but Questlove played a mildly inappropriate song as Trump walked onstage, so it all evens out

So for Trump he confirms that his hair is real, manly, and absolutely not a $60000 weave, but for Hillary he treats her as a sickly, frail old lady. To be fair this *is* what press coverage of the election's been like for the past month.

Yeah, the 'gotcha' quote makes me loathe Fallon. Because the implication is that asking an informed question is always unfair. It closes any possibility of learning anything about a candidate, and in particular plays into Republican myths about a biased liberal press. (Remember when Sarah Palin got that unfair gotcha…

I'm not sure; as I remember it the takeaway was that there are assholes in heaven too, which struck me as a very Curb way to end the season.

Me too. I gave up on Vice Principals once it was clear that it was going in the same direction.

Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?

I imagine Clinton's adopted Obama's 'lawn signs are a waste of money' strategy.

I'd say not so much 'attention whore', but as someone who might be a bit devoid of imagination, and thus embodies the cliches of the rigid scientist who can't comprehend fun. As much as he models himself on Carl Sagan, he doesn't quite convey the same sense of awe that Sagan did.

I think so. And I'd say it's an approach that's now become just as formulaic as the Big Bang Theory/2 1/2 Men model.

And for sitcoms, 30 Rock and [especially] Curb Your Enthusiasm are models I'd like shows to return to more often.

So what you're suggesting is that living in Africa can make you an anti-vax idiot? I'm going to have to disagree with that, Dr. Stein.

Confirmation was very good, if a bit paint-by-number. But it does seem like even HBO is doing fewer tv movies.

'For all of its bluster, dick jokes, and curse words, Vice Principals does have a sense of humanity.'

Trump doesn't need to fuck up badly to make the US a disaster area. With a Republican congress (and the Senate almost certainly undoing the filibuster) we're probably looking at the end of the social safety net (including social security, which will be privatized during year 1), abortion made illegal, public lands…

Trump's been able to leverage his celebrity, and exploit the media's love of celebrity, extremely well. It's the key advantage he has in the race. Which is what irks me about stuff like the Fallon appearance.

Nobody's 'looking' for Fallon to legitimize Trump. Having Trump on Fallon's show and treating him as your harmless eccentric uncle does that by itself.

Or that center-right factions are exceedingly good at scaring working-class people, often dishonestly, into thinking pro-science and pro-green policies are the second coming of Stalin.

Of course having crazy-ass anti-vaccination loon Mayim Bialik on to be a role model for women in science is pretty self-defeating.

These days Letterman looks like the sort of guy who'd do the job himself

It's a good game. Bradford outplaying Rodgers, but Peterson got hurt