I love Aaron Sorkin, but Nathan Rabin’s hilarious, exhaustive takedown of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip completely nails what’s wrong with the show (and with Sorkin himself):

[F]ailed television shows come and go; why does Studio 60 obsess us so?
The answer has a lot to do with arrogance. In premise and execution, Studio 60 was a work of unbearable, overweening arrogance. It began with making the lead character of Matt Albie both a clear Sorkin surrogate and a writer so ridiculously romanticized even M. Night Shyamalan might say, “Get over yourself, dude. You’re a fucking writer, not Jesus’ younger brother, the one God really likes.”

I was chatting with Russ Fischer this morning about the amazing trailer for Martha Marcy May Marlene, and it caused me to reflect on some of my favorite trailers from this year so far. Obviously this list will probably change by the end of the year, and the following definitely does not reflect my appreciation of the films themselves.

What do you guys think? What did I miss?

Fast Five – I wish I knew how to quit this series of films. Thankfully, the latest iteration was a highly enjoyable, mindless heist film.

Martha Marcy May Marlene – This film is so disturbing and so well-made that I’m loathe to revisit it, yet feel I must.

Hanna – It is safe to say this movie did not live up to my expectations. Great Chemical Brother score though.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Amazing.

The NYTimes’ Brian Stelter and Nick Wingfield try to deconstruct what went wrong at Netflix. Their theory? Netflix discounted the emotional connection that people have with the DVD service:

Like many other companies built in Silicon Valley, Netflix prides itself on its analytical, data-driven approach to making decisions. But it made a classic business misstep. In its reliance on data and long-term strategy, the company underestimated the unquantifiable emotions of subscribers who still want those little red envelopes, even if they forget to ever watch the DVDs inside.

In short: because the reality of Contagion is too frightening to contemplate (via Jason)

Last night’s finale of Breaking Bad capped off a remarkable fourth season, which cemented Breaking Bad’s place among the pantheon of the greatest television shows in history. Many of the episodes this year could have stood alone as their own short films, with countless cinematic moments that gave me goosebumps for how carefully considered and executed they were.

My weekly ritual has been to read the recaps of Alan Sepinwall, James Poniewozik, Myles McNutt, and Matt Zoller Seitz, and I’d strongly recommend all of them this time around as well. Also, check out Sepinwall’s extensive interview with series creator Vince Gilligan, as well as the NYTimes interview with Gilligan. 

We’ll be doing our own /Filmcast season review this week. Look forward to it.

As I mentioned when I wrote about Todd VanDerWerff’s interview of Community-creator Dan Harmon, I believe that the extensive, long-form interviews that the AV Club does with showrunners are so valuable that they actually contribute to our culture in a way that nearly rises to the level of the original works themselves.

This time around, it’s Nathan Rabin who gets the honor to interview Louie CK and run down every episode of Louie’s brilliant second season:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Well-worth the huge length of time it will take you to get through it (and with much less self-loathing than the Harmon interview!).

Yesterday, Stephen Tobolowsky went to Seattle, Washington to perform “The Tobolowsky Files” live at a fundraiser on Vashon Island. While in the area, he stopped by the Neptune Theatre for a live recording of ‘Weekday’ live on KUOW, Seattle’s premiere public radio station. I was sad that I could not make it out there, but thankfully, we can listen to his interview on ‘Weekday’ live right here.

I’ve been working on “The Tobolowsky Files” for two years now. For two years, I have tirelessly produced and edited each episode and promoted the show at every possible turn. It has consumed hundreds of hours of my life, and I have received essentially no financial compensation for it. But as I listened to the interview begin and heard the audience of hundreds cheering his name when “The Tobolowsky Files” was invoked…man, there is nothing like it.