Honestly, one of the best things about the way this show handles romance is the way it plays straight and queer romances against type. For straight romances, which are bogged down in love triangles and will-they-or-won't-they teasing, they offer a pretty subdued relationship that goes far enough to make things clear…

Yeah, forget "Full Disclosure", the true test of the Steven/Connie relationship so far has been Connie keeping a cool head and helping care for Steven when he turns back into a baby.

Pearl built up her rep for thousands of years only to have some scrub come around and casually try to take ownership of her.

To me, a lot of my issues with Gravity Falls stem from the show's sense of comic timing, which is just this side of forced at the best of times. There's also the fact that the show makes a big deal of certain things it does (continuity, being dark, having a big overarching mystery), while Steven Universe does many of…

You can read it that way, but I feel like it was more Rose planting the seed that would eventually germinate into "Stronger Than You".

I actually feel the same way as you, but about Gravity Falls instead of SU, so I empathize.

In fairness, Sapphire had a big self-abnegation thing going on. Didn't she predict her own death?

Yeah, there's definitely a big collectivist mindset amongst gems of the same type.

My relationship with this episode was kinda like Ruby and Sapphire's— I always get really anxious about the show deciding to fill in its backstory for some reason, and a lot of the initial staging of the episode seemed a little empty, so I was awkward and self-conscious at first— and then as soon as they both started…

I love that it's now canon that Pearl and Rose would just wander Earth's wilderness like desperadoes.

Oliver Sava's grades don't seem to track a show's critical consensus that well.

I'm happy it showed up. it's a tough crowd, and I don't think any other show targeted at that demographic will show up. (Provided Adventure Time doesn't make the top 20, which seems like a pretty long shot.)

Got a real Pokey Minch vibe from AMO, here.

Also, on a non-pop-culture level, Vladimir Nabokov. I read Lolita and Ada this year, and they've been really good.

Orange is the New Black. I'm really slow and skittish about watching TV, so it takes me a long time to get around to (and finish) a series, but I've seen the first two seasons of this and it's made for a great few months. I love the way they portray mental illness and all sorts of different backgrounds with humor and…

It's also been five months, and the network hasn't been airing reruns or even reminding people that the show exists.

I thought about that a little, but I don't think the way the narrative develops really works with that metaphor. BMO just wants to get back out and get things back to where they used to be, and they do.

Honestly? That was the first episode of the show I saw and enjoyed. I can understand how it would rankle the more continuity-minded types, but I found the whole shebang really charming.

I guess it does work that way (remember "Rainy Day Daydream"?), but I still don't think Football "exists" in any capacity other than an alternate personality of BMO.

I love the explanation for his multiple-season disappearance.