I love SMG and I love Fight Club but not sure she’d be a good swap-in for Meatloaf. 

I appreciated that this episode gave us a quick review (through two people’s eyes) of the time that elapsed between the infection flare up and present day. The pilot necessarily fast forwarded through that, so it was nice to get that retroactive world building.

I think those other two shows have the trick of revamping much of the cast season to season, thereby controlling actor salaries. Fixed casts tend to be very costly past the first couple of seasons. 

Gilmore Girls (on Netflix) beat every original show on streaming except Ozark and Stranger Things. And The Office (formerly on Netflix and now hidden away on Peacock) doesn’t even register. Shows matter, but platform and episode counts matter more. I wonder if streamers will ever think to invest in old fashioned…

I mean, here’s the boys playing the French version of beer pong.

The most logical choice of course was for Madonna to play herself under various degrees of deaging CGI. And Nathan Fielder could have directed. Someone please just greenlight this. 

I went in to Banshees with very modest expectations and no idea what it was about. Man, that was a great movie. 

I love small films (The Spectacular Now, Before Sunrise, etc.) but am always troubled when the first thing someone says about it is how great the acting is (or how “authentic” it is). Think of your favorite films. What do you say to people — hey, the acting is great, or hey, this movie rocks? Acting/authenticity…

The best part of the series was merely watching Woliner’s face during all his conversations with Paul. Paul would say something nuts or completely tone-deaf and Woliner would just mutter, “OK.” But, really, what made this work was Woliner’s obvious empathy with Paul. There are so many moments that pivot from a mocking…

He’s the OG of the Chrises 

One of my favorite genres is the alternate timeline. Instead of playing the what-if game, these shows simply steer history into new places (Good Fight played this game well in the last 3-4 seasons). It gives all of the speculative elements a much more lived-in feeling than something like empty sleekness of Westworld.

Legit did not know the original Freddie (at least from the last portion of the show) was John Mathis from Mad Men. 

Right now there must be a bunch of entertainment lawyers inserting “scrapping” penalties into their clients’ contracts to avoid these situations in the future or at least ensure there is some sort of financial benefit for creators/actors when they commit months/years to something that is never seen. (Yes, while…

And of course she was dubbed. 

Z’s bet is that making WBD an attractive acquisition target is more important to shareholders than preserving the creative legacies of the component companies (HBO was always a true artist’s network -- not so much now). I think he’s right. Regulators ought to be taking note that consolidation isn’t lowering service…

Sorry, all, it’s time for a chav Bond.

Starting to think that someone named Mr. Sillykittenz coming to AV Club to post only on this story might have a warped point of view.

I know the genre often screams for sequels, but perhaps these combined talents could blaze a trail for generating originals that refuse to do encores (talk about a way to stand out from the rest). I loved Freaky, Invisible Man and Vengeance, but these speak for themselves. They told complete arcs. (One exception:…

I’m fascinated by the chasm between the shows/movies that get tons of digital ink and social media nods versus what’s actually most popular. Yellowstone, The Gray Man, FBI, etc. — all garner massive audiences and little chatter. It seems to prove that online buzz is far from necessary to drive big results. Maybe that…

100% Greendale will lose its accreditation, Trump University style, right?