Hmmmm. fine line on some of these between "hard to explain" and "guilty pleasure." I'll give it a whack though.

"Friday Night Lights" is one of the few representations in pop culture of how many people in America lead lower-middle-class lives just one step or two away from being flat-out poor. But they keep voting against their economic issues because the Republicans have taken over the gun issue, the social issues (abortion,…

Because Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton give two of the best performances ever seen on television is reason enough. (God, Britton in "The Son," slowly ripping into the funeral director who was trying to hustle poor Matt into buying a fancy coffin for his dad? Amazing.)

Kim Gordon (KIM GORDON!!) had a fantastic monologue about Karen on the VH1100 Women of Rock special—she's apparently a huge fan.

Oh, yes. I only saw that once in college, and to this day I remember Marie Falconetti's expressive face, and the staggering range of emotions she conveyed. (Shockingly, Salma Hayek seemed to be channeling her in this summer's "Beatriz at Dinner."

What's really funny/sad is we watched that for almost a YEAR before my partner turned to me one night and said, "Why are they calling her Jeri? Isn't her name Candy?" Dear. sweet man was totally serious.

That would probably explain it. I've never seen Macdowell so relaxed and charming on-camera.

Track down the thread from a couple years ago ("The wonderful, terrible Gone With the Wind")—I have a very lengthy piece there exploring Scarlett as anti-heroine. Notice how we don't ask make male protagonist antiheroes such as Tony Soprano, Walter White, Don Draper et all to be sympathetic, nice, etc, but Scarlett…

When I've shown bit of GWTW in history classes, I always make sure to emphasize that it's the South's aggrieved version of events (including Scarlett walking into the street with thousands of dying Rebels and the torn Stars and Bars waving pathetically above them). It gives insight into why these people refuse to let…

He also got a sensational performance out of Andie Macdowell in "sex, lies and videotape"—pick up his script with his notes about casting it and filming it, it's filled with little insightful gems. (Macdowell improvised a few key moments, including snapping "Missy Thing" at Laura San Giacomo.) I don't think Soderbergh…

And Matthew McConaghey gives a performance as good if not better than "Dallas Buyer's Club"—he oozes joyful sleaze.

"The King's Stilts" was probably my favorite Seuss book as a kid—not only is it not rhyming, it goes to some surprisingly dark places. Check it out.

I worked at B Dalton once upon a time—the True Crime aisle was what we kept an eye on the most, especially if we ever heard a zipper.

What makes me BATS are the "Harry Potter" people who will go on and ON about the books, and the details from the books, and how JK Rowling is a genius (well, I concur she's a pretty righteous lady). Then I ask them if they ever read the Oz books, C.S. Lewis, Lloyd Alexander, "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle," Madeline L'Engle,…

I'm a hardcore fan of both Bryan Adams and Barbra Streisand, and will defend "The Mirror Has Two Faces" as a fluffy romantic comedy-drama about lookism, beauty standards, etc. (It's not great but it's not something that needs staking, as some critics claimed.) However, the closing duet "I Finally Found Someone" oozes…

Oh, it's so good! There's wonderful stuff in it about men and women In marriage (Louis the Swan's parents' bantering relationship); it's also a beautiful metaphor of a father's love for his "handicapped" son, and what he'll do to help him despite the costs. There's also the human-animal friendship from "Charlotte's…

"Hop pop, we like to hop. We like to hop on top of Pop." "STOP!! You must not hop on Pop." :) It's also fun to insert a bit of RuPaul weariness into "Long, song, a long long song….goodbye, Thing. You sing TOO long."

I'll be a heretic and say "The Trumpet Of the Swan" has an ending just a little more logical and satisfying than "Stuart Little" and less emotionally devastating (but exquisitely moving) than "Charlotte's Web." Think I need to read that one again.

Probably true. Still: "Ooohhhh, YANNI!"

Exactly. (Maybe the original post was meant ironically.)