...it pretty much has to be some kind of meta-deconstruction of what Barbie means in this modern world.

Oh, I loved it, and from a pedagogical standpoint, it’s a gold mine. From the second-person narration of “Out of Body” to the epistolary-novel-meets-Power-Point ”Great Rock ‘n Roll Pauses,” it was a lot of fun just discussing its varied experimentation.

I’ve been teaching my regular Contemporary Lit course this summer, so I’ve been re-reading a lot of stuff from the past thirty years or so (the purview of the class). George Saunders came to town earlier this year, and I used the little bit of hype that I was able to generate from that to convince my students to read…

This is a great one. I also love it when she walks into the back of the Scoops Ahoy and sees how Steve and Dustin have erased her “Rules/Sucks” counts for Steve hitting on girls so that they could write out the Cyrillic alphabet, and she seems genuinely indignant: “That was important data, shitbirds!” I imagine her…

As much as I was shipping the two of them by then, this scene was so perfect that I didn’t care that they’ll be friends rather than dating. Their shared coda at the video store was promising as hell, too. I hope for a lot of scenes of the two of them (and Dustin and whomever) together next season.

Yeah, I said that they “got my hopes up for *the* Breaking Bad movie,” as in the one that is in production. I thought it might be news about it... like that Walt is going to be in it somehow or whatever.

Jeff Bridges teased bringing back the Dude only to hawk beer. Cranston/Paul got my hopes up for the Breaking Bad movie only for it to be another alcohol sales pitch. Yet I remain cautiously optimistic about this. Actually, my enthusiasm and my cynicism seem to be in almost perfect equilibrium:

Good pick. I know the first sequel isn’t as good (or as scary), but the old cult leader Henry Kane singing “God is in his holy temple” as he casually strolls up to the family’s house—in broad daylight—was also creepy as hell when I was a kid. By the time he’s at the door asking about Carol Ann and demanding to be let…

Yes, because that’s the takeaway from my little anecdote. Ironically, it seems like I’ve triggered your snark reflex by disliking something that you liked. Apologies. 

Yeah I was part of a group who got dragged to it by someone who had drank the marketing Kool-Aid. When everyone else tried to convince him afterwards that it was obviously fake he finally relented by saying, "Well that ending was still scary, wasn't it?," at which point I lost my cool because to me the ending was…

Luna Snow and Crescent/Io, also main characters from New Agents of Atlantis, are Korean and were originally created for a Marvel-based phone app game that I play (Marvel Future Fight) that’s published by a Korean company (Netmarble). When Crescent/Io were first introduced late last year, the devs said that there would…

Cast him as Batcat opposite Peanut as BaneCat; let’s see who wins:

Yeah, I don’t usually comment on an article about something that I don’t like and others do. Different strokes for different folks and all that. That really was just an almost-perfect description of how I felt about Blair Witch after seeing it in theaters, and “easy mark” is a pretty apt description of how I felt…

Of course, not too many of the found-footage flicks from this century are very good. Most of them are, in fact, lousy, the amateur-filmmaker scenario providing convenient cover for uneventful and artless schlock—for movies that look bad and go nowhere on purpose.

Yeah, Cole is frustratingly underused, but he’s played two of my favorite characters of all time: Kent on Veep and Harvey on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. I'm always happy to see him or Root pop up on screen.

It also mentions the “unusual symbols”—i.e. QR codes—found on the pints of U.S.S. Butterscotch currently being sold at Baskin-Robbins locations, saying they’re definitely “not part of a covert operation that some have reported.”

The worst was watching Lucas guzzle it and mug for the camera as he declared that he liked it more than the original. I wonder if Caleb McLaughlin lost a bet with the other actors to be the one to have to do it. Hopefully he got paid a little extra, at least.

Maybe it was a shout-out to these two murderous minions.

Are you ready for some Sousa?!?!?!?!?!

I wish I could hack my brain so that everything that I read is in the soothing dulcet tones of his voice.