I get the feeling that if you were to rate the two halves as individual episodes, there'd be a lot less grief about the grading.

DirecTV viewers still just get these three brief clips of Maron talking to the camera; more precisely, they get Maron talking to a PA just to the camera's left. At first I thought we were getting on-demand episodes.

Better yet, he's pointing in the general direction of the judge and she actually looks up and back to see what he's pointing at.

I have to imagine, though, that when you know that it's a million bucks on the line, you're going to do some crazy stuff. Probably better to leave the driving to someone else. There would have been a little more head-to-head if Max hadn't blown the Spy Games task.

They're busy over on Maron, I presume. Go look on IFC.

I can get behind this. A season or two ago I wondered aloud why we don't see the "Eat, Sleep and Mingle" footage that we used to, then it became clear that, unless they hit the mat at about the same time, teams didn't really know who was still around and who wasn't until a bunching took place.

He also appeared to be trying hard not to finger an invisible fret board. 

I liked his recent comment in the WTF monologue where he suggested that that bit was kind of played out, but he just couldn't abandon it because it's an expected part of the show.

Maybe the solution is to think of the season as two short seasons, each with its own arc, rather than one long one, cf. S6 of Sopranos or this year with Breaking Bad.

She was working in a public place (Starbuck-ian locale) at that point; Nolan had hacked the security camera. Which doesn't really make it less stupid.

Herd it from Perd.

Pshaw. The missing son is going to be Nolan.

I dunno…we've had quite a few where the tenor of the FTC ran along the lines of "My question is, Fuck You."

Russell Hantz has tweeted that if they were to get the call, they wouldn't participate. But boy, would they bring in the biggest ratings ever (says he).

Jesus Christ!

Maybe you remember him as one of the guys who freaks C.J. out using an inverted Peters Projection map during one of the West Wing's "Big Block of Cheese Day" episodes.

Why not? Many districts allow ASL to fulfill their "foreign language" requirement for graduation.

I absolutely agree with this. This is one of the (many, many, *sigh* MANY) things that dragged down "Studio 60" and it's happening here a lot, too. 
We didn't see Ivy's audition but it went fabulously.
Eileen's deposition was gangbusters, we hear. 
The table read was fantastic—so we're told, only moments after it ends.

As a teacher, I get it once in awhile too. When I'm not feeling patient with those parents, my response is "Then I'd like a raise."

The best thing about this whole discussion is that in about 20 years the AV Club will do retrospective reviews of the show and someone's going to come up with the "Reposted AV Club Comments" gimmick account.