The Baxter/ The Guild Season 3

137. The Baxter
138. The Guild Season 3


The Baxteris the 2005 romantic comedy from Michael Showalter of The State.

Have you ever watched a romantic comedy? Odds are good that you have at one point or another. In a lot of those movies, the female lead is with a guy when someone from her past comes in and reignites the sparks between them, inevitably leaving the other guy alone in the end. Not that the other guy is bad or anything. He's just not the one. He is...the Baxter.

Our protagonist here is Elliott Sherman. He's an accountant who hits it off with a client, Caroline Swann. They get hot and heavy pretty fast and wind up engaged. Elliott has a long history of being the Baxter. Will they make it to the altar or will history repeat itself?

The first time I saw this movie, I wasn't all that impressed with it. I guess I was expecting a wacky comedy and this is pretty far from that. Upon this second viewing, I found myself liking it a whole lot more. The story is a new twist on the standard romantic comedy cliches. The performances are solid with director/write Michael Showalter pulling triple duty. Elizabeth Banks is good as Caroline. Support comes from Michelle Williams, Justin Theroux, Peter Dinklage, Zak Orth, Michael Ian Black and Paul Rudd. I am completely infatuated with Elizabeth Banks so she's tough to beat but Michelle Williams really shines here. I'm not a huge fan of hers but she's just adorable here.

Overall, The Baxter is a really good movie. I recommend it.


The Guild is a web-based sitcom that follows the lives of a group of folks who participate in an online World of Warcraft-style game. Each episode runs anywhere from 3-8 minutes and they can be found virtually anywhere on the net.

This third season finds our guild waging battle against the evil Axis of Anarchy. The Axis will stop at nothing to vanquish the good guys even up to infiltrating the guild's real lives.

As a big internet geek and a reformed gamer, I really appreciate the humor in this show. While I don't have a ton of experience with games of this particular style, I can definitely relate to a lot of the things being said.

This show stars Felicia Day, whom I've mentioned before as being one of the loves of my life. She's adorable. She's great as the neurotic Codex. Other guild members are Sandeep Parikh, Jeff Lewis, Vincent Caso, Robin Thorsen and Amy Okuda. All are solid in their roles and come across as if they're genuinely having a good time. This season sees Wil Wheaton as the leader of the Axis of Anarchy. He's particularly good as the devious Fawkes.

Overall, I highly recommend checking this show out. As I said, there are lots of ways to view this online. Or, you can spring for the dvds on Amazon. The first two seasons are bundled together for $10. Small change for something as good as this.