I would call any show that runs for four seasons successful. If it kept on getting renewed, it was making (or was projected to make) money.

Hmm… I found Iron Man 2 to be pretty forgettable, so will take your word for it.

@avclub-0ae7484a9f3bbd2a21df420050c032ae:disqus Hey! How about that! Thank you very much!

> It is not a show for nerds. It is a show for people who live in a
culture that has embraced genre due to the fragmentation of the media,
That's why all the tropes of the show are so mired in '80s nerd
stereotypes. It is congratulating its audience for being hip enough to
know when Spock is being name checked.

It ran for four seasons, so yeah.

Sorry mbs, my response was supposed to be to Erik Charles Nielsen,
but I see from the indent I responded to you instead.

> But that's pure wish-fulfillment catering to a fantasy isn't it? It's a little hard to reconcile how a show can simultaneously be hugely relatable and do all that.

Yeah. I chalk it up to "superhero universe rules". Realistically the events of The Avengers should have had an impact equal to multiple September 11s - politically, personally, socially, economically, culturally. But superhero stories (unless they're post-modern like Watchmen) downplay the real-world footprints their…

While I disagree with your implication that Buffy wasn't "deep" (quite aside from its pure entertainment value, I found it consistently thematically rich, emotionally resonant and occasionally structurally daring), I agree with your broader point.

Sorry, that was a cheap shot at some members of the Community fandom who - for a while, not recently - felt the need to show up in every Big Bang Theory thread talking about how amazing it is and how crappy TBBT is.

Or let me put it another way:

I don't understand how a person who admits elsewhere in this thread that they've never actually watched a full episode of the show under discussion (and I quote: "I've read the entire script. [of one episode] I'm obviously very familiar with the scene in question. I've seen parts of several other episodes.") can…

I think a valid starting point when critiquing a show, is to actually watch the show. And when critiquing a specific episode, to actually watch the episode.

> Do people really take it personally when shows they enjoy get slammed?

So you haven't seen the episode in its entirety?

Coulson as written by Whedon is definitely lighter than when not written by Whedon, something I noticed in The Avengers too. But everyone gets wittier and quippier when spouting Whedonesque dialogue.

If the Whedon family turned Agents of SHIELD into a musical, I for one would not object at all.

There's a lot of really crap old movies and books too. ;-)

I don't watch a lot of sitcoms but I think both The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother are quality programmes. Of course, like all long-running shows, they've both had their rough patches… or rough stretches even. Also of course, "quality" is a very subjective term.

Have you seen the episode?