I can sympathize with that. I would also argue that certain segments of TDS since the 2008 election have been transcendent: the Glenn Beck impersonations, the Jim Cramer interview, and this week's Penn State rant are as good as anything I've seen Stewart do since I started watching.

The last part of this review is perfectly on point, I think. I've been watching TDS religiously since just before the 2004 election, and while I consistently watch it on DVR (sometimes a few days after its aired), there isn't much novelty in it anymore. My younger sister, on the other hand, just discovered it (and…

This pattern started with the epic Jim Cramer interview from 2009, and in many cases, those longer clips have been entirely worth it simply because they allow for the kind of extensive and nuanced coverage some issues deserve. I think, however, that the "long interview posted online" is getting overused to a certain…

The episode where everyone gets the flu was a particular high point for Chris and Ann if only because we get Rob Lowe looking in the mirror saying, "Stop. Pooping."

This is a valid theory. Alternatively, I like the idea of Ann becoming the character who, instead of relentlessly trying to fit in, calls everyone else out on their bullshit. "The Fight" was my favorite Ann episode and certainly in my Top 5 overall.

A B on a paper in my class essentially means, "Your performance was better than merely adequate, but this sort of thing has been said before and said much better."

Agreed. I could have given it a pass if the writer's hadn't given her a similar meltdown last week, but back to back, it's all just a little too much.

Exactly. I can also see how some would begin to question the continuing relevance of an Avatar, much in the way that (some, mostly intellectually elite) people began to question the relevance of God/religion once the Industrial Revolution really got going.

I doubt the father figure thing, though her fierce independence is well established as a coping mechanism for the desperate lack of competent authority figures in her life.

Just to be clear, whatever form the end of humanity/the world/civilization takes, I have no interest in surviving it. I say this as someone who grew up in pre-millenialist Fundie land and read waaaaaaay too much speculative fiction as a teenager.

SPOILERS OF A SORT

SPOILERS

Those two fight sequences (though I'm biased in favor of Zuko vs. Azula) are the best action sequences I've ever seen in just about any medium.

I can understand that, particularly from a little kid's perspective, but one of the strengths of the show is that it has something to offer multiple audiences, and this particular run of episodes upped the stakes in a way that's admirably ambitious for a cartoon. I didn't really get interested in Avatar, had only seen…

Jet is also there to further complicate the good guy/bad guy dyads. Jet has been well-established as one of the most morally compromised characters on the show, but in this particular case he's fucking right.  Not only are Zuko and Iroh firebenders, but (MAJOR SPOILERS) their presence in the city will have a profound…

But otherwise, that was a very insightful post.

Carla's Dominican.

I dunno. There was something amusing to me about the sheer weirdness of that character and the pure arbitrariness of his hostility.

Assuming this hasn't been asked already, is E.R. eventually going to be featured on TV Club Classic? I'm guessing it will, but I'm surprised it's taken so long. That was one of my favorite shows for quite a few years.

Ted's a capella band singing the Underdog theme song is one of my favorite things ever.