It really shows what kind of level Marvel are operating on compared to everyone else out there. It feels like ever since 'Iron Man' (but more likely, ever since 'The Avengers'), shared universes have been the talk of the town, but what have we got for it? DC made a great standalone Batman trilogy before just putting…

This is just like that episode of 'Studio 60' where they thought they'd stolen a joke, in that it's unfunny, boring and makes NBC look bad.

From the AV Club's own review (not that I'm saying publications should have a consistent editorial line on art - it's just interesting that this "controversial" take is the one that gets billing as a think-piece, while the tacit response is part of an annexure to a review):

The other interesting thing about this article is the points made here - that 'Gone Girl' is imbalanced in its gender politics, that Amy is too openly villainous - are not new. They were also pretty frequent back when Fynn first published the novel (see, for instance, http://www.theguardian.com/… ).

I always thought the point was that the difference between Nick and Amy was primarily one of ambition and scale - he is a very capable liar, cheat and manipulator, but he applies those talents to much smaller ends (his affair, and eventually his self-preservation).

Maybe this reflects my own biases, but I don't think the book is as even-handed as this article makes out. There is some added tension earlier in the book - since we're in Nick's head, we feel his anger towards Amy a bit more viscerally, and since he's a narrator he's actively involved in gaming us as well as those…

This show also deserves to be remembered for its funky opening titles. We only want what we can't have, and what we can't have is…. https://www.youtube.com/wat…

What if, as an ironic twist, he actually hates ketchup?

SEASON 1 FINALE

It'd be one thing if they were telling decent stories on this show, but they're just not. All they're doing is throwing random characters from across the Batman universe into a blender, regardless of what those characters' relationships are to each other, and expecting viewers to applaud the resulting goop of…

I haven't seen the episode in a while, but is he necessarily saying that Kara will find Kobol personally? I thought he meant that it would be found in general, and that it would lead on to Earth.

Billy, sadly, is the most useless character. In theory, it was good to give Roslin an offsider, but he had so little influence and would eventually be replaced by Lee (in more ways than one).

It still really irks me that they're making this. I would have hoped that if we were getting a Fincher/Flynn collaboration for HBO, they'd make something cool and original. As it is, I don't know how they'll really improve on 'Utopia'. Their skills are twisty plotting and visual panache, and 'Utopia' already has both…

It is a little bit camp, though - the Riddler and the Penguin are pretty over the top, and Fish Moody's lair looks like a Broadway production designer's concept of a mob hangout.

Out of curiosity, is Gordon catching the Wayne murder something that's ever been part of the comics? I thought it was a touch that Nolan added to 'Batman Begins' as part of shifting Gordon from a Windy City transplant to a Gotham native (though it does pay off sweetly in 'The Dark Knight Rises').

This show seems a lot like Caprica. Both are prequels that start off from a theoretically interesting premise which proves less engaging in practice. Part of that is that both premises (Gotham without Batman/colonies without cylons) lack an obvious focal point, which leads to sprawling ensemble casts. Both suffer from…

I'm enjoying these write-ups, but I gotta disagree on 'Litmus', which was one of my favourites when I first watched the season through. I actually think the ambiguity helps the episode on the two levels its operating on: firstly as an examination of post-9/11 anxiety, and secondly as a deconstruction of genre TV shows.

Between the Penguin and the Riddler, we were so close to a perfect trifecta of over-laboured villain introductions (the cat in the alleyway comes close, though). Here's hoping they do better next week. I'll even help out.

I know it's a long way from being an original observation, but can anyone offer a satisfying reason for why they didn't just adapt 'Gotham Central'? The only thing I can think is that they didn't want to have something that would clash between 'Batman v Superman: Trial at First Instance', but that's a pretty odd…

Also, 'Act of Contrition' marks the first appearance of Sergeant Hadrian, who I always liked and wish that they'd had her back on more often. At the very least, events in the coming episodes mean that she will eventually be owed a really, really big apology.