For me, this has been the summer of Hulu.com. (Is that pathetic?) On Hulu, you can watch old and new TV shows and movies … for free. Hulu rocks!

Here’s what I’ve watched: the first two seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (awesome!); the first season of Burn Notice (totally engaging!); the first season of The Dresden Files (fantastic!); the first season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (funny and edgy!); and some episodes in the first season of Angel (I couldn’t get enough vampire action).

Hulu was founded by NBC Universal and News Corp and apparently is well funded by a private equity firm. My point is: Hulu is a major player in the online TV and movie industry.

Here’s a list of all the TV shows on Hulu — it’s an impressive list. Note that ALF is on the list. Yep, you can watch the first two seasons of ALF! Hulu really does rock … that’s all the proof you need.

Enjoy Hulu!

I was blown away by “The Dead Girl” (2006)! It’s one of the most brilliant films I’ve seen in a long time. The acting is unbelievably good. The writing — the writing! — is unbelievably smart. A couple of things that make “The Dead Girl” stand out are: 1) it’s emotionally complex, rich and really smart (which is rare); 2) I bonded with the characters at a heart level and really cared about them — and I didn’t want the movie to end! Finally, Toni Collette, one of my favorite actresses, starts out the movie with an intense and brilliant vignette. The movie’s worth renting just to see this one vignette! (But, really, all the vignettes are brilliant.) As a side note, if Toni Collette chooses to do a film, you can bet it’s probably worth watching. Have I convinced you to rent this film?! If you rent it, let me know what you think!