The Reddit conspiracy theory aspect of it, and all the ancillary 'fandom' covering it, inflate "Serial" beyond what the thing itself is - a fairly standard true crime story about a case that was handled and mishandled in ways that highlight flaws in our criminal justice system.

There was no good way for them to handle the theaters pulling it. But the flailing and reversals they did about letting independent theaters show it, and releasing it on VoD and Itunes, were ridiculous. And we wouldn't be seeing it in those venues without the public outcry.

There was no good way for them to handle the theaters pulling it. But the flailing and reversals they did about letting independent theaters show it, and releasing it on VoD and Itunes, were ridiculous. And we wouldn't be seeing it in those venues without the public outcry.

It's showing in my city and I've got tickets for Christmas night, but this is largely what I'm expecting. Not in a bad way. I liked "Pineapple Express" and I liked "Team America," and if I get some combination of that, it'll be a fun couple of hours. I was probably going to see this eventually anyway, though it's…

Whether this is true or not, the circular nature of an international hacker group being hacked pleases me.

I'm definitely forcing the family to play "Risk" this Christmas.

As an aside, I really miss "Commentary Tracks of the Damned" as an occasional feature.

"A little like Ryan Gosling, only scuzzier and more likely to end up on a sex-offender registry."

Ugh, he was awful in "The River."

I often like TAL segments but am also Ira Glass-averse, so I don't listen regularly anymore. "Serial" was a way to get the reporting and production quality of TAL without TAL.

I have some friends who got it Day 1 and are loving it.

I was surprised by how decently-structured and made the Kardashian game was, but it lost its appeal once I got over the surprise of it not being utter shit. i think that's what a lot of it was. People were expecting an easy punchline but got an OK cellphone game. There are many other, far better, mobile games that…

I liked both, but there are some days I found "The Daily Show" more tiresome than I'd like to admit, and I'd drag my feet a bit about watching it in a given week, until it piled up. "Colbert" flew out of my streaming queue (I generally watched a day late on Hulu) because it was always such a pleasure, even on its…

He did this with the musical guests, too, a lot of the time. Just dropped the act enough to let himself geek out and let the audience know how cool these relatively unknown people were. They were also the least "Stephen Colbert"-driven interviews. The more out-there guests he'd find were my favorites, and part of…

I think, unfortunately, you're being too generous to the Netflix audience. Much like I feel folks are often too generous to the taste of HBO subscribers. The vast middle is still the vast middle, these venues just take different slices of it.

I replayed "Chrono Trigger." Still nothing else that compares.

It actually would be a pretty interesting view of popular culture and how the TV landscape and "reality" TV has changed. Horrifying, but interesting. There's a fine grad school thesis to be written on the decline of our civilization, studied entirely through the lens of "The Real World."

Thinking about the early seasons of "The Real World" versus what it's morphed into makes me crushingly sad.

"The Final Days" is awesome. I got it and "All the President's Men" as companion gifts when I was back in college, and I still revisit it every few years. I I think I was more drawn into "The Final Days," but that may have simply been because the story was less-known to me at the time. I share your fascination with…

I'm not at all uncomfortable criticizing self-righteous idiots, and I stick to calling them that. The neckbeards are certainly easier and more fun to mock, but nothing drives me more nuts than a person I nominally agree with on the broadstrokes of something being so ignorant and flail-happy that they make my "side"…