"(I think if I’d graded it after my first viewing, you’d all have been very upset.)"

That guy's actual name is Hayes MacArthur?  I mean, of course it is.

There was good stuff in this episode, but I'm not sure why it needed to be 90 minutes, frankly.  The 'action sequence' with the cartel was a waste of time, did little to nothing to advance any of the plotlines, and seemed like an excuse to give the special effects guys something to do with their time.

We're calling it "The Empire" now?

Things I didn't particularly miss about season one: lesbian Angela & Jimmy's "to the lost" toast.  The latter just sounds so flat, so much like a capital-q Quirk that it astonishes me that they didn't let it die a quiet, lonely, unmourned death.

Ehh.  I guess I think the show's done a good enough job of showing Nucky consistently demeaning Eli — and of making it look like every on-screen example is just the latest in a long, long line — that I can imagine the latter finally reaching his tipping point.

You know, the evidence indicates that practice swings with a weighted bat actually hurts the batter's swing instead of helping it.

The Swede is the kind of character you'd write if you spent your time looking through Cormac McCarthy's trash basket.

YES.  I want that to be good in the worst way.

This is the first episode in awhile that felt like Nucky was someone worth taking seriously — both from the show's perspective and the viewer's.  When Eli told Jimmy that Nucky's smarter than him, you believed it.

I'm pretty sure these grades aren't real things.

That was pretty awful.  Other than the Bridal Shower sketch — which was far & away the best — it was retread after unfunny retread.

I think it's been substantially better than last year, especially the last few episodes.

I hear 'Dimensionalizing' was the working title for the Leap.

Rarely is the question asked, is our sitcom characters dimensionalizing?

I don't want to consign a show to the flames because of a bad pilot, but it was pretty bad.  I came in willing to forgive some shoddy plotting and some thin characters, but I was not ready for how disappointing the writing was, or — for reasons I can't quite put my finger on — how jarring the visual style of the show…

Well that's disappointing.  I was really hoping for some sweet 'dbh' or 'bhf' action in there.

This show … this show isn't very good.

It's spelled exactly the opposite way from how it sounds.

Season 2 has been consistently engaging in a way that I didn't find S1 to be.  It still lacks the strong central character that anchored the Soprano & anchors Breaking Bad, and it lacks the thematic precision that kept the universe of the Wire in place, but I think it's become a much more enjoyable show.