In 2009, over half a million people visited Overthinking It. What did they come to see? Well, largely, the homepage and the movies category.

But seriously. Which posts were the most highly-trafficked? Here, without any ado whatsoever, is a list of the ten posts from 2009 with the largest numer of views.

1. Marty McFly’s Grim Future
2. The Science of Back to the Future
3. Slumdog Millionaire: How much is 20 million rupees anyway?
4. Clichemageddon
5. The Ghostbusters Are Horrible People
6. I Will Always Have Been Back: Toward a Grand Unified Theory of Schwarzenegger
7. [Think Tank] Best Use of Aliens as Metaphor
8. The Smooze: Anatomy of a My Little Pony Villain
9. Pixar’s UP!: Paradise Lost at Paradise Falls
10. The Ghostbusters’ Risky Business Plan

For those keeping score, Belinkie leads the pack with four posts in the top 10, while Fenzel and Lee tie for second with two each. Perich rounds out the top 4, tied with a herd of cats. (Seriously. You should try getting our writers to do the Think Tank on time.)

[Yes, we are technically on hiatus. But here was a breaking story that couldn't wait to be overthought. —Ed.]

Font snobs around the world recoiled in horror upon seeing the font “Papyrus” used in the movie posters for James Cameron’s Avatar.

But that wasn’t the end of the horror for the Font Snobs: James Cameron wasn’t content with using Papyrus in the movie poster; he went as far as to use it as the font for all of the subtitles in the movie!

Now, I sympathize with these Font Snobs. It’s a hokey font. But all I have to say is, James Cameron’s taste in fonts could be worse. Imagine if this were the poster…

Matthew Wrather hosts with Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Jordan Stokes to overthink the decade at its close, addressing the defects of memory and nostalgia while recapping trends in music, television, and movies.

Want new episodes of the Overthinking It Podcast to download automatically? Subscribe in iTunes! (Or grab the podcast RSS feed directly.)

Tell us what you think! Leave a comment, use the contact form, email us or call 20-EAT-LOG-01—that’s (203) 285-6401.

Download Episode 78 (MP3)

Ho-ho-hoverthinkingit! From all of us here at OTI-HQ, Merry Christmas!

Christmas is a perfect subject for overthinking—a global cultural phenomenon and economic powerhouse; a day of celebrations sacred and secular; hey, even a site of military occupation: I hear there’s a war on it.

Question: So what do you have planned for the day? Watching Home Alone, Miracle on 34th Street, or It’s a Wonderful Life on TV? Special music? Chinese food and a trip to the movie theater? What is your unique, pop-culture Christmas tradition?

We’re going to be taking a week off between Christmas and New Year’s Day to recharge the Overthinking It flux capacitor with stolen pop culture plutonium. But never fear—we’re doing what every media outlet does when the original programing goes on hiatus:

RERUNS and CLIP SHOWS!

That’s right, we’re rehashing the of what we published in 2009. Stay tuned next week for “Best Of” compilations featuring our personal favorites, our most popular articles, and most importantly, the OTI Readers’ Choice. Nominate your favorite article of 2009 in the comments,  and come back next week to vote for the top choices.

Question: What’s the best thing we’ve published in the last year?

Answer these or any other questions. And let us know if you got some good loot! It’s YOUR… open thread!

Since 1908, Hollywood has been churning out adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Every portrayal detective in literature, film or television harkens back to 221B Baker St. (51° 31’25.50” N, 0° 09’30.89” W)* for those seemingly insignificant details, the flawed but determined investigator, and the big reveal at the end. Even medical shows are cheating off Doyle these days.

With examples ranging from the fabulous (Basil Rathbone, both on film and on the radio) to the awful (much of the Young Sherlock Holmes series), Holmes and his stories are well trodden territory, but there’s hope for tomorrow’s film will have something new. For the first time, we’ll get see Sherlock Holmes portrayed as a superhero by Robert Downey Jr., an actor who plays a good superhero.

Joss Whedon is a feminist! His shows feature complicated female characters as the protagonists!

No, Joss Whedon is a misogynist! He revels in torturing and degrading women!

Feminist! By giving female characters the opportunity to suffer like male characters, he makes the audience identify with women!

Misogynist! His female characters are hyper-sexualized objects of the male viewer’s gaze!

Whedon is sex-positive and allows his female characters to express sexual desire without punishing them!

Whedon blah blah blah…

This could go on for a while. Googling “Joss Whedon feminist” brings up more than 50,000 results. The Geek Feminism Wiki lists several articles debating the issue, including interviews with Whedon in which he explicitly self-identifies as a feminist, and even that listing is grossly incomplete. By far, feminism is the principal discourse in the global overthinking of Whedon’s TV shows, and Whedon is the major contemporary pop cultural focus for the debate on feminism in narrative television. This makes sense, as his series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse (and to a much lesser degree, Firefly) address feminism in their basic premises in a way that no other show on television has.

Strange, then, that the most persistent issue in regards to Whedon’s feminism is its authenticity.

Overthinking It has hosted some posts of late debating pop-cultural parodies, like Starship Troopers and Steel Panther. These posts have generated some contentious yet rewarding discussions. In these posts, and the discussions that follow, a common question has emerged: does the fact of being a parody excuse the parody from being offensive? Is “I’m Just Kidding, Guys” a sufficient defense?

Today on Cowboy Bebop: Spike Takes a Dump

Welcome back!  I hope you’re in the mood for Bebop.  Take a gander at the introduction or Sessions 1-5 if you need a refresher, and then settle in for some episode recaps.

Matthew Wrather hosts with Peter Fenzel, Ryan Sheely, and Jordan Stokes to overthink James Cameron’s Avatar, from the visuals to the narrative to the cat boobies to the political message.

Want new episodes of the Overthinking It Podcast to download automatically? Subscribe in iTunes! (Or grab the podcast RSS feed directly.)

Tell us what you think! Leave a comment, use the contact form, email us or call 20-EAT-LOG-01—that’s (203) 285-6401.

Download Episode 77 (MP3)

And good-bye to the working week.

First off, Overthinking It bids farewell to two older icons of the entertainment industry: Jennifer Jones, star of The Song of Bernadette and Duel in the Sun (in the 40s and 50s) and Roy Disney, part owner of the empire of that name. Disney breathed new life into the company’s animation division, helping create gems like Beauty and the Beast and disappointments like Fantasia 2000. Actors who won Oscars for playing saints and pioneers of 2-D animation: they probably weren’t going to like the 21st century much anyway.

Not to take sides on religions, but name the last Oscar-nominated nun.

Second, the Golden Globe nominations were announced earlier this week. Up in the Air sits atop the pile with six nominations. Avatar, The Blind Side, Inglourious Basterds and a dozen movies you’ve never seen nor heard of are also up for awards. House is going up against Season 3 of Mad Men for Best Drama. That guy punching that girl on Jersey Shore? Apparently not dramatic enough.

Question: The Golden Globes have no problem giving comedies their own category (this year’s nominees: (500) Days of Summer, The Hangover, It’s Complicated and Julie and Julia). Why won’t the Oscars?

Nominated for both It's Complicated and Julie & Julia, Meryl Streep is competing against herself this year.

Finally, holy #$%# there’s a new Iron Man 2 trailer and it looks awesome.

Remember when this guy was a believable love interest for Kim Basinger?

Question: are you excited, really excited, or really really excited for Iron Man 2?

And of course, anything else you want to discuss in the comments. This is YOUR … Open Thread.