Is saying you're a feminist (which Joss has said) different than just being an ally?

And just that shows that he may be better at shepherding the writing team around him. (though you rank season 5 of Angel much higher than I would)

I admit, I first started to get uncomfortable with some of his writing in the way he tosses off gay male characters—but that's a personal thing. In many ways I think his best work is similar to Ryan Murphy (even if I think he IS much more talented than Murphy)—he surrounds himself with great writers who can riff on…

Teenagers sleeping with someone who bullies them—particularly when it comes to closeted/confused sexuality—is not exactly an unheard of thing at that age. It doesn't make someone a full on psycho (do I sound overly defensive? :p )

Of course King is his own worst enemy. His screenplays largely aren't good, and wasn't he the showrunner (or at least heavily involved) in Under the Dome's second season? Not to mention Kingdom Hospital (which, granted, was a lot better than Under the Dome…)

Exactly. Also the comment that some guys who act the most "woke" turn out to genuinely be the most messed up, or dangerous, is fair enough and perhaps interesting, but this character seemed to be pretty clearly presented as gay, not just a "woke" straight or bi male. Of course the writing is so bad that I could be…

(Doesn't Anne film in… well, Prince Edward Island, where it's set? Granted I barely watched the new one, but Halifax would be a weird choice to film on location instead)

He seemed to want out, but HBO had the rights to have more. The impression made was he thought it would just be a few seasons ;that said, he remained with an EP credit and was all smiles with Buchner on the wrap up special from what I remember). And completely agree with you about Harris.

Well and Bruce Buckner who took over as showrunner after season 5 when Ball wanted to end it… And yes, it became much, much, worse.

What was fun about True Blood really wore out its welcome—maybe I was just naive, but I remember being surprised at how much I enjoyed the pilot when it leaked. It really should have ended when Alan Ball left as showrunner at the end of season 5 (ok, it probably should have ended earlier) but…

To be fair to Ball, the show was usually at least watchable when he was showrunner for the first 5 seasons—when he left and Bruce Buckner (?) took over for the final two, I actually started to appreciate some of Ball's truly worst stuff. It became incoherent.

As a big ballet fan Flesh and Bone really disappointed me, but I admit I was mesmerized by the sheer over the top camp of it (and, yes, some good dancing). Incestuous, stalking, gay-bashing brother! Idiot-savant saviour homeless guy (or is he a creepy stalker as well)! Strip clubs! Russian mafia ballerina…

Ugh, I forgot about that… WHat has stuck with me about what I didn't like about Togetherness were the "cute" scenes of the "friends" all doing something as a group that always struck me as extremely phony (especially compared to some well handled dramatic scenes).

What, exactly, did you like about it?

What film was that?

I get this, especially with, as you say, shows like Netflix's that get dumped at once. But some decisions baffle me a little. I was not enamoured with 13Reasons Why, but given avclub' love of all things YA it seemed odd that they never picked it up for individual reviews—but it also seemed that they didn't think it…

Wow I thought The Duchess was one of those theatres that is considered kinda like Off Broadway (with the West End being commercial Broadway's equivalent). I stand corrected. Also didn't realize it had a week run. I'll have to track down videos lol

A great cast—how did this get made? It doesn't even have an idea of what kind of tone the show is going for, verging from a wannabe 30 min relationship "dramedy" to almost Kimmy Schmidt craziness but with a lot more mean spiritedness.

Ever since AVClub cut back on their tv choices a year or so ago, the shows they have chosen to review every episode of have increasingly been more and more baffling—as have been the ones they have largely ignored.

Walsh was Desiree? How did I miss this?!