#in 1995

The character rhythms simply feel wrong—not changing or growing or developing, just staying in about the same place but drifting vaguely askew.  Dinesh is a lovable popinjay of a nerd, and his big purchase should have a bit more flair than a Tesla.  They could have at least made it a funny colour!  You know Dinesh loves that Wes Anderson Vampire Weekend 80s pastel aesthetic.  So visually it just wasn't clever enough, and the Tesla fanboy jokes didn't feel sharp enough.  (This show has always been better with parody than with reference.)  Gilfoyle is a gleefully spiteful engineer, so of course he would hack together anything that was street-legal, but the rivalry just had the wrong kind of cruelty.  

I'm assuming the writers were like "oh Gilfoyle saying he's racist, so deadpan, it's wacky" but like...no?  It's funny to make fun of "ironic racist" types, I guess, but the concept just isn't a very rich vein of humour.  Good for a laugh or two, if you're deft with the material, but not much more.  Nobody will miss it if you drop the trait from the character altogether.  

(I say you because I know the writers follow every one of us)

Jian Yang's whole deal is doing a very old Roman comedy trope, with the elaborate schemes and the hiding behind the low social status of immigrants, pretending not to understand instructions so that he can break the rules.  In that kind of tradition, the farce with the pig would be hilarious—this whole plotline REALLY reminds me of Petronius, in fact, I expect somebody over there read Gatsby and then got into the Satyricon.  So yeah, Jian Yang's a legacy-hunter!  Genuinely funny idea! 

But the execution of that idea is racist.  Not making-fun-of-racist, just racist, because the punches aren't landing the same way they did in other seasons.

I liked the Jarrich content!  Not even just the "I love you", as iconic as that is, but the whole plotline of Jared trying to make Richard understand the REASONS why Jared loves him.  I like seeing Richard's virtuosity in action, which is always best paired with the stress and frailty of his body.

I mean, I think we write it better than you guys, is all.  And I told you last week that the body function stuff was reductive, and although that choice of words was WITHERING I assure you, you didn't listen.