Interesting! I didn’t read that

Yeah I think this is a certainly a factor. It just felt like Barney was being foisted on us, with all the merch, and how inescapable he was on TV, and part of the hate was rebelling against, as you note, something that felt phony and was being packaged to dupes.  It’s that he was so aggressively mediocre. 

Long tubes full of seamen? Yeah.

It can be two things! Plus if cynically selling merch was your concern I got three words for you: Tickle. Me. Elmo.

I didn’t have kids so Barney wasn’t part of my world, but I do recall being slightly annoyed at the corniness and what seemed like an insistence that we all be - what seemed like - an unreachable level of goodness. There were hints of a sort of ‘child worship’ that gets creepy too. I remember during the 90s that a lot…

it’s also a ‘rule of cool’ thing.

Really? Cuz I heard it blue. 

I kind of feel it would have been better to lead in to these new actors a bit less sudden but then again the time jumps is a byproduct of Fire and Blood jumping around in ways A Song of Ice and Fire never did. I don’t know what the right choice is but its still jarring.  Also please raise your hand if you care about…

I think it has more to do with saying cunty things like “Star Trek is written for those who have trouble with social cues” that gives off the impression that you're insulting us personally. 

DS9 is a 90s show, my dude :)

I expect young biochemists to be familiar with glycolysis even though it’s been around a while. I expect young pop culture critics to be familiar with Spartacus.

That gossip boy with the cane could get fun. 

I disagree, but recognize that I'm an outlier.

Exactly. Only era of Bowie I could possible consider being above Berlin-era Bowie would be the Ziggy Stardust era (I’d personally wouldn’t do it, but I could understand if it was).

I imagine Season 6 will be the international tournament they hyped up so much in this season.

You’re gonna be hoping for season 6. I mean, I am too, even though I’m not entirely sure where they go from the way season 5 ended. But they haven’t let me down yet.

Wholly disagree. This show knows what it is, leans into it, and has perfected it. Season five was the best season yet. 

Succession is already running out of steam going into season 4, there’s no way Squid Game makes a season 2 even half as impactful as season 1, Severance will live or die in how it resolves its mysteries like all other mystery box shows... none of these hold a candle to Better Call Saul. It’s a perfect series of…

Correct.   He is almost insipidly positive about other people's movies.  Anyone who says otherwise hasn't been following his podcasts. 

That’s Numberwang!