I think I'm good with letting it stand.

Yeah, I'm generally not a big fan of "in the real world I wouldn't like this" because this is true of SO many things in comedies, and action movies, and … a lot of movies. But I did not love a series of jokes about drunk-driving a gigantic party bus, etc. It's the kind of thing that makes the characters go from…

Correction: THEY ARE ALL GOOD

They definitely are. And I'm always happy to see Regina Hall out front in a movie.

I kinda liked Rough Night so I found this maybe a notch down from that, but I think if the trailer makes you laugh, you're in good shape. I found it fun even when it wasn't all that funny.

In many cases, adoption is scarcely cheaper/easier, at least per my limited understanding the process.

Jesse's work on The A.V. Club: "yay… I guess."

I will say, in episode five (review coming tomorrow!), she got one of my favorite moments.

It's certainly possible. I do tend to give actors the benefit of the doubt whenever I can (except Julia Roberts, I just don't like her). And I do think whatever combination of how Parisse plays it and how the part is written makes for a very strange fit with a show where she's supposed to be part of this white-hot…

Yeah, pretty much. What I'm saying is, Cobie Smulders is unusually charming. It's not really Annie Parisse's fault that she's not as charming as Cobie Smulders, but it does mean she has to struggle more to find something of value in a less-likable-on-paper character.

I admit I got a little distracted by that, but I think it's partially because YA is played for such broad laughs, and the show wasn't always nailing those laughs, so some of the mockery felt a little sour to me. I think if someone is ignoring an obvious solution in favor of an insane solution, then the jokes have to…

What's weirder is that I get the sense I am cutting this show a lot more slack than a lot of other reviews! (Though I'm pacing myself and have only gone through episode five at this point.)

What I found funnier is the friends' reaction to it, especially Key's dazed impulse to wave hello to Marianne during a disturbing sex scene (called back later in the season, too).

I've seen the next two episodes, and I thought they were an improvement on the first. They were a lot funnier, at least.

I'm pretty confident in my reading of your comment that there aren't any actual "syntactical" clues about your gender contained therein, unless the first letter of every sentence spells something out, in which case I might just assume you're the Zodiac or something.

So if any of you nerds want to hear a bunch of other nerds talk about the new Spider-Man movie, I can help you with that:

Dude, I've seen literally thousands of movies and (perhaps moreover) spent time in the world, so while I appreciate your condescending suggestion that the mere presence of bad things like sexism in a TV show makes me too uncomfortable to process them and therefore unable to critique a show that uses those issues……

No, I thought it was bad because the show is pretty muddled (and when it's not muddled, overly familiar) in the points it's making. "These issues are still with us" does not mean that every show that brings them up is doing something interesting.

Though apparently the costume was indeed operated very much like a puppet, I can tell you, it is not nearly as obviously or directly expressive as a puppet, which is why it still does feel surprising to feel so involved.

This essay refers to both the fifth and sixth episodes, which I have seen; I just focused on the fourth because it had a lot going on in terms of why the show isn't working for me. I'll probably finish up and watch 7-10 just out of curiosity when they air, so, you know, I guess anyone who's super interested in what I…