I'd also like to point to the first episode of season four, Fun Run (spoilers), where the film crew interact with Pam & Jim directly, *showing them the footage they have* of the two together outside the office and forcing the admission that they were secretly dating.

Well, I also assume that they had a bit of a tab running, informally perhaps. You're right - plenty of times it's not obvious that she (or Rory) has paid.

Me too. The Slip may be one of the most under-rated albums of recent decades.

Re: Jess as a 'bad boy' - the main reason he's not really one (other than skipping school etc) is that he still had to be a plausible interest for Rory. However bored she may have got with Dean, his competition still has to be smart & book-ish enough to engage her attention. (Which is the main reason why Tristian…

Ah, but she usually does in fact pay. In fact, there's a sub-plot-let later, in which she's shocked to learn that she wasn't supposed to be tipping Luke (since he's the owner) all these years. And that would fit with how she seems to often just pass him a note & walk out again.

Obviously they're a bit incongruous, but I do actually think that TJ is supposed to represent a change for her. He's a moron, and often grating, but he is at least relatively stable (by the standards of people who work in Renaissance Faires, I mean), and certainly much nicer than everyone she's married/been involved…

I agree for myself, but clearly Rory liked that Jess was a take-charge sorta guy (after likeable-if-occasionally-angry boring Dean) and also that he read & thought about reading (after functionally-illiterate-season-two-&-beyond Dean).

Yeah, but you just know that Christopher is THAT GUY who always wants the girl to commit herself BEFORE he reveals whether he will/can/wants to. He's probably pleased to know she wants him, especially since he knows it doesn't mean he'll have to do anything.

No no no! I mean, yes, April is nice enough, but it annoys me so much (I think I've posted before) that she was a Rory Pt 2. That storyline, while entirely dire, was made worse by that. It MAY have been saved a little if she was completely different - I still think it could have been much more interesting if she had…

Luke & Jess scenes always tend to be the highpoint of whatever episode they're in. Unless there's a Lorelai & Emily scene, of course.

Sadly, Frontline is proof of satire's fundamental ineffectiveness. Two decades after that show aired, the commercial current affairs shows still do THE EXACT SAME THINGS it mercilessly mocked way back then.

Man, The Librarians was dreadful. I watched the first few on the basis of a good cast (who'd all been in things I'd enjoyed previously), but soon had to admit something to myself: it. just. isn't. funny.

I hope every single one of you followed that link about 'the narrative fueling fans'. That was like stepping right back in time to 1999. They don't make websites like that anymore, and we're all the poorer for it.

And that's punishment enough for a farmer who deals primarily…with sheep.

In fairness, almost everything is a HUUUUUUUUUUUGE step down from Father Ted.

I haven't listened to Lineham's commentary for this specific episode, but I'm sure that if it is lazy & cheap, he'll say so. I don't think many other writers/showrunners are as completely honest about what doesn't work in their shows as he is.

I liked The IT Crowd so much that I checked out Boosh (literally, actually, from the library), about which I'd heard many good things.

I've only read one of theirs, 'The Twenty- Year Death', by Ariel Winter, but I cannot speak highly enough of it. Three connected cases over twenty years, with each of the sections written as an homage to a great hardboiled/noir writer: Georges Simenon, Raymond Chandler & Jim Thompson.

Call it Kickpuncher and I'm in.

Thanks. I vaguely remembered that there was something like that at issue with KLF. Will look for Chill Out soon!