The income generated from AA members, free labor extracted and property owned by AA is by no means large enough to put AA in EST's league. But there is indeed no evidence AA or any other twelve step program actually accomplishes any therapeutic good whatsoever, even if judges will require attendance.

The chances any drama deals seriously with religion by positing real miracles are very small. The notion that manufacturing an absurdist world can say anything about the real world, which is remarkably coherent, is also unlikely to work. And lastly, the idea that emotional truth about individuals is easy to grasp…

You win, I envy you.

It's hard to believe that no one at AVClub ever saw The Counselor or The Wolf of Wall Street, both movies that are much, much worse than just about anything they picked above. I get that Laura Adamczyk had a visceral reaction to a race traitor being the hero in Avatar, but the notion the 3D graphics in a movie that…

To say that somebody gets something out of therapy you really need to compare the outcomes of the therapy with other things, not the least of which is the passage of time. Claiming that many people can get something out of Lourdes water because many people get better, ignores the fact that many illnesses naturally…

That's not being aware, that's being stupid. It would be more sensible to have Philip get something out of AA meetings he attends as part of a cover.

Damn, you caught me!

Is the show aware that est was a crank psychotherapy cult?

No doubt you're right I'd understand what's going on much better.

One garden getting crisped isn't destroying Asgard. But it's true seeing the Rose Garden go up like that would have been exciting. But if Asgard is destroyed in the opening, the rest of the movie sure isn't about that, so why bother?

Looks terrible. Why put Ragnarok in the title if it's just going to be this?

Sorry, no, your objection amounts to, yes of course torture works if you already actually know the answer, instead of the interrogator just thinking they do. If Draper already knew everything, all this was just for fun, of a sexual sadism kind. The dishonesty is that torture reliably elicits true information that…

I haven't been watching the show, so no I don't know who Aida is. If LMD means robot, then the scene is truly bizarre, especially if the robot is sexually functional. I mean, seriously, who really would try to make a sexually functional robot for anything but sexual activities?

Oh, yes, you're quite right that it's believable Draper could win the fight. Wrong of me to give the impression that was the unbelievable part. The unbelievable part is that all it took to get the dude to Confess All was a few punches, when the character was clearly established as a man who lied like a carpet for fun…

a) read the first, forgot practically every detail because I wasn't greatly impressed

Hey, I agree but, the show doesn't.

I agree he's part of the group running the operation, which to me is exactly why he doesn't need a tablet of plot-relevancy. It strikes me like a surgeon having a Gray's anatomy with him in the OR.

It is always amazing how the same thing can strike different people in opposite ways. This Fitz seemed both pervy and whipped to me, a truly unwholesome combination. I'm not quite sure who the "director" was, but the actress projected the air of a woman who has a strap on and a favorite partner for using it on.…

Since Captain America Winter Soldier, I've thought SHIELD=HYDRA and both were evil and taking them down was properly heroic of the good Captain. The TV show's insistence on revising this has been a real turn off, but the Agents of HYDRA thing is so fitting this episode was actually watchable. Grant Ward as SHIELD…

So you really think a soldier is going to beat a confession out of a senior officer, grab the evidence off his desk and walk out of a heavily guarded building? I admire your commitment but despite willingness to suspend disbelief, I can't do that much heavy lifting.