"Tom, wait a minute. I'm talking about a cop that's mixed up in drugs.
I'm talking about a - a - a dishonest cop - a crooked cop who got mixed
up in the rackets and got what was coming to him. That's a terrific
story. And we have newspaper people on the payroll, don't we, Tom?"

Yeah, I thought about Jerry. You can start juggling elements around. Like he starts out as the actor on the world, but by the end the world is acting on him and he's powerless. But he started out pathetic and descended into being even more pathetic. Forcing his story into the mono-myth matrix doesn't really make sense…

I'd also like to add that I think mono-myth stories are so powerful because genuine catharsis and resolution are so rare in real life. I think it's why movies that don't peddle in those things are automatically relegated to the art house. We usually want our entertainment full of these things even if it means silently…

Yeah, the mono-myth is great and all, but it's not every story, and it's certainly not a good fit for reality. I think Harmon is on to something in using it as a tool in comedies though. Particularly in connecting the usual "lessons learned" at the end of your average sitcom to the high stakes existential questions of…

"Yeah, Satan, bad. We disapprove." <turns around=""> "Satan, we still get the Supreme Court appointments, right?"

Exactly. Clinton embodies much of what I dislike about politicians, particularly of the Democratic variety. But the right and the very far left keep holding her up as the embodiment of evil, and it's driving me nuts. You can't be critical of a failed system and then scapegoat an individual for everything (Donald…

Hey Russia! Get started on hacking the blooper reels from The Apprentice!

I've only seen Season 5 once, but I've rewatched a lot of clips on youtube over the years, and there's so many unbelievably great moments from Season 5, just like the rest. My take on "the worst" Wire season is thus:

The Illusionist was on when I was at my in-laws over Christmas one year and I caught about 80% of it. It seemed absolutely awful. Here's my understanding of it; please correct me if I'm wrong.

Same here. I watched every episode up until this week. It stopped being funny. The problem isn't Noah himself. Comedy Central and The Daily Show said they were going to refocus the show to cover the events and news of the day instead of the media's take on them. It's a subtle conceptual difference, but the outcome is…

I would argue that over 50% of the psychological intrigue and human drama was manufactured by Koenig in the first season. I feel this season is already going in the same direction. It's supposed to be this hyper-cool thing that she picked up the phone and called the Taliban in the next episode, but what are we really…

So are the comments here our weekly space to discuss this? I was pretty underwhelmed by the first episode. This was a major story in the media, and while I can't claim to know/remember everything that went down, I remember it was pretty clear that he walked away. When I heard this season was about Bergdahl, I thought…

Look, no one wants to let another Cosby off the hook, but that single story was 100% fluff. While CK is very, very highly regarded, it's nothing like the way Cosby was beloved. Point being, I can't think of a single reason that other comics and insiders would hold off on truly outing CK if this stuff was true, let…

My best friend and I are basically the same age as Ansari. I've been married for 7 years and have a kid. My friend just moved in with his girlfriend six months ago. I'm enjoying the show a lot, but my favorite episodes have been Indians on TV and Ladies & Gentlemen, episodes that were packed with more jokes, and very…

I've been with my wife for over 11 years now, married for 7. We have both heard all our stories over and over and over again. We didn't read each others' biographies, but we've both listened to the audiobook more times for anyone's liking. The episode ended, and I casually asked if anything like that creepy stalker…

I hereby sentence Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya to three listenings of the Cocktail soundtrack, to be served consecutively.

Jon Benjamin's presence and monologue was masterful.

The line that slayed me the most was after Dev rants at Ravi about his sudden refusal to do an accent, and Ravi replies, laying down, defeated, with a sigh in his voice, "That was before Fisher Stevens."

Cube? The movie where people get horrifically killed as they move from one cube-shaped room to the next? The one where the autistic guy counts gumdrops? What a weird reference. Do people reference this? Do people think it's good? Is it enough of a cultural touchstone that people use it in analogies?

You're probably trolling, but I have to comment on one thing. As someone who has worked on left politics for years, let me tell you that waiting on that "entire CONTINGENT of new Voters" is a very, very, very, bad strategy. We haven't had over 60% turnout of the voting age population since 1968. 26th amendment aside,…