I agree, and I think it's a problem for the show, but I suspect-

Well, not sure this show should be considered to be too much like real life…

Yeah, they're the only two out of pocket- I just mean that if one of them ever talks, there's a lot of people who can corroborate their story.

There's actually a long list of people who know what Frank's done- the two reporters, the old editor, the hacker, Rachel…and that's not counting the people who could figure it out if they thought about it for 2 minutes.

Yeah, they'll have to pretty specifically backtrack on some things they've told us about Frank to make him a plausible candidate.

Yeah, some of Urquhart's schemes were leavened by the fact that his opponents were pretty odious- the PM was weak and whiney, his other main rival in the election was a bully sleeping around, etc. Of course, none of them killed 2 people, but then, neither did FU until the last episode…

"Now that he's reached the pinnacle of power, is he going to have an agenda?"

One advantage Fallon has is Lorne Michaels. NBC seems pretty happy to keep doing business with him (which is actually not entirely justified at this point).

Sure, but those things were so stupid, they were basically unforeseeable.

It's also worth noting that the ratings slide coincided with the bottom falling the fuck out of NBC. Would the same thing have happened five years earlier, when it still had Friends and Will & Grace, or even now, when football and The Voice have at least made NBC viable again?

Naive and overly committed to an outdated format. Conan can still kill in sketches, but the Monologue, Sketch, Two guests and a song routine is pretty stale. And even when he went to TBS, he did nothing to change it.

"They are the first thought. Everyone has the first thought. "

" I mean, it wasn't like he was an unknown property and he'd been a talk show host for over ten years at that point."

That's fair. I'd also note that the early seasons of the Office- especially with more vivid memories of the UK series- had a lot more ennui about them, so there was plenty of reason to suspect that Jim and Pam wouldn't get together very soon. P&R always had a lot more optimism, so it was easier to see that…

I think Diaz and April have a common ancestor, but are pretty different roles; April is all about pretending not to care, while Diaz is about anger. I'll grant that they haven't completely nailed that yet with Diaz, but there's been just enough (and April has been rounded off well enough in years of P&R) that I can't…

There's not really that many cutaway gags; it's probably about on par with classic Simpsons in terms of number.

Well, structually, both couples were the "people who need to be together" of their shows. But, of course, the characters were vastly different (Leslie and Ben are hyper ambitious, while Jim and Pam were almost defined by their apathy), and Leslie and Ben can break off into the larger ensemble quite a bit more. Plus,…

P&R is definitely losing steam, but I'd still call it better than B99; too many of B99's episodes so far haven't had a good handle on Peralta. They're getting there, and I'm sure they'll lock it up, but I can only judge on what's been aired so far…

I'm gonna give B99 a little bit of an edge on Enlisted so far, if only because the youngest brother on Enlisted is carrying the comedic load to a Bill-Murray-in-Ghostbusters degree. But I suspect that will change. All in all, I'm not sure how useful it is to compare these series as series before their seasons are over…

"So make an effort to create iconic characters who aren't white men."