Probably didn't help matters that Kurt Cobain was constantly & publicly passing judgment on which of them were "cool" and which weren't, like he was the Pope. What a pompous ass.

Sirens, Pendulum, Infallible, Getaway. Definitely a spotty album, but the highs were quite high.

Wow. Could not disagree more.

Eddie Vedder is one of the great American songwriters sir. Bite your tongue.

Great write-up, Sean. I was stunned to hear that he died, and just as stunned to learn that he took his own life. An absolute gut-punch. "I read the news today, oh boy", indeed.

Pearl Jam's last album was fantastic, in a low-key way. Eddie Vedder is a lving rock legend.

I agree. I would love to see Nikki take a scorched earth approach to Varga. Burn the whole thing down. Have Varga be identified post-mortem by his disgusting teeth.

I think Noah was simply commenting on her physical attractiveness as a component of her character. Not the defining component, but a component nonetheless. She is much more than the skin she's in.

What an odd way to view that scene. You clearly want to somehow make it sexist. But Nikki was treated the way a man would be treated in the same situation - she got the shit kicked out of her. The fact that she survived, showing her strength and toughness, is a feminist and pro-woman statement (in my eyes).

So she passed out from the pain of being beaten with a whip, hence the discontinuation of her screams. I can buy that. Much more palatable than listening to her have her beautiful head brutally caved in.

Oddly, Bolshevism/Communism was often viewed as a Jewish conspiracy to control the workers of the world. Hitler himself felt this way (ring the Godwin bell).

Cool. Thanks.

Wasn't the person buried alive in S2 a tertiary character though? This was a lead, a beloved lead, and a female lead. All those added to the awfulness of the situation.

How did you find out Hawley sang that version? Shazam came up blank four times for me.

As Kumagoro said upthread, the sound really led you to believe she'd be killed.

The stripper in the Sopranos scene was also pregnant, to add to the horridness.

I'll second that. A.R. was my favorite Boardwalk character, due completely to Stuhlbarg's work.

I guess that makes sense. I thought Sy was seeing blood, then brains.

Yes. The screams went on, and then they stopped, but the tire iron continued. I thought she had been beaten to hamburger.

She's wonderful. I also like that (thus far) they haven't made her truly out to swindle Ray. On one hand, she is pushing hard for Emmitt's money, and she did return Ray's "I love you" with "you're sweet" (ouch). On the other hand, she agreed to Ray's marriage proposal and appears to have genuine affection for him.…