Mad Men was aggressively mediocre pablum that convinced people it was better than it was because it had a big budget, and it could never bring itself to condemn the hideously vapid nature of the Ad Man the way 12 Angry Men did.

So help me god, I will infiltrate AV Club HQ like John McClane and destroy their servers, delaying the switch to Kinja by an hour just so I can explain how wrong this opinion is

It would be hilarious if Disqus' final fuckup was that, for once, it didn't shut down

You fools! Last words are for men who haven't posted enough!

Welp. Been reading this place for way too long and probably still will in the future but the commenting community changing is gonna be a real bummer

My theory with wrestling is if you weren't into it by the age of 12 you can't understand it. Mentally I kinda see the appeal, but I just can't get into it like my friends who grew up with it can.

I've never really understood that criticism– Quantum's plot isn't as "earth hangs in the balance" as a lot of other bonds, but it's genuinely menacing and is paced well. Somebody buying up an entire country's water supply isn't threatening enough for you?

Can't blame him, if the rumors are true Sony basically gave him a blank check. Here's hoping the writers take inspiration from Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace instead of the dull plodding melodramas that were Skyfall and Spectre.

I've had this fight before but goddamnit I'll have it again: Quantum of Solace is a great Bond movie and just a tiny bit below Casino Royale in the Craig Bond rankings. Think of them them as a single interconnected film and it's a great movie, period.

I'm getting the sense I liked this a lot more than most people did, maybe because I binge-watched it all in an evening. I'm a sucker for noir stories but even beyond that I think this was one of the strongest seasons– Archer/Carol/Pam/Krieger were all at their best in years and the genuine melancholy and…

Pulp Fiction is the most Tarantino film and the one I'd show somebody if they'd never seen any of his stuff before. It's incredible and deserves all the praise it's ever gotten but the difference for me is Jackie Brown doesn't have any of the minor flaws that come with QT getting full rein to do his own thing.

Hanson's screenplay is incredible in how it pares a massive sprawling novel down to 138 minutes while keeping five (!!) well-developed central characters. I'll always be a little bummed they didn't cast somebody more physically imposing as Dudley Smith, though– Cromwell is great but he didn't really have the sense of…

Wall Street and Wolf of Wall Street have both gotta be up there too, since every stockbroker and investment banker apparently took them as instruction manuals instead of cautionary tales about American society

Lukewarm take: Jackie Brown is the best thing Tarantino's ever done. I've got my issues with him, but that's an absolutely fantastic movie and I'll always love him for giving Pam Grier the starring role she always deserved.

Just once I'd like science to tell us that a dinosaur was larger, faster, and more terrifying than we thought as kids.

Eh, I think of the alt-lit movement as a mostly separate thing– there's a little bit of overlap between Tao Lin and the highbrow zany pomo stuff Doobie was describing, but they're very different in tone and approach.

Yeah, I've heard the term "hysterical realism" used to describe a lot of that specific kind of pomo lit. I love DFW but god knows it can be ugly when other people try to ape that style

Goddamn, this reads as a lot harsher than a C-; I'm guessing the grade is just a concession that something was probably lost in translation. This review makes the book sound like the dregs of an undergraduate creative seminar.

Also do you think the writer ever considered that the fact he takes his kid out to eat 2-3 times a week makes him less qualified to write this piece and not more? Families are a lot less likely to be ok spending money on a meal their kid doesn't like if they only eat out once a month.

This is all just kinda unnecessary– like yeah of course there's something to be said for exposing your kids to new foods, but who's harmed by giving them a plate of stuff you know they like and letting them sample the adults' foods? Kids are finicky, eating out's expensive, and if a cheap plate of chicken fingers is…