Very good episode, aided greatly by the Dobler-Dahmer storyline.  That was an incredibly on-the-money observation from the show, and it provided great framing for the Robin stuff.

I though it was a great Beyonce show but a mediocre halftime show.  She looked great, danced well, reunited with Destiny's Child and did her hits, but none of it seemed particularly engaging as an "arena show."  The weak mic, lack of singing and mere fact that her songs are not arena rock songs really hurt it.

In fairness, the Ray Lewis comment was a paraphrasing of a quote from the Bible

Pretty impressed with the job they did for Harvard's campus…was great to see Annenberg on an animated show.

It was a device to sell Sam to a character who has known him for a long time in a platonic capacity.  Basically, they wanted to exaggerate all the dorky, hyper, wacky stuff about Sam…this was a way to do it while also giving the show its shortcut to get the gang back in the competition.

I didn't realize/know she was a freshman.  Assumed she was a transfer or previously-unknown character who was a junior or something.

Social hierarchies still matter/exist at college, and extracurriculars play a big part in defining one's spot on the ladder. The difference is that since the student bodies are often so much larger than they are in high school, there are more sub-hierarchies and it is easier to have a great social life without…

The character is only meant to be 19 or so…plenty of college freshmen (his age equivalent) date girls in high school.  It's not a cool move, but I don't know that it's necessarily a creepy one.

Donna's stance on that episode has always bothered me.  While I agree with her grades more often than not, I can't disagree more on that one, and it makes me wonder if we appreciate the show for the same things.  I can get not loving the countdown gimmick, but that final moment is one of the most powerful things…

Yes, it was a half-gay/half-New York joke.

Completely agree with this.  Saw the pilot over the summer, and couldn't believe there was hype beyond "solid procedural" for this one.

Problem is that if Mike were to ever publicly go to law school (and then take the bar in his own name) in the future, it would expose that he wasn't a lawyer when he litigated all these past cases.

It's been said, but yes, Mike was absolutely insufferable in this episode.  And even though he was technically right with all the guilt once the driver admitted to being high, the preemptive offer of $100K was so unjustified (and basically him just symbolically paying himself for getting screwed) that it became too…

How exactly does a divorce make the whole thing go away (and hide the fact they were actually married from the press)?  A divorce, by definition, acknowledges that there was a marriage, and it's not like those legal documents aren't accessible.

The episode was awful, but I'm not sure why the reviewer was so OFFENDED.  I'm specifically not sure you can hold stereotypical portrayal of nerds AGAINST a Big Bang episode; this is a show that has a dude who can't talk to women unless drunk, a weird mommy's boy who makes sex robots and four "geniuses" who have Luke…

- Lana convinces the cops to investigate Briarcliff, specifically by questioning Jude.

I wouldn't say anything this season was "surprising," but the lack of "surprises" was probably the biggest reason I started to sour on last season.  So I don't really get that as a comparative weakness.

As for my actual criticism, I think setting up the Monsignor as the final "big bad" (though that could change next week knowing this show) is a mistake.  Fiennes is solid in the role, but the "he wants to be Pope, even though he banged the Devil and runs an evil sanitarium, so he covers it up" angle is just not…

Interesting to see the Entertainment Weekly/Twitter "hate" referenced here.  The disparity between what fan communities and what critical communities think has been an interesting side story throughout this season.

The soap opera stuff has often been really, really below par for primetime (this week was no exception…though at least we got Hayden looking smokin' in the wedding dress).