"…it's his band, but he's the worst part of it. He fires bandmates all the time, sometimes from the stage, and doesn't seem to like anyone or anything. He doesn't…sing, exactly…just sort of croaks with this weird vocal tic. I used to think of him as the baleful chronicler of the apocalypse, but it can be hard to…

I agree with you. And yet, one of the most powerful refutations of this message I've seen can be found at the Stonewall Jackson carving on Stone Mountain, which I have walked past hundreds of times. There it is in all its misbegotten grandeur, a Confederate general and his cohort staring nobly into the distance,…

I work at courthouses throughout the state of Georgia, so these statues are not news to me. I've always drawn a distinction between the Confederate flag and the statues — statues are erected once, usually a long time ago, and as such are artifacts worthy of thought and study in an anthropological sense, if not a…

Woolsworth!

Insensitive, I'll grant, even taking into account the passage of time. We were invited to laugh (not all who were invited chose to attend) at her depiction of an androgynous person as well as at the reactions she got. But "propaganda" implies harmful and suppressive intent on Julia Sweeney's part. I don't see that…

Nice they honored contestant Paul's baked lion in there towards the end. He was one of my favorites — just crushingly camera-shy and uptight at first, then gradually mellowed out and became a genuine mensch by the end of his run.

I admire his dedication to being left alone, even from those who know he was wronged. I'd like to do him the favor of ignoring him in a restaurant one day.

When in doubt (i.e. constantly), I just assume he's bitching about his doctors.

I will say that trailer set my teeth on edge, especially how it was scored. That sort of on-the-nose, overtly emotional pandering might sell a few more tickets to the converted, but won't help bring those old Floridians et al into the fold.

Woody Harrelson's presence seemed solely for the purpose of padding the run time. The slo-mo shots, the endless exposition, the glowering….and the character was too self-serious to be truly menacing. There was a whiff of cuck about him, there was.

That was banter worthy of "Juul & Friis".

Thanks Meg, I think I'll do that. I've had enough of the "an awful thing happened and now everyone is sad all the time" genre.

Someone who's seen this please let me know if the misery porn tone of the first 15 minutes carries through the whole season. I enjoy Tennant and Colman, but I don't think I can watch much more of this.

That and Maya Rudolph's Dionne Warwick impression on Kimmy Schmidt are tied for funniest TV moments of the year for me. She threw herself around the ring with such joyous abandon. Vodka for breakfast!

My local arthouse theater showed the anti-vaxxer doc that Wakefield produced last spring. I posted my disappointment at the decision on the theater's Facebook post promoting the screening (complete with a filmmaker Q&A, as they were schlepping it around the country). No response for two full days, then all of a…

They are very passionate and energetic about not having had any life experience.

I'm very late on this, but just showing up to echo your dislike of White Noise, and of DeLillo in general. There's an air of the self-appointed modern sage to his work that sets my teeth on edge — it's not enough for him to tell a story…he has to interrupt his narratives to explain his themes, as though he doesn't…

Oh, no. No no no no. No.

It is faint praise to call Maya Rudolph's lunatic Dionne Warwick impression the best guest spot this season. I don't remember the last time I laughed as hard at a performance. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen, and I've seen three things.

Fine, whatever. Point being, the fundamental dramatic tension for Gloria in this episode was her inability to get to Nikki, prevented as she was by bureaucracy and an uncaring cohort of her fellow police. How she would pull it off was The Big Problem. And then, just like that she appears. The question was elided,…