Blakeston

There's definitely a problem with the material the actors are being given (particularly for David's character), but most of these actors are also just lacking charisma. The writing for Olivia isn't great by any means, but I've never questioned the casting of Toks Olagundoye. She has natural charisma, and she makes me like Olivia even when the character isn't doing likeable things. But the actors who play Freddy and David are just lacking something.

Agreed, and I thought her delivery in the water slide sketch was flat-out terrible.

The sequence of putting the file back in the cabinet was amusing enough, but I can't help missing the sublime physical comedy of David Hyde-Pierce. The big comedic scenes have been stuff like Frasier hiding behind a plant at a restaurant, and Alan trying to use an axe to break open a filing cabinet without being heard by someone a few feet away. It's gotten a few laughs out of me, but it feels a lot more like Three's Company than the Frasier I know and love.

Come on, Murphy, "Big Peter and His Banana Splitter" doesn't even rhyme. Your writers can do better than that. And him breaking Lois out of her handcuffs in the last ep seems utterly meaningless, considering that she doesn't seem to be in any kind of legal trouble in this one. That said, I really do find this entertaining. (And not just because of Michaela Diamond singing and Nicholas Alexander Chavez getting naked, although those certainly help.) It's nailing some really creepy things, like that hellish fire pit. It feels like End Times in real life, and I think this show taps into that in an effective way. I just dread the inevitable clumsy ending, but who knows, maybe they'll surprise us?

I'm watching this for the performances, the wild ride, and the twisted nun character. However, I really have come to despise the whole "is this real, or is the main character crazy/impaired" thing. And pretty much everything about these events would suggest that it's all happening in Lois's imagination. If the ending is that Lois is the killer, or that none of it was real, I'm going to be really disappointed.

I'm kind of amazed that the name "Dudenoff" is apparently a character's real name, and not misdirection or a pseudonym. (Barring any further twists, of course.) I liked the theory that M. Dudenoff was a woman, and the writers chose a name with "dude" in it to throw us off.

I can only assume a reverse glory hole covers a person's genitals but reveals the rest of them. That may be an overly naive interpretation, though! I didn't enjoy this as much as the last one, because I didn't find Linda funny at all. I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of her, either. The brief moment of Sharon in the episode was a reminder of how much funnier the show can be. I'm surprised we haven't seen Harry since episode 3.

I would be shocked if Bowen playing Moo Deng wasn't his own idea.

I guess this was their attempt to humanize Alan? If so, it didn't work for me. Hearing about how he was apparently a crappy husband and father, in addition to being a crappy professor and friend, didn't endear him to me. (Also, can they please give Alan a different haircut already?) I didn't care for Roz in this episode, either. If she felt so strongly that Eve should have a night off, she should have volunteered to take care of the baby. And then she's doling out punishments at the end? Mind your own business, Roz. Also, are we supposed to think that John hasn't been taking care of the baby? I thought she moved in with him so that they could raise the baby together. What's he been doing all this time?

Oliver made the episode with the steroids comment, comparing himself to an Olympic swimmer when he was using an elliptical twice a week, and mentioning the "Let's Kick Rickets to the Curb, and If We Have Extra, Send it to AIDS" fundraiser (which had nothing to send to AIDS). I'm a Paul Rudd fan, but I have no desire to hear that stupid accent ever again. (I know it's supposed to be comically bad - that doesn't make it any less annoying.) And the rat-stomping thing is already old.

Sharon really stole the episode. Her description of her son was hilarious! I found Markie super-irritating, once again. I really hope the show never puts him and Gwen together.

If Helga’s voice reminded me of anyone, it was Jennifer Coolidge doing the German accent she used when she guest-starred on Frasier.

The Westies said that Dudenoff has a whole lot of units in the building, not just the ones we've seen. Presumably most of the renters are paying a lot. Dudenoff just gives a huge discount to the renters who are helping with the scheme. I was surprised to hear that Helga is apparently Finnish. She sounded a lot more German than Finnish to me. I doubt that's any kind of clue, though. Hollywood rarely concerns itself with such distinctions. I keep hoping they aren't going down the "Sazz is alive" route, because they already did a "Ben is still alive!" twist last season (and then tried to make us think he was alive again in this episode). And I hope Bev (or any other character) didn't kill Sazz in order to get material for a movie. That would be too similar to season two, where the killers murdered Bunny so that they could make a podcast about it.

There are lots of high school "shooting teams" out there. I certainly hope they aren't firing guns during school hours at places where students in classrooms can hear them. Did they ever address why Evan was the only person in the school who wasn't aware that gun club was happening? I have concerns for the long run about how long I'll be able to tolerate these characters. I like the principal and Gwen, but Evan, his ex, and the gym teacher are all pretty irritating.

I have no idea what happened at the end. Are we supposed to think that Even imagined Harry flirting with him, and then kissed him out of nowhere? Because if Harry was actually saying those things and looking at Evan that way, Evan was not crazy for thinking that Harry was interested.

I think it's a valley girl/vocal fry accent.

I was not surprised when I learned that this season was only half of what was originally planned. (They decided to stretch out the third season into seasons three and four). This felt like half a season. The characters barely grew. There was shockingly little plot development. The way they kept bringing up Claire, only for nothing to happen with her, was just terrible plotting. The scene with Carmy and Joel McHale was very repetitive and stale. "You were an asshole to me." "Yeah, but it made you a better chef." "But you were an asshole to me." "But it made you a better chef." It also felt very derivative of both Whiplash and the scene in I, Tonya where Tonya Harding confronts her mother. (There are probably other examples, too.) And the Faks! What could they possibly have been thinking with all the Faks? Like others, I strongly suspect that part of it was the writers wanting to justify the show's inclusion in the comedy categories of awards showws. But I also suspect that the Faks are easy to write for. Their nonsense basically writes itself. Too bad it was painful to watch!

I really enjoyed this one! There are so many extremely capable women like Tina out there, who have the ability but not a degree, and never found a job that valued them enough. At the end of the scene with Mikey, when Tina was explaining how badly she needed a job, and Mikey was complaining that they're understaffed, I was practically screaming at the TV, "Just offer her the job already!" It reminded me of the Simpsons episode "Brother From the Same Planet" (the one where Bart tells the Big Brothers program that he doesn't have a father, and then Homer gets a little brother named Pepe). There's a scene at the end where Bart's big brother says, "My car's gonna feel so empty on the ride home," and Pepe says, "And me, I have no ride at all." And Bart's big brother says, "I already bought a giant ham for dinner. It's gonna go to waste," and Pepe says, "Don't talk about food, I'm so hungry!"

That dish from the season premiere was hamachi. I think Frank's concern was coming from a place of "I don't want you to be blindsided by a major change to your daughter's life," as opposed to any kind of paternalistic "she was your woman so now I must have your blessing" mentality. If he'd actually revealed the proposal to Richie in advance, that would have been a bad move, because Richie could easily have blabbed (or had an inappropriately dramatic reaction). But I think it was sweet to acknowledge afterwards that the way it was handled could have been hurtful.

Fak seems to be good with mechanical stuff, but I can't fathom a Michelin-starred restaurant letting him anywhere near the customers.

There's an urban legend that Michelin reviewers will leave a fork on the floor to see if the staff notice it and fix it. I really doubt it's true.

I didn't care for this one (aside from the great opening sequence). It seemed like the writers decided, "This is going to compete as a comedy at the Emmys, so let's give them some laughs!" And the only way they could think of to accomplish that was to have the characters scream "get fucked!" at each other over and over again. It seemed like Richie has wildly regressed after all the progress we saw him make last season.

This was lovely and poetic. Some of it was just food porn, but it had lots of great moments and revelations. To be honest, though, I could have done without the scenes of Carmy and Claire looking at each other all googly-eyed. And especially the scene of Claire giving the kid the shot - we get it, she's the greatest catch of all time. Except that the scenes of them together were easily the weakest of season two, and I don't need to see the plotline dragged out any longer.

While the actor who plays Colin is obviously very attractive, there's something about the way he's styled, combined with his facial features, that reminds me of the apes from the original Planet of the Apes movie. (And yes, I know how crazy that sounds.) That aside...I think the character would be a lot more swoonworthy if he had a sense of humor. Anthony had a few amusing lines last year, which made him a lot more palatable.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who hated Andrew and Josh's bit. I thought it was interminable. Also way too long - Jeremy Strong's acceptance speech. It's one thing to thank a whole slew of people, it's another thing to do it so casually and slowly. Aside from Merrily, I was most impressed by the Illinoise performance, I think. That Suffs song was extremely underwhelming.