My thoughts exactly. I think people have been a bit too harsh in criticizing this show. Maybe they love the premise so much that they expect it to be great from the start. Bob's Burgers' was no great shakes in its early episodes, either, it takes awhile for a comedy to find its stride.

Yeah, that's definitely the best policy. My philosophy in most things is that unless you have overwhelming evidence that someone is disingenuous, you should take them at their word, or at the very least believe that they believe what they're saying.

Oh, and absolutely agreed about fluid gender. I really think if people were allowed to just enjoy being masculine and feminine when they feel like being masculine or feminine, without judgments or inquiries about your gender, than there'd be less need for such a vast array of gender identities.

Precisely. I'm straight, but that's something my LGBTQ friends and I have a tendency to gripe about. Most of us are of the opinion that "lots and lots of genders" isn't really the solution to the problem of gender binaries. And when a friend of mine was in the process of coming out of the closet, a lot of those…

I love him, but I love cheesy, sentimental, over-the-top, theatrical music. Why would I want subtlety from rock and roll anyway?

Yeah, I think about that a lot. I fully support trans rights, but a lot of the new nonbinary gender concepts do get me cranky. I try to just let it go, though, I mean what the hell do I know? Thirty years from now I don't want to be the guy telling people where they can go to the bathroom.

My favorite is the one with Bjork, who apparently thinks that Space Ghost is her husband. I also have fond memories of Matt Groening and Space Ghost trading merchandising ideas, after Matt told him merchandising Bart Simpson would be wrong.

Being Earn's age and income level, and being quite the lazy mooch myself, it's very believable. There's an odd mix of shame, self-acceptancenm and that comes with it, though thank god I don't have a kid like Earn does, which would make things much more urgent.

This is the first episode ever that I didn't like. It might have made for a charming silent episode, but Steven's constant yammering "What's going on? What are you doing? Who are you?" and explaining what we can clearly see with our eyes was just unbearable. I used to think my friends were cynical jerks for saying…

So, can we all agree that "I used to be a comedian, but that was a long time ago…" is the reason Sinbad isn't voicing Mr. Smiley anymore?

Which isn't to say I'm not emotionally invested in the characters. In fact, "Skid Row" is my favorite song from a musical, it makes me cry every time.

Exactly! I thrill at the ending, I cheer the monsters on. The music and destruction is just so exciting.

The director's cut is perfection. You bonded with the characters and didn't want to see something bad happen to them? Yeah, that's why it's sad when something bad happens to them. And it's just a crime that that last ten minutes, and that amazing final shot, weren't shown in theaters across America.

I've known a lot of liars in my day, and the pattern I've learned is that they're usually lying to themselves before they lie to you. As George Costanza says "It's not a lie if you believe it."

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Harlan Ellison has told that story, too. Seems like all the SF circle back then pegged him for the fraud he was.

That's what I'm saying. Ray was a guard, and the scenes we saw where he wasn't with Elliott really happened, they weren't an illusion in Elliott's head.

That was my thoughts exactly. I don't know why anyone would be disappointed in a twist they saw coming, that just means the writers set up the arc and it paid off in the end.

As far as we know, though, everything we see outside of Elliott's perspective has always been real. If Ray is a prison guard instead of a prisoner, than the scene with the dialysis machine could have really happened.

Thanks to the poster who found that piece of music from the opening, it was killing me. First I thought it was from a Tarantino movie (because he pilfered it in Death Proof), then I thought it might be the Hulk Theme.

Yeah, I saw a reviewer giving me reasons why they didn't find the ethnic humor offensive. But they couldn't explain to me why it was funny. I mean, his name's "Sammy Bagel Jr." but he talks like Woody Allen? That's not even an accurate racist joke.