One thing I notice about this episode is that the animation seems a lot ropier than the rest of the season. Am I imagining that, or was there a reason?

"Assault weapons have gotten a lot of bad press lately…"

Sure, there have been a handful of instances where he's gone down the rabbit-hole, but I think even the show's biggest fans would probably concede it's a theme most frequently communicated through dialogue. As in third parties outright stating it.

There's no Black Widow movie because she doesn't have a superpower or USP. I like her in the films but what do you really do with her when all the spy stuff of the MCU is effectively covered by Captain America?

Will's an odd one. They've definitely been guilty of 'telling, not
showing' how he's Hannibal's soul-mate; in fact they usually say it at
least once an episode.

Not to be a stick in mud, because I did really like the Red Dragon stuff, but watching this episode I was suddenly reminded of how little I missed 'the old gang.' The show's dark comedic nature feels like it's evolved way beyond those campy pathologists.

I don't get the reference.

As an Alan Partridge fanatic I'm secretly rather happyish about that.

An English roast is pretty agreeable, but you can only really have it once a week. London's like NYC - if you can think of a dish, there'll be a restaurant that serves it, so whenever I visit the city all the jokes about English food seem a little redundant I guess..

The 'English cuisine sucks' stereotype has always intrigued me, given the world's perception of American food is essentially McDonald's. How did we in the US get off so easy?

Really? On other sites 'Eh, it was ok' is the firm consensus. This seems to have played through with the film's box office too. AV Clubbers have always been a lot kinder to Marvel movies than most.

If we can't play armchair psychologists what the hell's the point in this site?

Hmm. I love both shows, but to say he's reaching with some of those comparisons would be putting it mildly. I guess they both feature Alison Brie…

I think you're inferring from a single comment that a lot more of my life is spent being angry at the Marvel media machine than it really is (hate-reading has never been on my mind), but you're right: life is short.

But if you take that rationale to its logical conclusion isn't all cultural criticism basically moot?

Oy, not the old 'you're not forced to consume this content' argument. A lack of intense interest in the subject at hand shouldn't preclude casual observation. This site counts on it.

Yes it did, didn't it? And I recall that being a bit annoying and OTT too.

Winter Soldier's my favorite, which perhaps isn't saying much but it knows what it wants to be and does it very well. Loses points for the seemingly inescapable third act mayhem which plagues superhero movies, but nothing's perfect.

I feel like they wasted Captain America in the MCU. There was a fun fish-out-of-water movie to be made before the events of Winter Soldier (which turned out to be one of the better entries, admittedly). He adjusted completely to modern life offscreen, because Avengers.

The disproportionate amount of media attention these franchises get often feels like a kind of gun being shoved against my head.