Yeah, you know, the ones we sent into space that came back super-intelligent.

God, I always loved how dark they played that (and how honest it felt). "Dad died, so we were all pretty excited about that."

It feels real and well-observed to me. I never feel like Frank's behavior is glossed over in the real effect it has on the people around him, nor do I feel it's underlined in order to show what a bad person he is / how much more enlightened we are now. That it feels so real is what really makes the show work for me.

I've really enjoyed how well-observed this show is so far. It feels real and lived-in, and not like these characters and this world are just byproducts of a need to tell jokes. That's not an easy thing to pull off.

The colors are the Browns, but I think they're meant to be the Steelers, and the other hints also suggest this takes place in Pennsylvania.

Oh, I gotcha. I didn't even realize those episodes were aired out of order until your comment prompted me to look it up. I don't recall any problems with episode continuity in seasons 2 or 3 (outside the fact that the final episode produced for season 2, "Kickball 2: The Kickening", was bumped to the middle of season…

Glad I'm not the only one pumped for the return of Happy Endings to the air (such as it were). It's criminal that it hasn't been available to stream for so long.

It gets much better. Season 2 is fantastic especially.

Yeah, the pilot is almost certainly the worst episode.

I think he's making the connection between Diane and Diana.

Hey, a Hands on a Hard Body reference! I love that movie. I've been meaning to watch it again.

And despite the fact that the very game is rigged for them, THEY STILL CHEAT.

Professor of Philly Accents is a real thing?

I don't care if their relationship moves forward, but that would be highly preferable to inventing stupid obstacles for them to break up and get back together over.

Hale has two for Veep already, I think, so I'd much rather see Braugher get one.

He was in full uniform. I imagine that both limits movement and necessitates conducting oneself with a certain level of dignity.

My hypothesis has been that FOX's weird four-act structure to allow for more commercial breaks turns C-plots into "let's have three brief scenes of two characters recapping what happened off-screen and then hitting the Plot Event for this part of the story."

I didn't give you the dollar.

I noticed re-used bits from other Schur shows (even a re-used bit from this show) and a C-plot that was 75% "expository conversation about things that happened offscreen" (something this show does an awful lot). Because of that latter one, I didn't buy any the career stuff "feeling earned," either, because the show so…

The "the hard way" bit was recycled from Dwight doing the same thing to Ryan in The Office episode "Drug Testing."