I don't think it was masturbatory—Breaking Bad is relevant to our modern-day reaction to this episode, given who was behind it and all. It is interesting, though, how many of these Season 9 episodes have gained an extra layer of relevance to contemporary audiences in the years since they aired—more so than other…

I'm a little surprised at the high "John Doe" grade. I don't hate it, but I guess I didn't care that much about it, either, which can be said of most of Season 9, actually. When I think back on the X-Files eps that I consider to be the worst, I don't think of too many S9 ones, despite the fact that the season as a…

Yeah, really loving the more aggressive instrumentals here. Maybe even better than the Fade Cave EP, which is my favorite of theirs behind The Mistress.

Naked Lunch, eh? I can think of at least two things wrong with that title.

"…because of the swearing and sexy bits…"

Betty in her nightgown, cigarette hanging out of her mouth, shooting pigeons… gotta be one of the best Mad Men closing images ever—which is really saying something, considering this show's wonderful ability in framing final shots.

His observational humor ain't bad either.

True, but lots of shows continued to do great MotW eps post-Sopranos (Buffy, for one, and even The X-Files itself—S7 and S8 both aired after that show's first season). And as for the 9/11 connections, isn't that just to explain the TV audience's sudden disinterest in the show? Or would it be true to say that the…

Ah, yes, Season 9. Any theories out there as to why the show's quality drops so precipitously after Season 8? I get that S9 didn't have the "Search for Mulder" to galvanize the mythology like S8 did, but that doesn't really explain why the MotW eps got so bad so quickly. I guess the main difference is that Scully is…

I guess that's true from a strictly numerical standpoint—6.9 is about 5.0 (aka "average"). But the tone of any review below a 7 on Pitchfork tends to be kind of negative.

Pitchfork gets more and more fascinating the farther back you go in its archives. Late-90s Pitchfork especially is confoundingly different from what it became in the following decade. Get this: Oasis's Be Here Now gets a 7.9 (higher than Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, in fact), and Snow Patrol's Songs…

One of my favorite Onion pieces, like, ever. It's perfect.

I know, right? Kinda like how Pitchfork gave it a 6.9 when it came out and then put it at like #70 on their Best Albums of the Decade list.

"Most of the people who know 'Seven Nation Army' will never know how well it leads into 'Black Math'"

I disagree that the William plot was a good idea. The whole super-baby thing feels increasingly like empty, wheel-spinning lip service to the mythology as the season progresses. To me anyway.

Season 6 has a wealth of those moments. Also in Season 6: Ken gets shot in the face.

Okay, so this is necessarily going to involve spoilers for those who haven't seen the whole series, but…

Holy crap, that picture of those CYA book covers hit me with the most titanic wave of nostalgia I've had in a while. I was, of course, that lame kid who bookmarked every choice and systematically worked through every ending by process of elimination.

Maybe you could set up the building, but there's also a ton of bureaucratic stuff you have to work through. Not to mention the fundraising.

To me, My So-Called Life is a high school show for high schoolers, whereas Freaks and Geeks feels more like a high school show for adults—which is not to say that MSCL is less mature or any less great (although I do prefer Freaks and Geeks), but it works from a fundamentally different point of view than Freaks and…