwise.

But Fat Tom, your post is precisely what I'm talking about — all those things were answered. How did the island move around the world? The Man in Black built the Frozen Donkey Wheel to manipulate the energy at its center in order to try and leave. Why did it travel through time? The energy at the center of the…