Featherhat

I do assume MJ is Mary Jane but they way they talked about it in 2017 is still a bit of cop out and equivocating, leaving a character that has been fairly well received to be the subject of a lot of unpleasant bickering in various places where neither side is satisfied. They've changed a lot of other characters' personality and ethnicity without a name change as well. I don't think they will at this point but apart from anything else I think they'd get into trouble if they now introduced a red head with a more traditional MJ personality and if necessary they'd use a different character for a different love interest. With MJ as a name, well a lot of other comic book names are slightly strange if thought of in a different context and "Ned" isn't a particularly common nickname these days, nor is Betty. Also looking at a list of baby names will convince you some parents will name their kid anything.

Yeah I was thinking of Tony/Pepper who are much more OTP than in the comics (and she has never been interested in Happy on screen) or Steve/Peggy even pre Endgame was given much more weight, certainly more weight than Sharon ever was. Lady Sif never got a look in from Thor even though Jane wasn't even in Ragnarok, Betty completely vanished etc. Not to mention those that were nowhere to be seen at all like BuckyNat. And well one look at the Arrow forum shows exactly what I think about that GA/BC potential relationship. I do understand why people want the traditional love interests, I've got frustrated with it in other adaptations but I do end up caring more about the story on screen and the actors together than anything else so I'm fine with Peter/Michelle and not waiting for the proverbial Shailene Woodley as MJ appearance just because. And as I said, I think they should have either bitten the bullet and made Zendaya actual MJ or given her another name and said "this is what we're doing right now" and not tried to get cute with it.

As you said there a lot of characters in the MCU and superhero adaptations in general that don't act like their comic counter parts. Including because they want to "re interpret the character". Even if she definitely was MJW they possibly would have kept a lot of what we saw on screen. I really enjoyed Zendaya's chemistry with Tom Holland and I thought the character herself was good, she manages to pull off some of the lines that could be annoying with a different actor as well. I know this is controversial but personally I don't necessarily have a problem with going with a non canon love interest or changing things about a certain character if the actors themselves zing together and apart. Characters like Pepper and Peggy aren't necessarily the one true loves of Tony and Steve the way they are in the MCU either. I think the Michelle Jones/MJ thing really annoyed people on both sides of the argument. She's not *really* Mary Jane Watson but she's the MCU version, it's kind of a cop out. It means she could be Peter's OTP or she could leave to make way for the *real* one which gives everyone extra reason to bicker over her. I don't really see another love interest coming in unless TH signs for more films and Zendaya doesn't. Though in that case they're more likely to bring in someone completely different Black Cat for him.

Great article, it pretty much encapsulates everything I love about this series, including the way it told the story of John Crichton and also of John/Aeryn who remain my favourite ever pairing on TV. I imagine their have been discussions about the possibility of rebooting it, as well as the webisodes BB used to talk about, but I wouldn't want a redo without the original cast (and the writers) because that's a large part of what made it so amazing. I wouldn't mind some sort of "in the same universe as..." with the Henson company etc. But you circle back to the problem of it being a relatively obscure show anyway. And whilst there is certainly scope it's not necessarily as easy as say Stargate where you can theoretically fairly easily introduce another location or team if you want to reboot the show. I've said this before but I'll say it again because the article mentions it. The ending of season 4 is a throw things at the screen moment but it's also such a Farscape moment that if it had been the end I would have had to agree it was perfectly the show, unlike so many others which pull nonsense at the last minute.

It was definitely a terrible case of tell not show. I can't figure out why they did that narratively speaking, especially when they have the built in flashback structure to show them actually being a good couple or at least having fun together. But they didn't introduce Laurel into the FBs until 1B by which time they were probably planning on dismantling the pairing and the scenes were deliberately terrible - Oliver visibly wanting to do anything but move in and telling Sara to circle the block which Laurel gave him the POD. Those scenes don't happen by accident. They didn't even have a scene of Laurel telling Oliver she knows he's better than partying and dropping out of school or whatever and that should have been a no-brainer for "I know you in my bones" proof. I can fanwank why Moira liked Laurel but we never saw it, Helena had her own issues with True Love but there's no reason for Tommy to think they're "always and forever" when he was Oliver's cheating wing man, unless he saw them always getting back together after a break up and his own insecurities. Even Sara doesn't make sense saying that when she knew he was a serial cheat, even if she's disregarding herself. All this is one reason I think they were half hearted on the relationship right away because there were potential narrative "fixes" if they wanted. But they continued on tell not show even though the relationship badly needed exploring (if they wanted it to work anyway) because you can't have a guy sleep with someone's sister and rely on the audience going "oh yeah epic soul mate journey back to each other" with nothing else there apart from all the other characters and they themselves acting like it's inevitable. The only thing that makes sense is if they looked at the lack of chemistry and the reviews and immediately noped. Although I suppose this isn't the only time they thought they were writing something completely different.

So there is currently some drama in the MCU general fandom because Tatiana Maslany says she's not playing She-Hulk but everything else points to it, including a tweet from Mark Ruffalo welcoming her to the family. It seems to be a potential Paul Rudd denial situation until Marvel feels like confirming it. https://www.spoilertv.com/2020/09/she-hulk-tatiana-maslany-lands-title.html

It's true they can't do Francesca let alone Hyacinth or Gregory and not Eloise because she's supposed to be (good heavens!) late 20s. But I thought the title "Diamond of the First Water" possibly related to Antony wanting to marry Edwina who was "the diamond" that year. However I can't find either Kate or Edwina in any of the cast lists. It could be related to Daphne thinking she should be but isn't. It seems like they'll be adding in a lot of characters and expanding on various plot points to get this to eight episodes for a fairly short book. Sir Phillip Crane is listed as appearing, though he was obviously connected to the family before his book.

I like the look of the Featheringtons, you could tell it was them even if you didn't know who was playing them. I enjoy Polly Walker so it will be good to see her again. She can play ambitious matriarch in her sleep. Also looking forward to seeing what Adjoa Andoah does as Lady Danbury. I thought perhaps Simon looked a bit too suave and confident but then I remembered that's the point. To the outside world he's every inch the perfect Duke. He and Antony in that club look perfect. It will be interesting to see Daphne in action, I can't tell much from the pics. It seems a simple part but the "pretty, romantic but sensible everywoman" can be tricky. Not to mention some of the more controversial things. I badly need some fluffy, funny, well written "Regency lite" nonsense right now.

It seems you're right. I made some assumptions based on the titles I could see fitting to the eight books. The First look photos do have Hyacinth and Gregory as children. It premieres 25th December. https://www.spoilertv.com/2020/10/bridgerton-season-1-episode-titles.html

Well there'd finally some movement on this. The titles of the first season are: Episode 1.01 - Diamond of the First Water Episode 1.02 - Shock and Delight Episode 1.03 - Art of the Swoon Episode 1.04 - An Affair of Honor Episode 1.05 - The Duke and I Episode 1.06 - Swish Episode 1.07 - TBA Episode 1.08 - After the Rain https://www.spoilertv.com/2020/10/bridgerton-season-1-episode-titles.html From that it seems they're doing each of the sibling's books as the main plot of one episode but not in order and starting off with "The Viscount who Loved Me". Photos and trailer should be dropping tomorrow and hopefully a release date.

Killed for the ship gives them a side to blame and a "legitimate" reason to hate Olicity "see they killed one of the best comic book heroines for a stupid romance!" It's all stupid fangirl shippers with their tumblrs fault. Girls ruin everything. I've had people who have never watched a second of Arrow parrot this to me as well. Of course all the "Diaz should kill Felicity because it makes total sense for the story" or "Slade still has to keep his promise!" is completely different see. It would mean great growth for Oliver, no that wouldn't be text book fridging at all. 🙄 Seriously some people really don't get that the point of villains is to be defeated before they can kill everyone. It's easier than having to admit that the writers hadn't known what to do with the character since she was dropped from the LI role and nearly lost the BC role to Sara full time. Or even worse that they were starting to write away from the Lauriver relationship in S1. That she was never really Dinah Lance from the comics. Olicity had broken up before she died and didn't get back together until a full season after her death. That Felicity told Laurel she loved her but Oliver literally said "why are you telling me this?" to her confession. In 5A there was barely any Olicity. But seriously I have no idea why Laurel is supposed to have been such a threat? I know Because Comics assumed that and many Olicity fans were paranoid about it but it's clear from the actual writing of 3+ that they had no intention of it and becoming friends again was part of tying up loose ends. And then they had E2 become best friend with Felicity. Ignoring some of the issues with the pacing etc she had more chemistry with EBR than the black hole of anti-chemistry with SA. On another note, I find discussions about Oliver apparently never speaking to women in later seasons gets paired with this "Laurel was killed for Olicity" argument. Apparently the writers are so scared of Olicity fans that they didn't let him even form a friendship with Dinah. And most of all never let him go anywhere near Black Siren. Those are the only two women who matter. The fact that he had an entire relationship with Susan which definitely wasn't meant to please Olicity fans seems to be ignored. Or the fact that WH left the show, there were no FB girlfriends and Oliver did in fact spend a lot of 6&7 with Watson, Dinah, Jean Loring, Pollard, Nyssa, Emiko etc but apart from Emiko they weren't emotional connections. And that almost everyone recurring female character between 20-35 did sleep with Oliver in S1&2 and that's WHY they were introduced. Once he was married there was no reason to have him mean beautiful young women and have emotional conversations with them so they could all take their clothes off. And even then they writers still played around with the gross evil Nazi pairing.

I completely agree. He's dealing with a lot and it's entirely unsurprising he'd just rather focus on his normal life and also the "friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man" things that he can deal with. I really liked that he and May were using his profile to raise money for the homeless of the neighbourhood. That he's trying not to be a 17 year old who's having to focus on the safety of the entire world. People were seeing him as a superhero/symbol and not as an actual person, and projecting their need to feel safe onto him. It was just jarring to have "Fury" going "we need you to help save Prague" and Peter going "no can do!" Even though as I said, giving him the literal keys to the kingdom was wrong as well. I think I was also getting Smallville flashbacks and that didn't help. Overall I really enjoyed the movie, I especially liked the supporting cast of friends and teachers this time around and the hilarious "in Memoriam" of stock photos complete with Getty Images over the candles Happy and May both deserve some romance after all they've been through but it definitely finished on an awkward note. Yeah I don't think he's going to be the villain, or at least main villain but it's still a little strange of all the choices that he's in it. Unless he was just the one that said yes. I was kind of thinking maybe Tony/Happy levels for Strange, that could be done with tight scheduling, but I really have no idea.

Jamie Foxx? Even assuming this is a live action Into the Spider-Verse thing why? He's a good actor and the character was theoretically interesting but they mangled him pretty hard. I wonder if it's an attempt to do a bigger version of what Legends of Tomorrow did with a few villains, rehab them in a different story and/or let them in on the "joke" because the actor is good? Amazing Spider-Man was the time I really had a massive "OMG, what the frak! Why are they rebooting this already!" (By the MCU announcement I had given up being outraged.) And that colours a lot of my viewing of the movies. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were the best things about them. I never understood why they needed to kill her off, even with Because Comics. I do find it interesting that Marvel has made it less beholden to the comics but that's possibly because he was introduced as a supporting character/special cameo in Civil War so they had to work everything around that. And of course beloved Golden Goose Tony for obvious reasons. I was rewatching Far From Home over the weekend for the first time and I'm still iffy on making Peter Tony's heir. They did have a lovely, albeit quite brief mentor bond but I wasn't a fan of the whole world, including Skrull!Fury, Happy and Tony himself making 17 year old Peter the next head of the Avengers complete with full control over Project Insight. I know a lot of the big guns died, left Earth or are unreliable but still. Conversely I was also frustrated at the "I don't want to be the next Iron Man I just want to go on my (disastrous) trip to Europe and confess my love!" Even when buildings were literally crumbling around him. I feel it would make more sense from an outside perspective if they had Tom Holland and Sony tied into another 6 movie contract to be seen as the Next Big Avenger, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

This is quite amusing: I theoretically get honouring Laurel in this tweet on the anniversary of S1 but it's hilarious that the "leading lady" isn't even the same character as she was 8 years ago. The pic they used is what they wish happened with E1 GA/BC not what actually did happen on screen. By the time it was a shared universe she wasn't a leading lady anymore.

I'm actually looking forward to the 2nd season. I did a rewatch of the first season in lockdown and whilst it did get very silly in places and cut out a lot of the titbits from the book I most liked, I enjoyed it for what it was. I will be really interested to see how they handle the several parallel stories and timelines taking place. I'm also looking forward to seeing what James Purfoy does as Phillipe, that should be interesting and also Gallowglass and Phoebe.

Oops. I wonder how many people voted this year given Arrow being off the air and everything that's going on? Huge amount of enthusiasm going on in the likes and retweets. /sarcasm. Although none of these are in the slightest bit surprising I *am* a little surprised Laurel doesn't do better at least in the percentages for some crazy reason.

Kat McNamara won with 79% of the vote, that's more than SA got for best male actor. In a year that EBR wasn't eligible under the rules it should have been a blow out for KC if she really had that huge a fan base, especially because whilst Kat has her own large one they're less likely to vote in Arrow polls than Shadowhunters. Laurel also came in at 30% in "favourite character". She obviously has some passionate online fans but but either they don't vote in fan polls (on a famous site that is well known for disliking Felicity) or she just doesn't have the numbers. I did think her directing was good and would put her above Bam but not above Antonio Negret.

I don't see Kara being married at the end of the season, although I wouldn't be surprised to see Karamel being left open on a maybe, especially if she does end up going to the future. It's also possible that they'll take advantage of the "it's easier to have married people kissing" issue for the finale or something. I also think it will likely be some sort of "the adventure continues..." but that it won't be in National City because you do have the "where's Kara?" problem and it's kind of silly to always say "visiting Argo again!" Whilst Arrow was a very different show I can see them wanting to give her semi definitive ending as well as continuing her journey and the Legion or even Argo City does that. I do think we'll see MB pop up again in Superman and Lois after she leaves but there would be less "why isn't she there helping Superman?" even if she does stay in NC, because Superman.

That's awesome. I got a food thermometer as part of the list and I thought that was pretty on point for Oliver but it turned out it was a sponsored item. Lots of creative mug designs from fans as well.

I mean good for AT, he's certainly a very funny and interesting guy BTS and he's the reason Gary was at all likable in the first place so I do give him a lot of credit but sigh. Such a full cast means something has got to give and I was over Gary's stuff in S4 with that stupid and open betrayal. I hope it's just a case of giving him a contract because he's been there so much already ala S5 and not that they're actually giving him more to do story wise.

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/riverdale-batwoman-shut-down-coronavirus-testing-1234787386/ Hopefully just a brief shutdown due to testing delays but they can't have a lot of this or the season will be forced to be cut short.

Katie Cassidy wants everyone to know she's working on something: Is it the next iteration of a BOP/Canaries show? Is it a re reboot of Melrose Place? Is it her fashion blog? Or just her Lauriver fanfiction? 😉 I guess it could be for a directing gig as well. I wouldn't be surprised if she's pitching something to the CW either Arrowverse or not.

I think it's possible they'll show up in guest spots but I wouldn't want any of them to be regulars on other shows, especially as they don't have any really big ties to the characters. I've seen other franchises try to do it and it's been awkward at best - Sam and SGA anyone? (And I loved Sam). Not to mention they all have a lot of other characters that could be more developed. With Kara/William I don't think many people are really rooting for them to get a big HEA, I was just running through possibilities for Kara. Oliver got a big romantic ending after a bittersweet sacrifice and I'd bet WestAllen will have some sort of big Happy Romantic Ending with Twins but that's not going to be possible for Kara, nor "the adventures are continuing.......off screen!" So Argo City would seem like a good bet. Or sisters Forever.

I would bet money they'll give Kara a happy ending, what that looks like I don't know. It's difficult for any of the shows to do my often preferred one of "carry on the good fight/next adventure" with big crossovers always in play. Unless COVID and other shows potentially ending soon has put those on permanent halt. Probably not time to build an epic romance with William or anyone else (plus restrictions) and whilst I never shipped Kara with anyone and Kara single is often better it still kinda annoys me that the big female superhero doesn't have the full package almost all of her male compatriots have. Sisters Forever? Kara exploring the new universe? Or New Argo City?

LOT hasn't really taken an existing character since Wally and they're full to the brim even if one or two leave this year, but it's possible. It's also possible she'll pop up in Lois and Clark sorry Superman & Lois is awkward to say. It's also possible that since Green Arrow and The Canaries is dead that she'll be involved with a potential new redevelopment of a female team up or new attempt at another Arrowverse show.