Dave in Chicago

I watched most of this series on Netflix for the first time, so I was using earbuds which I really think made this even scarier. You need to feel a safe distance from this stuff, not have it pumped directly into your ears.

I have said it before, but I'll say it again: the CW missed their chance for a Paris Gellar spin-off from "Gilmore Girls". My pitch: Paris realizes she technically can't run for president until age 35, so she decides to spend time until then diversifying her resume - by purchasing a cruise ship, becoming the on-board manager, and traveling the world to check items off her endless to-do list of accomplishments! That's right, it's Paris Gellar's Love Boat, she has flirty "Moonlighting" style banter with the ship's actual captain who doesn't like that the ship is under new ownership, and she probably hires Michel and Sookie to be on staff.

It has recently been brought to my attention that Brian Austin Green was doing this in 2008: www.imdb.com/title/tt1086841/ "Impact Point", a direct to video volleyball/stalker thriller co-starring a pre-fame Joe Manganiello. Just sayin'.

I absolutely don't mean to read Kim, but the fact that it takes so long to explain the "Lost" pilot is pretty indicative of why I dropped the show early in season 2. But again, that's a show problem, not a canon presentation problem. Summer TV I'm Going to Drop: "Wayward Pines", I'm assuming. Season one surprisingly managed to hold it together, but I really doubt that there's any story left to tell. I'll give it a shot, but not for long.

Re: Brandon getting out of cars. The first episode I ever saw of this show was some random late season episode, and the one stand-out moment for me was Brandon in the living room area of a hotel suite, surrounded by empty chairs and couches, yet he chooses to awkwardly sit on the edge of a glass coffee table. Maybe it's some kind of disorder?

This... looks more like season one than I expected. Are they mainly aiming for shock value, complete with meta-commentary about how hard it is to top last season? Could be fun, but it also might backtrack on the Rachel and other crew character arcs a bit. If it's just a season of "embracing the dark side until another, eventual breaking point," that seems like low-hanging fruit.

So if I'm following this correctly, Dan is Andrea's RA and her TA? She's making terrible freshman decisions, but at least she's making them efficiently.

What a gross episode. Someone comes in with a harmless umbrella rental plan, and gets shouted out of the room and called evil. Then the ACTUAL worst idea shows up – that child care app. This is someone who unironically refers to early education as an “industry” and has designed something that school administration buys to appease helicopter parents while creating additional tasks and busywork for teachers who likely have no say in the matter, all while reducing childcare to a series of data checkpoints. Really alarming, so of course it spars a bidding war. Ugh.

Excited for this, but already dreading the dueling blog posts over what the show gets right or wrong about mental illness.

"Stomp like a washerwoman" indeed. That shot is too much. So were they very briefly hinting at Andrea having a sudden crush on Gil? Am I reading that correctly? He consistently treats her like dirt and was already accused of inappropriate student relations! Neither Andrea nor the show should be that stupid.

Speaking as someone who is only discovering this show via the AWT podcast: I consider myself an Ahndrea fan. But I also see why she would never in a million years get a spin-off. I had my mental timeline all wrong - did not realize we still had another season with Brenda and Andrea before they depart. I'm here for it.

Do "Bubble" as a reverse "Project Greenlight" - get a known director to agree to very lo-fi production conditions for a short film (like "The Five Obstructions"); then we get a mini documentary on their process AND the resulting project. Could be one project per season or several directors assigned to different kinds of restrictions. It could be like "Chopped" for filmmaking, where they never know what required ingredients are in the mystery box. I could also see "Side Effects" as a modern anthology series in the style of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", every episode is a new suspense/thriller/murder mystery.

Season 5 had a really good run - that episode was right before the ski lodge episode that was almost like a slasher movie.

"Murder she wrote" is a perfect place for rising star/falling star pairings, since they had almost equal measures of classic Hollywood and not-yet-famous guests. I call this intersection the "Tower of Terror" axis, named after the 1997 made-for-tv movie starring Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst.

So Dave needs roller derby names that somehow link Canada, photography, and pain. The obvious answer is: "Cana-Diane Arbust Some Skulls". Other candidates: Tim Hurtin's; Traumatic Shutter; Polaroid Rage; InstaSlam No Filter; Yousuf Harsh; Rack Focus; Chromatic Abrasion; Trouble Exposure; Johnny LaRuthless. If this were drag roller derby, Alanis Tourniquet.

They sort of had to, right? If the plot called for her to write a stunningly brilliant grad speech, then the writers would need to actually come up with one. It's like the "Studio 60" problem where they talked all the time about how great their show is and then we only ever saw glimpses of terrible sketch comedy and Holly Hunter impressions.

It must have been the Brenda Years note, the idea that AWT itself was somewhat distinct from "90210 Edition" as though spin-offs were imminent, and my own assumption that 10 seasons would be a LOT to deal with. Glad to hear it, though. Sorry for the false alarm.

Also, I'm confused - I thought "AWT" was going to switch formats and take on a different series for a while following the high school years. Am I mis-remembering and you said after season 4, instead? Or are you sticking with it due to popular demand?

If only they had scored the ending with the LEAD single from "Streets of Fire".

With CBS taking on Jon Benet Ramsey and NBC doing the Menendez Brothers, I hope Ryan Murphy is just blindly buying up story rights to bank for future seasons, just in case. Find all the Amy Fisher books you can! What's Manti Te'o's asking price? How many years until we're nostalgic for the Heene balloon boy hoax?

My very first thought was Jessica St. Clair and Jessica Walter. Would also watch: the Emma's Stone, Thompson, and Watson. Sorry, Roberts.

"Frightenstein" is easily the best thing I've heard about all week. Currently going down a YouTube hole. I have also been rewatching some of Shelly Duvall's "Faerie Tale Theatre" lately, and it's still pretty magical. I'd never seen the episode "The Boy who left home to find out about the shivers" before, but Peter MacNicol is SO good in it.

I'm too far behind on most of my shows to answer my own question! And have we had confirmation yet on how much of the "Unreal" ensemble is getting jury dutied next season? They actually DID jury duty Danny on "Mindy" and it didn't help much, in part because the plot then became about his absence. (Everybody kept asking "Where's Poochie?") Is the working theory that they had to do that unpleasant character assassination last season because Messina is getting gradually written off the show? Or am I just spinning conspiracy theories?

Keeping a voiceover narrator around long after they are useful or relevant to the show's plot might be the one thing "Call the Midwife" has in common with "Desperate Housewives".

That Madonna runway was so embarrassing it was practically season 7. The four kimono queens are on notice for extremely suspect taste levels.