My brother (a former big-time fan during his high school years) put it to me this way: initially they wrote decent pop-punk songs before Pete Wentz got to write the lyrics. Then Pete Wentz got to write the lyrics. Of the half-dozen Fall Out Boy songs I've had to listen to from beginning to end, I can't really dispute…

What was emo supposed to be again?

They're no Trent Reznor.

In all fairness, people voted for the Nazis due to physical intimidation, and I would imagine few Coldplay listeners are paying close attention to the music. It's inoffensive background music to do laundry to, or cook to. It requires nothing from you.

Irony, an excuse for everything and a reason for nothing. 
— Robert Christgau

I think I agree.

Zoolander = an inspired lunacy for its first half hour, then a bunch of bland "characterandrelationship" bullshit, followed by an ending that is as amazing as the beginning.

[fuming] Well, I guess I'll just stand out here like some kind of crapper GARGOYLE!

@miranduhmay:disqus You're totally right. The kiss at the end of season one was exactly as magical a moment as it had been built up to be, and the moments leading up to it were terrific. Ultimately, though, the context was lost. What made that work initially was that the first season culminated with Jeff having to…

You're right, half-assed. If this were the first season, it would have been something like "Abduction Independent Studies" or some such.

Well, technically, seasons two and three of AD had a lot of jokes where some callback was the punchline. Of course, they also had lots of actual jokes in there too.

Thing is, the three episodes you mention provoked mixed reactions because they actively challenged peoples' understanding of what sorts of things the show did. Mixology I loved right from the beginning, Messianic Myths took a while longer, but after a while, you think about it, you watch it again, and then you see…

I agree. Unless they have a killer payoff ready to go for that subplot, which would shock the fuck out of me given the shambolic state of this season.

I actually think that solid characterization is how they could get away with the big concepts they used to. If the characters behave right, then you can have them in all sorts of odd situations. But that's clearly not an option anymore either.

It's all a part of the process. I remember back in 2002, my best friend very sincerely argued that Star Wars Episode II was a much better movie than Spider-Man. Now, he can admit the prequels sucked. At some point it dawned on him that he could still love the old stuff while not liking the new stuff.

I remember when the Jeff/Annie thing made me happy. Now it's just vaguely annoying, sort of a walking talking lack of development or payoff.

I'm fucking amazed they haven't done another paintball episode yet.

Competitive Ecology was the worst Dan Harmon episode, everything they did in that episode had been done as well in prior episodes of the show. Saying this episode doesn't match up to that low standard…yikes.

It's important to remember that later WW had severe problems with character continuity as has post-Harmon Community. They had introverted, emotionally-stunted Josh all but declaring his love for Donna at the beginning of the last season, Toby betraying Bartlet's trust, etc. And then there were CJ and Mary McCormack,…

It was set up to fail.