Ahaha, oh dear. Some of the highlights from my Ivy League classmates - the guy who wanted to explain how gosh, rape laws are so wrong, because he's Spanish and in Spain no means yes. Or the girl who thought that 9/11 victims' families shouldn't get fund compensation if the victim was undocumented, because undocumented…

I give Paul credit for a couple of things - first of all, he really does know his stuff, though I sincerely disagree with his opinions on babkas, and second, his compliments are just as thorough and sincere as his criticisms. But as the show goes on, you can see him becoming more and more fond of messing with…

The first season I watched was…well, the first, and I got downright teary at the postscript describing where all the bakers had gone. The format wasn't quite perfected at that point, but man, it was already so good.

Well one has the NHS and the other separates dental from health insurance, so even if you have the latter you have to pay full price for the former. The U.S. is also, I think, more fixated on orthodontics as a sign of "good teeth," though maybe that's not true anymore. Anyway, it's a class thing - first being able to…

When I was watching the Holiday Bake-Off - which is filmed in GBBO's tent - I started thinking about how you would do a truly American-schtick bake-off show. I'm thinking a county/state fair theme, maybe, though I have no idea who you'd hire to judge.

Wow, I am not loving the Amazon "vote on a pilot" system right now - I want another episode of this show next week, not to wait a year! This is Amy Sherman-Palladino done right - yes, she has a formula, but done well, that formula is just wonderful.

Oh, I was trying to be as charitable as possible and see if that part of the contract really was a friendly warning about the limitations of a B-1/VWP visa. Like, if the contract had just said: Listen, if you choose to play paid gigs while you're here, you'll be in violation of your visa and there could be…

I mean admittedly, I've only read the bit of the contract that's quoted in the previous AVC article on this subject, but that clause about playing other shows is also…well it doesn't seem legally accurate to me.

MCU has a higher floor, but to me, also a lower ceiling. They don't provide enough room for a movie to be a hot mess, but that also prevents any of them from being transcendent.

Let us take a moment to remember that Mangold and Jackman's first collaboration was Kate and Leopold.

I am so, so with you on the inundation (I used to read pretty much everything on AVC and now I'm down to a few movie reviews a week), but from what I've heard of the plot of this film the reference actually isn't forced.

I admit bias since the first X-Men movie got me into comics in the first place, but I like their story better than the Avengers one. Give me freaks and underdogs over teams of titans any day.

It's not impossible to get that vibe on a US talk show, just challenging and highly dependent on the host and the guest - Craig Ferguson managed it a lot, and you still see it with good host/guest combos like Conan O'Brien and Timothy Olyphant. But the hallmark of all those interviews is not giving two shits about the…

Plenty of movie stars are just that - brilliant at embodying one persona. If that persona is charming/interesting/fun enough, it can work for a whole career.

His doing Shakespeare helped inspire Slings and Arrows, so even that paid off in the end.

It's materialism porn - she gets swept into a world where money is no object, there are servants to do everything for her, everything is Brand Name Luxury, etc. Lack of control (ex. being assaulted by your boss) becomes perfect control (ex. your savior boyfriend buys your company and installs you as boss).

I reread Ender's Game recently, and it holds up if you ignore the weird racism and sexism. That said, he's a super lousy person.

Hey, production designers with a bit of wit need to make a living.

The book exchanges where I am do have their share of romance novels and posthumous "Tom Clancy," but also random old computer programming treatises and the occasional John Irving or Ursula K. Leguin. Enough that it's worth looking.

I can't really talk because of how much I love You're the Worst and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, but: agreed. Maybe it's a matter of execution?