Damnit, now I'm pissed all over again about the cliffhanger they let Sarah Connor Chronicles go out on. 12 Monkeys itself just reminds me that Terry Gilliam is and was an audience-trolling, well, troll.

Oops, sorry, it was open-wall to me, and I certainly don't do anything that normally would get me past a paywall on a simple google-result.

The problem is that by making the agency be the CIA, you commit your production to an endless parade of hyperexpensive overseas location shoots, or endlessly redressing a stand-in domestic location in overseas drag. Either you break the bank, or you look like toasted ass. See: Alias and Covert Affairs.

I mostly agree. To be honest, Arrow is usually excessively saturated in bathos, and it's my least-favorite current show. But tonight they earned their angst almost across the board. I'd be fine with Oliver staying in flashbacks for another five-six episodes, really.

Ah, I see. You're talking about a character from Community. Not a sitcom person, I thought you meant the filter, and was picturing something… I don't know, depraved?

Some kid with a weird accent? I assumed he was the first fruit of the second-generation program

There's a fun Britta way to be the worst? Please explain.

Depends on who's writing. They live in different universes. For all of the MCU's no-capes de-comic-book-ification, it's still a universe with superheroes and bright primary color conflicts. The Americans is a budget-prestige spy drama where people die quick and ugly, or slow and stupid, but always in grainy period…

Supposedly so - called the "Sparrow School" in Kazan.

To be honest, invading Afghanistan is easy and unchallenging - the default state of the various Afghan tribes is Hobbesean and chaotic, organized armies go through 'em like knives through butter. It's *occupying* Afghanistan that is the killer. Just ask the ghost of Elphinstone. After a while, people who were your…

This show is just screaming for "Life During Wartime". Except that however appropriate the lyrics, the music itself totally wouldn't fit the show's tone. Nevermind.

Troy McClure, apparently.

Which might explain his assets' high body count. Although Elizabeth discovered this episode why picking 'em smart and conflicted isn't especially safe.

There's very little cultural memory of this EST business left, as far as I can tell. People like Tony Robbins moved into the same ecological niche that EST used to inhabit, and it's just turned into this less monolithic woo-woo business - I guess you could call it the inspirational speaking circuit. Cruise in…

No, his brother is probably in Afghanistan because that's where ambitious military (or militant-arm KGB) Soviets were going at the time. It was the biggest show on earth as far as they were concerned, unless they wanted to do Angola.

Scientology existed in this period, but it was somewhat besieged after a decade of Hubbard being either in hiding or on the run. It got its shit together after Hubbard died and the institution-builders that took the reins pulled the Church out of its outlaw phase into the more staid, if still predatory demi-cult we…

Gaad has limited plot-armor. I was impressed with the fight blocking - they didn't have Russell do anything too improbable for a slight woman dealing with two prepared agents, but it looked vicious and desperate.

Oh, welcome back, the Americans! Brisk and bracing, like a cliche of cold, cool things. I'm thinking "mountain lake in June", maybe. I missed those chilly, unyielding black-wipe scene breaks.

Well hell, Huell wasn't stupid, he just didn't give a damn. Maybe not top-drawer brain-trust material, but generally average. Choo-Choo clearly can't keep a thought in his head long enough to remain oriented and on-task.

I think giving the bad guy a ride to his lair without him realizing he led the fuzz to his hideout qualifies as "short-busing". That was the goddamn car Choo-choo had been following. How did he *not* connect it with his original assignment?