Ah, for the old days when journalists wrote articles to answer the question asked in the headline, and not just asking the question.

We still cook the Chris Traeger-burger sometimes. While the turkey might be a bit bland and the rest pretentious, it’s one hell of a fine burger. Also, I’m European, if that was not clear enough from context. (They posted a recipe back in the day, which we printed out.)

There’s also “Citadel” (2012), which arguably has a somewhat weird political subtext, if you think of it too hard, and a classical “we didn’t know exactly how to stick the landing”-horror ending — but is nevertheless pretty darn atmospheric in a “decaying urban environment”-style in its best moments.

That handsome man starring in “Caveman” could play music, too?!

On the list, #14.

Just saw that “AA Dowd”’s list on the Chronicle also didn’t mention it. Is it because it came out too late? I mean, this list here is — thankfully — obviously not afraid to put animated movies in high slots, so the omission feels only more glaring. Or did critics really not like the movie? The “Universal Acclaim”…

Although never quite as narratively ambitious as the earlier Baldur’s Gate games

That is a solid list! The one entry I miss is “Detectorists” — granted, it is, in a way, about middle-aged guys trying to deal with what comes up in the soil and in life. But MacKenzie Crook! Toby Jones! Those beautiful, beautiful landscape shots! Just a wonderful comedy that is precisely observed, warm, and low-key…

I, for one, root for Ed. That said, I have literally never heard one of his songs (it’s so easy to stay inside one’s musical bubble these days).

I wanted to make a joke à la “I’m pretty sure the AV Club newsroom consists just of a few interns copy-pasting press releases into ChatGPT, adding ‘make it snarky in the style of the AV Club”. The depressing thing is that I tried just that (with the Variety article on the subject as prompt), and, well, it’s probably…

I absolutely get you, even though I’d say that the devs at least understood that it’s more important to make something that feels like how we remembered those games than the games themselves. It’s more fluid, painless, and a wee bit bigger in scope. But ultimately, you’re right: I don’t regret having played it and…

I love the show so much that I actually went through the trouble of restarting the video multiple times (which was necessary because it’s so weirdly integrated into the site). Just imagine the absolutely most generic blurb expressing something about “good show, good performances” you could possibly imagine, read in…

I honestly had to check twice to verify that this is not a video game screenshot. From a visually extremely bland and not really impressively rendered game at that.

“Over The Garden Wall”, even it’s not strictly a Halloween thing. (I watch one or two episodes every evening all through October, reading up on the episodes in the art book in parallel. It’s such a comforting ritual that I look forward to the time when “autumn colors fall”, as the song has it, for this alone.) On…

I wonder if it is because the creatures are pretty damn boring, when all is said and done? I mean, “folks, let’s attach a few more pairs of legs to that panther and give it a paint job” is not exactly what I would count as inspiring or inspired.

Fun fact: Even though I spend way too much time on sites talking about popular culture and video games in particular, I have, so far, completely and utterly escaped anything Fortnite. That’s not meant to be a brag, it’s puzzling to myself just how little I do know about this behemoth.

I’d like to join the chorus and thank you for all the work you have done here, as a writer, but also as an editor. You have assembled a great team here (or multiple ones, to be honest), which is work that is less visible, but equally important.

You are right, of course — sorry that I was so imprecise. As I said, it’s only recently that I started to visit Polygon more regularly — I’m not sure that I have already come across one of your articles there. But that would honestly be reason for excitement!

It is not if, like me, you have started watching Queer Eye S6. There’s a “Yaas, Queen” song in it. Sung by a person who pulls it off. It stuck with me, too.

Sadly, not. Tasha Robinson is writing for Polygon, though, and I found myself visiting that site more and more often lately — especially for the non-gaming-related articles. (There are just a small part of the site, but the quality is often really good.)