For me, it wore off its welcome after the second season. But I don't think that has anything to do with the use of metafiction itself, but rather how it was used poorly later on as Community gradually got worse - OK, I liked the fifth season a lot and the final season was kind of good? Maybe?

Yeah, I think the rising popularity of metafiction is characteristic of that time. I remember a lot of TV shows started doing it as well around the same time, i.e. characters acknowledging that they exist in fictional shows, playing around with levels of reality, etc.

No, I actually haven't read anything else by him. I always meant to but never got around to it.

This is probably not right, but I recall reading this and House of Leaves right around the same time - maybe even over the same summer? Both were recommended to me by different people but are oddly similar on some level. I'm not sure I could get through either one now, but they both meant a lot to me at the time so I…

They mostly come in men's sizes. Mostly.

It's the only way to be Scholl.

For once, America might have gotten right:

I remember feeling like Brisco County Jr. was the show I was waiting for all my life when I started watching it as a kid and couldn't understand why it was canceled. "Cowboys! Time travel! Alien technology! Comedy! Old West shootouts! Holy shit what am I seeing?!"

Right at the end of that scene though, she smiles briefly at her reflection. It didn't strike me as a crisis, more of an affirmation of who she truly is… And she's got something up her (absent) sleeve.

It's funny you mention that because I also read the book first in middle school and never realized it was even based on a TV show until years later. I actually consider the book the definitive version… But yeah, it gets grim, particularly the ending!

The line that always gets me: "I want to lie shipwrecked and comatose, drinking fresh mango juice, goldfish shoals nibbling at my toes…" That's just… wow. A longing for delirium? While dying? When you separate the lyrics from the silliness of the show, it's unbelievably dark.

I'm always struck by the sadness and beauty of the Red Dwarf closing theme song lyrics, particularly as they're paired with such an upbeat tune.

I found it a bit off too but then I read her interview on Slate and she said this on Sarah Paulson's performance:

"No one drove in New York. There was too much traffic."

I can't wait for the sequel Whip It followed by the prequel It Follows.

I think technically the prequels were "cosmetic tinkering". Phantom Menace was basically A New Hope with a different aesthetic, a retread of the same story that simply looked shiny and new on the surface.

"If you lived here, you'd be invaded by now!"

It's the same thing every election: Republicans say it's game over, man, and Democrats fail to stay frosty.

"It's another Starkiller Base!"
"I wish that were the case. This was the Starkiller Base, and THIS is the Star Whacker."
*everyone gasps*

Evil Dead II pulled off the same trick. The first half is a remake of the first movie and the second half is a kind of remake/sequel.