Danny Franks

I think the problem it encountered was that, unlike Star Trek, Farscape was built on the charm of the cast and characters, as much as it was built on the weird, crazy, baffling alien universe. I just don't know how open people would have been to a Farscape show or movie without John, Aeryn, D'Argo and Chiana. I still think the ambitions of the show are unmatched by almost anything since. The inventiveness of the Henson Company, the aesthetics and set design and the alien cultures, there's no one else doing all of that and making it work. Okay, it didn't always work, but most of the time it did and the writers and actors were never scared of just pushing the boundaries and seeing what happened.

Yeah, they were shitty too. But they were also in the aftermath of their relationship, not before it ever started.

Just watched a scene that I don't remember ever seeing before (probably because it's in one of my least favourite episodes - the one where Joey buys Chandler the ugly, gold bracelet and then that garbage scene where Rachel sees Ross was prepared to take her to the prom, which apparently makes her decide she has to be with him. What-the-fuck-ever). But it's Rachel happily chatting to a guy she's been on a date with in the coffee shop, and Ross is watching, being pissy and bitter. So what does he do? He walks up and deliberately sabotages the date by pretending he's a guy meeting Rachel for a date too. Nice. He drives off a guy she seems to like by implying she's a tramp, then has the gall to say "you're welcome," to her and get offended when she's pissed. Ross is an absolute dickbag when it comes to Rachel.

Conan still has staff working for him who were there during his time on The Tonight Show. You don't get that kind of loyalty as a boss if you don't treat people well. And his assistant, Sona, asked him to be godfather to her twin sons.

Conan and Letterman get on just fine (Conan seems to get on well with most people). It's just Leno that they can't stand (which, again seems to be common).

The joke wasn't funny, but it's the Oscars. Jokes are rarely funny, they're usually intended to gently poke fun at some of the most sensitive egos on the planet without going too far. I guess Rock miscalculated that one. The only funny part of all this is that Will Smith, who takes himself ever-so-seriously and has been trying to get awards recognition for years, finally manages to do it... on a night where he utterly trashes his reputation in front of the whole world and where no one is talking or thinking about the Oscar he won. What was supposed to be the crowning achievement of his career is now being talked about like it's the end of it. I don't even dislike him particularly, but that kind of chaotic self-destruction just makes me shake my head and laugh. What a fucking idiot.

I always think that the point the show was making is that being tough, competent and no-nonsense are sexy qualities. And it certainly worked for me, because Aeryn was definitely sexy. But then, so was Chiana - who, of course, was also tough and competent but she was also overtly sexual and tactile and unapologetic about it. I can see how Seven-of-Nine looks very much like eye-candy compared to Aeryn, but they shared a lot of the qualities that Valente mentions here - Seven was also severe with a deep voice and she was also all-business and competent and wasn't given lame romantic storylines until the very end of the show. But I do agree with her premise that Farscape has aged incredibly well, in a lot of ways - storylines, effects, characters but also character dynamics and content. Sure, there are some problematic bits here and there, but on the whole I think the show fares much better than other 90s shows.

If Brady wanted Arians gone, I can't believe he'd have wanted Todd Bowles, defensive coordinator, to be his replacement. Unless Tommy wants to be OC as well as QB which... actually, that wouldn't surprise me.

The only thing that would have interested me less than the Targaryen show would be one about the Iron Islanders. Honestly, a show about Robert's Rebellion or a Dunk and Egg show probably would have won me over easily, but I haven't even watched the trailer for the new show. If it gets rave reviews, I may give it a shot. I know even less about the LOTR show, other than the neckbeard subset freaking out because it had brown people in the trailer.

I think someone being an Oscar nominee or Oscar winner is still a pretty cool cachet to have, but there's no way I'd ever watch an awards ceremony. They're just full of second-hand embarrassment and overly earnest speechifying. I especially resent this year because now we've got that Scientology weirdo, Will Smith, all over everything.

Wow, that wig is terrible. It's a shame that Claire's role is being reduced, but that does mean we'll hopefully get more of the other kids (and hopefully no stunt-casting guest stars).

"Don't listen to the fucking toilet! You're a fucking toilet!" Ingrid gets some good lines on this show. And, "aw. It is great being me." Job Gerbil is a fun company name, and probably only a few years from being a real thing. But that lady was not good at acting like Ingrid. I did feel bad for Ingrid when Nathan said that it was the best day they'd ever had. Choak eating exotic animals is a fun bit. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would do just that, if they had the chance. I'm feeling bad for Yang, in that bleak, memory-limited place. Nathan's plan to redistribute wealth doesn't seem like it lasted too long. The poker scene was kind of predictable. No, Aleesha, do not start to think Luke is attractive! But of course the temp has the hots for Nathan. So they put that guy in a fat suit just so they could have the unspoken gag of him making his avatar skinnier? Okay. Glad Nora is back from Camp Boring, but her storyline really isn't compelling at all. I don't care about what the luddites are trying to do, and the actor playing Mateo is showing far less charisma in this than he did in The Expanse.

The luddite storyline is boring as shit. How did they take an actress as charismatic and fun as Andy Allo and stick her in this fucking dreary, backwoods crap? Seeing her as the temp at the dinner party showed just how good she is - completely different energy, posture, even her voice. Robbie Amell is showing more charisma this season. Playing off Ingrid with snarkiness is clearly serving him well. But Aleesha calling him a human bowl of oatmeal was absolutely spot on. The dinner party was the right kind of awkward, with Choak talking about eating children, Luke being really boring, Ingrid freaking out and the AI being utterly useless. Mildred had some good lines, complaining about things not being funny now racism isn't acceptable, blaming the Great Depression on women voting. Luke was definitely better in this episode. Being a bro to Nathan is preferable to being a creep to Aleesha. Prototykes was really creepy.

Interesting start to the season. Nora immediately and eagerly dumping the guy who was set up as a romantic rival was pretty funny. But then she immediately meets another guy, who will show her the ways of nature and a simple life. How very Hallmark. The Luddite community was very post-apocalyptic renaissance fair. I guess it's realistic that there would be people who would utterly reject the technological advances of the world. Luke is still an ass, and I'm not here for the non-romantic, non-chemistry between him and Aleesha. They'd better not have her actually fall for that twit. I still really, genuinely hate the manager lady. I don't want her on the screen at all. The less said about the hacky, trite and massively overused trope of Nora seeing Nathan and Ingrid together, the better. Please, writers, be better than that. But the reveal that Ingrid isn't actually uploaded was interesting. I'm glad about that, because committing suicide to 'live' in a digital afterlife is a really dystopian idea. Vic Michaelis is a really funny improv comedian, and I'm glad to see her getting the role of Mildred. I recommend people checking out the Comedy Bang Bang episodes she appears on.

I don't care what else he's done, to me he'll always be the guy who ruined Angel.

Yeah, I like his writing as well. Of course it has issues, and Sorkin certainly has paternalistic tendencies that are more than a little overblown (the old TWoP reviews of The Newsroom were so utterly blinkered and determined to see every scene as an attack on women that they were unreadable). But he's still capable of writing snappy, witty dialogue and relatively low-stakes drama better than most television writers. And in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with being preachy if the message is a good one. Sorkin is an idealist who presents his characters as being better than we get in the real world - Bartlet and Will McAvoy, in particular, are written as genuinely good people who have noble intentions and goals - and it's incredibly easy for cynics to pick at that and criticise.

I'm guessing the double standard is some kind of white knight proclivity - he doesn't want to see the women he likes and puts on a pedestal be victims, but he's more than happy to victimise those who don't give him what he considers proper respect and affection. And if he felt slighted by women he liked, he was probably quick to turn on them - hence the garbage treatment of Charisma Carpenter when she was written out of Angel. I've mentioned this before, but I always come back to thinking about how Whedon subtly smeared SMG after Buffy ended - comments about stars becoming difficult to work with that were clearly aimed at her - and I don't really know why he felt he had to do that, other than pure vindictiveness. Aeryn Sun wasn't the protagonist of Farscape, but she was a kickass warrior who never made apologies for being strong (or for anything, really). Chiana too, who conformed more to the 'sexy, slutty, alien girl' stereotype but she was never shamed for being sexual and open, and she was still tough, brave and loyal to her friends.

Different types of people deal with trauma in different ways. Yelena screams of overcompensating to hide what she's really feeling, which is something a lot of people do, as evidenced by the number of comedians who suffer from depression or other mental illnesses, or have endured some other traumatic experience. The Hawkeye series showed how Yelena works - she uses humour and friendliness to keep people off balance and unsure of her intentions and, while that friendliness is sometimes sincere, it still serves the purpose of giving her the upper hand in conversations. But when they get into territory that is sensitive for her - Natasha, in this example - suddenly things are not funny any more. In the real world, none of the MCU characters would be functioning human beings, after the things they've been through. But that would make for a truly miserable experience for a franchise that has a primary focus on making things fun and enjoyable. If people want navel-gazing and careful explorations of psychological damage then they're better off avoiding the MCU.

That doesn't really suggest she won't carry the legacy Black Widow moniker, just that she'll be her own person. Which we've already seen she is. She's very different to Natasha in that she uses humour as a weapon rather than sexuality, she is far more chatty and extrovert than Natasha was, she's also not as emotionally buttoned up. But they carry the same trauma and the same regrets over lives they didn't get to live and friendships they didn't get to have as adults. Also, Florence Pugh is a much more expressive actor than ScarJo and plays Yelena's ability to change moods on a dime so well.

Any new MCU show that isn't the Kate and Yelena Adventure Hour is a wasted opportunity.

Apparently Vic Michaelis is appearing in some season two episodes, in some capacity. She's a very funny improv comedian who is starting to build a profile. Really hoping she gets a few good moments.

I love the games. Can't say I'm interested in the movie. The simplistic, melodramatic and silly plots work in a videogame but I just think they're way too cheesy to make a serious movie out of. Also, Mark Wahlberg will forever be an instant miss. Especially in this role, because he's so completely wrong for Sully that I can't fathom how he got cast. He is the walking personification of belligerent blandness.

The "demon hijacks your body" thing never really held water anyway. Angel's guilt over things he did as Angelus make no sense in that case. Drusilla being driven made before she was turned makes no sense either. They all remembered everything they did, as humans and vampires. The characters were always played as being the same people they had been, but evil. But at least when Angel had a soul, his guilt kept most of his personality under wraps (handy, particularly in his Buffy days, before he'd really figured out how to act). In Angel, he started to show more of the personality traits that he'd had as a human, and that were amplified in Angelus. Spike being a completely different person, before he was turned, was kind of dumb and just added to a muddled character. If they'd been able to plan his whole character out, and had him still quoting his own shitty poetry as a vamp, it would have worked much better. Him still being wisecracking, 'charming' Spike after his soul was restored was probably due to the writers loving him so much, but the unwitting context is that he never felt bad about any of the things he did in those two hundred years of evil.

The whole All-Star weekend is as pointless and self-congratulatory as the NFL Pro Bowl, but it is fun to see Steph score fifty (mostly uncontested) points with fifteen three-pointers.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Okay. Read this book. Just do it. It's such a lovely story. Yes there's lots of hard sci-fi and scientific gubbins and a world-ending threat, but the core of it is a really heart-warming tale of two very unlikely friends coming together and saving the day. The best buddy novel I've read in a long time.