Danny Franks

I watched Another Perfect Day from season one, and I love that episode. Everyone has a crappy day - Benton gets pretty openly snubbed for the fellowship he's applying for, Mark's hot date night with Jen is scuppered when she has to go back to Milwaukee, Doug and Carol kiss then Carol decides to move in with Tag and Doug is crushed. Of course, it's Susan's birthday so you know she has a terrible day - She gets a glimpse into Div's ongoing breakdown when he explodes at Malik. Then Chloe turns up, drunk and high and causes a huge scene that culminates in her putting her hand through the admit desk window. But completely oblivious to all of this is Carter, who has his best day - he does his first spinal tap and does it perfectly, Mark gives him the bottle of champagne he bought for his evening with Jen and then he gets to drink it on the roof with the woman he's already clearly crushing on, Susan. @Cloud9Shopper, I meant to say, thanks for the podcast recommendation, it's a lot of fun listening to recaps of these episodes. I already appreciate the hosts thinking Doug is an ass but I don't know how ready I am for them being big fans of Mark/Elizabeth.

I think that's how Doctor Zoidberg pronounced it on Futurama. Maybe that's where this woman got it from?

They probably will, because a major studio has a lot of money relying on them being at least not toxic to the brand. Otherwise, we'd all just be free to point and laugh while the tabloids had a field day with the stories, like with Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Amanda Bynes, Edward Furlong etc.

Anyone who hates Steven Seagal should definitely listen to this podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/part-one-steven-seagal-is-so-much-worse-than-youd-ever/id1373812661?i=1000421926086 It will make you hate him so much more. The man is actually a criminal and may owe much of his career success to his ties to the mob.

I still think Carter and Susan in season one was a really fun tease. Perhaps because Susan is practically dream woman material for me, in those first three seasons, but I completely understand why Carter was crushing on her so hard. And while she didn't reciprocate his crush, she clearly found him attractive and engaging. I love that scene of them on the roof together, where Carter shares his champagne with her and teases her with the notion that he likes Chloe. I love the scene where they almost kiss before Susan sees sense. I love the scene where she has a hard talk to him about losing empathy for patients. Of all the 'inappropriate relationships between doctors and their subordinates' that ER pushed, this is the only one I'd have enjoyed watching. Still, their sibling-like friendship was also fun to watch. But when Susan came back, it just didn't work. The chemistry they had was gone and the writers didn't know how to write Susan. Plus, they were clearly only using it as an obstacle for Carter/Abby. Abby's brother falling into Gamma's grave was honestly the moment when I realised this show was done. It was so broad, so stupid and so needlessly offensive to Carter and the one truly important familial relationship he had. It made the whole thing about Abby, which was becoming the norm for the show. They were fine until the writers decided the best use of Alex Kingston was to have her ranting and raving about how crappy Mark was and how selfish Rachel was, instead of having her be the same calm, collected and overall sensible woman she'd been previously. Yes, having a baby is obviously very difficult and exhausting and can make people act in extreme ways. So don't write in a baby when you don't need one. Just let them be a normal, healthy couple. They made me hate Alex Kingston, and I've never really gotten over that dislike. The writers seemed to think they were writing one of television's grandest romances, but it was a damp squib. The build up was good in parts, with some decent tension and mutual attraction between them. But by the time they got together they were already toxic, and things just got worse from there. Carter had some dud romance storylines, he really did. The only decent ones were Harper and Anna (which never even got started). But I've said before that the writers accidentally gave him a far more complex psychology than they probably meant to, with his attraction to older women forming early then being reinforced with each successive relationship, before we met his cold, closed off mother who never gave him the love he so clearly needed.

Watching the finale of Ms. Marvel again, I can see how they could be setting up the bare bones of that prejudice. The female Damage Control agent is a zealot who is obsessed with the idea that "the wrong people" are getting superpowers and she was close to causing serious harm before she was overruled. If extremists like her gain control of law enforcement agencies, and the likes of J Jonah Jameson are pushing anti-hero agendas on their platforms, then it wouldn't take much for a certain percentage of the population to start hating all heroes, never mind mutants in particular. It's also not hard to see that anti-hero message zeroing in on 'your kids could be superpowered and you don't even know it! What aren't we being told?' Which is where the mutant stuff could come in. Some heroes are okay because 'they're our heroes. We know them.' But the mutants that are springing up are an unknown, an 'invasion' and 'corruption' of decent humans. Is it all very on the nose for our real world political and social discourse? Yes. But that's the X-Men. As already said: the story does not have to be about mutant prejudice, but that prejudice absolutely should exist in the world and colour the interactions mutants have with humans and with each other.

I'd definitely have been down with that. I lost a lot of interest in the show as soon as they made it clear that the Clandestines would be the big bad. They were just... lame. The MCU's slavish devotion to their formula of having a big bad and the third act being a big, CGI-laden fight is pretty tired, at this point. Ms. Marvel would have been so much more fun if the main conflicts were her learning about her powers, with Bruno and Nakia's help and trying to keep her parents from finding out about them. Maybe have her fight some minor supervillain at the end, to prove she now knows what she's doing. But equally, having her all suited up and hearing a police report of "a man in some kind of armour with telescopic legs* breaking into a bank downtown" then the show ends as she and Bruno smile at each other and she says she's ready, would have been great. * Because Stilt-Man still hasn't been in the MCU, and that's a crime.

So what would you focus on then? Because the other aspects of the X-Men are well-trodden ground too. They're heroes who save the world. They're a dysfunctional family that fights and fucks too much. They're a paramilitary organisation of child soldiers created by a mad professor. Removing the prejudice against them just makes them another group of superheroes, at which point you have to ask... why reboot them? The MCU already has a ton of superheroes who fight evil. Whether they're an allegory for racism, antisemitism, sexism, LGBTQ issues, generational division, religious or political persecution, the foundation of mutantkind in the Marvel universe is that they are 'other.' That's what separates them from the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. The MCU doesn't need to rehash God Loves, Man Kills again, but it does need to have an awareness that mutants are persecuted (even if, as I said, it doesn't make much in-universe sense) because that's what makes them interesting. They're heroes even though people hate them, and they spend as much time defending humanity against evil mutants as they do defending them against other threats, whether they're human or alien or even weirder. Even as a straight, white, male kid, I found the X-Men far cooler than the rest of Marvel and DC's offerings because they were a distinct group that had a single source for their powers - a source none of them asked for and a lot didn't want. A source that made them outcasts and outsiders who had to hide what they were, and who would choose their path in life largely thanks to that outsider status - would they try to help humanity anyway or would they follow the path of least resistance and use their powers for personal gain?

Vinny Testaverde was the Ravens' QB in the first year in Baltimore, after being the Browns' QB for the previous couple of years. He's the only no.1 pick to ever play for the Ravens, but he was a no.1 pick with ten years in the league, by that point. If NFL coaches didn't infantilise grown men, they wouldn't be able to relate to their players at all. The creepy paternalism of coaching culture in the US is really weird sometimes.

Hey, they've still got Maeve, Aimee, Ruby and Jean! So... not all the female characters, just a lot of them. It's weird. Lily was a cool character and Ola seemed like she'd have a storyline revolving around Jean's baby, at least. But maybe they've decided that baby cliffhanger was a terrible idea, so they're going to skip to Jacob knowing he's not the father and having left. I'd definitely have cut Jackson and Raheem before cutting Lily and Ola. Neither had much of substance going on. And I'd certainly cut Isaac. But I'm sure there will be a bunch of new characters to clutter up the screen and allow the writers to pretend the show wasn't built on the appeal of Maeve/Otis.

Book Min basically just lounged around reading philosophy and enabling Rand's worst instincts, just so she could stay close to him. It... wasn't a good look for a character who started off as so independent and strong-minded. I often hear people say, 'oh, but Rand would have been so much worse without her around' but all she did was give him constant reassurance that, no matter what he did, she'd love him. That's not healthy. And her presence ultimately resulted, as he had feared it would, in him crossing the line he'd set for himself to never cross - willingly killing a woman (even if she was an evil Forsaken who was forcing him to kill Min). I'll be honest, some of my distaste for her character's journey is due to her being held up as the 'ultimate waifu' by the same sort of online fans who hate all the rest of the women because they're "too bitchy and entitled" and constantly moan about having to read the Egwene/Nynaeve/Elayne POV sections. It's not complicated to figure out why they like Min, who gives up everything else in her life to be with Rand and is just there to be his supportive girlfriend while he does important hero things.

The way I'd do Wonder Man would be to introduce him as an existing Hollywood celebrity - pepper him in with a cameo or two, have him being interviewed on TV in the background of an MCU show, establish him a little bit. Then reveal he has powers and explore how someone who is already rich and famous deals with that. Not like Tony, who actively chose to be a hero and adapted his life to it, but an actor who wants to carry on his old life - going to glitzy parties, being fawned over by everyone, getting headline roles in movies - and does not want to be a superhero. Let him be a resentful arsehole because the idea of having to use powers to help people is cramping his style. Go full on comedic anti-hero with it. Is it authentic to Wonder Man from the comics? Not really, but the character sucks in the comics. I think the X-Men being an allegory for civil rights struggles is still incredibly pertinent, thanks to anti-LGBTQ issues that are still hot button topics and the source of so much anger. A lot of the same things repeat (as they so often do in life) with disagreements over who can go in which bathrooms, who is welcome in which businesses, but the stuff about mutants being "freaks" and "against god" is actually more relevant now than it ever has been before. That shit writes itself, and there are several prominent people who could just be copied verbatim to create despicable villains. However, the in-universe justification for it is weak, when mutants will be introduced to a world where superheroes are well-established and looked up to with reverence. Why would anyone care how Cyclops is able to fire beams from his eyes when they don't care how Captain Marvel can fire blasts from her hands? From a mutant-centric point of view, the X-Men would be better off if the MCU had them in a different part of the multiverse, where no one else has powers and where mutants emerging can be terrifying and the source of societal anger. Only, that wouldn't allow for any cross-overs or team-ups, so we know that won't happen.

Fain is a really interesting, confusing character. I think Jordan originally wrote him as a Gollum-like character but then decided he had bigger plans for him. There's a lot more to come, but I do like the change the show made, to have him far more cocksure and coherent. He feels much more threatening, rather than chaotic and unpredictable. I think Egwene was a good adaptation of the book character. She's got that stubbornness and ambition but she's just not had that much screen time to show it. I think season two will be big for her. Rand and Perrin need a lot of writing dedicated to them. Particularly Rand who people need to like. Yeah, Selene as "the most beautiful woman in the world" is impossible to cast without someone complaining. Everyone has a different idea of what the height of beauty should be.

Does he think the timings are suspect or that the athletes themselves are suspect? I know there was talk of this track being fast, and I think combinations of the more advanced tracks plus the more advanced shoes mean that some WRs are going to go. In Tobi Amusan's case, those two races were technically perfect. She hit every hurdle in stride and went over them smoothly, she just didn't lose any time at any stage of the race.

That's a comic book version of Black Panther, I think. The cape costume is what he wore on his first ever appearance, in Fantastic Four #52. They've not released a movie version of him/her in this wave, likely because they want to keep the identity a secret. But people are suggesting that, because there's no Shuri in the wave, she must be Black Panther. Meanwhile, Funko Pops are releasing a wave that has Shuri but no Nakia so... I dunno.

As a Brit, it's so frustrating that we've finally produced an elite, genuinely top class athlete in Keely Hodgkinson, only to see the USA produce Athing Mu, who just seems to be that little bit better. British track and field is still in pretty poor shape, when we can't even field competitors in a significant number of events. We still rely on two or three high profile competitors and, if they don't perform, there's nothing behind them. Anyway, Sydney McLaughlin is, as the kids say, a whole vibe. As talented a runner as anyone I've even seen, absolutely gorgeous and also quiet and introverted. I really hope she converts to the 400m flat, because she could be an all-time great.

Retconning Killmonger's entire character, as well as his death, just because Michael B. Jordan is popular would make this movie an instant miss for me. We're supposed to be moving forwards, not backwards. Jordan played a complete psychopath who killed hundreds of people, and did so with a smile on his face. He never showed an ounce of regret and he wanted to use Wakanda's strength to wage war on the rest of the world. Fuck that guy.

Shulkie is going to be fun. Tatiana Maslany is so damned good, and so funny, and the show looks like it's got the feel of her comic book down. Also, Jameela Jamil as a villain and Matt Murdock! Regarding Wakanda Forever, all I'm going to say is that if they don't give Nakia the mantle of Black Panther, they're crazy. Lupita is a magnetic presence on screen and she's an Oscar-winning actor. It would also be a poignant story of Nakia fighting to preserve T'Challa's desire for an open, altruistic Wakanda and eventually having to take his place as Black Panther.

Well, that looks like Lupita Nyong'o's butt to me. I don't want to get my hopes up, but it looks like Nakia might be the new Black Panther.

The Fade on the door.

There's a quick shot in that montage that made me sit up straight. It's an image directly from the books, and it looks like it might be as creepy on the show as it was when I read it.

This is the thing. I don't mind actors who want to go and live in the woods for a month, to prepare for a role, like Day-Lewis did for Last of the Mohicans. As long as you're not bothering anyone, you do you, buddy, even if there is the "why don't you try acting? It's much easier" question. But if you're refusing to break character on set, at the very least you're being a passive arsehole to your co-stars and the crew. You're failing to respect the processes of other people, while demanding they respect yours. I don't really get how it would work, either? How does the director give 'Abe Lincoln' notes on his performance? If he's truly in-character, he shouldn't even know what a film is, let alone how to act in one.

I did like the show quite a lot, and was happy enough with most of the changes. I thought the season finale was terrible and such a rug-pull of an episode, but I'm willing to accept that Covid had a huge impact on the way that episode was formed. However, I'm wary about where things go in season two, because it's clear the deviations from the books will get more and more drastic. The first book is a little rough in parts. It's definitely an author feeling his way into the world and figuring out where he wants to go. The second book is a huge improvement and then it keeps getting better until book seven and then infamous "slog" where things really slow down as Jordan gets lost in subplots. That lasts for about three books, then he righted the ship with the last book he wrote before he passed away, and Sanderson finished the series... satisfactorily. But I wouldn't really advocate people struggling to stick with it if they're not enjoying it, because it's a huge series and there are way too many other books to read. He could write variations on a theme - all his women are bossy, that's true, but there's more there too. Egwene's journey from village girl to where she ends up is a pretty nicely constructed journey, because her ambition and her determination to know everything and learn everything she possibly can make her such a fun character to root for at times, but sometimes make her obnoxious and overbearingly arrogant too. She is a cultural chameleon, who always latches onto new experiences and cultures and dives right in. Nynaeve is the opposite. She's stubborn and conservative and refuses to even acknowledge there are things she needs to learn. She hates new places, she hates new experiences, she constantly grumbles about anything that isn't familiar to her, yet she spends so much of the series travelling and learning. Moiraine is more of a deus ex machina, at least in the first book. We never know what she's thinking and she's always deliberately written as elusive and shady in her motivations. But I think her nobility and sense of purpose shine through in the end. There are other characters too - Elayne, in particular - who I'd like to talk about but it would veer into show spoilers. Jordan was very much a "women are from Venus, men are from Mars" believer, and a lot of his humour is derived from men and women misunderstanding one another, quite often with the men as more bemused and passive and the women irritated and domineering. There have been whole essays written and debates had on how he wrote women, but it has to be said that one of the main pillars of the world he created is that most powerful people in it are women, and they have held a monopoly on that power for thousands of years. She did manage to get him to cut out any sex scenes, after she read some early drafts and flat out told him he was terrible at writing them.

I mean, they're definitely going to make her as sexy as possible. That means - no old lady, no paralysis, no sitting around delivering ominous news. She's going to be an action Madame! I wonder whether this is in lieu of Black Cat (it was rumoured a movie was on the way, but that seems to have gone quiet) so she can be used in the next MCU Spider-Man movie, while Sony continue scraping the barrel of Spider-Man adjacent characters to make lame movies about.

It's a terrible deal. It will make the Knicks only negligibly better because they'll be trading all their depth away, and they'll have very little flexibility to improve. Plus, Mitchell is a very bad defender and the Knicks don't have the players that can cover for him like Utah did. They should just stick with what they have, miss the playoffs this year and try to turn all those draft picks into something good either in the draft or by trading for someone next season.