This week’s entry: Ted Kaczynski

In the mid-’90s, a force rose from the ruins of the British empire. This force would go on to assume a role of global significance, influencing people around the world and definitively altering the course of world history. I refer, of course, to Tony Blair. But also, the Spice Girls existed back then, and when they…

Here at The A.V. Club, we’re pretty big on the movies director Edgar Wright has made with star and co-writer Simon Pegg—so much so that all three of them appear on our list of the best film comedies since 2000. And many of our readers might know that the duo first attracted attention with Spaced, the cult…

Welcome back to AVQ&A, where we throw out a question for discussion among the staff and readers. Consider this a prompt to compare notes on your interface with pop culture, to reveal your embarrassing tastes and experiences, and to ponder how our diverse lives all led us to convene here together. Got a question you’d…

In Hear This, The A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, we’re picking some of our favorite songs from 1996.

Robert Altman. David Cronenberg. Michael Cimino. Stephen Frears. Raúl Ruiz. André Téchiné. Chen Kaige. The Coen brothers. Bernardo Bertolucci. Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Mike Leigh. Aki Kaurismäki. Lars Von Trier. Arnaud Desplechin. What do these men have in common? For one, they all belong on a list of some of the most…

19XX was simultaneously the end of Capcom’s 1942/1943 shooters and their salvation. Trading in the deeply awkward World War II setting for a fictional war where twin-engine planes can shoot walls of plasma and fly endlessly into the horizon, it recast the ’80s arcade series in heavy metal tones for the ’90s. The old…

When Congress passed the Telecommunications Act Of 1996, it didn’t seem like a big deal. An act that was meant to save consumers money on cable bills and phone service, the Telecom Act passed through Congress with flying colors, earning yea votes from 91 of the 100 senators, and about 95 percent of the House Of…

Some things are best appreciated by the very young: Clove cigarettes. Wine coolers. The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Others are emblematic of a certain time or place, and regardless of their quality, will always have a faint stink of that era on them, like somebody who showers but only wears that weird crystal deodorant…

One of the most infamous characters in Simpsons history might be partially inspired by one of the most infamous mascots in Olympics history. At least that’s a theory espoused in the article “Joke Origins: Poochie, The Whatizit?, And The ’96 Olympics” posted on fan blog Flim Springfield. The blog, maintained by two …

In Hear This, The A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, we’re picking some of our favorite songs from 1996.

When the Nintendo 64 launched in the United States in September of 1996, players had just two games to choose from: a flight simulator called Pilotwings 64 and the latest entry in one of the most popular series in video game history. Super Mario 64 dragged its titular plumber into a fully realized three-dimensional…

Usually when I tell a fellow Doctor Who fan that my first real foray into the fandom was the 1996 TV movie, I get a look of revulsion, confusion, or sympathy. Some people are amazed I would give the show another chance after such an ignominious introduction, while others think they’re wasting their time talking to a…

In 1996, 3-D video games made good. Super Mario 64 and Tomb Raider weren’t alone in the land of three-dimensional games. Sega, Namco, Nintendo, and others had been releasing games made of polygons—the triangular graphical objects that are molded together to make your myriad racing cars or bug-eyed anthropomorphs—for…

It may be difficult to remember now that big-ticket superhero movies arrive on a near-monthly basis, but back in 1996, it was TV adaptations, not comics-based movies, that were considered the creative scourge of the decade. In ’96, there were about a dozen such adaptations, while the year’s single superhero offering…

In Hear This, The A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, we’re picking some of our favorite songs from 1996.

1996 was a good year for popcorn blockbusters and hip French movies. It was the year that a bunch of great or at least interesting directors made their first features. It was the year that Woody Allen made a movie that inspired strong feelings in people who aren’t me. It was the year that great films were booed at…

“It was just a normal Saturday, like the 51 other Saturdays that year.” So begins the 13th episode of the third season of The Adventures Of Pete And Pete, aptly titled “Saturday.” Like the other 38 half-hour episodes of Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi’s suburban fantasia, it’s a mundane setup that takes approximately…

On October 1, 1996, Matchbox Twenty, led by singer-songwriter Rob Thomas, released its debut album, Yourself Or Someone Like You, which went on to sell over 15 million copies worldwide. The band was a mainstream staple of the mid- to late-’90s with its light rock songs about loneliness, depression, anger, and…

Music fans who came of age during the era of Monica Lewinsky, Pearl Jam, and Friends may experience a strong sense of déjà vu while watching “Hooking Up With Girls,” the latest video from Brooklyn alternative rock band It Was Romance. It’s a newly made clip for a newly released track, yet something about it seems so…