Well, they're fictional characters not real people, so their relationship is subject to critical analysis, and their choices hold narrative significance.

It's funny, because a lot of the examples you listed were in the episode, but you're right (IMO) that the episode didn't land. The review is basically completely on target—it's a lot of decent ideas that don't all fit together jumbled up into an overly broad, mediocre satire. The last college ep didn't land for me…

"If I'm doing it for myself, shouldn't I be comfortable?"

"one-third or more of respectably married women also died young in childbirth"

But the Columbia rowing team are preps. The closest version of woke you'd get from them is White Feminism™, where they only care about things that happen to rich white women. The only jokes they would ever get bent out of shape about would be ones at their expense.

I didn't think that was very successful either, but it was closer to decent parody, so I'll give them that.

Pretty sure no one in the history of Columbia has ever been harassed by their fellow students merely for being rich.

The Columbia material was so off base it bugged the hell out of me. The Columbia rowing team is ripe for parody; campus pc culture is ripe for parody (if executed well), but holy shit are those not two things that go together.

This is a gender neutral phenomenon, just FYI. There are also plenty of naked old ladies in every locker room I've ever been in outside of a K-12 facility, often plus-sized too.

I have a lot of issues with Dany as a character, but I can't stand this revisionist 'Dany is a villain' nonsense.

Thank you!! The college material was brutal for me this season. Parody should feel like hyperbolic reality, not propaganda.

In Francesca's defense, Dev is the only person she knows in NY other than her fiance, who's busy.

The two best episodes of the season are yet to come, but overall it was a meh for me as well.

This almost gives them too much credit. Fancesca should come across as being a little out of her depth and overwhelmed if she's a humble pasta maker from a small town in Italy. But she seems pretty at ease in a high end New York lifestyle.

Yeah, the trailer seems to have skipped that part where they frequently went hungry.

Oh, completely, but I think we can all agree that he was the weakest link in the Buffy pilot itself (second only perhaps to the vampire makeup).

Jonathan was in the pilot! (I think)

Amazing that the least talented actor to appear in the Buffy pilot is the one who's gotten the most consistent work ever since.

In the show's defense, my actual doctor cousin looks at most 14, as does his wife, who is also a doctor.

La Pyramide Humaine! Possibly the only movie from that cultural anthropology class I took in college that I straight up enjoyed.