Plot is just one aspect out of many when looking at a film. The fact that Linklater is taking a familiar story but uses form and technique to make us look at that story in a new way is a great achievement in itself and worthy of praise.

I think The King's Speech gets maligned as Oscar bait far too much. When you look at it on paper it definitely sounds like a movie engineered in a lab to appeal to the Academy, but it's too well made for you to notice that when you actually watch it. Plus, when you consider how much of a passion project it was for…

You certainly don't have to be a critic to be offended by that character though. The critic in Birdman is a cartoonishly evil character who gets thrown into the film as a cheap plot shortcut to heighten the stakes. The most offensive thing about her is the lazy writing.

I personally thought Wilkinson was miscast as LBJ. I don't care all that much about the physical differences (Oyelowo doesn't look all that much like Martin Luther King but I thought his performance was great) it's just that Wilkinson can't really pull off the bombast and Texas bluster necessary for that character. I…

Can you really blame Choo-Choo for his latest screw-up though? He was probably just under the valid impression that nobody on TV ever gets killed by a single punch to the face. How was he supposed to know that this was the one time Justified was going to feature violence with actual realistic consequences?

Few things would make me happier than for Markham's marijuana legalization gambit to go through, only for Loretta to be the one who reaps all the profits.

It's probably her most intimidating role since Elf.

I'm hoping for a Lincoln-Douglas debate with Boyd around episode 10 or so.

A lot of what you call "butthurt feminist tripe" is better referred to as "legitimate reactions to sexism" but hey, we all have our own terminology for things.

I really don't think seniority is going to be the most important factor, if it's even a factor at all. John Oliver wasn't the most senior correspondent when he took over the show for a summer.

I love how Dillahunt is one of Hollywood's go-to character actors for southerners and country folk, and here he is nailing it as the consummate city slicker.

Entirely true. Also of the two who played the character, he is the far superior Judge Dredd.

I think Karl Urban has compiled enough great genre performances over the last decade to be considered more than just a "pretty boy"

I'm betting Diane will show up at some point in the season, but probably only one episode for cost-saving reasons, and that one episode is probably going to be Donna's wedding.

I like Mallory Ortberg's version of the song better https://twitter.com/malleli…

I don't get the hate for Leslie Jones at all. Other than the Bennett/Mooney combo she's the only featured player over the past two years who has been reliably able to make me laugh. Her first episode was rough but she hasn't had any real technical issues since then.

Jost could seriously make a decent post-SNL career out of being the poor man's Bill Pullman in romantic comedies.

At this point I think Jost's best use is sitting around so the rest of the cast can make jokes about him being handsome. Pete Davidson's line about Jost being a straight 8 but a gay 10 might have been my favorite of the night.

I think interplay with guests is generally the most difficult thing to get a handle on with late night shows, and it can take some time for the host to get a handle on it. As brilliant as Colbert's show was from the get-go, I think a lot of his early interviews served mostly as just new venues to display his satirical…

Beyond the scenes shot in Plainfield and Wisconsin Rapids there were other scenes shot in Dane County.