fairly sure to end in heartbreak, because Major

Thanks for this pre-air, Alex! I have been weary about this upcoming season because I feared it would lean far more into its horror and violence aspects, which I don’t know I’d be able to stomach (some of season 3 was already too stomach-churning or cringeworthy for me). And I even thought perhaps the show would lose…

This episode was definitely an improvement over the last two weeks’ chapters. Jane and Rafael finally moved past the waffling and had several propelling breakthroughs; everything from their personal realizations to their sex scene was narratively satisfying. And I, for one, hope Rafael’s birth parents are dark and…

Oh boy, I didn’t even think of that, what with Rose just sitting in jail... If the writers have her come back in another disguise, that will be disappointing.

Can anyone remind me where Luisa is? I kind of miss her?

There’s enough strong material in the character dynamics that the writers don’t have to try so hard with the extra flourishes, and the best episodes of Jane The Virgin maintain an element of restraint because the plot is already so heightened.

Honestly, even when Edge gave the confession, it still didn’t ring true to me—I kept getting the vibe from the episode that a different suspect would be revealed because Edge seemed to genuinely deny having anything to do with the poisoning and he was heavily pressured into confessing. But maybe this is all mostly…

I can’t agree that this was an A episode for me. My main issues with recent Jane the Virgin still persist: the magical-realism aspect is all gone, and most of the action feels so banal and repetitive. There’s being grounded, sure, and then there’s being boring. Not to say everything going on now can be so…

Yes, I’m glad someone else thought this too! There was sort of lingering stare from Petra when she’s shaking Jane’s hand...

That is a good point—and on top of it being a really sad event, I think that using Jack’s death, a scene that viewers from day one have been waiting almost the whole series to see, is a strange and almost spoiler-esque way of bringing in new viewers.

I felt that “The Fifth Wheel” was one of the This is Us’s stronger outings, in the sense that it approached its emotional material with more clarity than I think it has in the past. Normally, the show tends to convey its feelings by relying on subtext (granted, very-easy-to-understand subtext, but subtext…

I agree! This is why I continued to watch The Mindy Project (the storylines really fell apart, but damn, did it continue to deliver the best one-liners). Of course the episode could have been stronger with better storytelling, but I still laughed at many gags this episode (“panopticon” and Penny W.’s Tinder profile…

I know I’m so late to this party, but I feel the need to chime in:

Hi Nick– I know not everyone agrees with your assessments of this series, but I just want to say, I very much appreciate you putting your personal opinions and thoughtful critiques into your reviews. I just came from watching another series and loathing this site’s so-called reviews for it that were actually just lazy…

Again, this “review” is quite recap-heavy... But you do have a load of more subjective thoughts in the Stray Observations; Arielle, I think you should make more of that the substance of your writings to make the whole thing more interesting.

Saying this forever until it sticks: please do more than just a recap! This regurgitation of plot is just not interesting or enjoyable to read, at all. Arielle, I would love if you gave more of your personal opinions and smarter critiques in these posts!

I would argue that she followed the path of using Herb Smith’s cards so willingly because she had already begun questioning herself after her first performance in the episode was such a failure and she was desperate to find the answer to her creative block. However, that desperation maybe would have been more…

I just did a quick Google dive into parenting in the 1950s: parents weren’t totally absent, but they usually did not care to tend to their children further than their basic needs and invest energy into their children’s entire well-being (unlike the perhaps typical “helicopter” parents of today, who can be overly…

I have yet to experience that signature ASP style of dialogue I’ve heard so much about, but I guess this episode had it? And I instantly understand the appeal: those quick-moving conversations early on in the episode, like between Rose and Abe and between Midge and Imogene, were delightfully witty.

I’ve posted this before and will continue to do so when relevant because I wholly believe in better writing: