This sudden lurch to desperate “they’ll love us if we defend the Royals” definitely won’t have anything to do with the Conservative Party man recently put in charge of the BBC at all…

Um am I interpreting this correctly as being a joke about Diana’s death? Cuz if so that’s waaaayyyy worse and it’s really telling that THAT was left in and pretty mild Prince Andrew jokes were taken out. Which were just about him being a creep (esp the first one about a dingo eating her baby) and is only offensive if…

Oh please. The butt of the joke was the Royal Family, not any victims. Punching up. That’s the difference!

I thought it was spot on. It’s very specifically like 1998-2001 bubblegum pop. Think like B*Witched or A*Teens.

I’ve long suspected that the episode of 30 Rock where Tina Fey goes to her class reunion thinking she was the quiet nerd and was actually the raging asshole is autobiographical. There’s just something about her.

I find your take on the Colin Quinn comeback to be quite different from my own. “I was not conditioned in a family of abuse to accept that abuse” is the message I take, and the ‘child of alcoholics’ line both makes it specific (therefore funny) and stingingly personal, since Quinn gives off a ‘Family of Boozers’ vibe.…

Did Ben Affleck not co-write the screenplay for Goodwill Hunting? Why was that in quotations?

Affleck, who won an Oscar for “writing” the screenplay to Good Will Hunting

I love wearing a mask!  Men have stopped telling me to smile.

I think the other thing was seasons 1-4 all had young people who fundamentally had reasons to live in/move to the city they were going to, and thus were following those ambitions.  After that they kind of steered toward people with... less ambitions?  And then gave them a collective job or task to force more…

I really like masks so I can hide my reactions in public at work, can’t hide the eye rolling, but sunglasses help. I basically nod to say hi to strangers in passing, I guess that hasn’t really changed. 

Hawaii had a lot of crazy antics but it also took a very serious look at Ruthie’s alcoholism. And most of the cast were real and likable people. As insane as Teck could get, I still love his indignant “what if we have company?!” when someone (Ruthie?) broke a glass. That reaction just seemed so...normal and middle…

I was going to suggest following the East Asian method of wearing a mask because “I caught a cold” but then I remembered we’re talking about America where someone is probably going to point a gun at someone over it.

So, Tom Cruise, you are giving your useless trophies back in support of the HFPA bringing on more diversity, etc.. Wonderful!

You are 1000% right - Vegas was the turning point for sure, and then it just became trash hook-up TV (which I still watched with eager interest at the time, mind you, bc I was like 18 and so very curious to see the messiness). This was 2003, right? So it felt very much in-line with early-aughts MTV and reality tv…

I own Judd Winick’s My Friend Pedro graphic novel and it’s very heartening. I kind of feel like The Real World never topped the San Francisco season because of Pedro. Everyone else goes on The Real World hoping to parlay it into more fame in other avenues. Pedro came on with a mission, and it was still possible to do…

Hawaii was certainly a step in that direction, but I think New Orleans, B2NY, and Chicago were more at a pre Hawaii level.  Las Vegas went totally beyond Hawaii and the show never looked back.  

I watched Real World as a teen in the 90s. I have been rewatching now because of Paramount +, and the subtle homophobia from some of the early season cast mates (S2 in particular) was eye opening, but it made me recall what it was like to live back then, and the fear and derision for homosexuals in the air back then.…

S1-4 were definitely a more documentary style. S5-11 is when the season long tasks were brought in, and I think the show had just been around long enough that it started to attract different kinds of applicants than those first few years. But I still think lots of those seasons are worthwhile. I think Boston had a…

Same. Reality shows are a dime a dozen now, but back then, RW:SF was one of the few, and definitely the best. Pedro was the first person living with HIV that many of us younger Gen Xers came to “know” and I really do credit him with kick-starting a wider conversation about how urgently a cure was needed.