The A.V. Club - Reasonable Discussions

#51: He Chose To Not Be Fat Elvis

The A.V. Club — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Neil Young made the sentiment famous, Kurt Cobain quoted him, and a Reasonable Discussions listener wants to know: Is it better to burn out or fade away? In this episode, Tasha Robinson, Erik Adams, and host Kyle Ryan look to the music, film, and television worlds for an answer.

RD051: He Chose To Not Be Fat Elvis

Google Voice's transcript of the call:
Hey Steph, versus is proctor I can. My question for you. It is better burnt out. And then wait 15 years and come back or is it better to fade away. Israel in fade away for 15 years until you know wanted to call so we will add some other words, as a better to sound garden. Or is it better A great day. Thanks, bye bye.

#50: 50th Episode Mega Spectacular!

The A.V. Club — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:20:00 -0600

It’s the 50th episode of Reasonable Discussions, so we’re pulling out all the stops… with a longer version of Extracurricular Activities. Nathan Rabin, Genevieve Koski, and Tasha Robinson are on hand to discuss the pop culture they’re checking out beyond the confines of The A.V. Club.

RD050: 50th Episode Mega Spectacular!

Related stuff
Wreck-It Ralph
The Twelve [Amazon]
The Passage
ShowBusiness: The Road To Broadway
Caroline, Or Change soundtrack [Amazon]

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#49: Their Names Have Become A Stamp Of Mediocrity

The A.V. Club — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:00:00 -0500

Tasha Robinson recently spoke to the normally press-shy Wachowski siblings, and her conversation with them created the first-ever documented instance of a person thinking “Hmm, I should probably give those Matrix sequels another shot.” Sometimes the story behind something, or a fondness for its creator, prompts this kind of reassessment. A.V. Club copyeditor Andrea Battleground joins Tasha and host Kyle Ryan as they discuss liking people but disliking their art, giving creators a second chance, and acoustic versions of Stone Temple Pilots songs.

RD049: Their Names Have Become A Stamp Of Mediocrity

#48: MRS. COACH, PEOPLE—C'MON, WATCH THE SHOW

The A.V. Club — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0500

The fall TV season finally has a body count, with the cancellations of Animal Practice and Made In Jersey. Those were announced just before we sat down to assess the fall TV season thus far, including the pleasant surprises, shows we've enjoyed, and the others that may not be long for this world. Also, is there a curse on series filmed in Chicago?

RD048: MRS. COACH, PEOPLE—C'MON, WATCH THE SHOW

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#47: Do You Remember The '90s?

The A.V. Club — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Following up our "best films of the '90s" feature this week, we gather A.V. Club film writers Scott Tobias, Keith Phipps, and Tasha Robinson to take a more macro look at the decade in film, from the rise of home video to the changing face of independent film. Also, there apparently was a VHS precursor to Netflix that didn't work out so well.

RD047: Do You Remember The '90s?

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#46: I Use Netflix Instant Because I Like Buffering

The A.V. Club — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0500

While three-fourths of us are still smarting from a lackluster Prince show a few nights before, we convene in the round room to discuss Extracurricular Activities, the things we're reading/watching/listening to outside of our A.V. Club duties. This week: Music docs abound.

RD046: I Use Netflix Instant Because I Like Buffering

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#45: Standing Ovations & People Retching

The A.V. Club — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0500

If you've noticed a change in the air, a certain self-aware seriousness, you're not hallucinating: It's the beginning of awards season. Our fall-movie preview broke down the race for prestige, but for this episode of Reasonable Discussions, we wanted to talk about the ones we actually liked or are excited about. Tasha Robinson and Scott Tobias disagree about these things, as usual.

RD045: Standing Ovations & People Retching

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#44: Misogynist enough to be fun

The A.V. Club — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 12:30:00 -0500

Longtime A.V. Club contributor Jason Heller was in town this past week, and he dropped by the A.V. Club office to make his Reasonable Discussions debut for a wide-ranging discussion about the difficulty of getting people into new genres, whether it’s important that other people like the pop culture we like, and the satisfaction of bringing people around to a new interest. While the conversation stemmed in part from Jason’s Memory Wipe column about his youthful love of Battlefield Earth and his attempts to get other people to read the book, he thankfully didn’t try to press it on us. As we discuss in the podcast, playing people a song in hopes of turning them into fans of your favorite band is a favor; handing them a thousand-page book is more like demanding a weeklong commitment. Jason didn’t try to convert us to Scientology ...

#43: No such thing as a few rounds of Tetris

The A.V. Club — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0500

It’s been a busy, stressful summer for The A.V. Club, with vacations, weddings, and childbirth getting in the way of good old-fashioned nonstop work. So in this edition of Reasonable Discussions, we talk about the pop culture we like to consume when we’re stressed, how stress changes our pop-culture habits, the last things we give up when we have to give up something, and why TV Club editor Erik Adams doesn't know what the inside of a Chicago el car looks like.

RD043: No such thing as a few rounds of Tetris

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#42: How's the space libretto?

The A.V. Club — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0500

It's Extracurricular Activities time at Reasonable Discussions again, where we discuss some of the things we're watching, reading, or listening to in our spare time. If you thought this was the one episode where we wouldn't bring up the 1964 World's Fair in New York, boy, are you wrong, pal.

RD042: How's The Space Libretto?

Related stuff
The End Of The Innocence: The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair by Lawrence Samuel [Amazon]
The Hugo Awards
Wanderlust

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#41: Christopher Nolan's Kickstarter

The A.V. Club — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0500

With The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan has ended his Batman trilogy, though that may not be the end of the story. In this spoiler-heavy edition of Reasonable Discussions, we anticipate what could come next for the franchise and look back on the films. We conclude that Batman himself was the least interesting character in all of them, and use Spaceballs to shed light on why.

Quick note: This episode was recorded before the tragic events in Aurora, Colorado, Thursday night.

RD041: Christopher Nolan's Kickstarter

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#40: On Earth One, We Hate Them

The A.V. Club — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Following all the madness around the release of The Amazing Spider-Man, we started thinking about the ideas of reboots, and how rarely they're creatively driven. Tasha Robinson says they seldom work for her, but she, Keith Phipps, and Oliver Sava are here to talk about some of the ones that have worked—and what made them successful.

RD040: On Earth One, We Hate Them

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#39: Extracurricular Activities: Ex-Stork

The A.V. Club — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0500

The line that separates what A.V. Club staffers do for work and what they do for fun is blurry, but in Extracurricular Activities we talk about stuff we're reading, watching, listening to, etc. that has no direct link to a work obligation. In this week are Tasha Robinson and, making herReasonable Discussions debut, new A.V. Club copyeditor Andrea Battleground.

RD039: Extracurricular Activities: Ex-Stork

Related stuff:
Marcelo In The Real World [Amazon]
Louie
Dawson's Creek
Breaking Bad

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#38: People in horror movies are stupid

The A.V. Club — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:00:00 -0500

Tasha Robinson and Genevieve Koski gave Prometheus the same grade and generally enjoyed it about the same, but they have very different problems with Ridley Scott's Alien sort-of prequel. Tasha can't get over the characters' stupid behavior, but Genevieve doesn't think it's that big of a deal. And thus we witness a hallmark of life at The A.V. Club: staff members disagreeing over something they both liked.

RD038: People in horror movies are stupid

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#37: Hatecast Special, Part Two

The A.V. Club — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:00:00 -0500

Amelie Gillette returns, again with pal Megan Ganz, to close out our two-part Hatecast special. The two devoted Law & Order fans discuss SVU going completely off the rails, Obama's recent admission about his pot-smoking, and why Charlize Theron has nothing to worry about when it comes to Kristen Stewart. Look for more Hatecast specials soon.

RD037: Hatecast Special, Part Two

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#36: My Dragons! A Game Of Thrones Special

The A.V. Club — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 13:10:00 -0500

The second season of Game Of Thrones ended Sunday night. Our reviewers, Todd VanDerWerff and David Sims, got together to discuss whether the season was a success, which storylines were most and least interesting, and just what's up with all those ice zombies.

RD036: My Dragons! A Game Of Thrones Special

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#35: Hatecast Special, Part One

The A.V. Club — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:00:00 -0500

Behold, the return of Amelie Gillette, a.k.a. The Hater, for a two-part Hatecast special. Joining Amelie is Hatecast all-star and Community writer Megan Ganz, and the two get right back into it as if no time had passed since the last Hatecast. Up for discussion: the empty importance of the Cannes Film Festival; a guy trying to kiss Will Smith; and the Lifetime Network's sad discovery of sex. There's so much ridiculousness in the world; let Amelie guide you through it.

RD035: Hatecast Special, Part One

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#34: A Little Deeper Into The Bee Gees Listening Experience

The A.V. Club — Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Steve Hyden and Keith Phipps remember The Bee Gees’ Robin Gibb through the music the tremulous-voiced singer made with and without brothers Barry and Maurice. If you only know the brothers Gibb as the grinning, white-suit-and-chest-hair embodiments of the disco era, Steve and Keith have some paisley-printed and ambitious-yet-flawed surprises for you from the band’s early days.

RD034: A Little Deeper Into The Bee Gees Listening Experience

Related stuff:
R.I.P. Robin Gibb

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#33: The Concept Of Money Itself

The A.V. Club — Wed, 23 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Erik Adams, Genevieve Koski, and Todd VanDerWerff share in the five stages of grieving Dan Harmon’s dismissal from his job as Community showrunner: Anger, evaluating the events, speculation, learning how to pronounce the new showrunners’ names, and, finally, acceptance that a cast as talented as Community’s won’t let the show simply wither away and die.

RD033: The Concept Of Money Itself

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#32: The Aging British Thespian Version Of The Avengers

The A.V. Club — Fri, 04 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Our summer movie preview arrives next week, and we can all agree that What To Expect When You're Expecting is the film event of the season. But can anything come close? A.V. Club writers Keith Phipps, Scott Tobias, and Nathan Rabin debate that and assess what else looks good or not so good in the coming months. We kick things off with the movie that kicked off summer movie season early this year: The Avengers.

RD032: The Aging British Thespian Version Of The Avengers

Related stuff:
The Avengers

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#31: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-99 Percenters!

The A.V. Club — Wed, 02 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Genevieve Koski, Josh Modell, and host Kyle Ryan talk about what's holding our interest outside of work in Extracurricular Activities, including GK finally making her way through The Shield, Josh looking at the Ministry documentary Fix (and the ample number of penis shots therein), and Kyle reading a staple of high-school literature classes.

RD031: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-99 Percenters!

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#30: Buy Thin Lizzy Albums

The A.V. Club — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

ReasDis 2.0 kicks off with Steven Hyden, Keith Phipps, and host Kyle Ryan discussing how Spotify, Rdio, and similar services are changing our music-consumption habits. How much do we need to buy anything anymore? How do we decide what to buy and what to stream? What are we missing out? Should Kyle have skipped buying that Thin Lizzy hits collection when he could’ve just streamed it?

RD030: Buy Thin Lizzy Albums

Coming later this week: Extracurricular Activities; The Avengers and our summer-movie preview

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#29.5: Special SXSW brought to you by Doritos edition

The A.V. Club — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:10:00 -0500

Last week The A.V. Club ventured down to Austin for the music portion of South by Southwest. We ended up writing 7,000 or so words about the experience, but Steven Hyden and Josh Modell still had more to say, prompting a special edition of Reasonable Discussions. Steve and Josh talked about what they liked at the festival, whether SXSW is now more about superstars than underdog bands trying to get noticed, and why the media spends so much time and effort covering this thing every year.

RD029.5: Special SXSW brought to you by Doritos edition

Related stuff:
SXSW recap

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#29: No, That Would Be Drive Angry

The A.V. Club — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Why must critics be so damned critical all the time? That’s just one of the questions guest host Scott Tobias asks a rotating panel of persnickety writers on this week’s episode, which ironically trumpets our unalloyed enthusiasm for Garry Trudeau, basketball, and Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy. With Trudeau back in the news for his controversial—and brilliant—series mocking Texas’ invasive new anti-abortion measures, we look at Doonesbury’s legacy and examine whether the comics page is a hospitable place for political commentary. Then it’s on to a listener question about a critic’s tendency to poke holes in entertainment, and if that impulse is arbitrary and wrong-headed. With the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in full effect, Todd VanDerWerff joins us from Albuquerque—where he was seeing his alma mater South Dakota State square off against Baylor in its first tourney appearance—to help recommend ...

#28: I Hate My Baby

The A.V. Club — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Chances are you won't hear a lot of people describing the new ensemble comedy Friends With Kids as "utterly repulsive," but that's how our Tasha Robinson found it, mostly because of the film's message, such as it is. What art has morally offended you, and how much of a role does that play in how you view it? That's where we kick things off in episode 28, before continuing down the "children ruin everything" path with Michael Ian Black, who reads from a chapter called "I Hate My Baby" from his excellent new book, You're Not Doing It Right: Tales Of Marriage, Sex, Death, And Other Humiliations. We stop beating up on kids—FOR NOW—in our third segment, where a listener asks what trailers we've liked better than the movies they advertised. Extracurricular Activities closes everything out, as usual.

RD028: I Hate My ...

#27: Oscar Season Is Basically The Worst

The A.V. Club — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0600

The trail of tears that is Oscar season mercifully ends Sunday night, and we couldn't be happier about it. We're not here to make predictions or complain about the ceremony, because what's the point? Isn't time we all just accepted the Oscars as what our Scott Tobias calls "a tedious mediocrity"? With that in mind, we share some of our hopes for winners. Our hopes for the current wave of dance music are similarly low, but this year's Grammy ceremony showed acts like Deadmau5 and Skrillex can't be denied. But they're not so far removed from rock, as we discuss. The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills isn't far removed from great television, according to A.V. Club writer Emily Yoshida. It has us wondering if reality TV can ever be great, and what the limits of exploitation are. We close out the ...

#26: Phantom Menace Beats Jedi

The A.V. Club — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0600

No matter what the weather is where you live, these are the winter doldrums of pop culture. Your local multiplex is a dumping ground for stuff like a sequel to Journey To The Center Of The Earth, there isn't a lot going on in the way of music or books, and only television offers anything compelling. We make some suggestions to help you get through the month. Also at your multiplex: The Phantom Menace in 3-D, which Noel Murray maintains is better than Return Of The Jedi. We use Van Halen's new album as a jumping off point to debate what we want from band reunions, and close out with some listener mail and Extracurricular Activities.

RD026: Phantom Menace Beats Jedi

:53 - Steven Hyden and Keith Phipps talk about the new Van Halen and what we expect from reunions
17:08 - Noel Murray explains why The Phantom Menace ...

#25: He Had Deliverance In His Eyes

The A.V. Club — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

It's the Reasonable Discussions 25th Episode Spectacular! Actually, it isn't. We didn't notice until now. But we still have plenty of fantastic things to talk about! You know what's fantastic, as in the realm of fantasy? Saying that piracy costs the U.S. economy $250 billion and 750,000 jobs every year. We talk about our pirating lives before considering the next step for George Lucas, who's claiming—yet again—that his retirement is imminent. We have a new game inspired by the Liam Neeson flick The Grey, and we close it out, as always, with our Extracurricular Activities.

RD025: He Had Deliverance In His Eyes

:00 - Intro
:55 - Genevieve Koski, Erik Adams, and Tasha Robinson talk MegaUpload, SOPA, and our experiences with piracy.
19:22 - Scott Tobias and Keith Phipps talk about George Lucas' future following Francis Ford Coppola to the art house
30 ...

#24: The Small (Screechy) House Of Uncle Thomas

The A.V. Club — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Aaaaaaaaaand we're back. Our holiday schedules kept us out of the studio for a couple of weeks, but we're back and bursting with things to discuss. First of all, how well can 3-D or IMAX films transition to home theater when they were created for a very specific theatrical experience? Second, the new comic-book prequel of The Dark Crystal has us thinking about other comic-book spinoffs. Third, listening to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' soundtrack/score for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo will eat up much of your day, and we want to talk about other scores done by non-composers. We also touch on the Lana Del Rey phenomenon ahead of her Saturday Night Live appearance this weekend, and Extracurricular Activities closes everything out.

RD024: The Small (Screechy) House Of Uncle Thomas

:00 - Intro
:43 - Scott Tobias, Tasha Robinson, and Keith Phipps wonder about the home-video future ...

#23: Why The Pop-Culture World Continually Disappoints Us

The A.V. Club — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

We're kidding about that title, at least a little bit. The problem comes with getting our hopes up because something has so much potential, like the film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or the Jay-Z/Kanye West collaboration, Watch The Throne. One is in theaters, the other just wrapped up a tour, and in separate segments we basically talk about how each one measured against its potential. Then there's a pair of discussions about strange rises to prominence: the one that takes a no-name singer-songwriter from Wisconsin to a slew of Grammy nominations (Bon Iver), the other a film that sat on a shelf for six years until critics demanded the studio pay attention to it (Margaret). Not heard: The crazy coughing fits Kyle had while we recorded, though his voice is pretty much gone by the end of the Bon Iver segment.

RD023: Why The Pop-Culture World Continually ...