"I think your last comment is extremely reductionist and belittling about people's attitudes to the show. Certainly no one thought this was a "happy fun town," but if you missed the fact that the original show was groundbreaking precisely because it juggled multiple tones and multiple characters with varying levels of…

I mostly remember him as the harried and infertile oldest brother on Brothers & Sisters. They seemed to struggle in how to write for him and I think he had problems in real life so they would keep writing him out for long periods of time. I did like him on there. I wish Matthew Rhys were on this show too…

Most of the cast said they never expected it to come back and those who were asked back seemed thrilled with it even if their roles aren't much. Sherilyn is the only exception I've heard of. I know Piper Laurie was upset at not being asked back, which I can understand, although I think that character probably had no…

It is very catchy…

She's also a great comic actress. I need to check out more of her work aside from this and MD.

I don't think it was for shock value. I don't think he cares that much about whether we're shocked. It actually made a great deal of sense in the narrative.

Ah. I didn't really see it that way. I took it as him mostly just being crazy and desperate and killing in a hurry. I did notice he seemed to mostly kill female characters so I guess maybe that is another example.

I'm not sure if it's a steep decline in how black actors are treated (since there were barely ever any on the original show, beyond the doctor and then the guy from the Mod Squad for an episode in the second season) as much as it may be in how female characters are treated - Jade first appeared in the third episode,…

I didn't take that scene as lovingly detailed - I thought it was a frenzied mess, deliberately so. I'd agree with you more about earlier scenes like the one where Bad Cooper killed that Darya woman in the hotel room bed, or Richard grabbing the girl and threatening to rape her.

The prostitute (Jade) was probably one of the better-rounded new female characters. She has her own life, she isn't just there to nag, or to be killed. It's not really enough and of course she was ultimately a plot device who got naked, but I think she was more than just a stereotype.

I felt like Josie was more than that - I do think there were issues with her in terms of the submissive and inscrutable Asian female, especially when it got to season 2 when she was treated as the maid, but I felt like there were some fascinating ideas with the character and her relationships and the games she played…

Netflix in general is a great example of the limits of meme culture. They built themselves up as cool and different and yet there they are canceling several of their shows that get buzz, because the bottom line is buzz doesn't really matter.

We live in a meme culture and there are only so many things you can find to meme from the new show. There are also a lot of people who tuned into this expecting endless scenes of Dale eating cherry pie and drinking coffee and lots of jazz music whimsy. When they didn't get what they expected, they moved on.

I think he's going to have Chad try to kill the witness and that will eventually blow it all up to the cops. I wonder if Bobby is also going to be forced into this as I have a feeling he's on the take.

I guess where we disagree is if it is detached I don't see it as emotional exploitation. I saw it mostly as showing the rawest form of grief you can have (the death of a young child, a child happy and carefree, with his mother watching as it happens), which would be exactly what the Black Lodge would find most…

I agree, but I think some people now see Botox as the ideal. No wonder teenagers now seem to be getting it…

Yes. I am sort of hoping that scene was telling us he's not, unless it just means he is sometimes possessed.

I know a lot of people are fed up with Dougie but this is probably the part of the show I've been most interested in, especially in relatively focused episodes like this one. There's just something so beautifully sad about Dougie - you could almost say that the show is having a laugh at him, but I rarely feel like…

I didn't take that as emotionally exploiting a child's death as it felt like a very abstract and detached picture of death to me. We mostly saw it from Harry Dean Stanton's eyes and the other reactions felt deliberately OTT to me.

Same guy, yes.