Camp*? I think the answer might be camp-value, but I'm not sure because I'm not 100% sure what camp-value is.

"To teenage me, Home Improvement represented everything lame about “mainstream” culture, and that my classmates would pick it over The Simpsons or Seinfeld only confirmed what unsophisticated rubes they were."

I was so relieved about the house as well. New Girl is helping to ease me through my early thirties by showing a bunch of people my age who are happy but without conventional trappings of success. That first (expensive) house was Conventional City.

Absolutely. And I think this trope came from a place of good intentions— to bring awareness to how abuse can and does lead to serious damage. It's just when the trope became overplayed (across fiction in general, not just in any one movie) that it started to unintentionally signal hopelessness.

I always saw her story as the abuse-screws-you-up-for-life trope. Maybe a tired trope, but not about punishing her for being free-spirited. We actually never really see her being free-spirited. Yes, we see her in the counterculture, but usually she's being abused by some man/men (jerk boyfriend, nude guitar crowd,…

Well, I don't know about zero quality shows. Trick for example, is one of my favorite shows of all time and I will defend it with paragraphs if needs be. I've enjoyed many other scripted dramas as well, but I agree that on the whole they're more TV-y than "cinematic TV"-y. And of course there is dreck. But I wouldn't…

Huh, I don't particularly find that much of a quality difference in US/Japanese broadcast TV (leaving cable etc. aside). I think there's a definite difference in the non-fiction/fiction ratio though when it comes to quality (and, probably relatedly, quantity), with Japanese TV stronger in the former. Like, I've never…

It took me about five minutes to process the sentence that contained her name, because my brain was super on-board with the majority of the words, but kept blipping on the "co-screenwriter" part.

And by "these days," we mean since at least 1769 ;)

On the other hand, if we ever manage to change the national anthem to This Land Is Your Land, I will carry around a hobo bindle at all times and dutifully whip it over my shoulder whenever someone starts singing it.

It's a defense mechanism. Like that thing when you can't tell if it's going to rain or not so you take an umbrella and carry it around with you all day just to make sure it doesn't actually rain.

I definitely remember (daily?) TV Club coverage of the Vancouver Olympics though. Nothing like that with the Olympics this year.

Okay, I know I am officially four years late to the party, and thus I don't usually comment as I read these reviews during my current re-watch, but YES!

Okay, I know I am officially four years late to the party, and thus I don't usually comment as I read these reviews during my current re-watch, but YES!

It seems like no one has mentioned the Key & Peele East/West Bowl sketch yet, so I will mention it.

"…or Ann."

I mean, I know it's not fair to expect celebrities to keep up unrealistically youthful appearances, but that picture of Tom Hanks hit me right in my mortality.

I had 13 years of Catholic school, loved learning about religion(s) and theology (including but not just my own), and am neither an unbeliever nor a member of the clergy.

I feel that, specifically, they achieve some uncanny valley of Muppethood rather than humanhood. Like, almost a Muppet, but not quite, and it's unnerving.

Yeah, Frank Sinatra and Frankie Valli are on that list too. And Frankie Avalon. A lot of Franks (<—stereotypes self; also I have three different relatives named Frank though)