Apathy

Quoting the above from the Unpopular TV Opinions thread because I agree the butt-monkey trope can work for the reasons stated here, AND if there's more than one butt-monkey. Dee from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia checks off all those boxes: she's just as bad as the rest of the gang, the latter even acknowledge that bullying her isn't fun if she doesn't fight back in "The Gang Broke Dee," and sometimes Charlie, Mac or even Dennis will take over that role for an episode assuming it's not one of their many victims like Rickety Cricket.

I know I'm late for this but ditto on the guy (in most cases) who carries a torch for his ex for years. Lots of people's first loves aren't their last, and there's a reason why it didn't work out the first time around. Get a life. I'm also not a fan of the Third Act Break-Up/Friendship Failure trope, especially if there's not much leading up to that point at all or if it's over something stupid [insert third act misunderstanding here]. "The liar revealed" could also be related to this, which drives me crazy when it plays out exactly like you'd expect. That kinda ruined Klaus for me.

I know, ItCouldBeWorse reminded me. So it's probably like baldryanr said: Lorne might want another cast member to get comfortable playing Biden just in case they need him and Trump in the same sketch.

Yeah, I thought the same thing. I don't think JAJ was in any of the other sketches either, except for the Lake Beach one. Maybe he was out sick?

I can think of two off the top of my head: black-ish and Grounded for Life, where the husbands were supposed to get one but chickened out and just said they did, though neither of those resulted in the wives getting pregnant as far as I'm aware (the latter even ended with Claudia changing her mind about Sean getting the procedure at all) and of course it was written off as much less skeevy than it actually is...because isn't lying about/messing with birth control funny?!? More like rape by deception, actually. And yes, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that all these episodes were written by men, just one of many reasons there should always be women in the writer's room. I mean if a show HAS to write in an actress's real life pregnancy for the character even after the man was supposed to have been snipped, why not just say the vasectomy didn't take (which is rare, but has really happened) like with Jordan and Dr. Cox from Scrubs, much to their displeasure.

You could also deal with a real life pregnancy by making the character a surrogate, like Joy from My Name is Earl or Dee from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I think Dee in particular having her own kid might have derailed the show, because as Frank Reynolds said "We've got a good thing going. Why blow it with a baby?"

Yep, I've always heard and said tarot like it rhymes with carrot...or it could be the Mandela Effect at play, now I have to reevaluate everything lol.

That was just Vegemite, right? I'm not sure what else "Australian yeast spread" could possibly be. That would also explain why they kept calling Oreos "sandwich cookies," because who on Earth doesn't know what an Oreo is?? And why was everyone pronouncing tarot like ta-row? I've always heard that word pronounced just like it's spelled. I do like how genuinely creepy some of those clown cakes were.

Replace the name Melanie with Allie and that's exactly how I feel about Lon from The Notebook (except for the part about being surprised, I didn't need to read the book to know where that was going). Sure, Noah and Allie have great chemistry (and old!Noah and Allie are cute) but they're also, to quote the Honest Trailers guy, "a couple so indecisive, you wonder why they even bother trying." And I think that's putting it lightly.

It was the monkey from "The Gang Replaces Dee with a Monkey" who apparently died almost immediately after robbing and assaulting the gang minus Dee if he still had the money in his paw. And ditto for whatever they did to Kaitlin Olson's face in this episode, that was really good. Now I do actually want to see Paddy's Pub featured on Bar Rescue.

The recap page on TV Tropes said the same thing, but I watched that episode again just to make sure because it's been a while, and there were the twin girls at Charlie's intervention! He even says in the next scene that one of them screamed "Charlie touched my vagina!" so I guess they were always awful, it's a wonder he doesn't talk about them. Hopefully the Kelly sisters return in another fifteen years.😆 I also loved the reveal of that whole other room in Charlie's apartment.

Although I liked Elvis way more than I thought I would, I might've loved it if they got someone else to play his manager Col. Parker...and I never thought I'd say that about Tom Hanks!

Which raises another question...have Grandon or HBO Max execs even considered just making this season shorter to save money?? It's not like they haven't done it before--Young Justice: Invasion is only 20 episodes (which was probably to that season's detriment, but anyway) I think 4 episodes would have been plenty for Zatanna's arc without things getting repetitive, and the Mars arc definitely should have been condensed to 3 episodes, like Primal Slayer said. All you would really have to do was cut out the scenes of everyone talking about/preparing for a wedding ceremony that didn't even happen and at least half your audience doesn't care about, including the Supermartian clip show...even if that storyline's ending wasn't already semi-spoiled for me, that scene would've tipped me off anyway, I mean really?? I wouldn't be surprised if Greg and Brandon wanted all 26 episodes, killing their darlings has always been a problem for them, but if it's what HBO Max ordered then they should've given them more of a budget to work with, obviously. You don't have to be any kind of expert on fandom to know we'd rather have a great shorter season than a long mediocre one. Not that it's all been like that--I like Artemis's arc the best so far. PLEASE let Kaldur's be next, TPTB. I'm begging you.

I'll be honest, I completely forgot Kanye West ran for president last year until the end of 2020: A Year in Review (it seems like such a long time ago lol) which made it that much funnier to me. Frank's segment was my favorite. Sunny's back!

You can blame the showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, aka Almiles for that. She was their creator's pet literally from the beginning.

"If someone calls you shy, it just means they don't know anything about you. It's like when someone gives you a candle as a gift." Jake gets it. I was honestly scared for Matt when John had the scissors, and Jake when he was being stalked by Jupiter about the survey. "NO! You don't get to know what I think about you!" I'm not ready for this show to end.

In hindsight, now it makes even more sense why Jake hates dogs. But really, isn't that a perfect allegory for managing depression? Medication (along with therapy, exercise, etc.) might not get rid of the black dog, but at least it can put a muzzle on him. I can't believe this show isn't more popular.

I totally forgot about this topic until now, or else I would've brought it up earlier: Voltron: Legendary Defender, a show that crashed and burned so hard in so many ways by the final season that fans on Twitter are still in a rage spiral two years after the fact. I know because I'm one of them. IT COULD'VE BEEN GREAT!!!

Total agreement with everyone here on Burt and Virginia! Jimmy and Sabrina on the other hand was one of those ships I didn't really like until they got together, after that they were a lot more fun to watch. Speaking of Greg Garcia shows, how could I forget Joy and Darnell on My Name is Earl? Another example of a couple you might not think would work in the long term from how they started, but then really really do.

Since the last time I posted in this thread Young Justice has been uncancelled, and so far the only new couples I really like are Dick Grayson/Barbara Gordon, Beast Boy/Queen Perdita, and Kaldur/Wyynde. I still hate Superboy/Miss Martian. And I can't believe no one's mentioned Nadja and Laszlo from What We Do in the Shadows yet, a love that will literally never die. I don't remember who said it, but someone described them as being akin to Gomez and Morticia Addams if they got a little bored and bickered now and again from being married for over 300 years, but are nonetheless still deeply in love and devoted to each other with as wild a sex life as ever. Laszlo in particular has an artistic passion for Nadja and will kill her reincarnated lover in every lifetime just for making her upset. Last but not least, because it's finally TV canon after 27 years...Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy from Harley Quinn.

Not sure...maybe he ran off to Scandinavia? I knew Sy was coming back one way or another! It would be a waste if he didn't. And I've gotta say this has to be the most competent Kite Man's ever been, even if his "true love's kiss" failed miserably. I might have guessed they were going to use the true-love's-kiss-breaks-the-spell trope with Harlivy in this episode even without the preview pics. I mean sure, it's just as likely that Doctor Psycho being distracted/aroused by them kissing is what broke his mind control over Ivy, but it was still framed that way. I had the same reaction as Harley when Clayface turned giant, like "Were you able to do that this whole time?!" And honestly Superman, "just put them in the Phantom Zone" can't be your solution for everything! Psycho, you asshole! This is why Ivy should have told Kite Man about her affair with Harley before--he was bound to find out sooner or later, and in the worst possible way. Between that and the potential Batman/Wonder Woman/Superman threesome underway, "I need a cigarette" is right. I'm nervous for the season finale this week. 🙃

So Eris brainwashed Hippolyta and the Amazons so that Lex Luthor can have what's essentially Fyre Festival on Themyscira? Those bastards! True, she is extremely ride-or-die for people she's madly in love with, but I think Ivy was talking about how Harley generally lives her life. Hell, earlier in this episode she noted how Harley isn't usually much of a planner, and she does have a tendency to be rather reckless and short-sighted, going from indulging in anarchy, to unionizing the goons, to taking over New New Gotham, and then world domination with an army of parademons and back. That combined with Ivy's fear of being abandoned by Harley affecting her judgement, it makes sense why she would want to play it safe with Kiteman, frustrating as it is (plus there's four episodes left in the season). I kinda want somebody to say, "Well if you think you're that secure with Kiteman, why don't you fess up about cheating with Harley all weekend long and see what happens?" Even now he's beginning to suspect that maybe their relationship isn't as perfect as he thought. Cobb Squad forever! Catwoman does not give a single fuck, I love it. And are we sure Jennifer isn't an Amazon?? As for Nora...look, I can understand wanting to get railed by some rando after being frozen for how many years, but Maxie Zues?!? EW!! Get tested! Also ew to the "Under the Sea" pastiche. Remind me to never go deep sea diving. 😆

So now we know for sure that Jason Todd does indeed exist in this universe and The Joker killed him. Can we expect the Red Hood to show up in future episodes? On top of being an excellent take on the "Mad Love" story, I was almost expecting this episode to be a Two-Face origin story as soon as Harvey Dent was introduced (he sure loves that red licorice), but it turns out he was a duplicitous asshole even before getting acid in his face. He doesn't seem to have the split personality like in every other iteration, so that's not surprising. What DID surprise me was how good Jim Gordon looked--so fit and groomed! But in keeping with the theme of the episode there were also remnants of present day Jim Gordon, such as still being a little on edge and needy for Batman's friendship. IIRC it was implied in the pilot episode that Gordon completely went off the rails when The Joker paralyzed his partner, but as someone brought up on DC Daily, he used to work with Batman and Harvey Dent. Losing Dent both as an ally and a friend when he officially became Two-Face meant having even less control over the crime in Gotham and depending on Batman even more. I mentioned last week that "Batman's Back Man" had some of the same beats as The Lego Batman Movie. This episode took inspiration from The Dark Knight, what with the interrogation scene and The Joker from years earlier resembling Heath Ledger's Joker, even borrowing his catchphrase. And judging from the episode description for "There's No Place to Go But Down," it looks like this week is going to have a lot of references to The Dark Knight Rises, calling it right now.

Those beginning and end scenes with the toxic fanboys were EVERYTHING. I'd think the "Release the Snyder Cut" guy was meant to take shots at the Birds of Prey hatedom, except season 2 would have been close to finished by the time that movie came out. The writers just seem to know very well that type of fan that ruins near every fandom--particularly no nothing know-it-all misogynist nerds who make it their hobby tearing down anything even vaguely feminist or inclusive and won't shut up about said movie or show despite claiming not to waste their time with it. Ditto on Batman and Alfred's relationship echoing The Lego Batman Movie, except Alfred is much more snarky to Bruce here. For an episode focused solely on the Batfamily, I'm surprised Robin didn't make an appearance, or at least get a shout-out. Like maybe he was grounded for trying to take up the Bat mantle without permission, because it's pretty clear Alfred's the one making the rules at Wayne Manor. And Bane gives us a brutal reminder why he is one of Batman's most dangerous foes...now if only he can stand up to Two-Face.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if that's the case, he seems to be just that petty. It honestly makes so much sense for them to be nemeses: they're both Z-list villains with really lame gimmicks, except Condiment King is WAY more obnoxious, I'm just wondering how he got such an attractive girlfriend. 😆 There goes the wokest ice themed villain in all of new New Gotham. 😭 I really wasn't expecting Mr. Freeze's death to be that sad, though I probably should have given the tragic nature of his character and Ivy's "death" scene from last season. I still can't blame Harley too much for assuming the worst since Mr. Freeze did come off as creepy earlier, especially with Nora's frankly terrified expression when frozen as opposed to the peaceful looking cryogenic coma patient she usually is in other iterations (also he seemingly stole the plot from You've Got Mail). It's very possible the crew will have to deal with Mrs. Freeze somewhere down the line.