I can't decide if the show is being "realistic" and having Toby "work through" a marriage that is rocky from *the beginning*, or whether this is, as everyone has been thinking from the very beginning—both inside and outside the show—a marriage that will never happen (in which case watching a bunch of go-nowhere…

Stef had one of those half-apologies that usually come off really horribly ("I'm sorry if you took that the wrong way"), but in this case I sided with her. She said "I'm not sorry about giving her the pill but about the way I shut you out of the discussion." Waiting and waiting and deliberating eventually becomes a…

Daphne banging on the table, as @avclub-3cd5b730d6b4c1521b7a7cfad50d7745:disqus points out, actually made me think the opposite: that contrary to what one might expect, Deaf arguments can in fact be really loud and can make a scene. (I think this was covered in an old episode, but I can't recall which one; maybe it…

Yeah, I'm ambivalent about this. One could argue her character was hit with the dumb stick this episode, but with Chef Jeff and now the British twerp who seemingly slighted her, it's maybe a full-on established trait of hers that she is drawn to men who are out of reach precisely because they are out of reach, rather…

I loved the episode. The nail polish thing got to me, the taller boy's show of solidarity. And the slam poetry was surprisingly great.

Both Emmett and John looked very convincingly mad this episode. In that scene between Emmett and his dad, with the bike between them, Emmett was fuming. And John's explosive anger at Regina was formidable. Just very pure emotion, and I was on the edge of my seat.

That drive-by advice-giving was awesome.

Well said. And oddly enough, the youngest boy (with the non-haircut) had a nice-enough scene recently with Anne Glass that achieved this point. He had snapped at her the equivalent of "You're not my mom!" or somesuch and then he apologized and they hugged and it seemed they were more bonded after the little fight than…

Maybe it has to do with appealing to the broadest possible audience, rather than appealing *deeply* to a slightly smaller one. I hesitate only because there are some perverse counter-intuitive effects in the case of movie ratings, where the "PG-13" rating, theoretically desirable as a way to reach more people compared…

"Also, I hate that the reason Pope was in jail was that he accidentally killed someone."

I hear ya on all fronts. I gain nothing by trying not to be "fooled" by the show, when really I should let myself enjoy it and savor the possibility that it might actually give us some consequences.

"Chupacabras"?

Jesus, a thimble of hope, chilling on Mediterranean Avenue.

@avclub-ddf39be6eb089c51636d28ea68254f5c:disqus : I'm keeling over with laughter.

a dePICTion of Christ

"In the Greek, Jehovah starts with a BANG!"

Dealing with family subject-matter also seems to make the writers think they can take all the shortcuts in the world and give us a bunch of generic, unearned sentiment. I think it's fair to say that when we complain about sentiment, a good percentage of the time what rankles is actually the unearned nature of it…

This exactly. Drop the family-and-hope-and-believing-are-great, dig into the real (harsher) post-invasion implications.

Games like "World of Warcraft" are full of this particular misspelling, even from people who are playing this very class. I guess it's some sort of Freudian slip and they really like reddening their cheeks?

Yeah, she thought he was James Purefoy.