I liked the part where they made a big deal about cable integration for like half an hour, then later revealed that it doesn't have a Cablecard slot so none of that shit will work.

I don't know if I would have made it through 90 minutes of "damn it's lonely up here, I'm going slowly nuts".  The twist was kind of necessary to keep the thing moving.

What about something like Pan's Labyrinth, where the trailers are all "ooh, check out this fun fantasy world", and the movie starts off with some poor innocent hunter getting his face smashed in during the Spanish civil war, and subtitles.

The action was essential, but especially with the sequels the segments went on for way way too long.  It just got mind numbing after the 20th hour of watching him punch agents in a single fight that didn't mean anything. 

Exit Through the Gift Shop was interesting because the title didn't make any sense until the film shifted over into being a hit piece on Thiurry (or however he spelled his name).  The first half of the film he's just this eccentric guy who always has a camera and runs a business selling thrift store clothes to…

He may have predated the phrase "torture porn", but certainly not the concept. 

The message was partially lost on me because I was getting annoyed at how long it was taking those limpwristed assholes to finally kill off that obnoxious family.  I swear they started off pretty uptight and annoying, and then somehow got full brain lobotomies about halfway through the movie and spend the rest of it…

I hated that movie so much.

Oh, I totally agree with you on His Dark Materials.  The first book is fun, if a little dark.  The second is kind of tedious but has lots of worldbuilding.  The third goes entirely off the the rails, especially when he builds up to this great big huge battle about halfway through the book, then ducks out of it, never…

While the movie didn't explicitly come out and say "he was right all along!", it was pretty heavily implied that it was the case.  IIRC the twist (spoiler alert) was that he had compassion for his son who was actually a demon, which allowed his son to kill him instead.

Eh, I kind of like comedies to be funny.

The one that got me was Stranger in a Strange Land.  You start with a fish out of water scenario glommed together with a magic negro that's actually pretty entertaining.  Then the last third of the book is all levitating sex cults.  I have never been able to figure out if it is supposed to be an allegory for something…

I think BvU just got pushed to the side because with so many characters they just isn't time to develop them all.  He'll probably be back more in later seasons.

Gah, I really hope that isn't true.  Often some of the best voice work comes when people just call and discover that, sure, their mega star is between projects at the moment and would be happy to read a few lines, plus he's a fan of the show.

It's powder blue, mostly. 

One thing that flew over my head for years with the Christmas special was the point where Triana puts out a really really halfassed groan because her Dad is being overprotective.  I couldn't figure out why they left that horrible reading in there.

I think Doc and Jackson tried too hard to make a sympathetic pedophile.  People are just too emotional about the subject for the character to work, at least not in the present day.  Maybe in 10 years we'll look back and see how groundbreaking he was, but today he's just uncomfortable.

Heck, they lampshade that on occasion.  In one of the later episodes the moppets (love em or hate em) ask Dr. Girlfriend directly and repeatedly why the Monarch hates Dr. Venture, and she keeps evading the question until they get distracted by her panties. 

It helps that Ghosts of the Sargasso is easily the best Season 1 episode.  I use it to introduce people to the series, since it's nicely self contained and everybody gets references to Scooby Doo.  All of the Venture family has something to do, even Hank and Dean.

Shoot, if you're going to be like that, I'm sure Doctor Who looks slowly produced when you're talking about 30 seasons over 50 years…