Happy Endings had smart dialogue and a black man with a white wife (and a gay member of the core group) — but it knew what its level of reality was, what its tone needed to be, and although characters often behaved badly, they knew the line beyond which it would not be funny. Friends from College isn't in control of…

But then this episode revealed that Max is criminally incompetent at his job (we already knew he was a crap boyfriend). So his character ended up as awful as all the others. Why did I keep watching this?

"This is played for laughs, I think, but it’s not actually funny" — this could be the motto of the whole series, as far as I'm concerned. I felt it the most in the IVF episode, which I literally had to turn off twice as unpleasant happenings became inevitable, and then try again a day later. I find every episode…

I'm delighted with the idea of regular reviews here. I was only recently turned on to this very enjoyable show (one of only two new fall series I've kept watching), thanks to a blog that singled it out among the season's offerings (most sites watched the pilots, then slapped it away). It manages more sheer fun (along…

My only complaint was that Amy's plan depended on Holt throwing the crown in the garbage. There are other choices he could have made.

All the costumes were! (Except mustard & mustard of course.) Matador, Little Bo Peep, Santa's elf, crusader (?), and best of all Popeye.