Even if the cops are in the same cartel's pocket (Reynosa/Matamoros would be Los Zetas, Nuevo Laredo is contested Gulf/Sinaloa territory), the concern was that publicity that would force the Mexican authorities to do something. I doubt the cops would be particularly eager to reveal they found a few gringo bodies in a…

Be careful how you phrase that complaint, or Yost will bring Winona back.

Jimmy is Harlan's most overqualified bartender/janitor. Not only can he singlehandedly take on two armed men, he's fluent in Spanish. I hope Boyd pays him well.

This whole thing has made me really crave a full network-sized season of Hart and Cohle solving cases of the week between '95 and '02, a la Homicide: Life on the Street. You just know the box scenes would be amazing.

Well fuck, that was Marty's boat? I totally missed that and was wondering why they held on the boat for so long. (If this were Sons of Anarchy, the boat would've exploded once it got into frame. Thank god this isn't Sons of Anarchy.)

It's the perfectly observed little details on this show that make it a masterpiece in my book. The clothes, the accents, the one-scene characters that somehow feel as well-observed as the leads even if they don't get much to do. You can almost taste that bayou air.

His spirit finally broke when he had to take a five-hour drive with this guy named "Crash" down in Texas.

Children of accredited foreign diplomats born in the US are not entitled to birthright citizenship. This wouldn't apply, obviously, to children of illegal spies.

I don't find it impossible to believe. It's difficult, yes, but my wife was 17 when I met her, had a very thick accent and problematic grammar, and now has not even a hint of foreignness to her speech — and she's far from the only immigrant I've met here who's pulled that off.

Wait, ORNL has one? I lived in the Tennessee Valley for years, and when I finally got my ORNL friends to get me in for a tour (this would've been 2002 or so), they didn't show me the mail robot. HFIR and its glowing Cerenkov pool, yes. SNS (then) under construction, sure. BUT I MISSED THE GODDAMN MAIL ROBOT.

As God is my witness, I thought Douay-Rheims-Challoner could fly.

Legally, yes, but they're constrained by advertisers. Standards and Practices departments for basic cable seem to apply an across-the-board united front of "no frontal nudity, no saying 'fuck'", which their bean-counters have apparently determined to be just prudish enough to avoid boycotts. (Breaking Bad got…

A lot of things that seem obvious to us now in hindsight weren't at all obvious back then. Claudia and Zhukov met at the battle of Stalingrad, remember. The creaking economy of the Chernenko days must've seemed like a minor speed bump to someone from that era.

I'm not sure how you'd work that in, though. They're the elite of the elite in the KGB. Even if they weren't working deep cover in the US, they'd be the last to feel the squeeze. The show has to walk a fine line so it doesn't turn into Life on Mars with all the winking references to future history.

Back when Zack reviewed "Sins of the Father", he pointed out how happy Picard was to have Kurn around to yell at the bridge crew constantly.

Section 31 hoards them all. By 2439, they've become Q.

For those who'd like to see Tuco dubbed into Vargas's scenes, I give you this wonderful recut.

I don't want to downvote you (particularly since you're right about my oversimplification), but I have a hard time buying what even the most moderate mujahideen were selling as "freedom".

You're correct that I oversimplified by saying "Taliban" instead of "what would become the Taliban". You're incorrect in implying that the mid-80s muj weren't funded and heavily influenced by Saudi Salafists who hooked up with the remnants of Deobandism to press their agenda.

I agree with about half of what you said. Freedom fighters can be noxious, terrorists can be in service of a noble cause. I don't even see terrorism as more inherently despicable than any other kind of war. America has a very long history of backing the wrong side (recent examples: al-Qaeda in Libya and Syria,…