Kel Varnsen

That was crazy how much I enjoyed that. Even though all of the loom/time shifting stuff made no sense and was kind of dumb, Hiddleston was just so good. It's crazy to think how this version of Loki (at least before the centuries it took OB to teach him) wasn't that far removed from trying to take over earth. So it took him a lot less time to figure out not to be an asshole compared to Original Loki. And he played it so well. It was also interesting that Loki was using time travel inside the TVA to try to fix things since I was previously wondering why they didn't or couldn't do that. Also considering the ending I like how in there titles, on of the fonts for the letter "O" has lines through it that kind of look like a hand holding a rope or time thread.

That latest corrections was amazing. The whole Christmas Carol for Jackals (or Jack's) was hilarious. I laughed so much I was almost in tears.

I am feeling the same way. It is hard to care about the loom and the TVA since everything that OB says about it is such over the top crazy sci Fi that it starts to become meaningless. Just give me more Loki and Morbius. I did like OB's Back to the Future shout out though with him complaining about how crude his model was. The variant thing doesn't make much sense to me either. Like Sylvie was a variant as soon as she was born, and the TVA exists outside of time, so why did they decide to wait to deal with her. Loki pruning himself was weird. And if you can time travel within the TVA why can't Loki and Morbius just do that to fix their problems?

I feel like the super genius kid is a bit played out. I could actually see Reed Richards being an academic type. It would make a nice contrast to Tony who was a genius but also rich so he could do whatever he wanted. A guy who was a super genius but not rich might want to rely on doing research at a university to get funding. The other issue with having so many properties and stories on the go is fans can potentially have to wait a really long time for pay offs on some plotlines. Shang Chi came out in 2021 and if someone was a big fan of it and wants to know the mystery of the rings it looks like they might have to wait until 2027 or later. It was only 2 years between Iron Man and Iron Man 2. I don't think you can expect people to wait that long to finish a story and not lose fans. And that's just one example of a bunch of unfinished stories that are kind of up in the air. Or they could have not done Eternals at all. I mean it wasn't terrible, but it didn't seem super necessary. And all the open ended plot threads in that movie sort of go with what I said above about not getting a payoff.

I think an older Reed Richards could work. He is supposed to be the smartest man in the world a guy with multiple Ph.D's. Having that guy be like 30 would be kind of dumb to me. I always hate it on movies/TV where the world's most accomplished doctor or something is like a guy who is like 28. Plus Jack Kirby drew Reed Richards as a guy whose hair was going grey. It can also work story wise I think. Reed being the guy who continues to develop crazy inventions with the rocket to wherever being what he was working towards for all those years of research and development.

I don't know with the number of articles I have read about how it needs to be released and how it is a travesty that it isn't (even though movies get shelved all the time)it seems like people think it is going to be really good.

It would actually be kind of funny if some director came forward and said they liked working on movies that never get released. Because they still get paid, and with how much of movie fan culture is just complaining about everything they never have to worry about over the top complaints and nitpicking(or harassment depending on the property in the movie). Like right now people seem to think that Batgirl is the best super hero movie ever. But just based on WB's track record with DC characters, it probably isn't.

I didn't get that either. TVA Brad becoming a famous guy seems like enough of a change that he should no longer be on the sacred timeline. I like this show but trying to wrap my head around all the timeline stuff is annoying. Because if the TVA exists outside of the timestream then shouldn't they only have to prune the branches once? Because they are able to see everything that has happened, is happening and will happen at the same time. It would be like being able to look at an entire reel of film all at once (or in this case many). The end of the movie won't surprise you since you see it at the same time as you see the beginning instead of one frame at a time.

That was how I understood it. But I don't get how that would be better than Paul selling off the whole company. Because the Disney/Fox merger taught me that one company can't own two broadcast networks in the US (which is why The Fox network wasn't part of the deal). So UBA and NBN become one networks, keep all the real successful shows and people and fire everyone else. And since there are only a limited number of hours in a day for network TV that is a lot of fired people. Would he have just seen it? Was Marks just doing surveillance on Bradley. Because while Homeland was not a great show, one thing it did do well was show how hard surveillance of people really is. And if Marks was tapping the phones of a bunch of people that would take a ton of time. I imagine Hal's only possible defense is no actual defense, just pleading guilty and hoping for some kind of leniency in exchange for that. Maybe giving up the guys who brought him to Washington in exchange for a lighter sentence.

That episode was some high quality comedy. Between the Laura/Bradley break up with Laura threatening to lose her shit, Cybill threatening Cory with salon intelligence and then his temper tantrum and then Bradley's ridiculous news cast I was laughing my ass off. And now I just want to know who took over the evening news after Bradley walked off mid broadcast. Because even if the thing with her brother didn't kill her reputation then walking off like that surely would have. I also want to know what exactly Alex's plan is for her own news business. Are we talking like some kind of YouTube/website thing like vox. I have to imagine that a start up like that couldn't possibly pay her enough to maintain her current lifestyle, at least without a ton of money from an investor like Paul. And if that is the case is she any more independent than she is at UBA?

I would have loved to see the kind of work trouble he would have gotten in after that event or some kind of investigation. What would his excuse be: "I would never sleep with a med student, only other doctors, nurses, patients parents, maybe patients. And wait was Abby a med student when we first got together?". Because that whole thing should have been the first of many reasons why he shouldn't have been boss of the ER.

I didn't really mind it either. It was still a way above average Thor movie. There were some dumb story elements but I think that Ragnarok set the bar so high it would have been really hard to match it. My other MCU unpopular opinion is that they probably chose the worst option for Black Panther 2. I am not sure how much of the story would have changed if Chadwick had lived but I think recasting or just not making it (and having the characters show up in other movies) or give Shuri a series where she deals with being the BP (but didn't have pointless fighting with Namor) would have been way better.

As much as I do enjoy Iron Man 3 you are probably right. Although l do feel that a few other series could have been contenders. The Black Panther movies if Chadwick Boseman hadn't died (or had a secret actor twin brother) or the Ant Man movies if they hadn't done such a big deviation from the formula of the first two movies (and ended up with a CG mess).

But just generally in a negotiation taking less money in the future gives you more ability to bargain for more money now. If I leave my job that has a pension for one that doesn't, I would expect my salary to increase to make up for that. Haven't stories about actors getting tiny residual cheques been around forever though? There is a Seinfeld episode where Jerry has a bunch of less than a dollar cheques for him to sign. And I remember years ago watching the DVD commentary for I think Mallrats and Kevin Smith pointing out his buddies who he gave a few lines, and every time that movie plays on cable they get a cheque for a small amount of money. And considering that most shows, if they are lucky enough to make it past the pilot, don't become any kind of noteworthy hit it seems like the odds of getting any kind of residual are pretty tiny. And if that is the case, if it was me, I would rather have more money upfront than taking a chance on getting a tiny amount of money down the road or an astronomically small chance of my show being the next Office and maybe making a whole lot of money.

Fighting over residuals seems so backwards to me since paying residuals totally benefits the studio/network since it just defers risk. Since it basically says, "instead of paying you a bunch of money from the start, we will pay you less money, but in the unlikely event that your show becomes a big hit we will then give you a lot of money years from now". Sure if you are David Schwimmer that deal worked out pretty well. But most shows aren't Friends, so if it was me I would way rather have more money up front knowing that in all likelihood my show won't be a hit. Especially for actors who have small roles, just give me more money now rather than the stories you hear about actors getting residual cheques for 17 cents for something they were in 10 years earlier. Taking less money up front on the chance you might be in something big is like getting paid in lottery tickets.

That scene was really set up in a weird way. I really thought it was going to end with with Chris getting shot or something. That was kind of weird. Like Chris was an Olympic class runner right? Do we know how long ago her Olympic career ended? Because while I get that she isn't at the same level she once was, even a former runner who competed at the Olympics should probably be better than just about any random person they might meet. Also with Chip getting fired how does that work? Does he still work for UBA but not for Alex, or does she have the authority to completely terminate his employment?

Although it is kind of funny to think of how gigantic the truckload of money they would need to be in order to RDJ to come back as Iron Man (or to get Scarlett Johansson back).

It is interesting. She seems talented but at the same time her MCU actress peers have been getting a lot more recognition for their outside marvel work than she has. Brie Larson has an Oscar, and Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh both have Oscar nominations. Even Zendaya has 2 Emmys. And Olsen is 34 so she probably realizes it won't be that much longer before she starts getting offered roles playing the mom to an actor in their 20's playing a teen. Yea the fact that there wasn't as much stuff meant there was time for anticipation to build. Like Iron Man and Hulk came out in 2008, then it was 2 years before the next MCU movie came out, Iron Man 2. I mean it wasn't a good movie. But it also made a ton of cash, and I have to think a lot of that was the crazy amount of build up there must have been after Iron Man.

So is this like a Dukes of Hazzard scenario where if the deputies are chasing you to get you to pull over all you have to do is drive into the next country and they can't touch you? We used to watch Blue Bloods and Tom Selleck's character was the worst for this. He was supposed to be the NYPD commissioner, but he was personally involved in so many cases that easily would have made national or international news that it was crazy. Especially since in many of those cases he saved the day. The fact that he wasn't constantly getting pressurered to run for governor or president (from both parties) was crazy. At the very least he would be on CNN and other news outlets all the time.

Are there those articles (and if so is it just her being diplomatic)? If you google "Elizabeth Olsen Scarlet Witch" the first link is an ew story about how she doesn't miss playing the character, the second is her wikipedia page and the third is a story about how she is tired of just being known as that character. Even if it was the greatest super hero character ever, she is 34 and the reality of Hollywood is that there is a limited number of years for her to make a name for herself as a leading role actress.

I wonder how much of that death is because Elizabeth Olsen doesn't really seem to be interested in playing Wanda anymore.

I watched that one last night and it wasn't great but it was probably pretty good for 1980. The transgender character was presented as a real person who explains basically that this is how she was born and seems comfortable with her life; instead of being presented as some kind of crazy person who is doing something wrong with her life. The only weird part was her attraction to Herb. A lot of that was played for laughs and the laugh track was going strong, but I still think for 1980 that was probably pretty good. Especially since like you said a lot of the comedy was Herb's reaction and Herb is always a jackass. I bet 20 years later that still would have been good as far as presentation of a trans character.

I can see it being a bit of both. Like they aren't given any education on consent or inappropriate touching or anything like that. And then teaching about temptation probably goes down something like that scene from the Barbie movie: Teacher: You can't wear revealing clothing because it might tempt boys and men. Kid: tempt them to do what? T: we can't tell you, you will find out on your wedding night. Before then you will just have to figure it out. On top of that you have a system where any male with any kind of authority is literally the boss of them and it becomes a huge awful mess.

That part never really bothered me. I mean sure when babies are awake they require a lot of attention, but they also sleep a lot. So if a sitcom is basically covers 20 minutes out of a whole week, not seeing a baby in every episode isn't that surprising.

My read was that he is the king and since they are doing the ritual combat challenge thing I don't think it is temporary. Although she is still the Black Panther so she probably won't be taking too much me-time.