SPOILERS: What fresh hell is this? - S9

[Louise]

I think the problem now is the writers are trying to wind-up stories that never needed to be wound up. The only couple that EVER required an endgame was Lenny but the writers are in this trap of their own making, trying to provide EVERY nerd on the block his Lenny-style ending.

EXACTLY, PJ. It's this "what will happen to the characters when they're old???" syndrome, which we've all mentioned before. I don't need or want to see a character's entire life-trajectory from young and single to married with kids. I don't need to see the characters aging in real-time and going through all the milestones of an average life. I would prefer it if each season represented just a few weeks or months in the lives of the characters.

A comedy doesn't need this type of linear storytelling, with characters "progressing" from point A to point B. My preference would've been for this show to end with all characters single and no major changes in their lives. It's fine if they're casually dating various people, but I don't need to watch them passing through all the stages/phases of a conventional life. This isn't a televised diary.

I'm not sitting at home panicking because a 30-year-old character isn't married with a dog and a van and a white picket fence. This show could've ended after four or five seasons, with the understanding that this represented just a year or two in the show's universe.

I do not watch a comedy for suspense or cliff-hangers or plot twists. I don't watch a comedy for some lengthy saga about a person's entire lifespan. They need to narrow their focus. I don't need "closure" from a comedy.

The problem, of course, is a disconnect between what Nostalgics think this show is about---the five things you listed, PJ--versus what TPTB thinks the show is about. TPTB thinks the show is about the characters growing into adulthood, and their definition of adulthood is a strange and restrictive one. They think we *should* find it worrisome and abnormal and pathetic that a 27-year-old isn't having sex or getting married or doing XYZ.

I've sometimes suggested that these timeline issues could've been ameliorated by making the characters a bit younger at the start. The cast was young-looking enough to pull it off. But, you see, that doesn't jive with TPTB's thesis; that the guys are immature man-children whose psychological age doesn't match their physical age. It's harder to deride someone for living at home or reading comics or being single if they're 19 instead of 30. The show would have us believe this is a story of delayed maturation where the characters existed in a state of childish limbo until marriage/couplehood, the Only Important Thing™, triggered their overdue awakening.

Like I've said before, this show is now answering questions that nobody asked. Too much backstory, etc. IMO they also have a pattern of taking things from the early seasons that were understood to be surreal or exaggerated or tongue-in-cheek, and making them literal. There are so many examples of this.