Twist speculation and Easter egg hunting can be harmless time-killing, but I feel like the real threat to long form narrative arcs is wish fulfillment. Fan-created theories can become so entrenched that when a thing doesn't happen (because it was never intended to happen), the fan base cries foul that the show dared…

That, and writers kept The Tragic Fall of Mike Kellerman going on for so long that you'd be forgiven for getting sick of the whole thing. To make one of your main characters a Bad Cop was a pretty bold choice at the time, but man, did they milk it.

I'm compelled to rep for Clark Johnson's Meldrick Lewis, who was somehow both totally awesome and criminally underrated.

The tinkering takes it toll, to be sure. Seasons 1-3 are perfect. Seasons 4-5 are lesser, more straight-up procedural than "life on the streets," but a pinnacle of that form (and pretty much The Wire 1.0).

I know what you mean. As an actor in tv and movies, he just seems to have the stench of theatre all over him, and he can't shake it.

Homicide was just so damned good. It was superbly acted, of course. But it also wasn't afraid to be journalistic, philosophical, cynical, meandering, pretentious, workmanlike, black, white, or operatic. And somehow, beyond reason, it was able to survive incessant cast shakeups and network interference for much longer…

Wasn't me!

I was going for aesthetically clean, because dear god I hoped the hygiene didn't need to be spelled out.

Pro-trimming, anti-shaving. I mean, if you want anybody to spend time down there, you should try to make it as invitingly clean as possible. One of the rare instances when self-interest and courtesy overlap perfectly.

"No, no. Let that one go, Francois. He has spirit."

I'm Canadian, so I'm legally allowed to kill Gords to thin out the herd.

I feel like the show went to pains to establish how sexually and ethnically liberal and blended the future was. It's a point seldom made in sci-fi, so I thought Leslie's character came off as a (beautifully) satirical counterbalance. Having her intelligence and personality controlled by the whims of her (adjustable)…

Hey I can't sit idly by and let you forget about Conor Leslie!

On a practical level you're correct, but at the idealized life-philosophy level I think the right's stance on abortion is about the rights of the (unborn) individual and sex negativity is about utilitarianizing personal salvation. Similarly, leftist attitudes toward sexual and cultural identity do build individualism,…

Both positions aspire to a form of impossible idealism, it's just that the left values the benefit of society over that of the individual, while the right worships the individual so much that they don't believe society even exists.

Let me ruin Hot Fuzz for you!:

I keep waiting for Noir to make a legit comeback, and I keep waiting. But Wright would definitely be a guy to start the ball rolling.

I interpret it as appreciation of the satirical intent—that RDJ played a self-important pretentious actor really well—but thinking that the nomination was a bunch of old white folks saying "Hey, RDJ played a black guy -really- well!"

Heck, the ancient Greeks needed to perform in maskface because they hadn't even figured out human culture yet.

I think we're now living in a world where a candidate cannot enter the primaries hoping to make a nation-wide name for themselves, a la Obama.