The Dallas Observer's Most-Read Film and TV Stories of 2016

From Stars Hollow to Afghanistan, 2016's film and television creators produced plenty of work that was good, bad or ugly — but always interesting. Here are some of the stories about this year's crop that caught our readers' eyes.

13 Hours Trades Truth for Explosions — But It's Not Truly Political
Benghazi is a hashtag battle-cry, a call to arms that many Americans don't understand. Unlike the simplicity of “Remember the Alamo!” a bleat of “Benghazi!” still has people wondering, “Wait, what happened? And why are we mad?” Michael Bay's 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi has an explanation, though it should be taken with a grain of salt — or rather, a kilogram of dynamite.

The Tick Speaks: Patrick Warburton Talks Venture Brothers, Male Modeling and the Time Family Guy Went Too Far
Patrick Warburton is that rare voice actor who looks like he sounds. His imposing, muscular physique complements his deep basso voice, but his warm tone gives a touch of soul to his many memorable performances as lunkheaded alpha males.

The Coens’ Hollywood Farce Hail, Caesar! Flames Out
A kick for those who’ve distractedly thumbed through Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon, Joel and Ethan Coen’s bustling comedy Hail, Caesar! looks back to the waning days of moviedom’s golden age: specifically, to 1951, when big-studio fixers were still tidying up the messes left by the talent (scrubbing now done by publicists and lawyers).
  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Confirms That the Movies Don't Get Tina Fey
The title of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s strained dark comedy, in which the war in Afghanistan serves as the backdrop to an American woman’s self-actualizing journey, is the military phonetic-alphabet rendering of WTF. The mild Islamophobia and highly questionable casting choices in the film call to mind other texting abbreviations – namely, AYFKMWTS and GTFOOH. In the end, though, it's an armed-forces acronym dating back to World War II that best describes this dismal project: FUBAR.

Pubes, Poops, Periods: How Broad City Takes Body Humor (and Feminism) to the Next Level
The third season of Broad City (Comedy Central) opens with a toilet-centric montage that already feels like one of the year’s TV highlights. At once exuberant, absurd and all-too-real, a split screen reveals besties Ilana (Ilana Glazer) and Abbi (Abbi Jacobson) living their best lives in their respective bathrooms. They have plenty in common: They get dressed up as ’80s-era Madonna, devour one half each of a Best Friends chocolate box, toke, talk on the phone and read Hillary Clinton’s autobiography on the throne. The sequence also plays up the differences between the friends: WASPy Jewess Abbi straightens her hair; lion-maned Ilana experiments with flat-ironing her pubes. Frequently humiliated Abbi kisses her negative pregnancy test before remembering just what is on it; un-shame-able Ilana startles herself awake on the (closed) toilet lid with her own trumpeting butt-honk.

Pixar Dives Under the Sea Again — and Into Memory Itself
Returning co-writer and -director Andrew Stanton dives even further into the emotional undercurrents — into the world of memory, trauma, loss and existential dread. And it’s harrowing. Finding Dory is one of the most devastating things Pixar has made — all while often being even bouncier than Finding Nemo.

In Netflix's The Fundamentals of Caring, Paul Rudd Scores Big With Low-Wage Work
Has Paul Rudd become Hollywood's idea of the face of economic insecurity? There his handsome mug was, in Ant-Man, beneath a Baskin-Robbins ball cap, his character making do behind an ice-cream counter while Marvel made bank in promotional tie-ins. And now, in The Fundamentals of Caring, Rob Burnett's alternately winning/cloying new road-trip comedy, this rock-abbed movie star is an in-home caretaker making $9 an hour "wiping asses."

Me Tarzan. Me Sorry About Colonialism.
At last, a Hollywood reimagining with a point. David Yates' two-fisted pulp-studies spree The Legend of Tarzan doesn't just update Edgar Rice Burroughs' white-boy jungle-bro for our age of heightened sensitivities and bit rates. It interrogates the very idea of Tarzan, signing the old sport up for the good fight against colonialism and everything that probably makes you queasy about old-school jungle adventures.

Ali Wong’s Baby Cobra: Have We Entered Television’s Golden Age of Transgressive Pregnancy?
Rising comedian Ali Wong draws loud applause but also silent awe when she steps onstage to perform her one-hour comedy act in the Netflix special Baby Cobra. Or perhaps it’s a jolt of surprise. Slightly built, her attractive face brightened by red cat-eye glasses, Wong performs her set decked out in a slinky, skin-tight horizontal striped dress, her third-trimester belly protruding underneath.

“Dancing. Is. Important”: Netflix's EDM Movie XOXO Is a Transcendent Goof
Where were you when you learned that you'd be making your DJ debut at the biggest rave of the year? And that said rave was only eight hours away? Ethan, the sheepish main character of Netflix's straight-to-streaming EDM movie XOXO, gets the news in his kitchen, where his mom is cooking breakfast for his baby sibling. "Why are you being so weird?" he asks his best friend, also his manager, over the phone. The best friend grins: "I just wanted you to remember where you were the day your whole life changed."

Shia LaBeouf Is Actually Really Good in This Military Mystery with a Godawful Twist
Look, Shia LaBeouf was approximately the 27th worst thing in that last Indiana Jones movie, and his intense-yet-distracted turns in the Transformers series aren't legit strikes against him. Would you have turned down all that money to be posed by Michael Bay for a couple months every few years? Now, in the ripely bizarre Man Down, Dito Montiel's green-screened puzzle-mess of PTSD counseling and post-apocalyptic cityscapes, LaBeouf is far and away the best thing in the film — and that would probably be true even if the film weren't a confused and ugly howler.

What's Most Dissatisfying About Gilmore Girls' Return Is Also What's Most True
In October, 200 coffee shops across the United States and Canada were made into Luke’s Diner for a day to promote the new revival of Gilmore Girls. No special signings or souvenirs — just the regular drink in a commemorative sleeve, served by the usual barista in a branded apron, alongside a selfie-optimized cardboard cutout of Luke Danes (Scott Patterson) himself. Transforming independent cafés into even an imaginary multinational chain seems contrary to the show’s spirit. Yet it’s suggestive of the series’ appeal in the streaming age: You can hop on a bus tour of Carrie Bradshaw’s New York or drink at the Cheers bar in Boston, but the Stars Hollow of Gilmore Girls is an everytown, and by the grace of Netflix, it can be everywhere.