Film Crit Hulk, one of the Internet’s greatest, greenest thinkers once wrote “the ending is the conceit.” After all the world building, all the logical follow through of the Badland’s politics, the ending should hit the nail straight on the head—and hard. The season one finale of Into The Badlands goes the opposite…

Conflict creates drama, but relationships create emotional stakes. Into The Badlands finally earns some of those stakes in “Snake Creeps Down,” its best episode yet. Plot lines, bolstered by strong characterization, solidify and surprise while the fight scenes, no longer needed to fill time, take a backseat. It makes…

It makes no sense why The Widow and her clan are not the center of this show. Composed and calculating, but with a through line of empathy, The Widow is a fully realized protagonist and her daughter, Tilda, a wonderful sometimes companion, sometimes foil. It’s the type of relationship that does not exist between Sunny…

I often think about the initial impetus creators had when conceiving a television show. Matthew Weiner wanted to tell the story of how a man could have everything and still be unhappy. David Simon wanted to show the Baltimore he had seen from his reporter days — bleak and full of corruption on both sides of the law.…

Joss Whedon started out his big-screen finale, Serenity, of his small-screen show Firefly with a long, continuous, point-of-view take snaking through the titular ship in order to give the viewer a sense of space, an awareness of the physical area the characters occupied. “Fist Like A Bullet” accomplishes the same…

Superheroes are the new samurai, so it makes sense that the co-creators of Smallville have teamed up again to create Into the Badlands, a post-apocalyptic samurai drama. Badlands takes the cape and cowl tropes found in Daredevil, Arrow, Flash, and, well, Smallville, and places them in a feudal steampunk future-past,…

The League is unapologetically anarchic, a ribald exploration of male-centered friendships. In its seventh and final season, the show maintains that rebellious spirit, which feels surprisingly refreshing even after 70-plus episodes. The League continues to show off the considerable talents of its core cast to…

As sports stories go, Nick Piantanida’s is a boring one. He attempted a feat, three times, and failed. Nick Piantanida as a man, however, is more interesting, but not enough to save Angry Sky from a lack of depth. An extreme parachutist before that was even a thing, Piantanida attempted to break the free fall record…

Despite (or perhaps because of) its prolific output, Comedy Bang! Bang! has not changed much during its four-season existence. For all 70 episodes so far aired, Reggie Watts created all of Bang! Bang!’s music—disjointed jams perfectly matched to the off-kilter nature of the show. But beyond just music, Reggie was a…

It is amazing how much plot Adventure Time can fit into eleven minutes, and “You Forgot Your Floaties” is irrefutable proof of that. This is an episode about madness, sadness, and magic, the three components that make Adventure Time such a wonderful, weird little show.

“Thomas Middleditch Wears an Enigmatic Sweatshirt and Sweatpants with Pockets” is a funny episode of sketch comedy. There’s no doubt there. Thomas Middleditch, the breakout star of Silicon Valley, brings his awkward charm to the blue couch in the same week David Letterman, a clear influence on Aukerman, put in his…

Whatever nascent budget IFC gives Comedy Bang! Bang!, Aukerman and company decided to spend it all on this one episode. Spaceships fly and things go boom in both a sendup of science fiction movies and nighttime talk shows, “Colin Hanks Wears a Denim Button Down and Black Sneakers” is as whacky and brilliant as the…

When Modern Family first came on the scene in 2009, it was lauded for the progressiveness of its characters’ multicultural living situations. In its sixth season, it has largely eschewed trying to say something profound about American society, and has stuck to its pun-filled multi-storyline formula. Which, for the…

Sketch comedy, like fruit, is a gamble. You know that going in. When it works, it transcends the script, lights, cameras—a small piece of magic unfolds. It feels alchemical and fleeting, which is what makes it so powerful and exciting. When sketch comedy does not work, however, the artifice is obvious and glaring. So…

The Bible, the book, is not boring. Inspiration for countless works of both religious and secular bents, its themes of betrayal, faith, and redemption are now requisite in Western storytelling. The Bible, History’s 2013 miniseries, however, was not as fascinating. It suffered from staid acting and lame special…

Modern Family has no business being as good as it is. Sitcoms are expected to go stale, retread old jokes, jump the shark, and then die an overdue death. As Gwen has pointed out, Modern Family is on a tear of superb episodes lately, starting with the anti-Luddite ode, “Connection Lost.” What makes this family…

In Podmass, The A.V. Club sifts through the ever-expanding world of podcasts and recommends 10–15 of the previous week’s best episodes. Have your own favorite? Let us know in the comments or at podmass@avclub.com.

Comedy Bang! Bang! is unique in both its origin (the podcast that beget a network that beget a television show) and its execution. Aukerman and gang are just as happy with a roulette of random sketches as they are with a heavily-themed episode. In “Dax Shepard Wears A Heather Grey Shirt And Black Blazer,” Bang! Bang! …

“All is fair in love and war,” someone famous said. Host Scott Ackerman and melodic sidekick Reggie Watts put that adage to the test in “Mark Duplass Wears A Striped Sweater And Jeans,” the Valentine’s-themed episode of Comedy Bang! Bang! .

Al Madrigal is half Latino, half white. Al Madrigal gets heat from whites for being too Latino and Latinos for being too white. Al Madrigal is called a “pocho,” a derogatory term for Americanized Mexicans. Al Madrigal cannot pronounce his own name in Spanish.