Can we just mention that the benevolent Coprophage aliens saved us from all the other ones (they were clearly the smartest anyway) and move on? Thirty seconds and we're done with all that.

I think if you create an iconic character, you must be doing something right. And Mulder worked as a character in stories that were humorous, dramatic, tragic, or practically nonsensical. That's pretty impressive.

The question is, "How difficult is it for a dog to read Braille?"

This is true, but I think there is a difference between creative play in the area of things we didn't know at the time like Bradbury's Venus stories and simply not caring about things we already understood pretty well.

I'll chime in a little too. I thought the Pep Boys sketch was a little off target. The problem with the idea is not "Working class mooks are ignorant" but why ask low paid service workers to introduce a complex and sensitive topic into what should be a streamlined customer interaction? They've got work to do, and the…

And that female team member's name was…Clarice Starling.

John Adams had some problematic elements, in particular the way Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty are portrayed in the early going to make John look more heroic.

If you think you might enjoy an actual biblical scholar shredding O'Reilly and his "scholarship" in Killing Jesus I recommend Killing History: Jesus in the No Spin Zone by Robert Price.

Given how often "famous author" characters are standins for the writers, you gotta wonder how these folks see themselves.

That thing with a land line telephone where you hear your own voice is called sidetone. It's a delicate balancing act because if your phone's mic picks it up coming out of the speaker you get a feedback squeal. Cell phones have the mic and speaker closer together than a land line headset, so it's even harder, and most…

Back when this all started, the Spirit, the Crimson Avenger, Sandman, arguably Vigilante and The Shining Kinight tried, but they got outvoted.

there are some female villains that could be portrayed as victims of the patriarchy.

Sorry, if I equated "true villainy" with "pure evil" when that was not what you intended.

Oh please.

Well, probably no one who's seen much TV before believed she was dead.

So men stealing power and joy from women, and women finding their own way to reclaim both is not a suitable topic for a feminist story. I disagree.

The Iowa victory seemed totally unearned. Also not very meaningful, since we're down to two candidates already, somehow. Iowa, with it's weird caucus system is good for thinning a large herd, but New Hampshire is usually much more significant.

I think they had a real misstep with the idea that Claire was a huge campaign asset in Iowa. I criticized it in comments on those episodes as unrealisitc, but it also muddied the waters for this episode in a big way.

It was cruel to Rachel, and unpalatable viewing.

Which means it's not going away anytime soon.