Even from a pure viewership standpoint, it outperformed Season 1 (aside from the original season's finale) all while maintaining pretty consistent ratings. Even with all those axes grinding against it from a certain type of critic, it ended up being a hit.

TV critics on twitter are the most sanctimonious group of people on earth currently.

You can help your delicate sensibilities by turning the fuck away.

I think those have got be on the table in some form for the series. If not a Medeivalworld or Roman world, proper. I could see unused sets and androids from those worlds existing on one of those floors in the engineering facility.

For better or worse, they're courting the comic-con crowd to some degree with the material to hedge their bets. Kind of unfortunate its come to this with new media, but so it goes.

Its definitely video-gamey. The scenario as soon as the guests get off the train and that guy offers a chance to go into the hills to find the outlaw was like an open world side mission come to life.

Granted his brother aren't given the best of material but based off 5-10 minutes I've seen now of him, I declare him King of the Hemsworths.

I took it as a intentional. Like there's songs that exist in the saloons that the guests will recognize as a sort of bar jukebox. As if maybe guests didn't like hearing the same old-timey period songs like Camptown Races over and over so engineering compromised on this.

This was really good.

But then the AV Club writers would actually have to watch a Bond movie to sharpen their references.

Hinds as Rayder looked very, uh, unhealthy. People not acknowledging his work playing Caesar in two-bit newswires probably made the guy stop trying.

Kevin McKidd should have gotten the roles Damian Lewis got, even though I'm sure he's paid very well for Grey's Anatomy.

Being a period piece, Rome holds up soooo well, even 10 years after the fact. In never had the right critics in the bag for it the way even many lesser shows do. In terms of efficient storytelling, acting, and even set design it blows away Game of Thrones.

I draw my inciting plot device limit at a character giving an annoyed look to another or rudely cutting off another character mid-sentence . If it goes further than that, its too much for a plot device and a possible trigger.

As someone who had a subscription to GQ at one time, people actually took the time to look at one of those terrible throwaway overpriced fashion features long enough to apparently get incensed by them?

I just discovered Body Double for myself a couple months ago and thought it was a riot. Its a shame the Internet hasn't (yet) rediscovered it.

Actually Rabin's ICP obsession aside, it mostly falls along the line of promoting Chicago-based white-hipster friendly rappers that are written about solely to try to prove the ol' Club is more down than Those Other White People. It is what it is though.

Its hard to take any rap coverage from AV Club seriously when they couldn't even bother to write an obituary for Shawty Lo. I had to find out about from Vulture. Vulture! Do you think I'm proud of that?

Dexter and Sons of Anarchy were the kings of early-10's water cooler talk at my office by people of um, more indiscriminate taste.

There's a good comedy sketch to be made about the comedy of manners of people not trying to rock the "talk about tv shows" boat at the water cooler.