Devil's advocate, that kid would have the most proud, loving mom in the world. It might get old, but if my mom called me every day to gush about how beautiful and impressive I was and how much she loved me, it wouldn't be the worst

Yeah, she has everyone she loves trying to give her the very best day, every day. And every day her kids have the proudest, most attentive mother on the planet. As opposed to her waking up as an old woman alone in a mental facility, I think she lives a great life

I'm probably just sentimentally attached to it, but I don't really see 50 First Dates like that. For most of the movie all he gets out of the relationship is maybe a few minutes daily chatting to her and trying to brighten her day, it's not about sex or ego. Once things get more serious it's strongly implied (and then…

Another couple with absolutely no discernable reason to be together beyond "aww, he luuuuuvs her" nice-guy-finally-gets-the-girl tropey bullshit. Nothing in common, genuine disdain for each other's careers, completely dysfunctional dynamic that encourages the worst in each other…

They have absolutely nothing in common, they always struggled to find common ground with their careers, tastes, habits, beliefs… opposites attract and all, but the show did far too good a job convincing me those two were best as friends for me to buy that they'd blissfully recouple for their retirement.

And even totally garbage people usually have one or two friends. Doesn't change the garbage part. I don't know how that basic concept was supposed to hold up an entire novel

Yeah, the idea that someone's bigoted rhetoric is cancelled out by them pal-ing around with those groups is already annoyingly popular, but it sounds like this book goes even further to argue it's better to be that way than someone who is 'politically correct' (read: respectful) but doesn't have any gay friends.…

That's intentional for sure. One of her songs was in a street/festivalwear ad for a while that was near identical to the official music video

This book piqued my interest, but after that review I think I'll give it a miss. I've had the whole "old racist homophobes are good people in their own way" thing rammed down my throat non-stop for two years now, I'm tired

Exactly this. My problem isn't that the stakes depend on other films in the franchise, it's that often the stakes depend on the promise of payoffs yet to happen, which never materialise. I liked Civil War and it should have been cathartic, but it winds up being just another pit stop on the way to something that - at…

YES to every party in Coppola's Marie Antoinette, they're so decadent and yet all have this wistful, youthful feel that reminds me of sneaking off with a bottle of champagne from a family event as a teenager. That's a film I revisit often, it's pure candy

Come on, dude. We've all got to sleep at night somehow.

It's not even competent pandering to shippers, like Mary ending up with Bash would have been. It was such a cheap move, and not earned at all

We got the news in December, so maybe they did too. That makes me feel slightly better, this could have been fine as a season finale (minus the garbage time jump, obviously). I think - hope - the ending would have been very different next season

I would have much, much, much preferred that they left things up in the air so we could hope for Netflix to save it or make our own conclusions

What the fuck was that? I mean - I just - what the fuck???

And in contrast, the first Barney/Robin breakup is just a standard rough patch that they weren't mature enough to work through at the time

Totally. It seems like they suggest they'd be perfect for each other in their 50s because Robin is done globetrotting and Ted's done raising his kids, but their incompatibility goes way further than that. They have nothing in common.

Yeah, it retroactively makes most character arcs feel irrelevant and almost insulting. I get it, life goes on, people die/divorce, blah blah, but this is a feel-good television show that completely disregarded the bulk of its canon. Which makes sense, since all that was just stalling for syndication on the way to the…

Exactly. And they sold Barney/Robin so well - he loved all the things about her that Ted loved her in spite of and made her ashamed of, and she loved the few things about him he was actually proud of. Throughout their entire relationship Ted and Robin never progressed beyond "opposites inexplicably attract" and…