Welcome to the 202nd edition of the Big Blue Report!

Have you noticed on the internet, in comment boards and forums, that it's okay to praise something without citation, but if you criticize something people demand you explain yourself?

In the Superman world that is just as true as it is for any other topic. Fans openly priase "Smallville" with comments like, "Season 9 is the best season so far!" or "I love Smallville" and nobody bats an eyelid. They just accept that person's opinion without question.

However if you write something like, "Season 9 is the worst season so far!" or "I hate Smallville", you're likely to get a handful of people jumping down your throat, wanting to know how you can dare say that or why you think such a thing.

You'll note the comments I've used as examples are identical except for that fact that one is positive and one is negative.

Now let's be honest, you can't love absolutely everything about anything. Nothing in life ever fully lives up to our expectations. Whether it be a book we're reading, dinner we're eating, a person in our life, a pet, a music CD, a TV series or a movie. Whatever it may be, no matter how much you love it, it's never 100% perfect.

So when someone says, "I love Smallville", I highly doubt that they love everything about it. By the same measure, if someone says, "I hate Smallville", I also doubt that they hate everything about it. There's likely to be some aspects of it they like or at least don't dislike. It may be an actor, the setting, the music, etc... It stands to reason that there's some part of the TV show that they don't hate.

What's my point? I don't know that I really have one, except to point out that as human beings we tend to exagerate our opinions when putting them across to people. Just because someone says, "I hate this" or "I love this" doesn't mean they hate/love everything about it.

So the next time you see someone make the comment, "I hate Smallville", don't automatically presume to reply with the knee-jerk "If you hate it then stop watching it" repsonse. You can still be a Superman fan and not like "Smallville". Just like you can still be a Superman fan and not like "Superman Returns" or "Superman IV".

You don't have to love everything about Superman that was ever made to call yourself a Superman fan.

Regards,
Steve Younis

I've never meet Steve in person, I am not a 'reaaallly' big fan of Superman or Smallville either but I just like what he's trying to say in this newsletter edition about 'hate' and/or 'love' something.

I wonder what makes him wrote these but he's putting the words that sounds well in my ear. yeah :)