Has no one in The White Lotus seen American Pie?

It seems fair to say that the American Pie franchise doesn’t exist in The White Lotus universe because, if it did, wouldn’t everyone who came across Tanya (her assistant Portia, especially) be like, “Stifler’s Mum?” Tanya would have to greet every new resort guest with a knowing, “No, no, not Stifler’s Mum, yes I know, I get that a lot…” Sounds tedious, but I’d appreciate the verisimilitude of that show.

Where’s Rupert Murdoch in Succession?

The world of Succession – which is seemingly our very own world, full of exciting things like corporate mergers and media influence on politics – is missing a key figure: News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch. They’ve got Logan Roy, commanding CEO of Waystar Royco, and his entire family trying to shore up control of his empire, but strangely no Murdochs pointing at all those Roy family headlines going, “Hmm, it’s not just us then.”

So, there’s literally no Murdochs in the parallel reality that is Succession? Sounds like utopia.

Seth Cohen, is that not you in Fleishman is in Trouble?

There’s an odd coincidence in Fleishman is in Trouble, the TV adaptation of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s bestselling novel: Adam Brody, best known for playing Seth Cohen in the iconic ’00s teen drama The OC, plays a character named Seth.

Oddly, his last name isn’t Cohen in Fleishman, so this is not some continuation of his OC storyline 20 years down the track, Seth Cohen moving east and working on Wall Street. Presumably then, The OC doesn’t even exist in the Fleishman universe, because otherwise his buddies (Jesse Eisenberg and Lizzy Caplan) would constantly be roasting him like, “Bro, still can’t believe your parents named you Seth when you look exactly like Seth Cohen from The OC”, or “Hey Seth, where’s Summer?” and so on.

For such a Jewish show, I feel sad they’ve all missed out on such a key hero of Jewish screen representation in their lives. Maybe Fleishman would be a nicer person if he’d known the formative example of Seth Cohen and an adolescence filled with Death Cab?

Is it strange that no one knows about Winona Ryder in Stranger Things?

No actually, this one makes sense. The events of Stranger Things so far have taken place between 1983 and 1986, so mum Joyce Byers’ resemblance to one of Hollywood’s defining Gen-X stars would go casually unnoticed. Ryder didn’t make her film debut till 1986’s Lucas, so there’s probably still a few months (and a Demogorgon apocalypse) before everyone in Hawkins starts copying her iconic pixie haircut.

The Three Amigos or Only Murders in the Building?

Wouldn’t you say that Only Murders podcasting buddies Charles-Haden Savage and Oliver Putnam share a striking resemblance to Steve Martin and Martin Short, co-stars of one of the great ’80s comedies The Three Amigos?

And yet not one of their lifelong neighbours in The Arconia has ever mentioned it! (I can imagine Selena Gomez’s Mabel being unaware of The Three Amigos; millennials are pretty ignorant of anything before 1990).

That makes me deduce that The Three Amigos doesn’t exist in Only Murders′ world, which is very depressing for lovers of fine comedy, but also bad news for Chevy Chase. Poor Chevy, excluded from the trio twice now.

Why is Barry taking acting lessons from a Fonzie look-alike?

If you’ve seen Bill Hader’s Emmy-winning comedy Barry, you’ll know his character Barry Berkman is a part-time hitman with a burgeoning acting career, inspired by his acting coach and mentor Gene Cousineau. Gene Cousineau is played by Henry Winkler, who, of course, played the leather-clad delinquent Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli in Happy Days.

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Which suggests Happy Days doesn’t exist in Barry’s world. Because who would pay for acting lessons from a guy who looked exactly like Old Fonzie? I wouldn’t even pay for acting lessons from Henry Winkler until I’d seen his work as Gene Cousineau on Barry. Welcome to what I call “pretzel brain”.