I think it really has to suck for your husband's ex-wife to still be a presence in your husband's life. Luisa provided love and stability for Joanie when Alison couldn't, yet she will never be perceived or treated like a mother. Remember that she can't have children. This whole scenario is traumatic for her too.

I would be disappointed if it were confirmed that the writers were knowingly pushing people's buttons with the Alison storyline; it's one thing to mine drama, but it's quite another to use this stuff in an attempt to spark a debate wherein both sides are presumably equally valid. Anyone who had a troubled childhood…

This is when I have to lay my cards on the table: As a teen, I had a weird sort of downtown NYX notoriety/fame. At 17 I could tell stories about running into a Stroke at a bar on Avenue A. In college, I took music courses from famous and successful music producers. These days I am in regular correspondence with some…

I think the show might be trying to set up a contrast between how Noah's female fans want to fuck him (which he accepts without question) vs how he kinda rebuffed a male fan with terrible results. But I don't know. We have to remember that someone actually scripted the conversation about consent. It's valid to say…

That's the thing though. If this show were delivering gangbusters entertainment, I wouldn't care about the plot holes. If it presented a fictional universe that somehow justified glossing over gaps in logic, I'd roll with that. But when too many crucial plot points depend on an entire staff of well-paid employees…

Still doesn't quite explain the too-little-too-late approach to security in the nerd room. Too much on this show depends on people not doing their jobs. Or acting like Delos couldn't simply fire Ford if they wanted to.

It feels like they blew through plot points in an academic way but they forgot to give us anything to sink our teeth into.

Well no, but there's a difference between a dropped thread that feels like a deliberately crafted cliffhanger and one that feels like, "jk, Shannon Woodward was a casualty of the network-enforced shape up."

The William thing bothers me because it was a straight story being played as though it were a mystery. But for us to care about a transformation, we need to care about either iteration of the character first.

I'm always up for seeing Ben Barnes naked, but I'm not accustomed to HBO catering to my ~gaze so hmmmmmm not sure.

I was fairly horrified by Juliette's intellectualization and romanticizing of the notion of a man not obtaining consent. It's very manipulative writing - to present an example of sexual assault that's so ambiguous as to allow a grown woman to defend the man. This show is still very much presenting Noah as flawed and…

I think it's valid for Lip to be attaching all of his problems to Helene. However, the show is not making the argument that Lip is wrong or that there's more to the story and I wish the writers would stop being so gun-shy about articulating a point of view about it.

I'm not saying Jess is awful. I just think (and a lot of shows/movies make this mistake) that you can't keep cycling back around people who knew you when the dust of your personality was still settling. Meet someone new and make a glowing first impression. It's a pet peeve of mine when showrunners don't want to write…

The 30somethings spent their summer bowling and acting out Wes Anderson movies. Rory slept with a married man and developed a plan to profit off of her family's dirty laundry. Methinks Rory is the uncool one.

I've never been a fan of retconned Jess. I feel like "mature Jess" is a nameless character that they could have attached to any actor from the show's run but they went with Milo. I also don't quite like how the show uses Jess 2.0. His new maturity doesn't erase the things he did when he was a teen and you can't hang…

Lorelai actually shows self awareness here. She knows that the book wouldn't cast her actions in the best light. Of course Rory can't relate to being self aware.

Rory is written so weirdly in this episode. She rejects the 30somethings - friends in her age group who relate to her struggles! - to hang out with her mom. She could have completely recast the newspaper thing as, "This is important to me and I don't need the money anyway," and there ya go, suddenly it's not pathetic.…

I don't think that counts.

It doesn't.

Yeah, Rory'd be a good fit as the sort of fantasy teacher who lives in a New England cabin and writes on weekends. It's a weird job offer to throw out there and then not really address it properly.