One of my true gifts.

I find it fascinating that both The Office and Parks and Rec started off with kinda blah six-episode first seasons that each had one good episode, retooled between seasons, especially their main characters*, then had great second and third seasons, before slowly going into a long-running decline.

The Shield is the most glaring omission from this list, as the best finale of all time, but people have covered that plenty of times already. No The Prisoner on here, or M*A*S*H, or any other number of shows other people have mentioned, or... really anything from 20th century except Cheers, which feels like a token…

I don’t think it’s weird. The show increasingly changed in tone— less of a wacky small town the characters were participants of; more that they were a group of Uniquely Special People living in a town too stupid and small-minded to appreciate their greatness. (And yet, they still kept insisting Pawnee was this…

I certainly thought so. 

It really feels like her parents were playing a prank on her. 

Imogen *Gay* Poots.

“Vic always escaping” is part of what makes the ending great, because it gives him the confidence he can keep escaping even as the stakes get higher and higher. And when he finally can’t anymore, the stakes are so high that he ends up destroying everyone around him and every relationship he ever had.

It’s not a perfect show but it’s my favorite example of pure dramatic storytelling on TV— where everything has consequences, everything flows from what came before, and the stakes continually escalate until everything comes crashing down.

The Shield is my favorite drama of all time, and it’s in part because the ending is the absolute perfect choice for everything that came before.

Yeah... shit. I didn’t care or know that much at the time beforehand, but apparently there was good reason for concern.

Yep. In my opinion, as an artist you can’t really do anything but be true to yourself and then the fans who appreciate that will come.

Both of these are examples of something I think Barry has gotten weaker at in its later seasons— namely, the willingness to sacrifice plausibility or character consistency in order to advance the plot in the way the writers want to. (See also, Barry’s escape from prison, which isn’t totally unbelievable but shouldn’t…

You’ve been harassing and berating someone for four straight days for criticizing a TV show, because you can’t tell the difference between criticism of a TV show and an attack on you personally.

I thought American Auto was just okay in season 1, but season 2 took a big leap forward. Really crushed this season. Jon Barinholtz is giving one of the funniest performances on TV.

I'm really disappointed the whole Lon O'Neil thing was just played for laughs. Ahahaha, isn't it a hoot that this cop, one of the Good Guys, tortured and brainwashed a reporter? Certainly we wouldn't want to consider whether there would be consequences for that. What is this, a story with drama and plot? 

No dispute that you picked a fight and have been harassing me for four days over it, huh? But somehow it’s not your fault.

I feel ya, though. I like shows like this and some of the more story-based comedies, but good sitcoms, that are just trying to make you laugh as much as possible, can be hard to find these days. Digman! was great in that regard, American Auto was really good, we got new Party Down this year, Royal Crackers has been…

Where the fuk is Mel Brooks!

Anyone reading this and our commenting history will see that you attacked first.