Hubbs

No idea what Beal was thinking with that shot while running at full speed. Something's seriously not right with him.

Thank God we're finally just backing Thomas up in the post over and over again. That should be Plan A for damn near every possession when he's on the floor.

That Cinco de Mayo story near the top of the page is absolutely ridiculous. Since when is it "offensive" to celebrate a holiday in particular culture by doing things associated with that culture? Should we stop wearing green on St. Patrick's Day as well? Stop eating sausages and drinking German beers at Oktoberfest events? If I were Mexican, I would have had the same reaction as those students who responded to the letter.

Yeah, but her story was what vaulted the show from "really good" to "best on television" in my mind, although I think you'd more or less have to watch every episode to really understand why. It's worth it if you've got the time/money, though, at least I would assume it is for anyone who's already enjoyed the show. Smith and Moffat both really buy into the "kid's show" angle, but they do it in the style of most Pixar movies—the stuff for kids is woven together with concepts and jokes for adults. This has been really highlighted in the Christmas specials.

Yes, I should probably have mentioned that there's a big divide in the Who fan community between the Tennant lovers and the Smith lovers (and also the lovers of one of the older Doctors), but I think part of that might be because many of the Tennant lovers haven't paid as much attention to the Smith episodes (and justifiably so, because they loved Tennant so much and hated to see him go). As someone who's watched enough of both to understand why the Tennant folks loved him so much, I think I can safely say that if you give Smith and Moffat enough of a chance, they'll drop a nuclear bomb of awesome on your brain. The massive story arcs that are spread over entire seasons (the Brits call seasons "series" by the way, which can make it a little confusing to see things like "series premiere" or "series finale" when you know the show's gonna keep going) and even multiple seasons are just incredible. I know that was done with Tennant too, but I just happen to think that it works even better with the Smith/Moffat combo, partially due to the larger budget I mentioned in the last post and partially due to the fact that I think they've really managed to do something that I previously thought was pretty much impossible, which is creating something that can draw everyone in for different reasons, especially the most important combination of people, which is those of different generations. (By the way, I don't want to write out any spoilers, but for you Tennant folks, Moffat is the same guy who wrote the "blink and you're dead" episode, so that might give you a small indication of his talents.)

My second recommendation for this thread: the British television show Doctor Who. You have to be introduced to it a certain way, but as long as that happens, you're probably going to love it more than damn near any other show you've ever watched. It's officially taken over my personal award for Favorite Show Ever. Anyway, about that whole "introduced to it a certain way" thing, here are the things you should know if you want to start watching it: 1. Understand that because this is a show that's been running in a sort of "on-again, off-again" style for 50 freakin' years, there will be plenty of little things that won't make any sense to you when you first encounter them ("Why do people speak modern English when the Doctor time travels to the 15th century in Italy?" "Why doesn't he just use that time traveling thing to correct every bad thing that's ever happened to him?"), but trust me, there is an explanation, it's just that the explanations might take you a while to discover, and that's just going to be part of how you experience the show. 2. The humor is very British. If you don't know what that means, start watching more British television, dumbass. You'll thank me later. 3. If you pick any random episode to start watching Who, you might be so confused that you'll write the whole thing off because so many things aren't explained. (This has happened to at least one of my friends who otherwise loves British TV.) So I would suggest that you start with an episode called The Eleventh Hour, then follow that up with an episode called A Christmas Carol, even though those episodes weren't aired in chronological order. The first is to start you down the path that was created when current lead writer Steven Moffat took over the show, which coincides with an obvious expansion of the budget for the show. Before that moment, DW was significantly more campy and cheesy, at least in my opinion (and in the online opinions of quite a few others). That doesn't mean that it was bad (I've watched quite a few of the earlier episodes myself), it just means it wasn't as good as it's been since Moffat and Matt Smith took over. Who's Matt Smith? He's the latest Doctor, because a show that's been running for 50 years needs a lot of them. Yes, this is explained within the ongoing plot of the show. Think James Bond (which, coincidentally, enjoyed its 50th anniversary last year), but with a plot device that explains why Bond isn't always the same person. No, I'm not going to explain it for you. The reason I recommend that you watch A Christmas Carol second is because Who has a tradition of doing special episodes that air on Christmas Day that are intended for a wider audience than its normal viewers, and so once you're introduced to some of the basics of the show by watching a character named Amy be introduced to those same basics for the first time in The Eleventh Hour, the next thing you should do is be introduced to some of the best ways DW makes use of its own plot devices, which is what watching A Christmas Carol will accomplish. (The Christmas specials have been widely regarded as some of the Who team's best work, especially since Moffat and Smith took over.) 4. Don't use Google very much to figure things out about a particular episode until after you've watched said episode, because too much of it is all intertwined, and therefore you're causing your own spoilers. (I say "very much" because if something is so confusing that you're not enjoying the show, that's probably something you should try to figure out, even if it results in the occasional spoiler. That's the only time I'd suggest it, though.) 5. Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. You'll eventually understand why I'm saying this.

I dunno, man. I realize that even the boy who cried wolf eventually ran into a wolf, but... this is the country with the single longest record of crying wolf in modern history. Somebody's done his homework. One Internet Cookie for you, sir. By the way, there are also some bigwigs in China who haven't exactly made it difficult to figure out that they value the large amount of trade that China does with South Korea way more than the supposed ideological brotherhood (which doesn't really even exist anymore) that the Chinese government shares with North Korea's. Also, trade in the entire region would be massively disrupted if another war broke out. And on top of that, if China tried to help NK in any way, it would probably instantly lose many of the trade partnerships it's developed with every other major economy, with the possible exception of Russia. In other words, everyone (other than the people of North Korea, unfortunately) has a rather long list of reasons to maintain the status quo.

Another big-time Falling Skies fan here. You know how the Walking Dead takes a concept usually reserved for movies, a zombie apocalypse, and translates it into the format of an ongoing television show, only for people to suddenly realize that this might be how we should have been telling stories about zombies the whole time? Falling Skies is like that, except with an alien invasion instead of zombies. The problem with making alien invasion movies is that they have to be resolved within a maximum of three hours (not within the movie of course, but the real-life time limit still restricts how much plot can be crammed into time within the movie). Falling Skies solves that problem by being a TV show (obviously), and because it's a TV show, the first premise of the invasion is the only one that actually makes any sense—they came, they saw, they kicked our ass. Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum won't be saving the day with the Roswell UFO and a computer virus. The aliens won't be saving the day for us with their own stupidity by invading a planet full of water when water makes them melt. The aliens also didn't forget that entering the ecosystem of an entirely new planet will probably expose them to viruses and bacteria that will make them sick. They just won. They took over. But they either can't or don't want to wipe us out completely, probably because doing so would require completely ruining the planet for themselves as well. So now, the remaining pockets of humanity are trying to survive the occupation of Earth while putting up enough of a guerrilla resistance movement that the aliens might eventually decide that we're too much of a pain in the ass to deal with, and leave because staying here just isn't worth it anymore. (The analogy used in the show is actually the American Revolution: We won, but it's not because we amassed a military that could even hold a candle to the full might of the British Army and Navy. We just managed to be such an enormous thorn in their side that they eventually didn't want to lose any more blood and treasure for the sake of maintaining control of what was then just a moderate portion of their whole empire.) Oh, and elk's right about the seasons. In the first one, the writers tried to make the show all things to all people, so to get to the good stuff, you often had to sit through scenes of terrible teen drama, or "aw, shucks" family moments, or the most forced and unnatural religious scenes I've ever seen on television in my life. It's obvious that they responded to the criticism, though, because in the second season, they realized that the best thing they could do was say, "**** it, we're gonna stop trying to please everyone and focus on pleasing the people who want this to be a show about a guerrilla war against ****ing aliens." It's hard to describe how much it improved, and it made the bad moments of the first season so, so worth it.

Is it possible to re-activate the original thread with this board software?

I'm officially rooting for total disaster. Like, a worst record in the history of the league kind of total disaster. Might as well. It'll be more fun to talk about than getting to win #12 at the end of the season, or whatever else we might do. Maybe it'll be a catalyst for closing the book on the whole Wizards chapter of the franchise, and finally changing the name back to the Bullets. Wow. That's gotta be pushing some other records. What's the biggest lead any team has ever had in a game?

Sweet Jesus (ironic use of the phrase if there ever was one), he thinks network comedy is bad? That's pretty much the safest stuff out there.

I think Mubarak's powers were "temporary" as well. For about four decades.

My guess is that when the NK collapse finally comes, nobody will see it coming. It'll probably take the form of an attempted coup that, "successful" or not, effectively splits the military into factions that prevent each other from gaining complete control. Everything will fall apart quickly from there. (Yes, I know that plenty of people have been making that prediction for years. I'm not claiming to be original here. I just agree with the line of reasoning that leads to that expectation.)

I believe the Soviet Union enacted the exact same reform in its final years....