It's cognitive dissonance time

I was all set to write about the terribly formulaic, unoriginal and underwhelmingly non-momentous finale of Frasier that I somehow stumbled upon this evening (it couldn't have been any more stock sitcom if it tried, from the Furious Woman in Childbirth scene to the Abbreviated Wedding to the Comic Misunderstanding) and I was all set to write a really great piece on the old Dick Van Dyke Show and its role at the forefront of the first cultural revolution of American situation comedy (no, honest) but I had to slog through the ER season finale first. I was at least rewarded with a few wonderful closeups of Linda Cardellini's big beautiful eyes, as were all of us who decided to tune in, but the ending of course plays out as the Cliffhanger They Hope We Talk About All Summer. Or at least just remember when the season opener starts in the fall.

( But I didn't. )