I was slow to warm to The X-Files. I eventually started watching it because Jen was a faithful devotee, and if she was making this list,...

Basil Fawlty owns a hotel. At least, his wife Sybil does, and she allows him to think he does too. Running that hotel would be a joy to...

I'm not a huge fan of the Hunger Games books or movies. Katniss is a bit too Mary Sue for me, and Jennifer Lawrence's portrayal a bit too...

In 1816, young Mary Shelley and her lover Percy Shelley visited Lord Byron at Lake Geneva. Byron suggested they write ghost stories. Mary...

How I Met Your Mother was a great show, then a decent one, before descending into mediocrity for the last third of its run. Most viewers...

Indy's true love, Marion was a throwback to the tough-broad school of 1930s Hollywood serials, less damsel in distress than land mine in...

Ladyhawke is an underrated classic. The plot is simple and effective, the cinematography is consistently beautiful, Rutger Hauer is at...

The X-Men were unusual in the early 1960s for several reasons. They were young, students really, but more importantly they were...

Be warned: The Bees by Laline Paull is a weird book, an odd, foreign feminine manifesto. It follows the experiences of Flora-717, a...

It is likely that some portion of my affection for A Prayer for Owen Meany stems from the setting. Irving's Gravesend is a...

The Empire Strikes Back is the first movie I can remember seeing in the theater. I was five years old, and it's hard to parse my actual...

I could probably do a whole week or more just on West Wing characters. Among them would be, without question, Amy Gardner. There's so...