Lampbane

@sadistmushroom Yes, those would line up with the choices they gave in the attendee surveys at PAX East this year. There was the UK, the South, and Southern CA (which explains why the original PAX is "PAX Prime" instead of "PAX West", as they're reserving that for a third or fourth edition).

@Sponge I'm from NYC and I went to C2E2 last year and this year. And I know a lot of people from outside Chicago (outside Illinois, even) who went. I enjoyed it, though there is a lot of room for improvement.

While I think it's a shame that Tavern on the Green shut down, it's unfair to call any of these guys "standard-issue" food trucks; their food is excellent and unique. NYC has a great food truck scene.

An incredibly fluffy episode light on criticism/depth/insight but at least loaded with some good gags:

"Xylophone music is what plays when skeletons dance!"

"You were a baby once, do you still want milk and hugs?"

And yes, Ralph the tumbleweed.

Fringe?

Alison sounded out of breath during her performance, which just killed it. Honestly, it doesn't take much to sing better than Steven Tyler, and yet she blew it.

Well Brian, I know you're calling me out because it's personal, so let me just say you're not the only one taking this personally. We're just seeing it from different sides.

Reading the comments here is actually helping me make sense of it, because people are pointing out that there were signs, the characters on the show (and us) just didn't know what they meant until it was too late. And that's realistic.

Because my response to L seems to have disappeared...

I don't need to be told that those left behind often don't get an explanation. That was the point of the episode, I understood that. But it comes across as cheap when the network pimps out the death of a major character - it stops being an artistic decision and becomes an obvious ratings grab. And that makes it hurt more, because then you start wondering if this was written into the character originally, or was tacked on. Considering Kal Penn made the decision to leave because of his White House gig, it's probably tacked on.

Just because it's not obvious doesn't mean the suicidal depression isn't there.

It makes sense to the person committing the act.

I wish I could say it was like a real suicide, but it wasn't, because Kutner is a character, he didn't make this decision because it made sense, the producers made this decision for him. Sure, Kal Penn wanted to leave, but they didn't have to kill Kutner off.

It wouldn't have been so bad, except that FOX was pimping the hell out of this "shocking" episode and they had a website set up and a Facebook. It feels exploitative of the fans who liked Kutner.