Danny Franks

Nish is a semi-regular guest on The Bugle, Andy Zaltzman's satirical news podcast. I recommend listening to it, because Zaltzman is so funny and clever, and he has a whole load of guest comedians from around the world, including Alice Fraser, Nato Green, Hari Kondabolu, Anuvab Pal and Felicity Ward. No matter how bad the news, The Bugle can make me laugh, even without former co-host, John Oliver.

This show seems like it's going to be fun. it has a strong, vibrant feel, and none of the drab, lifeless colours of other MCU shows (looking at you, Moon Knight). I liked the visualisation of their messenger chats a lot, and the graphics heavy montages. Kamala is the right mix of precocious, funny and obnoxious that feels like a real teenager who wants to forge her own identity that differs from her family's ideas. I imagine she's someone a lot of people can identify with. I like her brother more in this than I did in the comic, where he was very one-note. I can't say too much about the portrayal of faith in the show, as I'm no expert on it, but her dad being the easygoing, relaxed one is nice. However, I must be getting old, because the kids were all talking way too fast for me to follow their conversations.

The comic book was pretty delightful. I haven't watched the first episode of the show yet, but Iman Vellani's behind the scenes and publicity stuff has been charming as hell. Hasn't stopped the review bombs from sad little boys who can't stand protagonists who aren't white, straight males.

Maybe, maybe not. George had a whole bit (which I think you are likely aware of) where he drags "fat, stupid Americans and their fat, stupid children" over the coals for all their thoughtless, selfish, indulgent choices and interests. He never singles anyone out, but he's pretty brutal in his condemnation of people he thinks are being fat, dumb and slovenly because they can't be bothered to be better and because the culture of the US encourages them to consume everything they can, and keep consuming. Because that's what capitalism runs on - consumption. For all his smart ideas, George was still a product of the time, and lived through the surge in obesity in the 1980s and 90s, where being overweight was seen as a character flaw and thus open season for comics. But I think he was still doing it in a more thoughtful way, by castigating them for being fat, as every other comic would, but then bringing it back around to a rigged system that needs those people to be fat and unhealthy and complacent. If he was alive now, he'd probably have a more nuanced take but I don't think his underlying critique of the capitalist system would be much different.

Iceman is the good guy. I rewatched it for the first time in a long time, the other week, and Iceman is always, always concerned about the safety of the other pilots while Maverick doesn't give a toss about them. He constantly tells the guy that he's really talented, but needs to focus on being a team player and not on grandstanding or going after the glory. What's more, and rare for an action movie, Iceman is the better pilot. He wins the tournament, fair and square (was already leading when Maverick and Goose crashed). And in the battle, he survives on his own until Maverick gets his shit together and comes to help him out, his plane gets damaged and still manages to take out at least one "MiG 28." This was the 80s though, so the rebel who recklessly ignored the rules was the hero and the 'stick in the mud' who wanted to make sure everyone was safe was the villain.

I always found the whole premise of the Jedi being denied love to be dumb and not in keeping with established lore (maybe it's in some of the novels, released before the prequels, but I don't care about those). Everything Luke was told revolved around his feelings - search your feelings, use your feelings, you feel this to be true etc. There was no talk of denying anything except his anger, which is just sensible ideology for anyone, but especially anyone with great power. But suddenly, in the prequels, the Jedi are cold and emotionless and always remain detached and disinterested in anything other than their Order and the supposed good of the Republic. Perhaps Lucas was trying to show a Jedi Order that had been atrophied and crippled by increasingly dogmatic, extreme views and ever more stringent laws, which would have been really interesting. Only, he didn't write anything to establish that or contrast the current Order with what had gone before. It felt lazy. But so did so much of what we saw in the prequels - the official Jedi robe is apparently whatever Obi Wan was wearing in A New Hope (guess that makes Uncle Owen a jedi, because he's wearing very similar clothing. You know, practical, desert garb), the easy shortcut to 'he's the messiah!' using microscopic macguffin bacteria and a virgin birth, introducing C3P0 when there was really no need to have him in the movie, and it just makes his origin story weird (why would Anakin just build a standard protocol droid instead of something that would actually be useful?).

Del Rio is a moron, and has been for a long while. Let's not pretend that the majority of his fellow coaches and certainly almost every owner don't feel the exact same way. The NFL is a sport where old, conservative, white men make money off young, predominantly black athletes. Those athletes who get rich and manage to get out with their health intact are the lucky ones.

I think Draymond has one eye on retirement already. He's talking about his podcast as work and tacitly putting it on an equal footing with his actual basketball career. I don't blame him for setting up media opportunities, and he'll surely be a fixture on Basketball coverage once he retires, but he's got more important things to worry about right now. Kerr taking him out in the 4th quarter should have been a huge wakeup call for him. when Otto Porter and Bjelica are trusted more on defense than you in crunch minutes, something is seriously wrong. The Celtics' defense is having good success against the Warriors, but just cannot deal with Steph. They manage to limit everyone else but he just goes off, and if they go all in on stopping him, they'll have to abandon their successful covering of Klay, Poole and Wiggins.

Is Moon Knight supposed to be good? I've watched the first two episodes and I fucking hate it. It manages to be both boring and incredibly irritating at once, and this is the first thing I've ever watched where I really cannot stand Oscar Isaac.

Except for the ones who have decided to believe Watson and proceeded to blame the victims, claiming they're liars and prostitutes just out to make money off a poor, sweet boy who didn't realise how duplicitous women are.

I imagine all the toxic manboys and MRA weirdos who have suddenly realised they love Johnny Depp and always have, will make a point of paying to go and see it multiple times, just to 'send a message to Hollywood about woke culture' or some bullshit. I managed to sit through the first two of those movies. The first was okay, as a dumb, popcorn movie, but the second was shit. I think the last actual good performance I've seen from Depp was probably in Blow.

The NFL and the Browns thinking they could lay low until this blows over... not working out so well, is it? I hope this ends up completely humiliating the league, the organisation and Watson himself. Bunch of arrogant arseholes.

If the Warriors fire on all cylinders, the Celtics can't live with them. This game was a huge improvement, but Klay is still misfiring and Wiggins slightly underperformed his customary 17 points. GPII being back is huge, because he's such a mood-setter for the team. Poole got over his game one nerves and hit some crazy shots. One thing I had a laugh about was the people on r/nba pointing out that Boston have way more average white guys as backups than other teams, which fits the 'Boston sports fans are surprisingly racist' stereotype.

So I'm watching Top Gun for the first time since I was a teenager and I have to wonder, did anyone ever ask Val Kilmer what his internal story for Iceman was? Because, holy shit, does he play it like he's desperately in love with Maverick. I don't mean this in the old 'Top Gun is homoerotic because there are dudes in locker rooms together' way. Kilmer genuinely plays every scene like he's the love interest in a spiky, love/hate pairing and it's so much fun to watch. He's putting way more out there than Kelly McGillis (who, of course, later came out as gay). I would bet most people making this movie were too coked out to notice, but Kilmer is having a blast with these scenes.

I can't believe he took twelve shots. That's crazy for him.

Draymond, Klay and Poole will all need to play better than that, and GPII needs to get back into the rotation. Hopefully this game woke them up - the Celtics aren't a pushover.

I'm sure his co-stars on Fantastic Four (a disaster in its own right) have alluded to him being a nightmare to work with. Nothing like Jared Leto and sending animal corpses to co-stars because he's "method" but just being a tool. He may have matured quite a bit now, and I doubt he'd have made it through a shoot with Tom Cruise if he was an arrogant, 'I need to be the centre of attention' guy because... Tom Cruise is always going to be that guy.

Honestly, anyone who claims they like watching iso-heavy basketball by teams that just want to get to the line and shoot free throws, over the way the Warriors play, is in complete denial. It's no surprise that the Warriors are great for television ratings. They're exciting to watch - their ball movement, speed, shooting, ability to switch on offense and defense, and the personalities of the players.

That's my favourite season. Elizabeth was a lot of fun when she first arrived, and dragged some real personality out of Benton. Anna was a big favourite of mine, and I still think it's such a shame that Maria Bello didn't want to continue on the show. It's also a season where Carter manages to balance between being a good guy and being a self-righteous ass pretty well. Carol opens the clinic and seems to have real drive and purpose. Mark returns to form after his traumatic attack, even Doug isn't too navel-gazing and self-hating. Seasons two and three are close behind, and season six was actually pretty great too.

My girlfriend watches this and I just find it less and less believable that a bunch of middle aged characters still behave like horny twentysomethings. It seems like every time I look up from whatever I'm doing, half the characters have different partners than they had ten minutes ago.

Yeah, her role in Spider-Man: Homecoming was very well judged. A lot of high profile young actors would have been cast in the love interest role there, not the wisecracking tertiary character. But all the potential was in the latter role, and both Zendaya and the producers knew it. It's interesting that she's a Disney girl, but most of her high profile roles have been the opposite of the sort of sunny, plucky heroine that Disney is famous for. Her characters are often sullen, downbeat, very insular, and it allows for more acting range.

Great to see the Warriors back in the finals. I'm sure that plenty of people will want those upstart underdogs, the Boston Celtics, to beat this dynasty that makes basketball so boring and finally get a shot at the championship, huh?

I've no clue about Supernatural, but I remember Stephen Amell's wife getting some hate from the crazier Arrow fans who were obsessed with the notion that Amell and Emily Bett Rickards should be a real life couple. Of course, the inconvenient fact that Amell was married wasn't the only obstacle to that one.

Wouldn't it be just like the Warriors to turn Moody, Kuminga and (less likely) Wiseman into stars to join Jordan Poole, just as Steph, Klay and Draymond are getting to the end of their careers? They know how to develop players over there, and seem to be able to identify the personality types that will thrive in their environment. This Heat/Celtics series is so back and forth. I don't know what the hell happened to Jimmy Butler last night, but you really don't want your main guy putting up a statline like that in game four of the Conference Finals.

Rogue One was the best Star Wars movie of the last thirty years (arguably the best Star Wars movie, full stop) and it didn't rely on the Jedi at all. One character who says some spiritual things and Vader's cameo and that's it. Everything else was about plucky rebels up against the odds and finding ways to win. That was the charm of the original Star Wars movie too. The franchise being so overtaken by All Jedi, All the Time has been to its huge detriment, in my opinion. The prequels were just all about the Jedi and they were so staid and stuffy and made the mysterious order, that seemed pretty cool when Luke was learning bits and pieces, so fucking lame. A bunch of blinkered guys in robes, walking around and talking faux-philosophical nothings. I don't know why Lucas decided that Jedi should be an order of emotionless warrior monks who are supposed to be above all material squabbles, but I don't see how that makes for entertaining stories. Space fantasy should be about adventure and romance and excitement, not "love is bad because it makes you turn evil... and let's just sit and think for a while before we do anything." (also, I'll never stop rolling my eyes that Lucas decided the official Jedi outfit would be the desert robes that Obi Wan - and Uncle Owen - wore on Tatooine) I think JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson kind of understood this, but felt too beholden to the Jedi concept to really get away from it, so we were left with this muddled, unsure idea of what the Jedi should be. They couldn't reject the Jedi without enraging the fanbase, but they didn't want to embrace the concepts set up by the prequels either.