A.V. Club

Books: Newswire:Inventory on sale for less than $7 over at Amazon

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:47:00 -0600

Amazon currently has our new(ish) book Inventory available for $6.83. We're not sure why, honestly, but we're just letting you know in case you want to buy it on the cheap. Or several copies for Christmas. Or Hannukah. Or just because you love somebody. Here's the link.

TV: Newswire:Funeral Friday

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:46:00 -0600

Congratulations on making it to the end of another week! Unfortunately, these people didn't. Light a candle for Funeral Friday. Nothing against Pat Sajak and Alex Trebek—it's just that their demographics skewed decidedly older—but to children of the ’80s, there were really only two game show hosts that really mattered: Marc Summers of Double Dare and Ken Ober of Remote Control. The latter was a special kind of game show host we’d rarely seen before—flippant, sarcastic bordering on surly, and unafraid to mock everything from the deliberately pointless questions he was asking, to the ...

Film: A.V. Talk:The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:08:00 -0600

Much like last time around, the macho male leadership of The A.V. Club took one look at the Twilight franchise and decided to set the girls on it. Genevieve Koski and Tasha Robinson catch up with the second adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's bestselling series, and discuss how the media phenomenon has aged for them, exactly how many facial expressions New Moon star Kristen Stewart owns, and the two groups of people who will enjoy this movie. Subscribe to A.V. Talk iTunes http://feeds.theonion.com/avtalk

Film: Newswire:Will Ferrell, Ewan McGregor top Most Overpaid Stars list

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:08:00 -0600

Forbes Magazine just came out with its annual list of the most overpaid stars in Hollywood, which it generates via a somewhat complicated metric that looks at their last three films and compares their paychecks, the films' budgets, and the money those films brought in via theatrical, TV, and DVD release. The list isn't a snotty, opinion-laden "Why does Keanu Reeves still get paid to make movies?" dig at actors who stink up the screen; it's a cold-blooded return-on-investment comparison that calculates which stars are least profitable to the studios. Naturally, big stars getting massive paychecks for recent ...

Books: Newswire:King, Spielberg team up to adapt Under The Dome

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:23:00 -0600

Stephen King's massive new novel Under The Dome is set to become a TV miniseries developed by Steven Spielberg, Variety is reporting. Beyond that, there's not a lot of news. But now's a good a time as any to ponder why these two haven't teamed up before. These are two of the premier storytellers of our time, after all. Is it because King has, of late, resisted directors intent on putting their own stamp on his work? This is, after all, the guy who hated Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, and Spielberg is something of a ...

TV: Hatecast:MTV says: OMG, Look At These Guidos.

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:03:00 -0600

On this very special, 23rd edition of the Hatecast, Amelie Gillette and Sam West, Staff Writer for the Onion News Network, opened traditional 23rd podcast gifts, namely lamps, sharktooth necklaces, and lamps accented with sharktooth necklaces. It was all very something. But because the sound of opening wrapping paper isn't that compelling, they also discussed MTV's spate of pre-ridiculed tool TV shows; Guy Fieri's plan to charge $25 for a peek at a giant blender; and MC Hammer's disavowal of Hammerpants. Please, put their ramblings in your ears! Subscribe to The Hatecast iTunes feeds.theonion.com ...

TV: Community:"Environmental Science"

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:54:00 -0600

As it wraps up its appearances in November sweeps, Community is really on a roll. That's, by my count, four straight really good episodes, with at least three of them being all-time keepers (especially last week's terrific half hour). The series seems to have worked out its kinks, and now, it's a pretty lean show, pared down to just what it needs to get laughs. Tonight's episode felt weirdly like a season finale (especially in its closing moments), so it's possible this was the last episode filmed of the initial 13-episode order (just in case ...

TV: 30 Rock:"Sun Tea"

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:03:00 -0600

Hello, 30 Rockers! My name is Steve, and I’ll be covering the show tonight for The T.V. Club. I realize coming here and getting me rather than Nathan Rabin is like tuning in to Pardon The Interruption for the entertaining repartee of Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon and instead seeing the fat, red faces of substitute hosts Dan LeBatard and Bob Ryan. (Sadly, this won’t be the only sports-related metaphor I use tonight.) But I’m super duper thrilled to be here. I haven’t been totally on board with The A.V. Club’s criticisms of ...

Music: AVQ&A:Music to work by

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Welcome back to AVQ&A, where we throw out a question for discussion among the staff and readers. Consider this a prompt to compare notes on your interface with pop culture, to reveal your embarrassing tastes and experiences, and to ponder how our diverse lives all led us to convene here together. Got a question you’d like us and the readers to answer? E-mail us at avcqa@theonion.com. I have always needed to have some sort of music on while working. Generally, I listen to something I am familiar with that I can tune out, but still know ...

Film: Random Roles:Tom Noonan

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

The actor: Tom Noonan leads a curious double life as a respected playwright/arthouse fixture and a sought-after character actor and villain in genre movies, particularly horror and suspense films. Noonan’s current feature, the atmospheric early-’80s-style fright flick The House Of The Devil, makes inspired use of the seeming incongruity between Noonan’s towering frame and the underlying gentleness of his manner and sonorous voice. So did Noonan’s breakout film, Michael Mann’s 1986 masterpiece Manhunter, which cast him as a killer pursued by William Petersen with help from Brian Cox’s Hannibal Lecter. Noonan won the ...

TV: Project Runway:"Finale: Part 2"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:00:00 -0600

Will Carol-Hannah stop puking in time to make it to Bryant Park? Will Irina slaughter a couple of minks at the last minute to up the luxe factor of her upscale loungewear collection? Will Althea develop a design aesthetic besides "eh wear"? Can this season get any worse? Let's all find out tonight, together, in the way that our friends at Garnier Fructisse and the thoughtfully used Macy's Accessory Wall intended, via LiveBlog. Starting at 10pm ET Donna Bowman, Kyle Ryan and I will be your grand marshals in this (probably sad) fashion parade. See you there! Project ...

TV: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia:"The D.E.N.N.I.S. System"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:42:00 -0600

“The D.E.N.N.I.S. System” was a little lighter on laughs than last week but had an amusingly intricate plot (something that’s rare for Sunny), and a fantastic, disgusting denouement (something that’s very common, but always very welcome). Best of all, though, it took Dennis and it gave him an easel on which to explain his system for attracting women through cute acronyms and silly slogans. It felt like a warped, disturbing take on Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother: rather than the pick-up artist being soulless but still loveable, he was soulless ...

TV: Fringe:“August”

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:30:00 -0600

Because I work at home, by myself, I spend some portion of each day roaming around the house talking and/or singing in a funny voice. I also spend some portion of each day locked inside my head, in pained reflection, recalling something stupid I said or did decades ago (and feeling humiliated all over again). So if there really were Observers in this world, watching what we do and reporting back to their superiors, frankly I’d be mortified. Of course, I’d feel even worse if I was Walter, and I knew that I’d been closely observed ...

TV: Supernatural:"Abandon All Hope"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:13:00 -0600

Hey, remember Ellen and Jo, the only two non-dead recurring non-evil female characters on the show? Remember how they disappeared for a while, but then came back for this season, and it was like, we're gonna be fighting against Lucifer, so we gotta have all the good guys together again? Yeah. That didn't last so long, did it. I've mostly been impressed with the way Supernatural has expanded on its mythology over the years, taking what started as a one note premise and then expanding it and developing it as the series went on. If you'd ...

TV: The Office:"Shareholder Meeting"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:10:00 -0600

Hello, Officeianados! Nathan Rabin, well-selling author and man about town, is off leading the lifestyle of a jet-setting ne'er-do-well, so it again falls to me to recap this week's escapades at the possibly insolvent Dunder-Mifflin. This episode was directed and written by Charles McDougall and Justin Spitzer, respectively, and they've brought us some of my favorite installments of the show, so I went into "Shareholder Meeting" with high hopes. I was a bit nervous about the cold open -- the network-mandated theme bits are often pretty awkward -- but this one was a real winner, featuring a very ...

TV: FlashForward:"Believe"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:30:00 -0600

Maybe we should only be watching FlashForward in the odd-numbered episodes because after last week's complete snore, "Believe" was quite possibly the show's finest hour yet. It probably doesn't quite deserve an A-, but I believe in using these grades as encouraging signs for anyone from the show who reads this (if, indeed, anyone does), so there it is. "Believe" is the first episode of the show that legitimately feels like an episode of the show I thought I'd be watching when I signed up to cover the series, and it's the first to really ...

TV: Parks and Recreation:"Hunting Trip"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:59:00 -0600

A few weeks back, Leonard Pierce was covering this show for TV Club and made note that the Fred Armisen episode lacked the strength of Parks & Rec's supporting cast. Tonight we saw the other end of the spectrum. Even though every single cast member played some part of the action, "Hunting Trip" lacked the character focus that made episodes like "Ron And Tammy" and "Kaboom" such successes—a few guys get their screen time, a few others help, and the rest sit out. If "Sister City" is the example of an episode not playing to the show's solid ...

TV: Newswire:Oprah to end her show

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:42:00 -0600

According to CNN.com, Oprah Winfrey will end her insanely popular talk show in 2011. But where will the nation's ladies go for weird diet advice and softball interviews with celebrities and free cars and shit? Well, speculation has Oprah simply moving her show--or some version of it--over to the network that she's starting, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. Seems logical. In a related story, I watched five minutes of Oprah a few days ago, for the first time in 10 years? No, since Cormac McCarthy was on. Anyway, the guest was Jenna Jameson, and her face looks ...

Music: The A.V. Club Blog:Adorable Internet Thing Of The Day: Jason Segel + The Swell Season + penis jokes

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:09:00 -0600

As a publicist at Shore Fire Media helpfully (and self-servingly, but what can you do) just informed us, The Swell Season (Once stars Markéta Irglová and Glen Hansard) performed a concert in L.A. last night, and a buddy showed up to première a new song: actor Jason Segel, playing piano and singing a somewhat stream-of-consciousness song not unlike the songs he wrote and performed on How I Met Your Mother and in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Naturally, someone in the audience videotaped it all and got it up on YouTube. In the clip, Segel claims Irglová told him ...

DVD: Contest:Win Anvil: The Story Of Anvil T-shirts and autographed DVDs

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:03:00 -0600

Have you seen it yet? The documentary about the most kick-ass metal band that nobody's ever heard of? You probably should. And now you've got a chance to win an autographed DVD (ARV: $24.98) and/or an Anvil T-shirt, which says "METAL ON METAL" on the back. Just send us an e-mail with your preference--T-shirt or DVD, and we'll pick some winners on or about November 30. (The T-shirts are mostly XXL, so keep that in mind.) Employees of Onion Inc. and their families are not eligible, so don't even try it, Mom. If you ...