I think the implication is that they don't watch, they just get the couple semi-nude to embarrass them, and then leave them in the bedroom and shut the door. It's loosely based on a real tradition whose ostensible purpose was in fact to get everyone to agree that it's highly likely the marriage got consummated that…

I wish I knew how to make screen captures from my DVR, because NBC did a hilariously awful thing with their during-the-show promotional graphics. About 22 minutes into the episode, this is what I saw:

I think you're pouring double or triple shots, because most of the things on your list have only happened twice. Take a break for a while and watch a show where nothing is ever repeated at all.

What's all this shit about Meera's hair and eyebrows? Why is it a bad thing for her to have hair and eyebrows like that? Seriously, y'all have lost me… I don't even understand this as snark.

Crawford doesn't seem to have any idea that Miriam went to see Lecter, and it's possible that he'll never know. In Silence of the Lambs it's established that Lecter has victims they weren't aware of. Either way, when he sent Clarice to interview Lecter it was in a secure environment.

I was kind of surprised a couple weeks ago when people were talking about Margaery's orphanage visit, and everyone seemed absolutely sure that her charity work was 100% bogus and done just to make her look good, and that she was "inventing the idea of public relations" or some such thing. On the contrary, she seems to…

@avclub-92c9b96871c64bbb5fc1913d3aec11b5:disqus Well, sociopath doesn't mean inhuman/emotionless, it just means having no conscience at all. They're both that way. But like you said, Ramsay is really passionate about fucking up everything and everyone, whereas Roose doesn't seem to really enjoy anything or have any…

@avclub-b11d5d8f18d1298d694929dcbfea8bde:disqus I don't know what you think "reactionary" means (hint: it doesn't mean overreacting), but I should have been clearer on one thing: I didn't mean people should never make any judgments about fictional characters. Of course Walter White is an asshole! Of course Marnie is a…

Ray has been written as someone who, despite being a super-opinionated asshole, is incredibly easily influenced by whoever happens to be talking to him. He can't not go with Adam to Staten Island; he can't stop trying to reason with the random Staten Island girl and taking her insane insults personally. He prepares a…

"Belong together" and "perfect for each other in that moment" aren't the same thing. The show has made it really clear that Hannah and Adam can be all kinds of bad for each other— there's no way Dunham could have written what she wrote before if she didn't understand that. Adam wouldn't have run across town for her at…

I love how awkward the parents' self-assertion is. They know they need to push back against her shit, but they're clearly not really sure how to do that kind of speech, so they end up sounding almost childish sometimes, and swinging back and forth between too timid and too harsh. Much more believable than 99% of…

I worked for a few years in a walk-in clinic, and one of the things we ended up doing surprisingly often was cleaning ears (though indeed you won't get an ER doc to do that). If it's really impacted, you just put a towel under the person's head and slowly squirt regular water into the ear with a squeeze-bulb syringe,…

@avclub-39df51c015ce671b473b8cf5a306d217:disqus I guess I see how someone could see Marnie as "awful", but I just can't because the character is way too real to me. I lived for many years with my high-school sweetheart when we were both clueless young things new to the big city, and she was like Marnie to an uncanny…

I would've loved the episode even if it didn't have any of that stuff, just because every time someone in a movie or TV show claims to have a magic computer program that defeats any and all security systems, I always want someone else to say "Bullshit, computers don't work that way."

I would've loved the episode even if it didn't have any of that stuff, just because every time someone in a movie or TV show claims to have a magic computer program that defeats any and all security systems, I always want someone else to say "Bullshit, computers don't work that way."

I'm wandering into this dark, dusty, month-old comment room just to say that as brilliant as Joe Gilgun was in this episode, the probation worker's "potato" bit was what really slew me.

I'm wandering into this dark, dusty, month-old comment room just to say that as brilliant as Joe Gilgun was in this episode, the probation worker's "potato" bit was what really slew me.

He did a great job of showing Chalky simultaneously a little satisfied to see Nucky finally have to admit to being in need, but also scared by the idea that this could happen to the guy who's always been on top of things. It made me think of how Maurice Sendak was terrified as a kid by hearing about the Lindbergh…

He did a great job of showing Chalky simultaneously a little satisfied to see Nucky finally have to admit to being in need, but also scared by the idea that this could happen to the guy who's always been on top of things. It made me think of how Maurice Sendak was terrified as a kid by hearing about the Lindbergh…

Well, it kind of went through and kind of didn't. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in 2004 naming it the Emperor Norton Bridge - but only the new segment, between Treasure Island and Oakland. There was no corresponding vote in Oakland, and Caltrans didn't take action on it.