And maybe, as a man in your late fifties, you're taking this a little too seriously. I'm sure if I dug through the things you've watched, I could find a lot to question about your moral compass too. Good thing only nutters do that.

And your initial contribution was a barrel of laughs.

Well, if you do, you may find that their tastes are as varied as yours. Or maybe not. I'm hardly an expert - but what was the point of the statement again? Oh, you're better than high school dropouts. Point for you, I guess.

Fair enough. I agree it isn't funny, but the hero of the story is still a good guy, if totally ineffectual. Not like say, Dexter.

No problem. I'm genuinely curious why people here hate this so much, because I think it's lame, but ultimately not that offensive, and my opinions don't always run so counter to what's happening at the AVclub. Anyway…

That's really the reason? I guess I wasn't aware of the marketing. Do you also hate True Detective because it loudly claimed to defy its genre, but in the end, never did?

You may be elevating your tastes a wee bit if you think some high school dropouts don't like those two shows too. They're about cops and spies - but wildly fantastical in execution - you're not exactly reading Chaucer.

I guess I would question what's worse as entertainment: nihilism for shock's sake or the false warm blanket other shows provide by always getting the bad guys? I don't have a particular opinion on that, but I don't think one's all good and the other is all bad.

I would venture to guess you haven't watched many of the other network tv procedurals if you think Following is charting some unknown course. They have been going shockingly, pointlessly dark for a decade.

Yeah, okay, you're wildly over reacting. It's entertainment. Maybe not for you - although you seem to be getting a lot more out of it than most - but it is for some. Just like shooting up hookers in GTA is for others. Or watching guys fight in MMA. Or watching endless true crime rape stories on Lifetime. You may…

I guess I don't understand the sheer hate this generates here. It's silly, pulpy popcorn trash, but it's no worse than a million SVUs and Criminal Minds or whatever else. Why is Following the devil?

Except that's not what agencies do. It's so much cheaper and easier to buy a script from low-level writers than it is to steal it. People see similar elements and think they've been ripped off, when the far more likely scenario is just independent inspiration.

When they do that, they tend to send scripts that have been bought, went to pilot, attracted huge talent, got a straight to series order, etc… not some random script by random writers who never got any traction. I know it's hard to believe, but two people may have come up with the idea of a show about a woman and…

Actually, I would be very surprised. Agents aren't in the habit of having their writers read random specs from low level or unrepresented writers. Far more likely is that two people independently came up with the idea of having a tv show revolve around a quirky 30-year-old woman. Crazy, I know.

No, I fully meant to be sardonic and superior. I am. The joke isn't that there's a sign change. The joke isn't mathematical. It's a statement on the nature of time and its relation to our lives, rearranging a common saying to make a new point. My comment was that his rearrangement wasn't obeying the rules of…

There is a joke, but it's not "sign change" humor, thank god. Mine was also a joke. Keep studying, I'm sure it'll start to make sense.

The title should really be COMEDY MINUS TRAGEDY EQUALS TIME. Check your math, Patton.