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Archive: Rex Morgan, M.D.

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Troubling Friday

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Rex Morgan, M.D., 10/12/18

A thing that was a big deal about Jordan when he was first introduced was that he was a veteran of one America’s several ongoing wars and had been wounded in action and had two artificial legs, a fact that has been … not necessarily retconned away but not talked about very much! But anyway, it appears that now we’re in store for a very special PTSD plot, which is appropriate and medical but it’s kind of weird that it’s only coming up now. Like, Michelle was an army nurse, so you think she would’ve … like … put two and two together here, rather than just being like, “My man, who lost his legs in an explosion, I hope he doesn’t get stressed out in the restaurant biz like the way he does around explosion sounds, which is a fairly unremarkable reaction and we’re not going to discuss in any way!”

Pluggers, 10/12/18

This could’ve been just another “Ha ha, pluggers’ bodies are falling apart as they age” panel, but, the anxious look on that l’il plugger’s face is truly harrowing. “Gramps, please … please turn down the TV. It’s so loud. None of us can hear each other. You can’t even hear me. And you’re sitting only about three feet away from the set. Do you even know I’m here? Do you even care?”

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Late capitalism Saturday

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Rex Morgan, M.D., 9/15/18

You ever notice that a significant portion of the dialogue in post-Woody Wilson Rex Morgan, M.D., consists of characters saying things like “Makes sense” or “You might be right about that” or just otherwise agreeing with whoever they’re talking to? It doesn’t really make for gripping drama, and also, if you want to get specific, the restaurant industry, like just about every other form of retail, is increasingly bifurcating into two segments: one that’s increasingly higher-end and higher-margin, and another that stays just a step above fast food while emulating much of the industrial and assembly-line production processes that make it possible to eke out a profit from low-priced meals. In other words, it’s going to be delightful watching everyone tell Jordan that he just might be right about his very sensible plans, right before he dramatically goes out of business less than six months after he opens.

Pluggers, 9/15/18

Is that a plugger … driving … a Japanese vehicle???? This nightmare is what comes of allowing Californians to identify as pluggers.

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“Poorly drawn vulture side-eye” would be a good name for a band

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Crock, 9/8/18

As I have repeatedly promised, I will continue to produce this blog until the day I die, but one of my big fears is that as I get older the blog will transition away from “Ha ha, here is some trenchant commentary on newspaper comics, and how they relate to society as a whole” and towards “Help! I don’t understand today’s Crock!” But ………. guys, I don’t understand today’s Crock. I’m sort of hung up on Grossie’s facial expression in panel one. Normally I’d interpret “going to have number four” as, like, she was pregnant with a fourth child, but Grossie’s face is marked by a certain cruel glee that seems wildly misplaced even to me, a committed childfree coastal elitist. Like, it should be a well-known term for a type of plastic surgery to match her expression, you know? I basically feel like Otis has gotten the exactly correct sense of things from context clues and shouldn’t be the butt of the joke here.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 9/8/18

The death of any human being is of course a tragedy, but if a woman passing peacefully, surrounded by her family, after a good, long life well-lived is the price that needed to be paid to end the Hanks’ endless nationwide tour of dumb roadside attractions, I think it was worth it.