I'm torn on that, because does him being the handyman make him that unequal? "Your boy" is racist, but handyman was the job he was working at. "Handyman" is obviously distancing the two of them—she's instinctively not going to mention to the doctor that this single man she showed up with is either her friend (would a…

I'm a little iffy on the scene too, but I'm not so sure no proper women of the 50s ever got emotional in public before 1967. It's not like movies from that time have no tearful monologues delivered by women in public. She's not actually making a scene, after all, since no one else in the bar sees anything but three…

Really, just look at the way they handle the relationships they share. Betty was disturbing in the way she was taking her frustrations out on Sally for a while, but she's always just there for the kids even when they bug her. While all the kids know they can't rely on Don at all. Likewise, look at how Betty approached…

That was my absolutely favorite moment. I love it when they get in some really realistic kid thing that they do—like when there's a house in the neighborhood that has some quality that makes everybody recognize it as a pretend place and use it as such. "Fuck you, this is the garden of Argos!"

I don't think she was specifically suggesting it for a commercial. Don had said he didn't know what was "going on out there" in terms of music, so as a person who followed music she played him the song that excited her that was more avant-garde. Don would understand that he would then take the stuff that was going on…

She is—and yet it seemed to come up all the time like it was a given that she'd be full-hippie once hippies were a thing.

I'd be interested to know if you have a preference for which way to review, or if you had preferences for different shows. Because I think I remember at least one show runner saying that sometimes they didn't like the whole recap culture because when you analyze each episode that intensely by itself without knowing…

Yes, watching the show often makes me think about how many language conventions we use today are so blunt they're meta. Saying things like "Awkward moment is awkward" or just explaining "I have no idea what to say right now so I'll just pretend I said something supportive and comforting without seeming smug." Or…

Weird thought I had reading the stray observations, that Roger says Pete's unimaginative while in reality, while not being an artist Ken or anything, Pete's one of the characters most associated with having weird stuff running around in his imagination—thoughts in his head he can't seem to share, and when he tries…

Why does knowing end of something make it disingenuous to talk about the beginning? It just puts it in a different context.

Some roles require the actress to be gorgeous to be satisfying.

Yeah, I think the issue with Robin at this point isn't that Ted's really in love with her at all. She's just a girl he cares about that he dated so he's always asking if she's the best it's going to get. She's right there reminding him of somebody he cares about and dated, so she's come to represent the whole idea…

I don't think she did drop it in casually. She'd just had an intense conversation with the guy about how important it was for him to get the girl who was right for him. So when he asked if she was going to marry her boyfriend I think it was natural for her to admit the truth, that she knew it didn't really feel right.…

Not really. It's not like psychology classes teach how to know exactly what's behind the behavior of the guy trying to pick you up at the drugstore any more than life experience does. Plus the any psychological solution would probably be less wildly romantic than the one The Mother came up with. Her diagnosis was all…

I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that night with Barney when he asked if she was going to marry her boyfriend, it's the thing that started her towards her own breakup.

Yeah, but again, it's not like she was pulling it out of thin air. The first part you could definitely say to any guy picking up girls, and when he came back for more she picked a pretty obvious possibility. Obviously it's a big coincidence but like the review says about Barney, it's probably supposed to be central to…

To be fair, it's not just that it's a coincidence but that The Mother is a romantic like Ted. This is the kind of thing Ted might say to someone or to somebody else.

She reminded me of a real life version of Pam from Archer. So I almost expected her to react more like Pam after the shootout.

One joke about anti-semitism makes an anti-semite, eh?

I'm not really disagreeing with that. It's not baseless for her to be annoyed at seeing someone without a medical degree being called doctor, of course. I'm just not seeing anything like misandry.