I really tried hard to discount Minaj for as long as possible, and she made it pretty easy with crap like "My Chick Bad," but that verse on "Monster" is fucking off the charts.

Yeah, I had the same reaction as TreeTrunks to his verse on there, but I am remaining open to a Father Ubu interpretation. The "take-it-or-leave-it" attitude feels out of sync with the rest of the song, but it may just make Kanye's last verse that much more poignant by comparison.

"Monster" (yeah, Jay-z's verse could be replaced) or "Lost in the World." Actually, both the opening and the closing songs are perfection. Gah.

Seriously? WTF. Do ya'll like HIMYM too? That would explain a lot.

I don't understand the love for this episode. The best 30 Rock episodes (and anyone that didn't think the first two seasons were hil-fucking-arious is dead to me—how's that for reasonable discussion, bitches?) are fast-paced and, I would suggest, at least tangentially focused on the production of TGS. This was…

Outside Tony's World
You raise the question about whether or not Tony could ever be a normal guy punching the clock. This is my first time through the series, and I've only seen the episodes covered so far, but I'm not sure the series has much good to say about normal guys punching the clock either. In fact, I've felt…

Holidae Inn totally rules. Agreed. I may have fond memories of it because I was one of said girls getting drunk to it in college. But it is a damn fine song as a backdrop to that kind of activity. Fo shizzle dizzle.

AJ
"A.J. is increasingly turning into a figure of comic relief. Witness how he breaks the dish of food and how Tony talks about him as his "only male heir.""

Ooooh, J-Kwon. Errrybody in the club gettin tipsy! Man, that's been a while.

Nancy is a rather disgusting person. I hate Nancy, and her choices are no longer the least bit relatable or sympathetic. She started as a character with a motivation. Husband died. She's sad and broke. She sells weed. Her situation could explain her actions, for the most part, through Season 2ish. Now, there is…

Aw shucks
I have an unhealthy need to see this show through to the bitter, bitter end. I started liking Seasons 1 & 2, and I guess that alone was enough to propel me right through the loopy, nonsensical messiness upon which we now gaze. This show is not good anymore. But I cannot quit now. Too bad these write-ups…

But so many lies to work through!

Tony and Carmela as parents
I know the show is not supposed to be all about raising kids (and thank god for that). But sometimes the seeming inconsistency of the parenting here bothers me, in that it appears to be inconsistent with the actual characters. For example, smoking pot in the garage warrants nothing more…

This is my first time through the series, and I agreed with Todd's assessment of the Italy scenes. They felt slow and filler-ish, and I couldn't really care about the cars.

That Melfi scene was also hard for me to read. On the one hand, it seemed like comedy—he's taking a long drink of water, while watching her psychoanalyze herself, and the whole thing begins to seem ridiculous, but I wasn't sure if we were supposed to take Melfi's obsession as ridiculous or psychoanalysis itself, since…

I was unsure on how to read the Meadow scenes here as well. I didn't know what her motivation was for cleaning the house, but ultimately, it seemed like her own idea.

The Huxtables

George and Mary Bailey

There's no way that works out for more than a month.

But Ariel and Eric don't even know each other. Also, she just wants what she can't have. Soon she'll want to fly, and she'll have someone cast a spell so she can grow wings and marry some kind of hawk or something. Togetherness fail.