Are you sure you're not saying Sookie's stupid? Because if Sookie isn't stupid, the word has been stripped of all meaning and needs to be retired from the lexicon.

Yeah, come to think of it, nobody bipolar I know has ever tried to kill a child, their own or anybody else's. An accurate televised portrayal wouldn't make for great drama, though. ("This week on Defiance: Pilar is gregarious to the point you get a little weirded out, and has lots of grandiose ideas she doesn't follow…

It's true. I guess the meek don't wind up inheriting the Earth. Although, in Alak's semi-defense, this doesn't seem like a world in which it's easy even for the bold to pick up sticks and leave town, or even manage to afford your own place (the only people we see with detached houses are the McCawleys and Tarrs;…

I don't think, or mean to imply, that all of Defiance's writers are in that cohort, but it's likely that some of them are. Nobody would hire a roomful of 24-year-olds to write a serial drama, unless they were looking to make an intentionally self-interested, navelgazing one (…Girls?), but my point is that some of them…

Hmm, good call on ME2. I pointed out some parallels last week between the show and Xenogears and Fallout. I'm not sure if the video game stuff is intentional (except for Fallout, which was evoked so blatantly I assume it was an homage), but something that occurred to me was that the first generation to grow up on both…

Well, we're not seeing "pure" Castithan culture, we're seeing the state of Castithan culture after the near-annihilation of the species and thirty-some years on a new planet with different cultural norms and expectations (and we're also only seeing Castithans who made the choice to live in a mixed town far from the…

Took the words from me mouth. There's a reason demonic possession, in whatever form it takes, is a cross-cultural and millennia-old trope in mythology and literature: even if it's been done, it remains generally compelling because it's one of the scarier things we can imagine happening to ourselves (or anyone,…

I'm not a psychiatrist. Is "bananapants" the technical term?

Time is a little weird on this show. Christie went from freshly-knocked-up to visibly showing in the space of, like, an episode or two.

I like that Alak is a total nebbish whom everyone leads around by the nose. Or other appendages. He may be an alien, but he (and Tommy) are the show's most relentlessly normal characters. All the poor kid wants to do is play records and play house, but his parents can't even get through breakfast without scheming, and…

Hey, I'm crazy about this show, warts and all, so I sincerely hope I'm wrong about Pottinger. I will say that it's a show that often zags when you expect it to zig, so it's entirely possible all the rape stuff is a red herring based on the notion that we're conditioned by television to expect a sudden Mystery in a…

You're right about bipolar disorder not necessarily being always "on," of course, and I should have considered that. It's just that the show implied that she had gone into an unarrested downward spiral after losing access to effective lithium, and bipolar disorder isn't really something that can be addressed solely…

I also don't see why Irisa needs to retain her agency - the whole point of making a deal with the devil is that you surrender an ever-increasing part of it.

I was operating under the assumption that Rynn had just eaten him, but I like your idea better.

So long, Deirdre! Don't let the ground hit you in the ass on the way out!

I initially read "the series has consistently explored the psychology and motivations of its characters" as "the series has consistently explored the physiology and motivations of its characters," which is equally true. Or perhaps more true.

It's been awhile, but isn't it heavily implied that Shadow dies in the final dungeon anyway, for reasons that aren't entirely clear? He makes Interceptor make a run for it, though, right? I also recall back when the Internet was rife with Final Fantasy rumors that supposedly Shadow would live if you unlocked all his…

Doesn't Relm also have a tragic backstory, given that her mother died horribly and her father is an absentee ninja who, despite (potentially) spending who knows how many hours traveling with her, never says, "Oh, by the way, kiddo, I'm your dad"?

I'm sorry I failed, Internet. Like our "President," I will face Mecca and say 100 Shahadas in penance.

I thought when I read the headline that it was going to be a shame-based anti-texting scheme, and was fully prepared to start speaking in tones and passing out copies of the Little Red Book on street corners.