Danny Franks

Season two of The Bear has the single best use of music I've seen in a long time: When Carmy runs into his childhood crush, Claire, and they have an awkward, wistful catch up, the song that plays in the background is Strange Currencies by REM. It's the perfect song for that moment, because it's not one of the most well known songs of the 90s, it's not even one of REM's most well known songs. But I had this moment of recognition and nostalgia, of 'oh shit, I remember this!' that is exactly what the show wanted to convey with Carmy and Claire bumping into each other. I'm sure everyone else aged between 35 and 50 had that exact same feeling. Also, it's a lovely song and the sound of it is wistful and warm and there's an air of love being a confusing mystery, which is again exactly what you can see between Carmy and Claire.

Yeah, Mojo has always been one of the worst villains/plot enablers in the X-verse (hell, in the entire Marvel universe). He's completely one-note and repetitive, a one trick pony and the stories involving him always feel like complete filler (similar to Arcade). The only good thing that has ever come out of the Mojo-verse is Spiral, who makes for a fun villain or antagonistic ally.

I did a rewatch of Scrubs and decided I might as well bite the bullet and watch season nine for the first time. I only got halfway through. Partly because it just isn't very funny and the entire setup is awkward and artificial, and partly because Dave Franco's character is one of the most unpleasant and annoying characters I've ever seen on a TV show. He is selfish, narcissistic, callous and rude. One of the first things he does is sleep with Kerry Bishe's character, then take a photo of her naked when she's not looking and share it with people at the hospital. Then, even after she's completely humiliated by that, she sleeps with him again. He's similar to another rich boy med student character who appeared much earlier in the show. In that case, Elliot humbles him and calls his bluff on his threat that his rich dad will pull his donation to the hospital. But there is no such humbling or humanising of Dave Franco in season nine.

And the reveal at the end of season two that Will is actually there in person. Not only that, the whole cluster is there.

I just saw the trailer for this at the cinema tonight, and my overriding feeling was, 'none of these effects look practical.' After how amazing Fury Road looked because of all the practical effects and stunts, seeing so much that looked completely computer generated was very disappointing. I'd still be way more interested in seeing The Further Adventures of Furiosa, starring Charlize Theron, than this young version.

I just got back from watching this, and I think I have mostly the same opinion of it as I did the first movie - visually stunning and incredible sound design were the standouts, but the pacing and storytelling weren't great. The scale of the desert was incredible, and that's something that Villeneuve does better than anyone else working in Hollywood at the moment. The expanses are vast, and Villeneuve loves putting visual markers into those scenes to show the scale - a tiny figure on a ridge, a sandworm that fills the screen, a giant silver Heart of Gold looking spaceship with battalions of tiny soldiers beneath it. The greyscale look of the Harkonnen world was so striking, and it's little wonder they're all deranged, growing up there. The story is still the weakest part of the movie. There's too much 'because mysticism said so' driving the actions of the main characters - Jessica drinks wormblood and is apparently guided by the knowledge of previous Reverend Mothers. She tries to manipulate Paul into doing what she believes he must (with the help of her magical fetus) but it's only when he also drinks wormblood that he realises what he has to do. The Bene Gesserit were just scheming for scheming's sake, by the end of it. The notion that Feyd Rauda was "controllable" was rather absurd, given he casually murdered people for no reason whatsoever, even when he was in a good mood. The first thing he'd have done if he became emperor was devise a plan to wipe out the Bene Gesserit, as he'd see them as the main threat, and the people who could remove him from the throne they put him on. Feyd Rauda was a bit of a non-event as well. Interestingly played by Austin Butler, but his role in the story was very clear - be scary and then be killed by Paul. I like the overall narrative -Don't trust messiahs (and boy, Paul would have been better off if his mum was more like Brian of Nazareth's mum) because they will lose sight of your interests as they pursue their own. Paul becomes a narcissistic saviour, caught up in his own legend and apparently willing to sacrifice thousands, millions, of his followers to secure his victory. I think Zendaya was the standout actor in this, and her character was the standout too. If there is a third movie, I'd much rather it focus more on her and less on Paul. And I'd like it if they actually diverged heavily from the books, regarding how Chani apparently accepts Paul's choices and agrees to be his lover again. Certainly, the final shot of the movie didn't suggest a woman likely to accept anything Paul says or does again. And I doubt audiences would readily accept Paul marrying Irulan (Florence Pugh was wasted in this, by the way. All she did was look pensive and wear crazy hats) but acting like nothing needs to change with Chani. A couple of bugbears - are we to believe that the Fremen can steer sandworms, with those tiny little hooks? These things are so big that the one Paul rode was passing him for about two minutes before he jumped on its back. I guess that must be how it works, unless they stand there all day, just waiting for the worm they summon to be going in the right direction. And how do they get off, when they reach their destination? And when, exactly, did Leto have time to construct a secret bunker on Arrakis and hide all of House Atreides' atomic missiles in it? Also, why would he? That would leave his homeworld unprotected.

The fact that an X-Men episode focused on four characters of colour is kind of great - Storm, Forge, Jubilee and Roberto. Especially after some of the histrionics of people who somehow missed the fact that the X-Men are representative of minorities of all kinds. Unfortunately, Forge is one of the dullest characters to ever appear in the pages of a Marvel comic, and he makes Storm dull by association. The little personality he had back in the day was being an insecure dick. I always liked Jubilee and felt like she got shunted off to the X-kids team too quickly by writers who didn't care about her, so I'm glad she got a bit of focus in this episode. Roberto is a character I've never really had an opinion of, but I quite like the version of him in the show, and quite like that they picked Sunspot over a whole host of others they could have used - Cannonball, Boom Boom, Cypher, Wolfsbane, Karma, Dani Moonstar.

Logan/Jean was the absolute worst, and this is coming from someone who has never cared about Cyclops. It just seemed like Jean was too kind and good natured, and pitied Logan too much, to tell him to back off. Meanwhile, Logan was a significantly older guy who had an unhealthy obsession with a woman who was clearly in a relationship. Of course he had main character syndrome, and assumed that he could just put his feelings out there repeatedly, failing to respect that relationship, and of course he could just openly be a dick to Cyclops because he was jealous of him. As for Rogue and Magneto, that was almost as bad, for different reasons (although age difference was still a big one). In the case of the show, I do think it has to be a misdirect or they wouldn't be hitting Gambit over the head with it so hard (I don't think the writers of the show hate him as much as some of the X-book writers have in recent years), without actually showing them doing anything. Also, I have always preferred Magneto as a villain with noble intentions, rather than a hero who acts like an arsehole all the time. The obsession so many X-writers have with turning villains into heroes is truly tiresome.

I'm not @Dandesun, but I'll try to answer. The animated show is a loose adaptation of stories and continuity from the X-Men comics, so there are lots of things that will be different from the comics, or even completely absent, in the show. In the comics, Alex Summers has almost as long a history with the X-Men as Scott does. Alex was adopted after the deaths of their parents , but got involved with the X-Men and almost immediately learned that Scott was his brother. He joined the second iteration of the team, even before Wolverine or Storm, and has spent most of his time since then on various X-teams, most notably X-Factor (a spinoff team that worked for the US government, dealing with Mutant threats). Of course, Alex has spent some of that time being evil due to mind control or memory loss, notably when controlled by the Goblin Queen. Other than that, he and Scott are pretty close but have rarely worked directly with each other on the same team: Alex was gone from the books in the 70s, when Scott was on the team. Then Scott was gone from the X-Men for much of the 80s, forming X-Factor with the other four original X-Men, while Alex returned to the team. Scott came back and Alex went to X-Factor in the 90s. I think they were both active X-Men together for a period in the 2000s, but few people remember the stories of that era fondly. As for Corsair, they know he's their dad and they've had various adventures with him (Scott absurdly realised who Corsair was when he looked at his own unshaven reflection and saw such a strong resemblance). At one point Corsair died and Alex took over as leader of the Starjammers, but he may be alive again now.

They're really rushing through comic book stories at a pace even quicker than the original series did. At this rate, they'll be in the Krakoa era by the end of season two. Inferno could have been a whole season build up, but they crammed it all into one episode. It wasn't bad, but it could have been more. But I can't say it doesn't make more sense for Scott to believe Madelyn is actually Jean, rather than thinking he's met a woman who looks identical to the woman he believes to be dead and not really question it. I suppose we needed at least one occurrence of Jean fainting in Scott's arms because she's unable to control her powers, in the finest tradition of the original series. There was some genuinely creepy body horror stuff in this episode, which was executed well. I'm going to assume the Rogue and Magneto stuff is more like the Joseph storyline, where Rogue is tempted by the ability to touch but eventually decides against it, than it is the weird era where Mike Carey used Magneto as his self-insert character to bone Rogue, based on some lingering feelings Rogue had from an alternate universe. Another love triangle we absolutely don't need - Logan, stop being creepy about Jean and go find one of the several dozen other women you've had relationships with. Morph seems to only be included in this reboot to give cameos to characters we'd all rather have in the show - Colossus, Psylocke, Magik (and Darkchylde) - which is fine, but I would rather actually have one of those characters. I do like all the nods to classic X-Men covers and panels, like Gambit and Rogue on the basketball court, Scott and Jean's wedding photo, Rogue and Magneto in the Savage Land 'costumes.'

Dever would have been my first choice for Ellie, if the show had been made a few years ago. She's such a good actor, and I think she'll absolutely kill it as Abby. Her work in Justified and Dopesick and Booksmart is great. Talk about casting someone the audience has no choice but to empathise with.

Yeah, if it turns out no one is able to follow your instructions and complete the technical in time, it's probably because you didn't give them enough time. Tasha only produced something edible because she decided to stop following them. The creme caramel things were not my cup of tea. Gloopy, gelatinous slabs of sickly sweetness. I didn't think any of them really looked good, and I'm not sure how Paul and Prue ate their way through all those things. Meringue bombes were a decent idea but I felt like the request for "some kind of dessert" inside was a bit too vague. Tasha did choux buns with jam in, while Dan did a whole trifle and made a mousse cake of some kind. Sure, variety is good but it didn't seem like everyone had the same amount of work to do. I wish Cristy had gone instead of Saku. She's a drip, and a bland one, while Saku is a huge personality. The final is starting to look like Dan, Tasha and Josh, as they're all consistently closer to the top than the bottom, while Cristy and Matty both seem more likely to crash and burn. I do find myself wondering whether Tasha sneakily switches off her hearing aid so she can focus more easily, and likely to discourage inopportune banter from Noel and Alison.

Are spices really considered botanicals? I guess that's what they are, but I don't think they're what most people would immediately think of. Anyway, the spiced, sticky buns all looked, and sounded, amazing, especially Tasha and Dan's. One issue with the technical that bothered me was that both Paul and Prue were saying, "this has more thyme than lemon" or vice versa, but never said what the right balance was. Cristy made a hell of a fuss out of that, I have to say. Honestly, I'm not sure why hers was considered a showstopper while Matty's wasn't. Both had similar amounts of decoration, she just used a fancy mold. The montage of people dropping stuff and just getting on with it was amusing. Tasha's dismissive, "that was just my backup cake" made me smile. I appreciate Josh just quietly plugging away without any drama and getting star baker. He seems like an oasis of calm, compared to the others. Tasha must have been a close second, despite her poor technical. I know she said she was going to sign because she wasn't sure how to pronounce some words, but it seemed like she may resort to signing when she's a bit overwhelmed, which is very understandable. She was pretty nervous. Probably because she decided to do ten bloody layers. I wasn't sure about the shade of green that Dan used, but the overall effect was pretty good. He's starting to seem a little cocky, though, which I'm not wild about. Dana leaving wasn't a surprise, she's been one of the weaker bakers all season, although it was probably a tough choice between her and Saku.

Colour me surprised. I thought Christy was pretty unimpressive so far, and more likely to be eliminated than to get star baker. But she was really good this week. I always like pastry week, because I like pastry, and there were some really nice looking pies this time. I liked the little picnic pies, or whatever they decided to call them. Some interesting flavour combos, but I definitely would not have liked the spiced tuna ones that Saku made. A tuna and egg pie? God, that sounds terrible. Pretty good technical, and I've seen enough pithiviers on MasterChef to know how they should look. But it's essentially just a puff pastry test, which is fine. Seems like most of the bakers failed to get the shape right, and quite a few had undercooked potatoes. Couldn't be because they weren't given quite enough time, could it? The showstopper was a bit weak in concept, but I'd rather that than them demanding a '3D, modern art installation using at least five pies, and two different pastries' or something. Most of the sweet pies looked pretty good, especially Christy and Dan's. Rowan's didn't, but at least the cherry filling looked really tasty. It was pretty obvious which two were leaving, fairly early on. Nicky had been on the edge almost every week, and just doesn't seem to be of the same standard as some of the others. And Rowan was having a bit of a 'mare.

Poor Tasha. She was clearly struggling. I can't imagine a migraine plus stress plus one of the hottest days of the year combine well. But I do think Allison looking after you when you're poorly would make you feel a bit better. Of course, there are sadly some lunatics who take this show too seriously and are accusing her of faking an illness. This show has some elements of the fandom who are honestly just the absolute worst. And of course it's the Daily Mail that amplifies their voice. Let's be honest though, it was obvious no one would be eliminated as soon as they said she'd had to withdraw from the week. About it being so hot, there's no way they don't look at the weather forecast and know it's likely to be incredibly hot two or three weeks from now. They could easily reschedule chocolate week, but don't because they want the drama of things melting. More relatively normal things, this week. The "chocolate box" was basically just a collar. Those cheesecakes sounded amazing, and some of them looked it too. Deserved star baker for Matty, who had been pretty quiet prior to this week. It's definitely clear this season that the judges have been told to be less critical and more encouraging. There are some unkind word choices like "monstrous" and "hideous" but there's none of the meanness that sometimes came across in previous seasons.

The challenges were all fairly basic again this week, which I'm happy with. Just bake some nice bread and do a bit of design work. And the majority of the flavours seemed like thinks I'd really like to eat. Lots of garlic and rosemary, which is always good. Oh, and Tasha's pastrami and cheese bread sounded fantastic. The tiger bread looked pretty great, and definitely wouldn't be out of place alongside that lion bread from years ago. I feel like Dan probably should have gone, given his unbaked showstopper. Abbi going was a bit of a surprise. Maybe the balance of all three bakes was just in his favour, but everyone knows the showstopper is the big decider. Tasha star baker again seemed very fair. Paul saying she "understands bread" is definitely one of the biggest compliments he can give. It's hard to disagree with that too, based on her bakes. She also deserves plaudits for having eyes even more strikingly blue than old blue eyes Hollywood himself. Allison is meshing really well with everyone, and seems to have quickly figured out what Noel did - she's there to be gently funny and to relax the bakers rather than stress them out more. This might sound strange, but I think the fact she's a straight woman has added a new energy that the show needed. She reminds me of Mel, but funnier.

I don't think the show has had Rand doubt he's the Dragon Reborn, like the books did. He's accepted his destiny from the off (though the show sadly hasn't mentioned any of the dying for mankind stuff yet). So Callandor isn't needed to really prove it to himself. I've seen some people suggest that the Callandor prophecy might be changed slightly, and it might be what Couladin crosses the Dragonwall to achieve - he gets to Tear first and seizes it, he proves himself the Car'a'carn. The fact Aiel are forbidden from touching swords would make Couladin's transgressions even more severe.

My guess is that Callandor is pushed to later in the series. RJ set it up as a clear end-game weapon for Rand - he gets it in the book after he loses his heron-mark sword, it can cut through weaves and be channelled into to make it more powerful. But then he realised he had a lot of books left to write and it was too powerful for Rand, allowing him to solve any problem. So Rand realises the same thing, and leaves it in Tear. I think Falme will serve as a show-version of Tear from The Shadow Rising.

The show has definitely gone back to basics, in a good way. Straightforward challenges that aren't completely ridiculous and over the top. Still seems like the technical is relying on giving them less time than they need, which isn't great. Alison has been a good co-host, so far. Dry and funny and she doesn't make anything about her. She seems genuinely tickled by Noel, which is nice. Paul has been a bit more chilled out, so far in this season, and seems to be enjoying himself. I liked the signature teacakes and wagon wheel type biscuits, and Tasha's definitely looked amazing. Custard creams are amazing. Such an underrated biscuit, even the cheap, 60p a pack ones from the supermarket. I'm really pleased she got star baker. She's one of the more defined personalities already, along with Rowan and the Scottish woman who seems like she's not that good. Keith leaving? Eh. I couldn't stand that Kent accent for the whole season.

I've always understood that a lot of the Three Oaths are down to interpretation and intentions - if an Aes Sedai believes that she will be killed if she doesn't channel a fireball at someone, then she can do it. Whether that extends to fireballing random people to stop someone specific from killing her, I don't know. It's about how each woman rationalises it in her own head. The Oaths are completely internal, rather than external controls applied by the Oath Rod. Like with Moiraine and the Seanchan ships - she says she would "let a thousand innocents die" but she doesn't say she would kill a thousand innocents. If she's convinced herself she's only torching the ships and not the people on them, she's good to go. I suppose it takes a lot of mental control and willpower to ensure you genuinely believe what's most convenient for you.

In the books, it's Child Byar who survives, after being told to hang back, watch the battle and take word to the Lord Captain Commander. He's the one who tells Dain that Perrin was responsible for his father's death. So it looks like they're combining Byar and Dain, by having Dain witness Perrin's actions and being more justified than he ever was in the books in persecuting him. I like this version, because there's a very distinct, 'they could have been friends' tragedy to the whole thing. But now Dain has this hatred, which will be stoked by Valda and, I'm sure, by a certain pedlar who may meet up with them as they leave Falme, and tell them he knows all about the golden eyed man from the Two Rivers.

Agreed. It gave Nynaeve and Elayne (and Min) purpose and a goal that was different from the boys - they were on the dudes' adventure for the Horn, while the girls were trying to save their friend. It was a nice contrast. Egwene saving herself the way she did kind of undermines the threat of the a'dam. But I did like that she was able to resist Renna's commands - it means that damane have to be truly broken and cowed, rather than just forced into cooperating with threats. It wasn't explicitly said, but the end revealed that Ishy had likely used a load of One Power to release the other six Forsaken, so he might have been too tired to just wipe Egwene off the face of the earth. Or he might have been deliberately making it look like he was trying to win, without actually trying to win. If he can't break the Wheel in this turning, maybe he'd rather die and be reborn than wait another however many thousand years for he Age of Legends to come around again. I wished that too. Giving Nynaeve something to do in the finale that wasn't just carrying Elayne. If she'd taken over the shield because Egwene was exhausted, then they'd still have needed Elayne to Heal Rand. By the way, I really liked that their first meeting here, with her Healing him, was a nod to their original meeting in the books - where she bandages his head after he falls into the palace garden. He was standing next to Birgitte Silverbow and carried two swords. He was definitely meant to be Gaidal. Whether that's ever spelled out, I don't know. I'm not looking forward to Gawyn, he's an ass. But the actress cast as Faile looks perfect, and I want to see Perrin being bemused and then opening up to her somewhat blunt attentions. Min has always been my least favourite of Rand's women. She's just so one-note. Especially in the later books where she exists just to "keep Rand human" by smiling at him, telling him he's doing great and having sex with him. It's no wonder she's the "number one girl" for so many of the worst elements of the book fandom. Despite being the one who's nonconformative in the way she dresses and styles her hair, she's the conservative ideal in the way she behaves. So anyway, I'd be more than happy if they cut her from the triumvirate. I don't think they will. I still don't really see how they're going to set up all three girls being interested in him. Elayne may start season three pursuing him, but there's unlikely to be much time before Rand heads off to the Waste, where Aviendha will likely become his focus.

Happy to get the full credit sequence back for the finale. That was a nice surprise I love that the Seanchan have battle makeup. They're so extra and ridiculous. But Renna cutting Egwene's braid off genuinely made me gasp. I enjoyed seeing Nynaeve put a sul'dam in her place, even if Elayne was too squeamish to watch. I didn't like Egwene freeing herself before anyone else could help her. Just felt a bit lame. Mat realising he's a hero and blowing the Horn. That's what his entire story this far has been leading up to. The reveal of the Heroes of the Horn was kind of crazy. I liked how different and cool they all looked. Having Uno be one was a great reveal, and satisfies an old theory people had from the books, that Uno was the reincarnation of one of the Heroes. Rand's hero moment with the Seanchan leader was pretty cool. I liked the fake-out of Turak expecting a big swordfight, and Rand just guts him with the One Power. Very Indiana Jones. The accidental stabbing by Mat was... kind of goofy, to be honest. I did like Ishy talking shit at them both afterwards. But killing Ishamael (if he's dead), was very anticlimactic. I don't really know how they could have written it, but this didn't quite work for me. Hopper's death... man, that was horrible. I knew it was going to happen, but that wolfdog was too good an actor. The look on her face... Lanfear is just the best. Clearly playing her own game and happy to stab anyone and everyone in the back, apart from Rand. Maybe. It makes complete sense that she doesn't want her fellow Forsaken free, to interfere with her plans. But it looks like Ishy outsmarted her this time. And now we've got another absolutely batshit crazy, ancient evil channeler (well, six more, but just one for now). Hi Moghedien, you complete loon.

So I just watched TOW The Ick Factor, and I guess this is part of shows aging badly, but Young Ethan is way less icky than Rachel's storyline that involves Ross being insanely jealous of her dreams, while Rachel completely freaks out Joey and Chandler by saying their dream threesome with her involved some - shock! horror! - gay stuff. But then it's okay, because Rachel apparently dreams of Ross too, and he can leave all smugly. I prefer to believe she was awake, had recognised his complete inability to deal with her dreaming about the other two but not him, so she just pretended to salve his fragile ego. Chandler's workplace stuff was always such a drag, as well. It felt like something out of a Dilbert cartoon (but with less complete insanity from the creator).

But then in the next scene, someone asks the queen where the girl has gone and she won't answer. Unless she shows up again later, it seems like she was casually killed.