Don't believe anything anybody says about Community. I literally think Greenblatt is going to flip a coin. I've heard compelling things in both directions.

ABC not trying Trophy Wife after Modern Family after Super Fun Night crashed and burned is the new NBC never putting Newsradio on Thursdays (though Newsradio at least made it to five seasons).

Readership for season one was horribly, horribly low. We make exceptions for shows we think are among the best on TV, but we don't really have anybody on staff who'll go to bat for Maron in that way.

And I thought I could eat dinner!

Wasn't the central premise of that show though.

You are probably going to be fretting a while. That renewal notice could come as late as July.

Not really. The first season ratings steadily trended downward. But, yes, Big Bang definitely dealt the killing blow.

I feel like The Americans' audience is savvy enough to realize the show doesn't intend them to read things this way. But maybe that commenter who talks about how Paige needs the belt will prove me wrong.

I looked them up on Wikipedia. *tips waiter*

Didn't wanna have two Christmas episodes on the list. DID want to have an animated episode on the list. Could kill two birds with one stone with AUC.

Mixology is one of my three favorite episodes, but I think it works better if you know the characters. So I ditched it in favor of Critical Film Studies, which conveys that side of the show's tone but works better for a newbie.

My argument for not including Paradigms: If it was the sixth episode of Community you ever watched (as it would be if you followed these 10), you would have NO IDEA it wasn't an actual clip show, so one of the main reasons it's so funny would be lost to you.

FCC has no jurisdiction over basic cable, basically. The only thing that keeps every Nickelodeon show from degenerating into constant F-bombs is the social contract. (Okay, and the fact that cable programmers would probably drop Nick if it started doing that.)

Sadly, I do these over the phone, but we could absolutely edit in my cats rummaging around beneath my feet.

Technically, they shouldn't get in trouble for it.

It's really too bad this review didn't talk about that at length or even feature a picture of it!

There are far better comedies to worry about out there. But this is also the kind of season where, if season three is amazing, it will be held up as an example of a show retooling on the fly and doing so well. Of which there are, like, three examples in TV history, but still.

I've been realizing lately my reviews often sound harsher than the grades. Basically, I thought the Mindy/Danny stuff was executed REALLY well, and it gave the season a throughline season one lacked. That plus better laugh lines has been enough to bump it in my estimation.

But it IS on the screener episode selection menu, in jazzy format!

Erik's a good writer. It's just luck of the draw that I got "Model" this week. Lord knows my "Back" review would have just been 5,000 words about how garbagemen are loud and wake me up.