Mecha Mummy

See, that's exactly what happened to me too. The first two or three or so times I tried to listen to that it just didn't work for me, and then something about when I listened to it last time made it seriously click for me and now I enjoy it on about the same level as the other two Ben Folds Five records. And I really don't know how or why it happened; I still get sort of bored with some of the stuff in the middle stretch but it opens and closes really strong and that's basically how I felt about their other two albums as well.

Dammit "Tears of a Clown" and "Cupid" not advancing. GROUP A "Respect" by Aretha Franklin vs "Sunshine Of Your Love" by Cream "The House Of The Rising Sun" by the Animals vs "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye GROUP B "Hey Jude" by The Beatles vs "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival -- honestly, I love The Beatles but I really really do not care for "Hey Jude." If a Fabs song wins this it should be "A Day in the Life," not this. "A Day in the Life" by The Beatles vs "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison GROUP C "Can't Help Falling In Love" by Elvis Presley vs "My Generation" by The Who "Purple Haze" by The Jimi Hendriz Expierence vs "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys GROUP D "Venus in Furs" by The Velvet Underground vs "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan "Gimme Shelter" by Rolling Stones vs "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong

Wow, I. I think I actually just marked for Dolph Ziggler during that match.

It didn't help that Wilmer Valderama after a certain point couldn't even do the accent anymore. I remember watching the series finale after thankfully missing the vast majority of season eight and being amazed at how incredibly hoarse he sounded.

Yeah, I had Mr. Pink in mind also. Ah, well.

Dammit dammit dammit. Great pick and also I hate you, I thought I could wait a round on Spike.

I liked Jackie (and like much of the point with her was that she was annoying anyway), but Jesus did Fez's schtick ever get old.

Nope.

Nobody expects Gosunkugi, TSM's Least Memorable Long-Time Poster! *DRAMATIC CHORD* My pick again, right? Zapp Brannigan "The key to victory is discipline, and that means a well made bed. You will practice until you can make your bed in your sleep." "You mean while I'm sleeping in it?" "You won't have time for sleeping, soldier, not with all the bed making you'll be doing."

-- thank fuck I read the rules for this in time, I thought I'd missed out. And I'll just reuse the picture I used in the TV draft, get more use out of it that way instead of having to upload a new one. Daria Morgendorffer

This draft is over, nobody is going to make a better first round pick than the Pumaman.

Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski

Not when the only thing Marlo cares about is his name, which no longer exists. Obviously of the two, Marlo got the better ending, but in the case of Marlo vs. Omar, Omar was still talked about and mythologized by people on the streets of Baltimore even after what should have been a humiliating death, while Marlo has all the money in the world and got to walk away from what should have put him in prison for a good long while, but the cost of it is that he's now completely out of his depth dealing with shit he clearly doesn't know the first thing about. When it comes to what actually matters to Marlo Stanfield, Omar Little won. I think it's kind of funny you make that point when there was that scene at the end of the episode where Omar doesn't even have the right name on the tag of his body bag. I think David Simon made his point about the worth of someone's 'name' in that world with that little metaphor. Definitely, and Beadie's speech in the same episode was pretty much more "it really doesn't matter how great you were once you're dead" evidence; if anything it was Omar's own legend that killed him since it seemed like Kenard's motivation for killing him was that the real Omar Little by that point in his life could never live up to the myth he'd become. I was just saying that in terms of what Marlo wanted, myopic as it may have been, he couldn't actually keep it.

Okay, that's really cool. I couldn't remember what the characterization of Andre 3000's character was back in that episode, just that he was a comic book store owner. And his performance in the Shield finale was really enjoyable, probably one of the times where I've enjoyed him most as an actor.

"Marlo is cut off from the source of his power, desperate to rescue his name. To me, the great irony is that Marlo ends up being granted what Stringer wanted -- and he has no use for it. To me, to a guy like Marlo Stanfield, hell is a business meeting with a bunch of developers. For Stringer, it was all he wanted." ~ David Simon on Marlo's ending. And honestly, I'm going to leave it at that since arguing about the finale of The Wire in a thread about The Shield is probably getting off track too much. If you want to take it to PMs or revive the thread about The Wire to continue it, be my guest, but I stand by my opinion and absolutely do not think I'm overthinking it, and would argue to the contrary in your case. But, whatever, I guess that's the point of a show as morally ambiguous as The Wire is that people can take different things from how it ended.

Not when the only thing Marlo cares about is his name, which no longer exists. Obviously of the two, Marlo got the better ending, but in the case of Marlo vs. Omar, Omar was still talked about and mythologized by people on the streets of Baltimore even after what should have been a humiliating death, while Marlo has all the money in the world and got to walk away from what should have put him in prison for a good long while, but the cost of it is that he's now completely out of his depth dealing with shit he clearly doesn't know the first thing about. When it comes to what actually matters to Marlo Stanfield, Omar Little won. So Marlo ducking prison, getting 10 million dollars, and killing all his enemies. Is a lost to you? Wow. When it's made clear that the only thing he actually cares about is his name, which he did lose? Yes. Marlo Stanfield lost; he looked like a lost child at the party with Levy and Krawczyk, for god's sake. I'm not saying that in the end, Omar came out better, because good god no, he didn't. Omar's arc in season five was basically a study in watching the man self-destruct because he just couldn't let Butchie's death go unanswered, and his death was cringeworthy in how pathetic it was that he went down via a gunshot he never saw coming from a prepubescent boy who was unimpressed with the actual man behind the legend. What I'm saying is that even in death, Omar has what Marlo craves and won't ever have again (unless he returns to the drug game, in which case he gets locked up for the rest of his life). Ergo, while Marlo outlived Omar, he didn't win, and the absolute shitfit he threw the moment he learned that Omar had been talking trash about him the whole time and nobody told Marlo in order to protect him was proof of that. EDIT: Though I will say that if you based it on Omar's actual quest for revenge, then he lost in grand fashion since he didn't even manage to kill a single person responsible for Butchie's death (since Savino was just collateral damage in Omar's plan to force Marlo's hand by striking at his ego). But from the perspective of what Marlo actually wants as a character, he really didn't beat Omar at all. Omar talked shit about Marlo, Marlo never heard about it because his own people didn't think he could handle it, and now he's stuck playing businessman which he clearly hates and nobody on the street cares about who he is/was anymore.

Not when the only thing Marlo cares about is his name, which no longer exists. Obviously of the two, Marlo got the better ending, but in the case of Marlo vs. Omar, Omar was still talked about and mythologized by people on the streets of Baltimore even after what should have been a humiliating death, while Marlo has all the money in the world and got to walk away from what should have put him in prison for a good long while, but the cost of it is that he's now completely out of his depth dealing with shit he clearly doesn't know the first thing about. When it comes to what actually matters to Marlo Stanfield, Omar Little won.

No, he didn't.

The highlight of that episode for me was... well, okay, either the Gravitron fight sequence because holy shit that was great, or Big Mike absolutely mowing Leader down, wow. Plus, the scene with him frolicking to the lake in his fishing gear was pure gold, this episode marks the best use of Big Mike in the series by far thusfar (which compliments Anna Wu suddenly getting a glorious moment of being a character beyond "Morgan's girlfriend" earlier this season when she beat the sports store guy up with a tripod).

... George C. Scott, son of a bitch, how did I not think of him.

Honestly, Vic and Marlo are the only ones in in the first three who have real parallels. Chris fell down on his sword for Marlo intentionally, whereas Vic screwed Ronnie, and Shane and Snoop's endings are nothing alike beyond both of them dying. Now, Aceveda and Carcetti, that's a fair parallel for sure. That's actually why I figured Aceveda would get out scot-free and probably become mayor.

Works for me.

I didn't see that look on his face at all. If anything, he had a look of pure, unbridled disgust for Vic and fuck it, he had every right to have that look on his face.

Yeah, that was basically what I was getting at. Lem is the only Strike Team member that Vic didn't outright destroy; he betrayed Ronnie for what turned out to be absolutely nothing (and not only that, but had he waited it out they would have been in the clear anyway) and Shane's suicide note exists solely to say that the reason he became the person he was was because of Vic. I figured that the point of the photograph was to say that Lem is the only core member of the Strike Team that Vic can still look back on in any fond light. And yeah, I wish Dutch had gotten a little more than he did since he was always my favorite character and I was hoping for a scene like the one in Dragonchasers where he completely obliterated the serial killer he was interrogating, but ultimately the finale was more about the remnants of the Strike Team and Claudette than anyone else, though everyone had their moments. EDIT: Also, I thought it was interesting in a odd sort of way that they cast Andre 3000 again. For a moment I was wondering if he was playing the same character he was the first time he was on the show, but that clearly wasn't the case (and besides, it was so long ago and such a minor part that only diehards would really notice anyway).

I can't wait for Michael Chilkis and Walton Goggins to not get the Emmys they deserve for this season. And I love that the only member of the Strike Team whose picture Vic brought with him was Lem's.