Yeah I think if the last season had been longer his dad might have returned, but in the shortened season they needed to keep the focus on Suzanne as what he had lost. We didnt even see his son this season!

I had to learn so much about Parnell to get like 50% of the references in Joyce

Mrs. Greenfield also comprises the best moments of the hell that is his father's life in season 2 including both times the house was destroyed.

Murder has to be up there too for its perfect use of the veto booth. And I will always love how Cult/Perfect Body dovetail into a perfect 1-2 punch of failure and disaster

I think it is easier to balance a tone like this when it the creative control is so tightly held. You can tell that this is Andy Daly's baby and looking behind the scenes, the same guy directed every episode and a lot of episodes were written by the director's brother. So you have three creative minds that are working…

I didn't notice the leg move when I first watched but someone brought it to my attention in the comments. But yeah the leg moves and he smiles at the camera.

Locorito/Pet Euthanasia/Dream:
I like how even though there are only three episodes the show reveals two complete arcs over the course of these episodes. First is of Forrest's murder trial where jury selection is perfectly ruined by Forrest's violent reaction to a months old Locorito. I mean in a sense a violent…

It really does, doesn't it? Anyway I think a written Doctor Who isn't for me where we cannot see the zaniness play out on screen.

Yeah apparently it was half-written as a Who script, then it either wasn't working or Adams left the show or something and he turned it into the book.

Excellent, great to hear

I had read Redshirts before but that was it

Oh it definitely makes sense, but I guess I typically value readability because that means that i'll power through if its bad rather than wallowing forever in a book i don't want to read (especially since I almost never stop in the middle). And there is a kind of joy to a quick moving but otherwise not very good book

Oh and I think the fever-dream quality probably comes from its origin as an abandoned Doctor Who script

I love structure, but it is not of primary importance, maybe tertiary importance and I have found that due to my life-long love of sci-fi and fantasy that I am pretty immune to bad prose (it has to be really bad or really artificial before it bothers me).

It really is just fun. Have you read any of the sequels? Are they also good?

And i think that is a test that Martin passes (at least in the main series)

Oh I agree that this is the purpose… but it manifested for me as a reader in ambivalence and boredom

The thing I have realized is that I don't need a lot of plot, just a baseline goal and some work towards that. Handmaid's Tale ends with a goal realized, but we don't even engage in the process of achieving that goal until super late in the book. The rest of the time we spend assuming it is an impossibility or that…

Yep! The first book is a tough read. He doesn't really hold your hand and there is a lot of unfamiliar aspects to the world (how magic works, the various races, even the politics are opaque). Also he is a new writer when it starts and it kinda shows. The first book does pick up eventually once you are acclimated but…

I honestly just felt bored for a really long time. It took until the commander starts seeing her regularly for me to get into it. But then I have found that plot is honestly the number one thing that keeps me engaged in a book. It's why i have bounced off Infinite Jest before. I just need that baseline to keep me…