The finale made the near-fatal mistake of giving the characters everything they'd ever wanted. There was a hint of melancholy, notably in her farewell to Jean-Ralphio, but I'd like to have seen more disappointment and bittersweetness. After a certain point, their continued success became implausible.

I'm glad to see Parks & Rec on here; the finale aired so early in the year that I worried it would be lost in the year-end shuffle. I hope to see BoJack, Better Call Saul and Kimmy Schmidt further down the list. And, I know it will be overlooked, but I really enjoyed the BBC adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

"Movies to Fall Asleep While Watching" should be the next AV Club inventory. Godard's Week End, Last Year at Marienbad…

The Magicians is so good. the other two books are great, but the first one is nearly perfect.

She recently said that Hogwarts has students of all religions - with the exception of Wiccans, funnily enough. But yes, the final book is rather remarkable in how implicitly Christian it becomes as Harry approaches his own death. Not my favorite book in the series, but I did appreciate the subtle religious iconography.

The Harry Potter books - like some of their classic inspirations, such as Dickens and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - had a way of perfectly capturing the feel of a holiday. The coziness of sitting by a log fire, the huge feasts, snow on the windows, sneaking into the library, putting the Slytherins into a coma.…

oh man, I would take that job in a heartbeat.

CARRY ON by Rainbow Rowell
THE REST OF US JUST LIVE HERE by Patrick Ness

"Unless you were Amish, allergic to joy, or some kind of sociopath who
shouldn’t be allowed near a Best Buy to begin with, you owned most of
this stuff in one form or another."

I've always wondered what Grima is thinking in the moment Saruman reveals his army, as a single tear trickles down his cheek. Does he feel regret? Does he mourn the imminent deaths that he himself helped bring about?

The girls and their guitars in this video always creeped me out.

David Tennant has played some fantastic literary characters, including Hamlet and the villain in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - during his five minutes on-screen, he managed to make the film his own, out-performing everyone else in the movie.

Someone should do an inventory of all the Killers' Christmas songs. It's been way too long since their last album.

watching the Man in the High Castle last Friday has made me really nostalgic for FRINGE.

"the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong."

can we really say Frank murdered his family if he just refused to comply with Nazis and the Nazis killed them accordingly?

Honestly there are so many better Christie novels - and so many better Poirot novels - they could adapt. Hallowe'en Party, Death in the Clouds, Evil under the Sun, Peril at End House…

Branagh was perfect for the role of Gilderoy Lockhart and everything since has been downhill.

Albert Finney was the best Ebenezer Scrooge by a mile.

He has such a distinctive face. I couldn't figure out where I had seen him before, but apparently he was Hugo's friend on LOST. He always looks like he should be starring as Uriah Heep in a revival of David Copperfield.