I mean, at this point, Parks and Rec is a show well into old age and firmly committed to flanderizing its characters to whatever it needs them to do in any particular episode. I say that out of love. I still enjoy the show, but it's definitely better at getting an affective moment than of getting any consistency in…

I wonder if this trend is related in any way to the male antihero trend in dramas. Now that I think about it, if I want to see varied, interesting, central female characters, I tend to go more towards sitcoms (or genre shows) rather than "prestige dramas."

Well, April mellowed out as well, though that was more a part of the general cuddles-and-puppy-dogs trend of P&R than of any organic development of the character. But I like how Rosa is less misanthropic bitch and more doesn't put up with bullshit - it allows them to have the tough girl character while also making her…

I tried to watch this episode, but the pacing was just so painfully off. No one in this show seems to be able to get their timing right, and that just kills the comedy (what was the point of their moving around the apartment in that initial scene other to show that they did some rehearsal that included blocking?). It…

What's really impressive about this show is that it didn't even need the full first season to get good - I know it had a full first season, which something like P&R didn't, but it's been consistently good since midway last year.

Well, the actors are ten years apart. I have no idea how old the characters are supposed to be, but I've always gotten the impression there's a somewhat substantial difference between them.

That was my reaction when he asked Clara if he could go back to talking about planets. They're walking a very fine line between cold and emotionally closed off, and Ambiguous Neurological Disorder. I think it works, but it's a very tricky balance.

I'd argue that's part of what's giving this season the focus that seemed to be lacking in 7.5 - the Doctor has always been fighting a series of battles, but this time the show suggests that they've cohered into a war. I know "Missy" is the ostensible seasonal arc, but I think this sense of a war gives an even clearer…

I went to a taping a few weeks ago, and someone asked Stewart if there was an interview he regretted, and he specifically brought up that one - not to suggest that this excuses him, but it seems to have definitely been more a case of him getting flustered and then later being embarrassed about that than of…

At least he didn't pull "I can't be with my beloved because my enemies will use her to get to me." I mean, the thing keeping them apart is still a little contrived, but it feels true to the character (who has always had a bit of a fragmented personality thing going on) and doesn't stoop to that awful trope.

I've always been a little unsettled by the pairing - I see the chemistry, but the age difference between the actors and the power difference between the characters made me like them better as friends. That being said, I agree, they were pretty cute and I totally understand why people like them together. I just don't…

That's the other thing - it really didn't feel like her story was over yet. Which I guess makes sense from a shock perspective, but this show does have a tendency to do through plot alarmingly quickly, and it seems wasteful to discard this narrative potential. It's something I could see becoming an issue as this show…

I mean, look, earlier this episode I had upgraded Laurel from "actively terrible" to "useless but inoffensive" but that in no way means I'm ready for her to take over from Sara. It's just so frustrating that they killed off the more interesting, sympathetic, and better acted sister in favor of the mannequin the…

If you haven't seen the rest of the show, I think that might affect your enjoyment of it. A lot of it is character based, even parts you might not expect or think of. I would compare it to my experience with Parks and Rec - I watched a few season 3 episodes before seeing the rest of the show, and I thought it was…

But I do think we were meant to empathize with them when they were being less likable, as opposed to finding them asshole-ish (like with 10 in Waters of Mars, we were supposed to find him unlikable there but in a "oh, he's gone through so much to make him like this" kind of way rather than in a "wow, he's…

I think it's interesting how much more this season seems to be interested in character (compared to previous seasons). They seem to be taking a lot more time to really parse out what makes these characters tic, and not just in service of whatever monster is being fought this week. I'm thinking of things like, yes,…

Yeah, you're right, that's a lousy comparison, I got caught up on the unlikely perfectionist who likes the Type-A girl.

That's a really great read on his character - Santiago is definitely the most obvious Leslie Knope analogue (making Jake Ben, or something?) but it's a nice twist on the character that he's such a perfectionist. Part of it is that he's so smart he's able to be both a slacker and a perfectionist, but it's a nice…

That joke had some great built-in whiplash. "Haha of course Holt would talk that way as a child…holy what the hell happened in his childhood that he was parentless?"

One of the things this show does best really is make the police stuff funny. I was a little worried that the undercover stuff would make the show darker, but it does a great job giving a light touch even to some of the stuff other shows might be tempted to lean into the darkness of. In that way, I think Andy Samberg…