One of the things I really liked about season two was the introduction of Dar Adal as a shadowy, high-espionage, ultra-spook enigma… and somehow now he's just another CIA suit who sits on foundation boards and plays golf at Congressional? Laaame.

Man, is it good to have this show back. I'm pleasantly surprised that they had the stones to let Leslie lose the recall, though given the show's optimist streak (and the likelihood that this is its last season) I think it's even more likely now that the endgame involves her deciding/being asked to run for mayor.

For me, there isn't any question: "Stress Relief" a.k.a. the Super Bowl episode. Pound-for-pound the funniest episode the show aired, a terrific Michael episode (the roast), a terrific Dwight episode (the fire), and probably the last time the Jim/Pam relationship was genuinely affecting. It's kind of a thesis…

It works best if you watch it as meta commentary on the show itself. There are so many winking jokes from the writers—from the second episode, when the office needs an incentive/'The Office' needs stakes so Andy promises to get his ass tattooed, to the last, which begins with an "It Gets Better" video ("…maybe not…

What's funny is people often point to this as when the show started really going out of bounds in terms of realism — "Not even Michael Scott would be stupid enough to drive into a lake," etc. — when in fact this actually happens quite regularly to real people: https://www.google.com/sear…

Todd's not exactly guilty of this here, but he kind of touches on something that's always made me laugh: American critics and fans who label the British 'Office' things like "cruel", misanthropic, dark, etc.—it wasn't any of those things at all, really. It was hopeful in a more subtle, reserved, quintessentially…

@avclub-6df3dd282878f4ace8d04654abce112b:disqus http://www.hitfix.com/whats…

next Night, in The Offal™ ; Scott is secretly been Mufflin all along?? Pans being mean to pan, and pan decides should she to get involve, save Ocar dementia. Guests stars puppets. Devon kevin start a sports marketing company

Some of the weirdest, most unsettling vibes I've gotten from an episode of television, ever. At several points I wondered if someone had maybe poisoned me with a mild hallucinogen, or if I was slipping into some sort of crypto-purgatorial dream-state in advance of some sudden peaceful mysterious death. A-

You're kind of arguing against yourself by bringing up Seinfeld — people were expressing very, very similar concerns about that show in its later seasons and in retrospect they seem silly.

@avclub-8eb12b45c6eb5b9675c0976c8ece470c:disqus  right, because if the word "hipster" is known for anything, it's known for its strict, precise, and universally adhered-to definition.

in this case, "more concerned with the critical context and social currency of X than with its actual substance and value"

Re: your main points about the show's zaniness and reliance on caricatures—have we been watching the same show all these years? As opposed to The Office, which began as a very realistic and nuanced show and gradually devolved into affected preposterousness, Parks & Rec from the very beginning established itself in a…

LOLing at the transparently hipsterrific rush to declare one of the smartest and most consistently funny shows on TV passé based on a list of complaints that could be titled "what a TV show is generally like as it nears the end of its fifth season"

Game of Scones.

Hmm…

Hmm…

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Uh-huh.