I like Stephen Merchant a lot, but did not enjoy this show. The main character had all of Merchant's awkwardness without any of his charm, humor, intelligence, or self-awareness. The show couldn't decide if we should like the main character or not, so there are some episodes that make him seem awful, and others…

It's my favorite "This guy's a total dickbag!" biopic of all time. Has there ever been a biography that makes the subject look less likeable without showing them actually beating their wives or drowning puppies? I especially enjoyed the last episode, when he's retired from politics and has a lot of free time to…

I agree that Nucky's a bit of a cypher. I don't really get why Nucky wanted to be a gangster to begin with. He seems like a guy who wants a comfortable life and is too pragmatic/reasonable to be mixing with the Gyp Rosettis of the world. He had money and power at the beginning of the story- does he really gain that…

I totally get that thought process- that 20s gangster stuff has been done to death, and that you want to tell Prohibition's story from a different vantage point. I get why you'd choose a Nucky Thompson. But then why are we spending half of our time with Capone, AR, Lansky, Luciano, Torrio, etc? If you want to focus…

Van Alden rides the populist anger generated by the Great Depression to become President, then Benevolent Commander for Life of the US. He single-handedly pre-empts WWII by jamming a pen in Hitler's throat during a 1938 peace conference when Hitler makes a crack about his crazy eyes. He and Stalin get on like a…

Classic Boardwalk Empire- forcing characters into situations that don't feel quite right because it hits the themes the writers want to hit. In that way, it really is a thematically appropriate ending.

What always killed me about BE is that it was so much less than the sum of its parts. Your "all the advantages!" argument is dead on. I was always on the verge of quitting it, but every few episodes or so there would be flashes of the show it could have/should have been. (Nucky's time in Ireland, with old…

Especially when you recently had total artistic control of a movie and you made The Canyons.

I was totally in love with the first 2/3rds of this episode for talking about the unequal chore split. I couldn't believe they reverted to the lazy "Enh, the busy doctor wife will just continue to do all the childcare and housework because she likes it, really! And because her husband is just bad at it, and will…

Don't forget the sexual harassment part.

Ahhhh… the South Shore. The last time I was there, I was in a Starbucks ordering coffee and the barista asked if I wanted it "with rum". I stopped for a minute and was about to say, yes, that DOES sound good when I realized that "rum" is how they pronounce "room". (I grew up on the South Shore but don't live there…

Hey now- without Curley as mayor, we wouldn't have that cool statue near Haymarket. Or the story about JFK's grandfather and the chorus girl named Toodles. And we'd fall behind Chicago in the important "political figures in prison during their terms in office" count.

I dread these story lines where Mitchell wanting to live like an adult or act professionally at a work function is portrayed as him being "no fun" or "unromantic" or "uptight". At least this episode seemed to admit that Cam was crazy- there have been others where Cam is just as unreasonable and the episode casts…

He's only human. As a Bostonian, even I have trouble resisting after a summer of hearing "I THINK WE FOUND A TRANSFOHMAH!" ovah and ovah again.

Fort Point + the possibility of having to wear a name tag that says "Three Dancing Matthews" = hmmmmmm.

I know-right? Emma Stone is clearly too old to be the Soon-Yi stand in. And I think Colin Firth is a bit younger than Allen was.

I don't know the ins and outs of Swedish antitrust laws, but I'd guess your government is more comfortable regulating large corporations, and that those corporations therefore don't push things as far as they do here. It's a monopoly issue in the States- even though there are a lot of
cable companies out there, many…

Cable Companies: Can we ass-rape your constituents?
Swedish Government: No! Of course not!
US Government: Heh heh- sure. Kick 'em once for me!

For all of Piper's growth, I think she still hasn't recognized that she's the kind of person who feels completely lost outside of a romantic relationship. Maybe that's next season.

I still occasionally catch myself humming "People can change, despite what all the research says."