The Walking Dead Phenomenon: A Culture Obsessed with Zombies?

Ew, gross, Society.

Over the last 40 years, zombies have evolved from a cult geekdom to a full fledged American obsession that finally has spread to our television lineup with The Walking Dead. So where does this obsession come from?

These days there are zombie walks, zombie retreats where you go through an obstacle course shooting targets of zombies, and every Halloween looks like the apocalypse. Part of the reason we play at being zombies is that it seems the least likely apocalypse of them all. But truly, if we look at it as a metaphor for a viral plague, some iteration of it isn’t any less likely than an extinction meteorite. But our obsession isn’t just easy make-believe, flesh-eating zombies make us wonder if we have the stuff for survival.

Oscar Predictions: Best Supporting Actor

My girlfriend swears I'm sexier.

Most years, this is my favorite race when it comes to the Academy Awards. Especially in a year like this where there really are no front runners. Even better, the actual possible nominees are up in the air. Anytime there’s actually a competition to a category, it gets me excited to watch. With that said, let’s break it down.

Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn

Well respected actor/director taking a break from the Shakespearean ghetto he’s imposed upon himself for almost 30 years, he’s been scoring the majority of notices in all the reviews and early buzz. If the film is well liked, he’s getting in no matter what.

Albert Brooks, DRIVE

I honestly wasn’t a fan of the performance but most people disagree with me on that. Albert Brooks is hilarious and a guy who can make people laugh but knows how to be menacing is usually a safe bet.

Oscar Predictions: Best Actress

• Viola Davis, The Help

Playing history's second most infamous fascist should get Meryl a nom.

She’s received the most accolades out of the whole cast and seeing that the film is supposedly a female centered acting showcase, at least somebody will get in, especially since Hollywood usually doesn’t make female oriented films that are actually good. She scored a previous nomination for a five minute role in Doubt that was completely deserved so there’s obviously a lot of supporters for her.

• Elizabeth Olson, Martha Marcy May Marlene

Consider this the indie nomination thrown to a young up and comer, a la Jennifer Lawrence in last year’s Winter’s Bone. This film also stars John Hawkes(best known as Kenny Powers’ brother on Eastbound And Down). Having the Olson Twins as your older sisters may work against this young actress from scoring a nomination, but the reviews are amazing and her performance is supposedly a revelation. Don’t count this out.

• Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

This lady could film herself taking a crap in a public bathroom and still be nominated. I actually kind of want to see that…

Queen of Ladies’ Night: Prime Suspect

My kind of motherlady.

It’s a big season for women in the media: Whitney, New Girl, and the good old staples of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, feminists extraordinaire. Women, though varying degrees of authentic, are all over the sitcom scene. The most authentic portrayal of a woman is, however, a drama: NBC’s remake of the British police procedural drama starring Helen Mirren, Prime Suspect.

With Zooey Deschanel, Whitney Cummings, and Maria Bello, Thursday really does appear to be Ladies’ Night. The American version stars Bello and deals with the same sort of breaking through the glass ceiling and the inherent difficulties a woman detective might face in a post-Women’s Movement world. Maria Bello is fantastic with her own brand of masculinized demeanor and style, fedora included, perfect for the character.

Whitney and the War of the Sexes: What’re We Fightin’ Fer?

The couple that shaves together, stays together

You know how they say that “the war between the sexes is the only one in which both sides regularly sleep with the enemy?” Well, Whitney is beginning to make me wonder why. The basic premise of this show is simple and familiar — let’s be honest, this one ain’t taking home an Emmy for originality — a man and woman, their differences vast, but somehow they make it work. Although, their attempts at breaking the romantic mold include: the couple is unwed and the woman is the marriage-phobic one.

But that is where the edgy ends and the box they think inside starts. Everything the two of them do puts them squarely in their predefined gender stereotypes. Whitney Cummings is a funny SOB and that shows up at times in the sitcom, especially in the somewhat non sequitur jokes during the credits. So it’s not as if I sit there stony faced the entire half hour. I just feel dirty afterwards, like a need a good Crying Game shower.

Ode to Chuck Lorre

Don't allow your daughters to go anywhere near this man unless you want to watch them be exploited for the entertainment of fifteen million people.

“I think, therefore I am.” – Rene Descartes

“Oh why can’t I just black out in peace?” – Charlie, Two and a Half Men

People used to care about things

Oh Chuck, how you changed that

At one time, people appreciated art and philosophy

Because of you, they laugh at jokes

About women being sperm receptacles

Of course I don’t believe you harbor any ill will

To the gender that gave birth to you

But you sure do make your money off the people who do

The Derivation of “It,” Jersey Shore Style

Surprisingly insightful.

We all know what “it” is, what doing “it” means. As the ultimate solipsism of our puritanical culture begs the question: if we can’t talk about it, should we be doing it? Of course, that has never stopped anyone before.

As far as euphemisms go, “doing it” might be the most boring of them all. When we have such creative covers like: “dance the mattress jig,” “makin’ whoopee,” or even the ol’ standby “flop in the hay.” But popularity has never had much to do with originality, which is why the Jersey Shore even exists.

The newest unoriginal trend in slang from the Shore kids proves just how much they are affecting culture. “Smush” or “smash” seem relatively harmless and slightly more original — possible undercurrents of violence aside — than “getting it in” as a cover for the dirty deed. The latter is particularly pertinent because of what “it” refers to.

Score One for Big Theater

It’s been a while since we brought you an update on the movie industry’s grand plan to make you give them way more money to watch their films at home slightly earlier, but they suffered a major setback today.

Universal, which is releasing Tower Heist on November 4, was planning to offer it as a rental to Comcast customers only three weeks later, just in time for Thanksgiving, for only $60. (Yeah. Sixty.) In response, Cinemark threatened not to show the movie in its theaters — about one-tenth of all screens in the United States. Universal apparently guessed that they probably couldn’t make that up with $60 Xfinity rentals, so they blinked.

A couple thoughts here. First, charging $60 to rent a movie about a bunch of working-class people who get fleeced by a greedy businessman is kind of odd messaging. (I’m thinking maybe a movie about the NFL lockout.) Second, this is not the plan that revolutionizes the moviegoing experience.

Whitney: Why The AV Club Is Wrong

Some men wouldn't know what to do with her.

This isn’t so much a review of the show Whitney as much as it is a review of Erik Adam’s review of the episode “Silent Treatment”. In the three episodes that have so far aired, the show has never been given a higher rating than a D+. That was the first episode, the episode after and the most recent episode were given straight Ds.   I can understand not liking the show, but to claim it’s getting worse than better is questionable at best. I fear the issue may not be the show, but with Mr. Adam’s obvious bias.

Within the first paragraph he outright admits to not liking the comedic style of Whitney Cummings. Obviously a person with a predisposed distaste for something will not be attempting objectivity in their professional analyses. In reading the reviews Erik has written, instead of providing potential viewers of the demographic the show aims for what it’s about and what to expect, he uses The AV Club as a soapbox to snobbishly promote the merit of his preferences. While I will admit to that being a decent sized portion of what makes a television critic, most critics have cultivated their preferences of quality beyond whether they are personally attracted to the female character.

I don’t want to make this about expected gender roles that Whitney Cummings herself doesn’t hold her to and Mr. Adam’s inability to like her and whether they have anything in common. I definitely don’t want to accuse somebody I’ve never met of anything I can’t prove, but I do think it’s telling that the same author regularly hands Fox’s New Girl decent reviews. That is after all a show meant to break advertisers into the “I’m a hipster therefore I have no actual personality, just a collection of esoteric quarks that make me feel better than everybody else” demographic. Zooey Deschanel plays a character who is more naive than an eight-year-old and can’t seem to do anything without the help of the men in her life. Again, I’m not accusing anybody of anything, but Whitney Cummings is the complete anti-thesis of New Girl.

The Office: We’ve Got A Winner

The foundation of 49% of observational comedy

When Steve Carell announced he was leaving The Office everybody predicted the show would die as a result. Not only had the penultimate season been a huge lowering of the standards, but Steve Carell’s exit became the only focus of the show. Characters were sacrificed and even more importantly, so had the comedy. We as the audience had grown too fond of Michael Scott. We never saw him as the bumbling idiot the comedy required because we had shared too many experiences. Our love killed the comedy.

And because of this the show became depressing. The jokes failed on a regular basis but the drama of character interaction became downright painful at times. I should have loved it, but it felt like an abandonment of what the show had earlier been. So Steve Carell left the show. James Spader came in to supply the “famous guy” role left vacated and Ed Helm’s Andy took over the management position for the sole reason of Ed Helms starring in the two most profitable comedies of all time. Surprisingly, it’s actually working.