What's so great about Freaks and Geeks is that even minor characters like Vicki get to be real people and not caricatures.  She can be the leader of the popular clique and a taskmaster cheerleader and be nice to the nerds (sometimes). 

Easily my favorite joke in The Mindy Project is the episode with Seth Rogen when she's explaining "people forget that Caddy Shack is about the caddies."

Everyone involved with the show seemed to be so adept at portraying the human experience, I think I can see a little of myself in all of the characters and story lines, but Lindsey, as the at least nominal protagonist, is such a relateable character.  They manage to take feelings I could never express in words and…

Yeah, I think Todd is trying a little too hard and reading too much into a subtext of physical abuse.  Nick's dad is a high achiever, his other sons are high achievers, and Nick is a stoner who can't keep a C+ GPA.  They joke in the DVD commentaries about the relatively low standards he holds Nick to, and how badly…

I don't think I'm unrealistically establishing the goalposts at the point of comparing two sets of professional athletes to one another.  I think that comparison that I linked to is far more relevant to the discussion than to say that almost all of the brain samples of people who exhibit symptoms of CTE are positive…

I think it's telling that you're concerned people might interpret your question about control-group comparison as trolling.  I think part of the reason why the media over the last few years has become so concerned with concussions, and taken such a harsh stance against the NFL, is that the media largely parroted…

I didn't watch this (yet) but it seems as though my suspicions were confirmed: the documentary didn't include anyone from the NFLPA?  Really?  Did it mention that the suicide rate for ex-NFL players is less than half that of the underlying population?
http://www.slate.com/articl…
How about that retired NFL players…

Having caught the last scene of Dads a few times now, I can't say they've ever made me wonder what I missed.  An actual dumpster fire would be more interesting to watch. 

I mostly agree, there have been many instances of them demonstrating his actual prowess (catching the tagger punk, solving the case in the pilot) but they do focus more on his laziness with the details.  And while it is just a comedy, the telling-not-showing issue does bother me on Parks and Rec, so it could be a…

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2i…

@avclub-da518aecddbf5c94588f53562012c452:disqus That would be the obvious solution.  In fact, they could just flip Mindy and B 9-9 and probably both would fare better, as they currently go head-to-head with natural audience stealers (SHEILD and Trophy Wife, respectively). 

The worst, sure.  But how often do you see foster parents portrayed in a positive light in fiction? 

"Screw you, foster parents!"

If they'd set the fictional vet school in a fictional town, too, I wouldn't care.  But they chose Bloomington because they obviously assumed IU had a vet school, even though there are only 29 vet schools in the country.  It's indicative of the laziness that prevents this show from being as good as it should be. 

So last season I pointed out that the only vet school in Indiana is at Purdue, not IU-Bloomington.  Someone claiming to be a writer on the show reacted as well as if I had tried to explain the difference between the Aryan Brotherhood and Neo-Nazis.  So I guess P&R's solution to its self-inflicted problem was to invent…

As others have noted, the American Midwest is both hot and humid.  During the summer, weather forecasts always report the heat index, which combines temperature and humidity to determine how hot it feels.  So, for example, Indianapolis, IN had an average August high temperature of 83F and average humidity of 75%,…

The Middle seems to be underappreciated just about everywhere, maybe because it isn't comfortably lumped in with many other shows.  It's a single-camera family comedy that isn't too wacky, isn't too serious or schmaltzy, it doesn't make the obvious play to the lowest common denominator but isn't too smug either.  It's…

It debuted in syndication a couple of weeks ago.  Check your local listings!

It always gets thrown in with the Wednesday comedy promos.  They might not give it extra attention (which we may agree it deserves), but it gets solid ratings and ABC has left it in the same time slot since its inception.  It even beat heavily-promoted Back in the Game on premier week, and finished second at 8/7c to…

My school was K-12, so it was hard for rumors about what happens when you move to sixth grade to last when you walk by sixth graders in the hall every day.