I liked the Chief subplot and Amy Brenneman is single-handedly saving whole episodes of this show. I also thought Carl Franklin and I-didn't-catch-who did a fine job on directing this episode.

I don't mean to diminish the first two Nolan Bat-movies, which are excellent. But you are correct—the third is dumb, politically incoherent, pretentious twaddle that nonetheless looks fantastic thanks to Wally Pfister.

Sigh— again, Kevin Feige iis not attempting to compete with William Burroughs for weirdness. The guy makes genre movies about unfrozen super-soldiers with magic frisbee shields. Different frame of reference. But I suppose we can all sit here as every smug person who ever passed through AP English proudly proclaims…

Weird Al has detractors?

This is clearly what they're doing, but it's still pretty risky to balance the future of your mega-franchise on a talking space raccoon directed by James Gunn. It's pretty ballsy, and I love it. Compare Marvel's ethos to WB's— who are so afraid of deviating from the Nolan template that they won't even dress…

This is an impeccably fair and well-reasoned response.

I think the Writer's Strike had WAY more to do with the crappiness of Iron Man 2 than Kevin Feige. I think losing Terrence Howard and gaining Don Cheadle is an upgrade, if anything. And Edward Norton is widely reputed to be abysmal to work with. And we got Mark Ruffalo out of it!

Alan Moore vs. Brett Ratner

I'm sorry I didn't do adequate research before offering my amateur opinion about a creative dispute over how to make a movie out of a guy with ant-powers. Heaven forfend. I didn't say anything about 'greed'. That's your characterization. Since you know exactly what transpired in the Marvel offices, perhaps you…

I like Edgar Wright, but he's not god's gift to filmmaking. And while some of Marvel's product is just… product (I'm looking at you, Thor 2!) Most of its movies range from enjoyable fast food (Thor 1) to fucking awesome (Cap 2) to possibly batshit-freaky awesome (Guardians!!). Kevin Feige deserves a lot of the…

I thought they were laying the suffering on a bit thick in Matt's backstory, until I realized that the entire point of this episode is that there really are those people who, through random chance, live through multiple tragedies. For these unfortunate people, the need—the DEMAND—that suffering retain its capacity to…

This episode was directed by Keith Gordon, who you probably know as Rodney Dangerfield's son in 'Back to School' as well as the kid in 'Christine'. I prefer to think of him as the guy who directed the absolutely great Vonnegut adaptation, 'Mother NIght', which I hope the AVClub unearths one of these days, because I…

I have a very efficient and fail-proof system: I wake up, make coffee, assign blame to Wal-Mart, then read the news.

So what's the deal, Werner? Did Louie make a poignant and challenging short film about fucking your wife?

It is rude, but at a certain point I just threw my hands up in the air reading her review. It's one thing to disagree with someone's analysis. It's quite another to be asked to read someone who is clearly playing catch-up with the basic syntax of filmed narrative. Also I feel like AV Club writing has gone way…

This is fair except I would have written 'JT's hot daughter and her best friend, cliche oversexed best friend character #4567'.

I haven't disliked this show so far, but everything from the opening credit sequence to the subject matter seems— well— like HBO's leftovers.

Okay, okay, okay. Sarah, is it? No? Sonia? Sorry, I can't be bothered to remember the name of someone who is so obviously not cut out to simply sit and observe a story, much less get paid to do it. Last week, Silvia somehow didn't understand that it was Kevin's father, not Kevin, who was so obviously the one…

That is the loneliest LOLOL I've ever read.

Very good point and Cap has become possibly my favorite character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, specifically because he's such a breath of fresh air. I'm a snarky lefty asshole but I still have ideals and it's nice to see a character like Steve Rogers who unashamedly taps into that yearning for nobility. Which…