Holy fuck, Christmas with the Kranks. What the hell was going on with that movie? How did so many people look at it while it was being made and think it was something wider audiences should see? That movie hates humanity.

It's an excuse to have increasingly bizarre shit happening in an ostensibly-realistic setting. It lives and dies on how far that goes.

It's hard to imagine what a true vehicle for him would be like. The only word that comes to mind is "alienating". It'd be a full commitment to avoiding formula, whatever it was.

Four Christmases is on my most-hated movie shortlist. I don't hate many movies, but when I do, they seem to star Vince Vaughn. The weird thing is that I actually don't dislike Vince Vaughn; I generally get more entertainment out of him in those movies, and he's in movies that I like as well. For some reason,…

As with this movie, I think they usually have it the other way around.

I haven't seen Princess and the Frog yet, but I have listened to his villain song in it multiple times. Keith David's got one hell of a voice.

OKCupid's not totally awful for that. I've had some luck with it, and it does have a little more talking before the hookup.

*invincibility music*

I recall that Frakes wanted a male actor for that role in order to drive the point home. I give him credit for wanting to represent homosexuality with actual homosexuality.

I'd like to see some sort of Dogme-style challenge to the TV industry, something that proposes a set of restrictions in order to inspire creativity. "No rape" would be high on my list.

I've heard that the first Billy Jack movie, of all things, has an unusually insightful approach to talking about rape. (The second supposedly throws all of that away.) It has a scene of significant length where a woman simply talks about the event however she wants to talk about it. Pauline Kael noted it as being…

The Spartacus series from a couple of years ago was surprisingly good about this. Thinking back on it, I can't think of any rapes (and there were many) being there just for shock value. They were there because Spartacus was a show about power relationships, among other things, and being raped was a fact of life for…

Rainbow Road

Augh, that's awful. I'm sorry to hear that. It's horrible, both the experience and the way that the effects linger on. If it helps, you sound like you're getting a good grasp on what's happening, and that's a good sign that you'll make big progress before too long. I hope your wish is granted.

I wish that my new girlfriend didn't have to fly to another country for her brother's wedding during the exact period when I'm going to have more free time. I'm happy that she's taking a neat trip; I just wish that the timing had been slightly different. We'll make up for lost time in the new year.

Colbert's show is a particularly appropriate reference due to Stay Human. I would love to hear the stories behind every person in that band and how they got there.

The thing from the Christmas episode that has stuck with me the longest is the plot about New Orleans musicians being quietly snuck into gigs in order to help them out. That's the kind of behind-the-scenes shit at which Sorkin excels, and as someone on the very distant periphery of the music business, backstage drama…

If it matters, I'm a Will Harris fan too and I still got excited when I saw your byline. Your piece a while back about the dearth of black shows on streaming services was exactly the kind of thing that's kept me coming here for years. This was great interviewing and a worthy addition to the AVC's best running…

It's basically the same reason that mystery stories are almost always about murders. Lesser crimes just don't have the same stakes for most people. I like to see mysteries that aren't all about murders, but I have to concede that they don't do as well.

Good point. I mean, does Kurt Russell count as conservative? I've heard that he leans libertarian, but I don't really know.