I am unsurprised that Danette Chavez would choose the crappiest plot with terrible writing and bad acting simply because it lined up with her beliefs. That's modern pop culture reviewing in a nutshell there.

Could be. Or maybe some PR people find their work too easy, so they like run campaigns on the hard difficulty level, starting off with a hole they can dig themselves out of.

It's certainly a topic that I have never engorged with before.

It could be, but that would support the more likely theory that American smiling is a product of its obsession with customer service in the workplace, which it passed on to Japanese businesses.

That's my take as well. Maybe it's changed since I moved away, but Australia didn't have the same "The Customer is Always Right" philosophy. Tipping is considered an insult, so servers in restaurants just get a fair wage and don't have to constantly ingratiate themselves like they do in America.

It's a nonsense, made-up connection. When I moved to the US, I first lived in a monocultural, white part of the Midwest, and everyone smiled all the time. Now I live on more immigrant heavy East Coast, and smiles are not as common.

As a non-American living in America, let me explain that smiling and being nice are not the same thing at all. There are plenty of good people that rarely smile, and plenty of smiling assholes. I'm not saying Americans need to smile less, but it certainly wouldn't make them more racist if they did.

As an Australian, I also find the argument here to be flawed.

He seemed more of a cad to me.

I think the modern connotation implies a certain level of insufferable arrogance that most people sporting trilbys could never hope to pull off.

I'm puzzled why people keep using them to unveil new projects like this. It's like automatic bad buzz.

The AV Club Television Universe and the AV Club Internet Universe are separate continuities. I am pretty sure TVDF is still part of the AVCTU.

Am I the only one disappointed that Homer let that roast pig get past him?

Catwoman is clearly an over-obvious misdirect. Cat Grant is making her move to the DCU!!!

Now I want to see a movie version of that Hitman issue where the aquarium gets infected with zombie gas.

You summarized my feelings on Josh Gad completely. I have nothing more to add.

Needs more Spam.

It only took a couple of months for them to go from sneering at anyone who uses a Foreman grill to sharing their tasty Spam recipes.

I suspect that they reduced Austin because he was such an oversaturated character after the first movie, but I agree it was a mistake.

O'Neal has written a lot of snark-free articles. He's never afraid to actually like something. That's what sets O'Neal over most of his imitators. O'Neal only snarks when he means it, rather than stretching for snarks at every opportunity.