I don't know if it's politics or what, but Fowle definitely seemed to have a preconceived notion about what the show would be and insisted on mangling the actual product to fit into that notion, in increasing defiance of what was actually happening on screen. The weirdest part was that he sometimes even acknowledged…

Not really. I don't think the point is that Chip is right and companies are people, too, just that most of the people in SaVenice are ultimately as fake and full of shit as Chip. I mean, they're a bunch of generally bourgey, mostly white people trying to fight the gentrification of their already-pretty-gentrified…

Based on Remains of the Day and my admittedly limited experience in working in house service, I don't think you get to the point where you know naughty little secrets without your employer figuring you're the kind of person who'd never blackmail them.

Yeah. I think the point of Dennis's character is that he's just as shitty as Chip, only more self-deluded about it. Chip at least knows on some level that he's not great, while Dennis honestly believes he's a decent, selfless, considerate guy.

Given that the graph has a "journalist" earning $97k, I can only assume some level of always assuming the most generous salary was in place. I don't think most butlers make that, but I wouldn't be surprised if a head butler in a particularly wealthy household would. It's an extremely demanding, specialized profession.

Does anyone have Don DeLillo's e-mail address?

I kind of agree? I generally preferred the first half of the season to the second, but I didn't think the premise switch of the second half of the season was at fault so much as its execution. It was just too much plot to fit into the space they had while also keeping a coherent/successful ensemble sitcom going. If it…

That's how federal financial aid for college tuition works, so probably.

Look at you, getting that coveted avatar-picture/comment synergy. Good for you, man.

The worst part is Americans of all races weren't even equally likely violate marijuana laws, white people were actually more likely to violate them.

I would buy a '64 Impala if they made adequately plaintive Eazy E memorial bumper stickers.

I think that's a pretty fair impression; if the pessimism is meant to be the whole conversation, it's pretty much the feature-length equivalent of the "They just picked a random day for Christmas, maaaaaaaaaan" mode of teenage rebellion. (I mean, there's only so much you can hate phonies without being a total Holden.)…

I'd take them with a grain of salt. It has real, serious flaws, but some of these reviews' central complaints hinge on pretty fundamental and often inexplicable misreadings.

Misread Katheryn Winnick as Kristen Wiig, was briefly much more interested in Vikings.

I mean, he's not totally wrong. I have gazed into the empty abyss beyond the future, and there's no rap there. So at some point between now and the grim day when all stars cease to shine for they they have been devoured by the howling of the Void that Is Nothing, rap will stop being a thing.

I think this is a pretty fair criticism. I can't tell if they've gotten worse about this or I've just grown more aware of it as their career goes on, but I've definitely felt it undermining some of what they're going for.

1. It's interesting you mention not having seen Raising Arizona (incidentally, I should probably mention I didn't respond to the points about Hail Caesar! since I haven't seen it yet), since it's actually a fairly direct counterpoint to at least some of that reading of Fargo. Nicholas Cage's character, Hi McDunnough,…

Sure, but someone as critically sophisticated as Thomas Elsaesser (who, while Nayman is cool and all, totally wins in a sophistication-off) has never really indicated observing anything of the kind and, in fact, has focused his interpretation of the Coens primarily around their inscrutability.

1. I'd question both interpreting the Coens as nihilistic and reading pessimism as somehow as innately and inherently reactionary. The mockery of nihilism in The Big Lebowski doesn't really scan as affectionate, and both Raising Arizona and especially Fargo are both straightforwardly framed, for all their other…

Yeah, the loony conservatives in my extended family think of the Coens are part of the Ivory Tower Liberal Elite, what with making "a terrorist" the hero of The Big Lebowski and all.