"Maybe #Trump should smile #smuggly #weirdly #arrogantly #entitled #rude every time #Hilary lies He would never have a straight face"

There's knowing something on abstract level, and then there's that knowledge really hitting home.

It's very hard to try something if you don't allow yourself to get your hopes up. To me, saying she shouldn't have had hopes amounts to saying she shouldn't have tried.

Jason's heart already belongs to Janet, and Tahani's only into him because she feels she's supposed to be.

I don't know, I think Trevor almost succeeding at convincing Eleanor that she just didn't deserve affection was plenty devious.

Yeah, I really think this is less about being a musician and more about
trying to make a living as a musician. Not terribly fond of the "tortured genius" trope, but starving artists are definitely a thing. Always the uncertainty!

Only to someone trying very hard to be obtuse. It's people in power assaulting people not so much in power, and those distinctions have always been rather blunt. Not a terribly confusing pattern.

I love Chidi, but I can't really take him seriously as an intellectual (and good thing about that, he's on a comedy show). He seems more impressed by Eleanor quoting Kant than by her delivering herself to potential eternal damnation to save him from the discomfort of lying. Suggests a somewhat shallow idea of learning.

Jason has a thing for Janet. He certainly has no chemistry with Eleanor whatsoever.

It's hard, no question, but where would we be if people didn't try to pull off something hard once in a while?

Would the discomforts of a white-dominated society be more apparent if Earn was seen enjoying himself more among his black friends to highlight the contrast? Only if you believe that the discomforts of racism can be avoided or at least mitigated by just sticking to your own kind. I don't believe that, because…

Oh, I wish it was a pun, but I'm not that creative. It's the name of a character in a novel. (Should be Adela, not Adele, actually).

Adjusting your demeanor depending on context is not necessarily some element of Machiavellian strategizing, but rather something lots of us learn to do without even thinking much about, starting in Kindergarten.

It's not just being cheerful for the clients, it's also being cheerful for the colleagues. Who would want to be the Debbie Downer at work? Lots of people have a work persona that only shows very limited facets of their whole authentic self.

Foolhardy and optimistic is covered by Paperboi and Darius. Earn's jadedness adds necessary balance. _Nobodoy_ getting jaded about this stuff would read as fake.

Yep. I think the difference is that Craig, for all his enthusiasm, never runs the risk of being taken for and treated as a black stereotpye, whereas Monique remains painfully aware that someone else might just decide she looks the part and therefore feels a stronger need to distance herself. She's searching her…

Maybe the mainstream religions are all sufficiently significantly off to merit expectation management, whereas the "sex or not"question might feel less salient to Michael? Okay, I'm reaching.

Not denying that a sexually charged conception of soulmates is common, just questionning whether it's universal.

Bringing narcissism to theater = bringing owls to Athens.

Yes, absolutely, some people will be won over quickly enough. Chidi is obviously won over already, because he clearly can't bear to have Eleanor's hell torments on his conscience. I predict that there will be factions.