Broad City

Broad City (2014-present, created by Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, who also star) is a sitcom chronicling the surreal, stoned adventures of two early 20’s best friends in New York City.

It’s actually revelatory and breath of fresh fucking air that the leads are both women. You don’t see a lot of stories glorifying the pothead slackerdom of women; or showing women casually and unapologetically enjoying active sex lives and masturbation; or celebrating the loving, true, loyal, and slightly homoerotic best friendship of women. Abbi and Ilana do all this so effortlessly that it never looks like it’s trying too hard or making a point. They are just being their own goofy selves.

A typical Broad City episode takes an ordinary task like collecting a package, visiting the DMV, or navigating Prospect Park, and makes it into an epic adventure in a way that feels true to the overwhelming, exuberant, inconvenient, dreamlike wonder of being stoned and of living in New York City.

Key Episodes

I’ve only seen the first 3 seasons, so bear that in mind in my Key Episode selections. As of this writing, Season 4 has come out, but it’s not on Hulu yet, and season 5 has been announced.

1x01 What A Wonderful World The pilot is a good introduction to the series, following Abbi and Ilana through a series of mini-adventures on a quest to get enough money to buy weed and concert tickets. Underemployed in dead-end jobs, they enter into the world of Craigslist side hustle.

2x04 Knockoffs The infamous “pegging” episode. Abbi finally goes on a date with handsome neighbor Jeremy and is surprised to learn that he wants to be fucked with a strapon. What I love about this episode is that it shows Abbi being unsure about a sexual activity that’s unfamiliar to her, but ultimately trying it and having fun, even if it’s not her particular turn-on (unlike, say, the episode Sex and the City where John Slattery wants to be peed on and Carrie uses the kink to shame him). Meanwhile, Ilana and her mother go to increasingly absurd lengths to find quality knockoff handbags.

2x10 St. Mark’s A special dinner out for Ilana’s 23rd birthday is interrupted when a thief steals her gift out of Abbi’s hands. Energetic and beautifully shot, this episode showcases the magic of the East Village and its electic, bustling warren of narrow streets, alleys, tunnels, and tiny interconnected storefronts.

Bonus Episodes

This is a case where if you liked the key episodes you’ll probably like all of them. Here are some more that I found memorable.

1x10 The Last Supper Abbi and Ilana try to have a nice dinner out at a nice restaurant, but prove themselves too uncouth to belong there. Notable for an appearance by Amy Poehler as a put-upon line chef.

2x05 Hashtag FOMO Ilana is so worried about FOMO that she can’t stay at one party, until Abbi gets so drunk that she turns into Judy Garland.

2x09 Coat Check Abbi and Ilana get a gig working the coat check at a fancy charity event, leading Abbi on a quest to find Kelly Ripa’s lost coat and Ilana on a sexy adventure with Alia Shawkat. This is the first episode which shows Ilana hooking up with a woman, notable if you are excited as I was to watch a series with a bisexual lead.

3x01 Two Chainz Rest of the episode is fine, but the best part is the two-minute cold open of a year in the life of Abbi and Ilana as seen from their bathrooms. Set to “Let ‘Em Say” by Lizzo and Caroline Smith, each clip show two mini-tableaux with sight gags that go by so fast you can’t see them all in one viewing.

Switched At Birth

Switched at Birth (2011-present, created by Lizzy Weiss & Paul Stupin) is a teen drama on Free Form (formerly ABC Family) that chronicles the fallout when two teenage girls discover they were switched at birth. Artsy, sarcastic rich kid Bay Kennish (Vanessa Marano) at first resents her parents' biological daughter, the scrappy and good-natured golden child Daphne Vasquez (Katie LeClerc), who grew up poor with an artsy Latina single mom. Each girl sees the other's life as "what I should have had." But eventually, the two girls grow as close as sisters as their intertwined families deal with numerous Modern Day Issues(™).

One of the things that makes Switched at Birth unique is its commitment to using American Sign Language alongside spoken English, because Daphne, her best friend Emmett (the dreamy Sean Berdy), teacher Melody (Marlee Matlin), and several other major characters are Deaf. As the show goes on, the hearing main characters learn ASL to varying degrees in order to communicate with them. This means that at least half the scenes in any given episode are performed simultaneously in English and ASL. Some Deaf viewers have critiqued the lack of follow-through on details: sloppy translations lead to inaccurate subtitles, for example, and hearing-centric shooting choices lead to signs being cut out of frame or shot from over the shoulder in a way that makes them hard or impossible to understand. Essentially, it's still a show by and for hearing people. Still, the show does its best to present Deaf issues with research and sensitivity (if not authenticity), and the show benefits from its use of ASL and excellent Deaf actors.  

As of this writing, Switched at Birth has completed its fourth season and has been off the air for over a year. Its final season, season 5, is slated to premiere on January 17, 2017.

Key Episodes

1x1 "This is Not a Pipe": The pilot moves fast to set up all the building blocks of the premise in rapid succession. Bay and her parents, John and Kathryn, figure out the mix-up following a blood test. Their first few awkward meetings with Daphne and her mom, Regina, don't go well. John and Kathryn worry that Regina has not been able to provide a good enough home for their biological daughter. Regina thinks John and Kathryn are condescending snobs. Bay is jealous, feeling that her parents' interest in Daphne means they wish they'd never been saddled with her. Daphne just wants everyone to get along. But when Daphne reveals that her family is about to move, forced out of their home by financial problems, Bay doesn't want to lose them. The Kennishes offer the other Vasquezes free rent in their unused guest house so they can all get to know each other. So begins the wacky neighbors dramedy we have all been waiting for!

Last line of the episode is from Bay: "So who do you think my dad is?"

2x9 "Uprising": In this "all ASL" episode, Daphne and her friends hold a sit-in at Carlton School for the Deaf to protest the school board's plan to close it. The threat of losing their school is incredibly high-stakes for the Deaf students, who stand to lose a lot: education in their own language and about their own culture and history, friends, teachers and role models, the opportunity to learn who they can be when they're not just "the Deaf kid" in a hearing school. This is a tense, exciting episode, with the thrill of rebellion, and it's amazing to see how far Daphne has come from the sweet, don't-rock-the-boat kid afraid to tell John and Kathryn to slow down their speech in early season 1, to now, leader of a "militant" resistance movement! This episode also demonstrates that the show is at its strongest when it focuses on its amazing cast of Deaf actors, and frees itself from coddling the hearing audience.

4x20 "And Always Searching for Beauty" - This final episode of the series (so far) might be best viewed after a few more of the bonus episodes. But the final two minutes are so bonkers that I need you to watch them to get ready for season 5!

What I like about this episode is that, aside from the closure it offers to the various season 4 plotlines, it manages to stick in a bunch of really sweet moments that offer relationship-closure to the characters. (I'm assuming that there was at least a possibility in the minds of the writers that this was the last episode ever.) Most satisfying of all: Bay and Daphne behaving more sisterly than ever and agreeing to spend the summer traveling the world together. It's a nice time to reflect about the way this crazy journey has transformed these two girls from strangers to resentful/suspicious unwilling family-sharers to genuinely loving sisters and best friends with a deep web of connections.

Bonus Episodes

1x6 "The Persistence of Memory": Daphne is confused to learn that Bay has been hanging out with her best friend, Emmett, a motorcycle enthusiast and photographer with smoldering blue eyes. Emmett and Bay have been doing detective work to try to find Bay's biological father, and they think they have tracked him down. Emmett helps Daphne to realize she has unresolved issues with her father. As Bay and Emmett bond, Daphne continues investigating on her own. The final scene delivers the first legitimate "holy shit" moment of the series.

1x10 "The Homecoming": Bay's biological father, the charming but unreliable Angelo, sweeps (back) into the family's life, raising complicated emotions from Regina and Daphne. Emmett has to choose between Daphne and Bay, making him question if a Deaf/hearing relationship is worth it.

1x22 "Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time": Carlton prom! Emmett implodes his relationship with Bay by confessing that he slept with Simone, a Buckner girl (and girlfriend of Bay's brother Toby) because he was angry with Bay for interfering in his custody battle (two episodes prior, if you care to watch an additional episode for background information.) Daphne's Buckner boyfriend, Wilke, declines her invitation to prom, so she agrees to go with Carlton pal Travis as friends (even though he likes her). At the last minute, Wilke comes through, but informs Daphne that he is being sent away to boarding school. Kathryn finds herself attracted to Craig (Sam Page, aka Greg Harris from Mad Men), the lawyer representing the family in their suit against the hospital over the switch. And as Angelo awaits deportation because there is a warrant for his arrest in Italy, Regina realizes the only way to keep him in the country is to remarry him. (This is the "winter finale," although there are still eight more episodes in season 1, which form a sort of mini-season of their own.)

1x30 "Street Noises Invade the House": The long-awaited trial: John, Kathryn, and Angelo testify sue the hospital that caused the switch. Daphne is dealing with legal trouble of her own as she tries to protect her much-older boss with whom she has been having a relationship. Bay tries to run away to Mexico with her street artist friend, Zarra, but John and Emmett track her down. Finally, everyone reconvenes at the court for the shocking verdict.

2x2 "The Awakening Conscience": Bay is excited to transfer to Carlton to be classmates with Emmett and Daphne, but once there, she struggles with language and culture shock. Daphne uses Angelo's gift of a food truck to start her own business, but isn't prepared for the pushback she receives for undercutting local businesses in her old neighborhood, proving she can't go home again. John runs for state senate.

2x15 "Ecco Mono" - An unrelentingly dark "alternate reality" episode explores what would have happened if the switch had become known when the girls were small children. Given Regina's difficulties with sobriety at the time, the ever-litigious Kennishes win custody of both girls and raise them as sisters. Jumping forward to the present day, Cochlear!Daphne is Regina George; Wig!Bay is Sarah Vowell; John is a petty tyrant with no understanding of compromise; Kathryn is a romance novelist for some reason; Breathe a sigh of relief, because "Ebay" is still a thing, as Emmett randomly appears out of nowhere to befriend Bay, and to help her search for Regina the same way he helped search for Angelo in 1x6. Emmett's zeal for amateur detective work truly is the one constant in this crazy world.

2x17 "Prudence, Avarice, Lust, Justice, Anger" - Daphne is frustrated at the moral compromises she's witnessed as an intern in John's state senate office, so when she gets an opportunity to blackmail the hypocritical Senator Coto, she takes it. Bay supports Angelo's decision to fight for custody of his new baby, whose mother has placed her for adoption, but when she meets the adoptive parents - a loving gay couple - she's not so sure it's the right decision.

2x21 "Departure of Summer" - As the summer season draws to a close, Daphne faces legal consequences for her blackmail of a senator. Angelo is overwhelmed by his new baby. Bay worries when her military boyfriend/first sex partner, Ty, is redeployed to a war zone.

3x2 "Your Body is a Battleground" - After Carlton is forced to let in 50% hearing students, Deaf and hearing kids clash. Emmett investigates a rash of tire slashings of Deaf students and realizes to his shock that a Deaf student is responsible, in a attempt to frame the hearing students. Meanwhile, Bay struggles to gain the approval of her new art teacher (Sandra Bernhardt), especially after being paired with Tank, a shallow frat guy, for a group project. Meanwhile, Daphne's community service in a health clinic inspires her, especially when she works with the super-cute wheelchair-using volunteer Campbell (Breaking Bad's RJ Mitte).

3x11 "Love Seduces Innocence, Pleasure Entraps, and Remorse Follows" - As Emmett prepares for his first in-person date with his Internet girlfriend, Bay launches an investigation, only to discover the truth moments too late; cut to, the moment when Emmett opens a picnic basket to discover a dead catfish is delightfully disturbing. Thankfully, Emmett's emotional and physical pain leads to some hurt/comfort action. Meanwhile, Regina's interior design work with a millionaire who is leading a gentrification effort in East Riverside has stirred up real anger, and she and Daphne are terrified when a brick is thrown through the window of Regina's office.

3x16 "The Image Disappears" - The family gathers at the hospital where Angelo is in critical condition following a serious car accident. Gradually, the news about his condition begins to look worse and worse, forcing the family members one by one to accept that he must be taken off life support. This is an emotional wallop of an episode, made more so by the realism of the drip-drip-drip of increasingly negative but slightly inconclusive information. TV trains you that, if there is even a little bit of hope, the character will recover; this episode uses that training against you to bring you on the same journey as the characters, from disbelief and denial to devastating acceptance. (Incidentally, I watched it on November 5, 2016; in retrospect it was a good allegory for the election, but I'm glad I watched it before that.)

3x21 - "And Life Begins Right Away" - And time for future plans. Bay has no college lined up, but is excitedly planning to following Emmett to L.A., where he is attending film school. Daphne, who is delivering the school's commencement address, was supposed to be attending Gallaudet, but after a series of felonies (!!) she is now looking at up to 3 years of jail time.

3x22 Yuletide Fortune Tellers - Another "alternate reality" episode (and it's especially odd that a Christmas special is happening right after graduation; what year is this?) I have a love-hate relationship with alternate reality episodes because they are often quite silly, especially this one with all its contrived Christmas magic. But they're good standalones that comment directly on the heart of the show's premise in a way that episodes in the continuity often do not. Daphne and Bay wake up one morning with all their normal memories, but the world around them is different: the switch never happened, de facto making Daphne Bay and Bay Daphne. Of course, the girls soon discover problems and realize that life wouldn't be all sunshine and rainbows if they hadn't been switched, and maybe theirs is a Wonderful Life after all.

4x11 "To Repel Ghosts" - Bay and Emmett's climactic break-up fight is in the previous episode, and unlike their previous breakups, this one feels devastatingly realistic and unsolvable and final. In this episode, Bay struggles to get through the day when she keeps seeing Emmett everywhere, alternately sweet and menacing. Bay's interactions with the "ghosts" of her past are slightly cheesy but still effective way to show her dealing with the breakup and clawing her way to acceptance. Meanwhile, Daphne deals with a bombshell as Toby's recent ex reveals she is pregnant.

4x15 "Instead of Damning the Darkness, It's Better to Light A Little Lantern" - The Mexico episode! Daphne, Bay, and Travis go with Melody to Mexico to do volunteer work fitting poor people with hearing aids. When Emmett shows up to surprise Melody, Bay goes into full scorned-ex-rage, inspired by the passion and turbulence of her artistic role model, Frida Kahlo. When she visits Frida's home and actually meets someone who knew the artist, Bay comes to realize that maybe being emotionally unbalanced is not an attribute she wants to share with her hero. Meanwhile, Daphne finds herself inspired by the work of the mission, and wonders if this type of work could be her calling. The episode is notable not just because of Daphne's career realizations, but for Bay doing body shots off Travis. Because of the change of location and smaller cast of characters, this has the feel of a "bottle episode." I just love bottle episodes.

Gilmore Girls

Gilmore Girls (2000-2006, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino) was an hour-long dramedy about a young mom and her teen daughter who are best friends. The show was known for its dense pop-culture references and a wordy, fast-talking style that hearkens back to screwball comedies.

Last January, Netflix announced a revival miniseries to be released late this year. In preparation for this revival, I rewatched the whole series and had a fantastic time.

Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) Lorelai was a teen mom, and as the show opens, her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) is just turning 16, the same age she was when she had a baby and ran away from her privileged yet oppressive home. In the pilot, Lorelai is forced to reach out to her estranged parents, Emily and Richard (Kelly Bishop and Edward Hermann), when she needs money to pay tuition for the private school that has just accepted the precocious Rory.

Over the seven seasons of the show, we see Lorelai and Rory's evolving relationship with Lorelai's parents; Rory growing from a shy, bookish high school sophomore to a confident fast-talking newspaperwoman; Lorelai and Rory's romantic ups and downs with their various boyfriends; and plenty of wacky townspeople hijinks. Lorelai and Rory live in the fictional small town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, where an ensemble cast of quirky oddballs adore them, notably the gruff diner owner Luke (Scott Patterson), Lorelai's clumsy chef best friend Sookie (Melissa McCarthy), and Rory's rebellious musician best friend Lane (Keiko Agena).

Gilmore Girls holds a special place in my heart. I was the exact same age as Rory Gilmore when it aired (although now I'm closer to Lorelai's age). I went away to college the same year Rory did. The summer after my freshman year, I used what little spare money I had working minimum wage at Staples to buy the first and second season DVD sets, and watching them after work was the highlight of my otherwise grim retail-industry day. It definitely has its guilty pleasure elements--the plotlines can be soap-opera-y; the style can be just too, too much--overall it has a remarkable ability to welcome you into its warm and whimsical world and relieve you of your cares.

Key Episodes

Because this show is heavy on slowly unfolding storylines, and the big moments don't feel big at all unless you know all the backstory, it's hard to pick out Key Episodes. The first season tends to be a bit more episodic and each episode can be watched individually. I chose two that I feel are representative, plus a fairly standalone season 3 episode which provides more backstory detail.

1x1 Pilot I'm big on skipping pilots because they're usually different from the tone of the show, but not so with Gilmore, which already seems to have its voice right from the first. The pilot is an excellent introduction to the show and introduces all the important characters and relationships. A ton of backstory comes out naturally through the dialogue. Lorelai goes to her parents with her tail between her legs to beg for cash for Rory's private school tuition, prompting Emily to establish the tradition of Friday Night Dinners as a sort of cold business deal approach to developing a relationship with her estranged daughter and granddaughter.

1x6 Rory's Birthday Parties is another great early episode for the series-central Emily/Lorelai/Rory relationship network. After Emily and Richard throw Rory a classy catered birthday event for her sweet sixteen, Rory invites them impulsively to the casual house party her mother is throwing her. The contrast between the two worlds could not be more stark, and the episode does a great job of showing how Lorelai and Rory fit into the fabric of the town and how the townspeople are not just a quirky Greek chorus (as they are sometimes in later episodes) but actually a beloved extended family for them. The episode shows a classic Emily arc of knee-jerk hating anything she doesn't understand, to grudging respect of the life Lorelai has built for herself.

3x13 Dear Emily and Richard A hapless Rory is the only one to support her dad's new wife, Sherry (Madchen Amick), as she goes into labor. This storyline is intercut with flashbacks of scenes surrounding Rory's own birth. The actors that play young Lorelai and Christopher (Chelsea Brummet and Philip Van Dyke) do a great job of capturing the characters and portraying their relationship as a believable, flawed but likeable teen romance, and although we knew the broad strokes of this story, it's full of heartbreaking details that absolutely ring true to Lorelai's character.

Bonus Episodes

It's hard to narrow these down because I want to hit the main emotional beats of each season, but of course that's impossible, since they tend to be pretty spread over episodes, and often an episode will be unremarkable except for a specific scene or moment. I'll try to get you the episodes with the most, and most important, mythos. It's a seven-season show, so bear with me on the number here.

1x9 Rory's Dance This was a serious contender for Key Episodes, but I swapped it with Rory's Birthday Parties at the last moment. Rory takes Dean to a dance at her school, leading to a clash between her town life and her school life. She and Dean accidentally stay out all night, leading to one of my favorite scenes (and Lauren Graham performances) in the series where Lorelai has one meltdown after another, first blasting the critical Emily over past hurts and defending Rory, and then turning on a dime and going nuclear on Rory for worrying her.

1x15 Christopher Returns This is the first episode with Rory's dad, Christopher, a lovable but irresponsible motorcycle enthusiast who claims to have turned over a new leaf and to be ready to be a family man. The first of many times!

1x16 Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers Rory has the world's most romantic date with Dean which, unbelievably, ends in heartbreak. Meanwhile, Lorelai endures her mother's attempt to "fix" her love life, and enlists her father's help in escaping.

1x17 The Breakup, Part 2 Rory tries to power through her breakup by being chipper and busy, including going to a Chilton party, but getting involved with her school's social life just reminds her of how much she's lost by breaking up with Dean. Meanwhile, Lorelai booty-calls her recent ex, Max. This is an episode that I remember really liking when I saw it the first time at age 16. The high school emotions really rang true for me.

1x21 Love, Daisies, and Troubadours is a slightly twee but deeply sweet season ender as Rory gets back together with Dean in a very classic romantic comedy type scene and Lorelai receives a visually stunning proposal from Max.

2x4 Road Trip to Harvard This is kind of a goofy episode because a lot of it is sort of a Harvard University pamphlet, but Rory's emotions at getting a taste of college--this big thing she has been working toward blindly since birth--are genuine. Lorelai has one of the nicest moments to date with Luke after finding that he has gone to the trouble of hand-carving a chuppah for the wedding she has called off.

2x5 Nick & Nora/Sid & Nancy Luke's bad boy nephew, Jess, is sent to live with him because Luke because his mother can't handle him. Lorelai invites Luke and Jess over to dinner and tries to bond with him by trotting out her rebellious past, but he's not having any.

2x21 Lorelai's Graduation Day Rory lets down her mother in the biggest way possible to date by missing her business school graduation to be with a boy. Richard and Emily are nice!!(!)

2x22 I Can't Get Started Rory's and Lorelai's love lives both reach climactic moments at Sookie's wedding, as Jess drops by just after Rory has decided to recommit to Dean, and Christopher breezes into town claiming to finally be ready for a relationship with Lorelai.

3x7 They Shoot Gilmores, Don't They? Everyone is wearing 1940s garb for a dance contest, for some reason. Rory is overly annoyed when Jess comes to watch, and Dean is fed up with Rory's obsessing.

3x8 Let the Games Begin Richard springs a Yale interview on Rory unwillingly. Rory surprises him by standing up for herself… but surprises herself by really liking Yale, despite her lifelong allegiance to Harvard. Rory and Jess kiss, and Luke flips out about it.

3x22 Those Are the String, Pinocchio Rory graduates from Chilton and brokers a new deal with her grandparents.

4x7 The Festival of Living Art I actually think this town hijinks-heavy episode is kind of dull (and it's a total ripoff of Arrested Development), thought it was the only episode to win an Emmy (for makeup!) But the real significance to me is that it's first the episode for my bizarre favorite character: Lane's band's guitarist, Gil (played by real hair band rocker Sebastian Bach). He just strikes me as a really fun and realistic type of quirky townie: an easygoing, energetic, positive-attitude, highly dedicated rock'n'roll musician who just never struck it big and keeps trying to find bands to join while managing a sandwich shop during the day. I choose to believe he is the most important character in the series. HIS NAME IS GIL, PEOPLE. GIL MORE.

4x18 Tick, Tick, Boom Richard's business wheeling and dealing comes to a surprisingly Game of Thronesy head here. The other thing you need to know is that Dean has recently married his post-Rory girlfriend, Lindsay, way too young. This is the episode where Dean and Rory's ex friendship begins to get weird.

4x22 Raincoats and Recipes The season 4 finale feels a bit like a possible series finale as some of the most anticipated events of the show occur: Lorelai opens the inn she's been dreaming of; Lorelai and Luke finally kiss; and Rory and Dean get back together in the most ill-advised possible way.

5x3 Written in the Stars Lorelai and Luke go on a swoonworthy date in which he declares famously that he is "all in" (though, you know, later episodes will test that). Rory meets the infuriating playboy Logan Huntsberger.

5x7 You Jump, I Jump, Jack Rory follows Logan to a meeting of his secret society, the Life and Death Brigade. It's extremely dumb, but also great. Luke meets Emily and Richard, who, despite their estrangement, both have the same impulse to regard the relationship as a disaster to be fixed.

5x13 Wedding Bell Blues Emily and Richard renew their vows in a giant lavish wedding. Best Man Rory seduces Logan in an oddly homoerotic scene. Emily puppets Christopher into intervening in Luke and Lorelai's relationship.

5x21 Blame Booze and Melville Rory is shocked when Mitchum Huntsberger--Logan's dad and her internship boss--tells her she doesn't have what it takes to be a journalist, and so she steals a boat. Not kidding.

5x22 A House is Not A Home Rory turns to her grandparents, not her mother, for help following her arrest for stealing a boat (still not kidding), kicking off the estrangement that will dominate season 6. Luke flips out and goes full rant trying to figure out how to help Rory, prompting Lorelai to propose. Lane's band goes on tour.

6x5 We've Got Magic to Do Mid-estrangement, Rory uses her Lorelai-inspired party planning skills to plan a USO-themed DAR event. Emily and Richard yell at the Huntsbergers.

6x8 Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ring Out Jess returns for an episode to humblebrag about writing a terrible book. He appearance serves to put a nice little epilogue-y capper on his tenure in the show--look, he turned out pretty good!--and to get Rory to re-evaluate the way she is living with fresh eyes as she sees how far she's strayed from her intended path. Jess yelling at Rory is, for some reason, a soothing balm.

6x9 The Prodigal Daughter Returns Hey, this episode title has two meanings! Rory gets her life together, and Luke discovers he has a lovechild.

6x13 Friday Night's Alright For Fighting It's all hands on deck when Rory rescues her college newspaper from being destroyed by the increasingly unstable Paris. Logan legitimately and dashingly swoops in to help. The episode concludes with an almost self-parodying marathon of Gilmore fights.

6x20 Super Cool Party People After spending the back half of the season compartmentalizing, Luke finally allows Lorelai to bond with his daughter, as she throws her a 13-year-old's dream party. A fight with Logan ends when Rory gets that call that he has been injured in a dumb Life and Death Brigade stunt.

7x21 Unto the Breach Most of season 7 is pretty dull and feels kind of "off" since it's the only season not to be showrun by the original creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino. Let's skip right to the last couple episodes, which are actually pretty sweet send-offs for characters. Logan asks Rory to marry him. Rory and Paris graduate. Lorelai gets all teary-eyed.

7x22 Bon Voyage Rory takes a job as a reporter on Obama's campaign trail. Luke plans a blowout goodbye party. All the townspeople are there. Emily and Richard show up. Here's the George Bailey, the richest guy I know.

WHAT NEXT???? We'll have to wait for the revival to find out! I hope Jess yells at Rory some more.

Bonus Recommendation

I've recently started listening to the Gilmore Guys podcast, where each episode is discussed at length by longtime fan Kevin Porter and skeptical first-time watcher Demi Adejuyigbe. The guys have great bits where they do oddly spot-on impressions of the characters, come up with devastatingly emotional alternate plotlines, and burst into song at the slightest provocation. They're critical of the show but also adorably love it, and they serenade each other with a charmingly off-key "Where You Lead" at the end of each episode. One of the most heartwarming moments of any media has to be the into season 7, when the guys' roles are reversed: Kevin is dread-filled, not looking forward to the fan-hated final season, but Demi's surprisingly open-minded, having come around over the years to genuinely loving the show. Kevin glumly announces, "Okay, season 7, let's jump in," and Demi says, loyally, "You jump, I jump, Jack."

Lord Peter Wimsey (books)

Lord Peter Wimsey is the detective hero of eleven novels and a short story collection by Dorothy L. Sayers, published between 1923 and 1937. Lord Peter is an idle gentleman-about-town who appears at first to be an effete, upperclass twit but who hides a keen intellect and a serious, sensitive soul. Lord Peter's character deepens and matures over the course of the series (literally, as time actually passes between each book in more or less realtime between publication dates).  One central ongoing storyline through several of the books is Lord Peter's romance with fan favorite Harriet Vane, a spirited, fiercely independent crime novelist who is more narrator/protagonist than Lord Peter in some books. He is also faithfully attended by the loyal Bunter, who serves not only as valet but a sort of deputy, a skilled detective in his own right.

What I love most about these books is that they are character-driven, rather than idea-driven or cleverness-driven like most mystery novels. They're the perfect mysteries for people who don't like mysteries. While the mysteries are indeed well-constructed and difficult to guess, "whodunit" is not the point. The best parts of the books are the complex, nuanced, interesting characters, and the concepts and ideas: morality, truth, honor, gratitude, class, the role of women, friendship, love. They're well-written, funny, and incredibly comforting to read and re-read, even if you already remember the solution from last time.

Key Books

While I recommend all eleven novels--each one is one of my favorite detective novels, and anyway they're not a huge commitment like the Agatha Christies--I'm here to tell you which three you should read if you only read three. As always, they are listed in chronological order, and the first one I recommend is a good one to start with.

Clouds of Witness (1926): This is the second book in the series and it not only features a youthful Lord Peter at his babbling, trivial best, it also dives deep into his backstory, as his own family is the subject of the investigation: his father is accused of murdering his sister's fiance. Lord Peter is both spurred by, and hampered by, family loyalty and honor as he attempts to uncover the truth, whatever it may be.

(Even if you are planning to read more than three of the books, I still think this is the best one to start with. The first book, Whose Body?, I continue to find sort of boring and hard to get into.)

Strong Poison (1931): This book introduces love interest Harriet Vane in the most sensational possible way: the opening scene is her murder trial. She is a crime novelist accused of murdering her boyfriend. The jury is not buying her excuse that she bought poison for research purposes, nor do they understand her bohemian morality (living in sin, etc.) Lord Peter instantly develops feelings for this resolute, independent, unconventional woman and it is a race against time for him to find exonerating evidence before she is scheduled to be executed.

Gaudy Night (1935): This is the perhaps the weirdest of the Lord Peter novels, and it's absolutely the wrong one to start with (though I did, and loved it). Harriet Vane is the POV character and main hero--Lord Peter doesn't even show up till about halfway through the book--and it centers not around a typical murder, but a poison pen: the professors and students of a women's college have been receiving violent, threatening anonymous notes. Harriet, visiting for an alumni reunion, investigates as a favor to her academic friends and former teachers.This is a slow-paced, character-driven, highly informed and personal exploration of women-dominated academic environments and the way that misogyny can attack them from without and within. It is also a lovely and nuanced romance. This is an especially great mystery for people who don't like mysteries.

Bonus Books

It's going to be hard not to list every single other book here, but these are the ones I had to fight myself not to include in Key Episodes.

The Unpleasantness as the Bellona Club (1928) impresses me every time I read it. The death of an elderly gentleman at his club seems to be nothing out of the ordinary, but as Lord Peter pulls on the threads of a few odd discrepancies, he becomes more and more convinced that a crime took place. This book starts out as a typical jolly cozy mystery but gets darker and sadder as it goes on, a shift in tone not only for this book but for the series as a whole. A more serious Lord Peter emerges here, as we learn about his World War I service history and subsequent shell-shock, and begin to understand that his trivial persona is part of a deliberate attempt to suppress that traumatic period of his life.

Have His Carcase (1932) is the middle installment of the Harriet Vane romance storyline (between Strong Poison and Gaudy Night). On a solo vacation, Harriet stumbles on a body on a remote beach. She is reluctant at first to work with Lord Peter, to whom she feels a crushing weight of debt, but their collaboration turns out to be intellectual pleasure that includes codebreaking and undercover work.

Murder Must Advertise (1935, before Gaudy Night) was my favorite for a long time although in retrospect I'm not sure it's all that good. Lord Peter goes undercover in an ad agency, a setting about which Sayers is incredibly well-informed. The mystery aspect of this one is kind of phoned-in, but as a workplace story, it shines--the office drama, comedy, and characters feel fresh and timeless despite/because of their incredible specificity.

Friends

Friends (1994-2004, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman) was an iconic sitcom of the 1990s and a cornerstone of NBC's "must-see TV" Thursday night lineup for ten years. In a similar vein to Seinfeld, its airing partner for many years, Friends is a show more or less about nothing, but rather than crotchety thirtysomething misanthropes, the show was about six young hip singles who spend a lot of time hanging around the coffee shop and talking. There's Rachel, raised rich but committed to making it on her own; Monica, a type A chef with a rent-controlled apartment; Ross, Monica's brother, a whiny paleontologist; wiseacre Chandler; beautiful but dumb actor Joey; and woo-woo new-agey Phoebe. The show ran for a full decade, taking the characters from finding themselves in their mid-twenties to marrying and having children in their mid-thirties.

Ongoing Storylines (Spoilers)

The biggest ongoing storyline through the series was the on-and-off romance between Ross and Rachel. The pair love each other unrequitedly at different times, finally getting together midway through season 2, only to break up in a spectacular fashion midway through season 3 (the famous "WE WERE ON A BREAK" storyline). They continue to occasionally pine for each other for awhile, but for a good stretch, the show seems to have moved on. Then in season 8, it is revealed that Rachel is pregnant due to a random one-time hookup with Ross. Ross and Rachel attempt to parent baby Emma while broken up, but end up finally getting together in the series finale.

The group's other surprise romance was Monica and Chandler, who appeared to have zero interest in each other for the first four seasons, abruptly and drunkenly slept together in the season 4 finale, and spent season 5 gradually and sweetly moving from friends with benefits to a loving relationship. They marry in the season 7 finale, and the series finale sees them adopting twin babies and moving to the suburbs.

Joey and Phoebe never date, although many fans wished they would, for symmetry. Joey was always the ladies' man dating a lot of different girls, although in the final seasons, there is a long storyline in which he falls in love with Rachel. His feelings are not requited, but are the most serious he has ever felt about a woman, making him realize he wants to settle down.

Phoebe has a few different romances with big-name guest stars, but her biggest storyline doesn't concern romance but family. She meets her long-lost half-brother, and winds up serving as a surrogate mother so that her brother can have children with his new wife (who is also his ex-home ec teacher). Toward the end of the series, she embarks on a long-term relationship with Paul Rudd, whom she ends up marrying.

Key Episodes

1.1 Pilot: The first episode is a good setup and point of comparison for the rest of the show, though it's paced oddly. The pilot centers around Rachel, who has just left her fiance at the altar and broken away from the privileged, scripted life that her family has planned for her. She now has to make it on her own in New York, with help from her old friend Monica and Monica's group of kooky friends.

The look of the show changed so much over the years that it's fun to go back to season 1 and see how very, very 90s it is. It's kind of hard to watch, actually. There's an old-yearbook, "is that what we looked like back then?!?" quality. Everyone has enormous fluffy hair, except for Ross, whose helmet of hair is flattened onto his head with about eight tons of gel. Monica wears lipstick the color of her brunette locks. Everyone wears experimental outfits. Chandler looks like Kyle Maclachlan.

2x15 "The One Where Ross and Rachel… You Know": Though Ross and Rachel have their first kiss in the previous episode, this one features their iconic first date, a makeshift picnic in the museum after hours because Ross had to work late. This is also the episode where Monica launches a major romance storyline, dating her 20-year-older, mustachioed ophthalmologist (Tom Selleck).

3x25 "The One at the Beach" & 4x1 "The One with the Jellyfish": The season 3 finale/season 4 premiere two-parter has the friends taking a trip to the beach so Phoebe can meet her birth mother. Ross and Rachel are on the cusp of getting back together but it devolves into another important but soul-deadening fight, as Rachel writes Ross a lengthy letter about their relationship which he does not read. (This is where I would have put the nail in the coffin of their relationship, personally.) Some sweet, light Monica and Chandler flirtation is killed when Chandler has to pee on Monica's jellyfish sting. Along the way, there's plenty of quirky hangout time at the beach cabin, which is full of sand after a flood. The gang plays strip Happy Days game, makes a Joey sand mermaid, etc.

4x23-4x24 "The One With Ross's Wedding" & 5x1 "The One After Ross Says Rachel": The end of season 4 and beginning of season 5 extended sequence concerns Ross's disastrous wedding to Emily, in which Ross says "I take thee, Rachel" instead of "I take thee, Emily" in the vows and explodes the relationship mid-ceremony. I'm not a huge fan of this storyline as it's (a) ridiculous and (b) brings the Ross/Rachel drama back into our lives, but this set of episodes is undeniably memorable and plot-important; aside from its importance in the Ross and Rachel saga, it notably kicks off Monica and Chandler's relationship.

Bonus Episodes

3x2 "The One Where No One's Ready": This isn't a key episode plot-wise, but it's probably my favorite episode of the series. The writing is just top notch. The whole episode takes place more or less in realtime as Ross tries to persuade everyone to get dressed and out the door for an event at the museum. But Rachel is mad at him, Monica is freaking out about a message she left on Richard's answering machine post-breakup, and Joey and Chandler are having a turf war about a chair, leading to increasingly un-ready antics.

3x13 "The One Where Monica and Richard Are Just Friends": Monica and Richard run into each other post-breakup and decide to be friends with benefits, but realize they still have feelings for each other… and still have the same problems that led them to break up. I found this to be a sweet and romantic, if ultimately tragic, episode. The B-plot is also a classic: Rachel and Joey agree to reach each other's favorite books, which leads to Rachel getting freaked out by The Shining and Joey getting the feels over Little Women.

3x15 "The One Without the Ski Trip": It's hard to pinpoint which episode you should watch for the "we were on a break" thing. It happens over several. This episode features the worst of Ross and Rachel's fighting about the issue, as they compete for the attention of their friends post-breakup. Things to note: Ross being a huge asshole; Rachel having legitimate points (why does she want to be with him again?); character-revealing behavior for Chandler as he increasingly shows off like a divorced kid as the couple's fighting intensifies.

4x8 "The One with Chandler in a Box": This is probably my second-favorite episode. To apologize to Joey for stealing his girlfriend (a guest appearance by the always great Paget Brewster), Chandler spends Thanksgiving inside a shipping crate. Monica has an eye emergency and winds up spending Thanksgiving wearing an eyepatch and flirting with the stand-in opthalmologist, Richard's son. This is just classic Friends Thanksgiving where the gang is hanging out at the apartment trying to accomplish a normal holiday but everything is keeps getting more chaotic.

4x12 "The One with the Embryos": The gang has a trivia game to see who knows who better: Monica and Rachel or Joey and Chandler. The stakes keep getting higher, and in the end, they stake the apartment, leading to an extended period of time where the pairs have swapped apartments. Meanwhile, the episode's title refers to Phoebe's storyline. Having agreed to be a surrogate mom for her brother's family, Phoebe is implanted with the embryos, and worries that they won't stick. This lends a seriousness to the episode, but really, I'm recommending it for the trivia game.

5x3 "The One with the Triplets": Phoebe gives birth to her brother's triplets. The "episode in a hospital where someone is giving birth" trope gets really weary (and this is the second time Friends has done it, the first being the birth of Ross's son Ben in season 1), but this is well done, especially the scene where Phoebe has to say goodbye to the babies. Meanwhile, Chandler and Monica have to make decisions about their relationship.

6x25 "The One with the Proposal": This episode is pretty bad, actually, as is the entirety of season six, but the actual scene where Monica proposes to Chandler is really sweet.

8x12 "The One Where Joey Dates Rachel": Joey takes Rachel on a "date" to cheer her up as she's having trouble dating while pregnant. This is the one where Joey realizes he has feelings for Rachel. It's kind of a bummer storyline ultimately, but Joey's appreciation for Rachel is genuinely sweet. I thought I didn't care about the show by the time, but, darn it, the show made me kind of ship them.

10x18 "The Last One": I heard the finale talked up so much that I was expecting a lot, and I have to say I didn't think it was that great. That said, it's important if you want to know what happens to all the characters. And seeing Monica move out of the apartment is really weird.

Better Off Ted

Better Off Ted (2009-2010, creator Victor Fresco) was a surreal workplace comedy by the creator of the even shorter-lived, cultishly followed surreal workplace Andy Richter Controls the Universe (and featuring several of the same actors). 

Better Off Ted centers around the ridiculously evil corporation Viridian Dynamics. Ted Crisp (Jay Harrington) is a handsome, chipper, eminently likable middle manager who optimistically tries to maintain his team's humanity in the soulless corporate atmosphere. Portia de Rossi plays Ted's boss, Veronica, a steely power suit-wearing executive who gleefully buys into the company's worst excesses. Ted's underlings are goofy scientists Phil and Lem (Jonathan Slavin and Malcolm Barrett). Rounding out the ensemble is ineffectually rebellious cubicle monkey Linda (Andrea Anders), who is Ted's will-they-won't-they romantic interest.

The show lasted for only two partial seasons, a total of 26 episodes. Most episodes are fairly amusing and the show maintained a fairly even level of quality, so this is a show where I'm comfortable recommending that you watch the whole thing if you like one or two tester episodes. The first couple of episodes tended to be a bit harsher and more satirical with later episodes mellowing into more absurdist humor. There's not a lot of continuity, so you can pick up anywhere
. The Key Episodes I'm recommending are basically my picks for the best or most memorable episodes in my opinion.

Key Episodes

1x8 You Are the Boss Of Me Bosses overstepping boundaries with their employees is the theme of this episode in which Ted joins Phil and Lem's after-work medieval fight club, and Linda regrets trying to befriend the terrifying Veronica. Although the groupings in this episode ignore one of the central relationships of the show--Ted and Linda's Sam and Diane relationship--this is a great episode to get to know the characters: Ted's effortless skill at everything, Phil and Lem's nerdy pathos, Linda's overeager friendliness, Veronica's chilling core of pure evil.

1x12 Jabberwocky Ted gets into a jam after making up a top-secret project to divert funds to Linda's green initiative, and he and Veronica find themselves roped into giving a presentation on the suddenly-hot new "Jabberwocky project."

2x10 Lust in Translation This is just a good all-around episode, with sharp, on-point writing that provided me with numerous status messages. Ted tries to mix business and pleasure when he dates a potential German investor. Trouble is, he can only communicate with her with a hastily-thrown-together translation device with Phil's voice. Meanwhile, Veronica becomes overly competitive when playing a bagel-tossing game Linda made up.

Bonus Episodes

Like I said, most of the episodes are pretty solid, so if you like the show, just watch from the beginning--it's not that long. That said, here are some other memorable episodes.

1x2 Through Rose Colored Hazmat Suits Veronica gives Ted's eight-year-old daughter a lesson in business, and a biohazard scare forces Ted and Linda to confront their feelings for each other.

1x4 Racial Sensitivity The company's new, cheap motion detectors don't register black people, and the company responds in typical tone-deaf fashion by deploying white people to follow around black employees.

1x10 Trust and Consequence A mystery of sorts: an investigation into a faulty product reveals that somebody on the team is responsible. Features flashbacks to Linda's first week on the job.

1x13 Secrets and Lives A new facial recognition search software reveals a secret which threatens to undermine Veronica's authority. (I wouldn't watch this as your first episode, since the humor hinges on Veronica acting out-of-character.)

2x1 Love Blurts In an effort to save in future insurance money, the company starts a dating service where it pairs off genetically compatible employees. Ted and Linda make a pact to ignore the company's suggested dates, only to be tempted by seemingly perfect mates. Phil is glum when the company's offer to him is a free vasectomy.

2x6 Beating a Dead Workforce Ted is disturbed when the company literally works a man to death and Veronica gives a stirring, pro-work speech at his funeral.

Seinfeld

Seinfeld (1989-1998, creators Jerry Seinfeld & Larry David) was a revolutionary sitcom of the 90s: a show about nothing. Plot was secondary to leisurely, aimless conversations about pop culture, social awkwardness, and everyday aggravations, often in coffee shops, laundromats, and grocery lines. Seinfeld’s show truly captures the spirit of his observational comedy act, snatches of which are interspersed in the show, accompanied with the signature guitar riff and acapella popping.

Jerry Seinfeld plays an anal-retentive stand-up comedian whose tendency toward overanalysis and pettiness often lands him in social scrapes, along with his sad sack best friend, George (Jason Alexander); his spitfire ex-turned-platonic-friend Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus); and his wild-haired next-apartment neighbor Kramer (Michael Richards), whose bizarre, harebrained schemes often drove the more surreal plotlines.

The show’s comedy must have particularly resonated with young singletons in New York City, but at its height, it had broad appeal, so that even suburbanites, oldsters and baby children like myself were throwing around catchphrases like “Not that there's anything wrong with that" and "yada yada." I credit Seinfeld with so desensitizing Little Laura to the norms of casual sex and serial monogamy that I was extremely perplexed when pre-marital sex was suggested to be problematic on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. (I… I may have watched too much television.)

Seinfeld’s legacy is its impact on the sitcom medium and the lexicon of pop culture in the 90s. For the key episodes, I’ll focus on the ones that introduced particularly novel, sticky, or talked-about concepts.

Key Episodes

2.11 “The Chinese Restaurant” - This episode is frequently cited when trying to explain the Seinfeld “show about nothing” concept. It takes place in real time as Jerry, George, and Elaine wait for a table at a restaurant. Each one is anxious for their own reasons, and they very quickly erupt into neurosis.

4.11 “The Contest” - Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer enter into a contest of honor to see who can abstain from masturbation the longest. “Are you still… master of your domain?” A well-known episode for its edgy (if coded) subject matter.

7.6 "The Soup Nazi" - Probably the most famous one-off character from the series, a vaguely Eastern European soup stand proprietor known as the "Soup Nazi" (Larry Thomas) punishes those who take too long to order or otherwise show disrespect in his shop with his catchphrase "No soup for you!"

Bonus Episodes

I'm listing a lot of these, but bear in mind that the show ran for nine years, so there are about 200 episodes that I've not listed. And I rewatched them all for you, reader!

1.3 “The Stake-Out” - Early Seinfeld had a slightly different flavor than golden age Seinfeld--slower paced, less manic--and it’s worth catching episodes at various points to see the evolution of the characters and relationships. In this third episode, Jerry and Elaine are still trying to work out the terms of a platonic friendship emerging from what seems to be a fairly recent relationship. With just a little too much time to plan a fib, Jerry and George come up with a fictitious friend, importer/exporter Art Vandelay. Jerry’s interactions with his visiting parents are on point; I especially love him playing Scrabble with his mother.

2.2 “The Pony Remark” - Jerry makes a disparaging remark about ponies in front of an elderly relative who, unbeknownst to him, is a pony aficionado, and Kramer has a new idea for remodeling his apartment: “Levels.” The first appearance of Jerry’s uncle Leo, a very authentic-feeling irritating uncle.

2.9 “The Deal” - Jerry and Elaine try to navigate friends with benefits (before that was a term that people used).

3.3 “The Pen” - Jerry and Elaine visit Jerry’s parents in Florida, and Jerry accepts the gift of an astronaut pen from a neighbor. A true-to-life episode about adults’ relationships with their parents, including poor sleeping arrangements, parents and children alike downplaying discomfort while visibly suffering, and those little issues that get hammered and nagged into full-blown Incidents. Like all the best Seinfeld episodes, everyone makes far too much ado about nothing, spiralling into a terrifically chaotic climax.

3.6 “The Parking Garage” - Another bottle episode has Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer wandering around a mall parking structure, desperately searching for their lost car.

3.11 “The Alternate Side” - A hodgepodge of classic bits: Jerry chats with the thief of his stolen car on his car phone, and bickers with a rent-a-car company (“You know how to TAKE the reservation. You don’t know how to HOLD the reservation.”) Elaine’s 66-year-old boyfriend has a stroke, causing her, Jerry and Kramer to freak out with half-remembered first aid. George takes a part-time job parking cars and fails utterly. And Kramer has a bit part in a Woody Allen movie, saying the single line, “These pretzels are making me thirsty.”

4.3 “The Pitch” - Jerry and George pitch an idea for “a show about nothing” to NBC executives, literally explaining the conceit of the show they are in. (They use “waiting in line at a Chinese restaurant” as an example episode.) The only downside to this as a Key Ep is that many of the storylines in this episode (particularly involving Crazy Joe Devola) don’t pay off until an episode or three later.

4.17 “The Outing” - An interviewer mistakenly reports that Jerry and George are a gay couple, confusing their friends and family. Jerry and George feel compelled to follow up every denial, no matter how angry or heated, with, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that!”

4.20 “The Junior Mint” - While observing an artist friend’s surgery, Kramer accidentally drops a Junior Mint into the patient. Thinking the artist is about to die, George agrees to buy his terrible art. Meanwhile, Jerry can't remember his date's name, except that it rhymes with a part of the female anatomy.

5.13 "The Dinner Party" - In another classic semi-real-time kind-of bottle episode, the gang is trying to get a dinner party the whole time, with seemingly simple stop-offs to get wine and cake for the hosts turning into harrowing odysseys. A black and white cookie is featured.

5.21 "The Hamptons" - The gang visits a friend's cabin in the Hamptons and George is upset when the woman he likes sees him naked after getting out of the pool. Credited with giving a new meaning to the word "shrinkage." Meanwhile, Elaine tries to hit on a doctor (Richard Burgi of The Sentinel) who gives vague compliments.

6.10 "The Race" - Jerry runs into an old classmate who accuses him of cheating in a race in high school, goading him into agreeing to a new race to clear his honor. References to Jerry as Superman abound.

6.11 "The Switch" - Jerry and George face their most difficult scheme yet: trying to do the roommate switch (Jerry wants to date his girlfriend-of-the-week's roommate, instead of her, without upsetting the original girl). Also, KRAMER'S FIRST NAME IS REVEALED! (Which everyone knows now, but it was a big deal at the time.)

7.1 "The Engagement" & 7.24 "The Invitations" - These episodes are not adjacent, but they are the beginning and end of one of the few season arcs on the show. In "The Engagement," George and Jerry are sick of dating one woman after another and breaking up with her for bullshit reasons, and they make a pact to make serious changes in their lives. George honors the pact and proposes to his old girlfriend, Susan. Meanwhile, Jerry loses interest. George is engaged to Susan for season seven, and the show gets a lot of mileage out of the new territory of long-term relationship humor, as well as George's foot-dragging and attempts to delay the wedding. The arc ends in "The Invitations" when George's cheapness at picking out budget wedding invitations inadvertently leads to Susan's death. (Spoilers, but, it's a twenty-year-old show.) This is the point where the show's/characters' morbidness and callousness led my mother to give up on Seinfeld completely.

7.9 "The Sponge" - Elaine's favorite birth control method, the Today sponge, is discontinued and she begins hoarding them, carefully weighing if the men she dates are "spongeworthy."

7.11 "The Rye" - A sequence of events involving the last marble rye at a bakery ends up with Jerry mugging an old lady.

8.3 "The Bizarro Jerry" - Elaine dates a man who is just like Jerry, but opposite in key ways; for example, he's nice. He also has friends who are Bizarro versions of the other characters. References to Superman continue, and some nice visual gags in Bizarro Jerry's opposite apartment.

8.9 "The Abstinence" - George stops having sex and becomes a scholar and a gentleman.

8.19 "The Yada Yada" - Another episode famous for the concept or catchphrase it popularized than for the content of the episode itself. George's new girlfriend glosses over unpleasant topics with "yada yada yada."

9.2 "The Voice" - Jerry makes up a silly voice for his girlfriend's sleeping belly, a jovial "Hellooo!" "La, la, la!" It's a fun voice that's impossible to stop making, and my coworker does it daily to this day.

9.8 "The Betrayal" - The famous backwards episode. But it's pretty terrible.

9.18 "The Frogger" - George buys a Frogger arcade game from a pizza place that's going out of business because he has the high score, and becomes obsessed with the increasingly complex logistics of getting the game out without letting it lose power and reset the scores. Meanwhile, Elaine eats her boss J. Peterman's antique cake.

9.23 & 9.24 "The Finale", parts 1 and 2 - In the series finale, Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer go on a trip to celebrate Jerry's show finally getting picked up, run afoul of a Good Samaritan law after making fun a man getting robbed, and are put on trial for all their various crimes against decency during the run of the series.