I love how totally untrendy Spoon is. It's not that they're stagnant or out of touch with the rest of indie pop/rock or anything; they just always manage to develop their sound in a way that feels completely their own and not beholden to any of-the-moment signifiers of hip. And it always kicks butt. Love this album.

The later Parks and Rec seasons get a bad rap, but honestly, I don't know that they entirely deserve it. True, they aren't as quite sharp as seasons 2 and 3 (and, I'd argue, 4—that season's amazing, y'all), but they're still very funny and stay true to the heart of the show. At the very least, they both have…

That'll do, pig. That'll do.

Ha, I would never have called Toy Story 3 a feel good movie. Like, I love it, but I mean, goodbye childhood, hello mortality. But I'm sincerely glad it gives you joy.

Parks and Recreation and anything by Marilynne Robinson. Either one makes me feel so much better any time I pick it up.

Getting a some Philip Glass vibes from this. Good stuff.

I love how a similar thing happened with Friday Night Lights, only the other way around. The strike put what is definitely the show's weakest season (2) out of its misery, allowing the writers to jettison all the bad storylines and, yes, focus on the essentials.

Agreed, and the back third of the season is maybe the best consecutive streak of episodes in Lost's run, give or take S4.

I like and dislike things about every season, so it's a tough task, but:
1, 4, 3, 2, 6, 5

Complete with wholesome hidden messages.

Bloom County or any of Berkeley Breathed's work (but especially Bloom Country) would make for an awesome movie, I think. Especially if it were animated—what's up with all these suggestions for live-action adaptations of comics? Those are just strange.

YES! That's the one!

I've never seen the movie, but does anyone else remember the Scott Adams text adventure game based on it? I never could figure out most of the puzzles, and now that I'm thinking about it, the fact that I didn't watch the movie might have had something to do with that.

For me, Easy A is only of those movies that comes so frustratingly close to being very good that I'd almost rather watch a thoroughly mediocre movie. The good parts (Emma Stone, primarily) are so good that it makes the bad parts (some of the broader humor, the…

Man, I miss The X-Files.

Well, for what it's worth, NBC gave both Parks & Recreation and 30 Rock more than enough time to generate a bigger audience, and neither ever grew beyond merely being a cult favorite. Granted, this is mid-to-late-2000s NBC we're talking about, so there's that.

The Martian is so much fun. It's like a Michael Crichton book without the cautionary overtones and if all the characters were genuinely good, pleasant people instead of assholes.

Yeah, someone earlier in the thread reminded me of that, too. Ha, it's been such a long time since I read any of these books, and my comment shows it.

Holy shit, just reading those titles and plot synopses is putting me on such an intense trip down memory lane. I can totally picture the cover art for each one.

Same here regarding the stupid kid me. I remember thinking that the Luke-Callista arc was cool, too, but when Sonia mentioned that plot in the article, I started thinking about the specifics of the story and realized it was actually pretty damn dumb. I guess I'd have to reread the books to be sure, though. For as many…