That's always a dangerous game with Great Writer characters – you have to show examples of their writing, and I would guess that if Beau Willimon (or whoever) were capable of writing the Great American Novel, they would have done it already.

Completely agree. It felt like the show was running away from its more outrageous, over-the-top moments like the Frank/Zoe scene that electrified the first episode of season 2. Oddly, in the era of "buzz" or what have you, HoC now wants to emphasize its more drawn-out character-building aspects, which have always been…

Well, presumably a lot of those AmWorks jobs would be in infrastructure – there isn't that much else the government can just throw manpower at. But yeah, they definitely missed an opportunity for Frank to use the wheel-greasing aspects of legislation to his advantage.

It almost felt the first and second halves of the season were produced by different people. A bunch of stuff set up early on – Kim Dickens joining the WH beat, Mendoza as a presidential contender, etc. – was nearly or completely absent from the denouement.

I agree with you largely, but I did think Claire's motivations were pretty understandable (even if you don't necessarily sympathize). Her scenes with the author character underscored her feelings pretty plainly.

Didn't expect to see a Geauga Lake reference on this thread, of all places.

She and Ted were both on the Holiday Spectacular just a few months ago.

I loved Scott calling out how they have to give obligatory backstory so often, even at a "wedding."

Re: Cynthia's insults, perhaps I shouldn't give her the benefit of the doubt, but I saw her comments about the restaurant as hyperbole for the sake of a college admissions essay. I mean, Bob himself described working there as horrible drudgery.

Eh, I don't know about that, I just meant that he's not unaware of what people think of him. I think he's clearly self-absorbed (I've seen him on tour – the endless rants about Kanye are real), but people seem to think he's humorless to boot, which is odd when he's made fun of himself on multiple public occasions.

I also like that Holt admitted later in the show that it was incredibly stupid to take on his attackers. I don't mind bending reality on a sitcom, but it would out of character for Holt to endorse such reckless behavior.

Admissible is different than slam-dunk conviction, though. I can see why Boyle would prefer something more ironclad, especially when Amy and Rosa clearly demonstrated that people were not predisposed to believe him.

Kanye made a comedy pilot with Larry Charles for HBO. I think he's pretty aware of his persona and how he comes across. Not saying he'd be a good Daily Show host, of course.

Some fancypants professor in Boston did the math and concluded that the outdoor temperature would have to be around 13 degrees (F) to impact the ball's pressure that much. The actual temperature at game time was around 50.

Had many enemies.

Tom "Adnan Syed" Brady

There's a GreaseMonkey extension that loads all comments on one page — highly recommended. Mobile is still super annoying, though.

Was no one else bothered that the giant tin campaign ball was clearly Benjamin Harrison memorabilia? I couldn't make out all the slogans, but there was something about "Ben" and something about "Cleveland" – Benjamin Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland in the 1888 election.

Is it just the Browns, now? (Is the Raiders' pirate wearing a helmet?)

The history nerd in me (who I am kidding, it's all of me) was really hoping for a Calvin "Silent Cal" Coolidge reference somewhere.