The Oscars last night were, well, different from years past. We can probably attribute that to the host; in the three-and-a-half-hour run time, there were plenty of surprises, albeit very few of those in who won what. I was thrilled to see Jennifer Lawrence win best actress for her odd, alluring, heartbreaking and three-dimensional performance in Silver Linings Playbook; I was disappointed, however, that it was the sole statuette that the movie took home. Part of that’s a love for this town, and part of that is something considerably more. Silver Linings Playbook certainly had a touch of the …

I want to make it very clear, right up front: This is not intended as an indemnification of violence on television. To make statements that blame horrific events like Sandy Hook on the average amount of gunshots per hour of programming or on who blows what up when is, well, irresponsible in and of itself. (It’s like shouting at the Weather Channel as a hurricane passes on through; it doesn’t get to the root of the problem, doesn’t add to our awareness and understand of a situation. It doesn’t move us forward.)But if you’re the kind of person who enjoys TV violence as a sort of escapism—and I’…

All right, here's the deal. There's highbrow, super-high-quality art; then there's lowbrow, late-night-drive-thru, junky-but fun entertainment. And I don't see much point in pulling apart my list between the two distinctions. If it's enjoyable, and fulfills its function well, and is worth my—and your—time, it made this list. Welcome to no-brow, friends.Here we go! MOVIES 5. PITCH PERFECTI know, I know. But this was the surprise snark comedy of the year for me, deserving of a place on the shelf next to Mean Girls and Bring It On and Easy A and Drop Dead Gorgeous. It gets the college a cappella…

My personal politics aside, it warmed my heart a wee bit to hear that the Obamas consider NBC's Parks and Recreation a family favorite. The sitcom, now in its fifth season, is the closest thing we have these days to an heir to Andy Griffith's comedy legacy. It's sharp, funny, at times gut-busting, occasionally sentimental, and unlike most comedy today, built solidly on a belief that every character can be warm and likable. I've been living in Collingswood for a little over a year now, and I've learned to deeply love this small town for both its conventions and quirks. And it's easy to see how…

Going out on a limb here: Does anyone else think that The Walking Dead is, well, kind of terrible? Those first six episodes were pretty amazing, I’ll grant it that. The characters were smart, and scared, and stuck in a world turned upside down. And we got a good six hours of scary, gooey, gory antics as the suspense and horror mounted and we learned about this new environment and what to expect as things went from bad to worse. And then the show got, well, worse. And you can blame that on writer firings or director turnarounds or producer interference or any number of things. But it happened…