marksbros6

Putting games out in a ‘broken’/incomplete state seems to be the norm now (thinking FIFA 20 Career mode). Pointless Trumpeting the new features if the base game doesn’t work. ’Never Mind we’ll patch it in 3 months...’

I like the satirical political edge the show has, seems appropriate for a character that's about 'Truth, Justice and the American Way...' Not much in here about the most recent episode:

To be honest if Capaldi is going...I'd quite like to see a 'Doctor of the week' season really. A series of one-off stories over several regenerations (that occur in-between stories in previous seasons) with an over-arching arc-plot. Cast Sean Pertwee as the Third Doctor, David Bradley as the First Doctor, bring back Smith and Tennant for one-off episodes. Have maybe 4 episodes with a pre-Time War Paul McGann, involve Tom Baker as the Curator/Future Doctor and (if bridges could be mended) have an appearance by Christopher Eccleston. Try and set it at times where the Doctor could conceivably have been travelling alone and have one companion meet him over all those time periods, so the story is told through them and we see things happen chronologically from their viewpoint. Then have the series finale bring all of them together (or as many of them as the Beeb can afford/sensibly include in the storytelling) to face that season's 'big bad'. Would make a change from the established story-telling and might give the show a bit of a kick up the backside story-telling wise?

I'd wear that T-shirt... ...I mean, while watching the show? It could replace my current 'Comedian' T-shirt I've been sporting ever since Negan and his 'shit-eatin' grin turned up on the show...

I wondered how they did Tarkin when I was watching the movie, it wasn't quite lifelike to me, but really good CGI. I originally thought it might have been Wayne Pygram (Scorpius himself) performing the role again with some appliances to make him resemble Cushing more? I think it will be fairly glaring comparing it to a photograph of the great man himself, but for the purposes of the film I can't complain. Same with the Leia cameo, though there was less time for it to register with the tiny amount of screentime. Regarding Vader: I think he was very much the Emperor's right-hand man in this part of the timeline, but kept separate from the Imperial Military. I always viewed him as something of a wild-card in the first movie and really enjoyed the 'hinted' relationship between him and Tarkin (which was explored in some of the EU, though not sure if it's still canon) in that Tarkin is the only one who will stand-up to him in 'ANH'. In retrospect there was always the idea (looking back from later movies) that Tarkin and Vader were on a similar level in the Emperor's eyes (born out from the 3 of them inspecting the Death Star together at the end of 'Revenge of the Sith') with Tarkin being the Military-Leader and Vader being the Dark Acolyte. In the later movies I'd see it as Vader having assumed both roles after the death of Tarkin, being akin to a 'Commander-in-Chief' in the Imperial Military in 'Empire' and taking charge of overseeing the second Death Star in 'RotJ'. Loved the film, all the call-backs, Jimmy Smits(!) and the 'classic' era ships cutting loose in a movie with modern production values. Even little nods like 'Red 5' buying in in the battle (thus explaining why the callsign was 'free' for Luke when he joins up) and I'm sure there was a tannoy for 'General Sendulla' at one point on the Yavin Hanger?

Never saw Dexter but Sons of Anarchy was a great show for me, but went on about a season and a half too long. There's plenty they can do with this universe, lots of stories to tell. they shouldn't sacrifice the ending to THIS story by dragging it out too long. Plenty of the actors are going to be getting interest from other projects as well, for many of the actors GoT will have been their big break so it's only a matter of time before they will get offers, other roles, too good to refuse. A prequel would be interesting, or simply show what's happening in another part of the world away from the spotlight of the 'main' characters for a follow-up series.

For me, I emotionally checked-out of Arrow last season about when Felicity decided she was really in love with Ollie (when she was in a relationship with Ray Palmer) and broke up with him, to travel with Ollie and crew to Nanda Parbat to try to stop him becoming Ra'iSH Al-Ghul (lol never knew that was how it was pronounced) because of luuuurve. It was done in the space of a few scenes (literally breaks up with Ray, flies to N.P, ends up in bed with Ollie iirc) and just felt really false? Same criticism of Ollie and Felicity breaking up, it felt like it was done purely for drama and so they can reconcile down the line. Up to that point (Ollie and Felicity getting together) I think the show had a nice groove. Both with its developing mythology, the relationships between the characters. I thought Ray and Felicity had good chemistry together actually, certainly more natural than Ollie and Felicity and I always felt they were put together for the benefit of the 'shippers' watching the show and commenting online rather than the story, I think the characters make better friends than they do a couple, it's like Batman dating Oracle? Ollie is this-universe' Batman effectively, I just feel he's lost his focus on 'the mission' and now the series resembles more of a soap-opera than an action-show, the bad-guys and 'saving the city' is almost in the background this season where before the 'family dramas' have all been a distraction from the main-story, an 'added extra' and that format worked and made the show so engaging. Speaking of Oracle; Felicity was WAY more interesting when she was paralysed? (That sounds mean)! But it gave her character an arc, something to struggle against, and suddenly BOOM, cured with nanites! I know it's a fantasy show, but it would have been better to explore the consequences of it, it would have given Ollie a chink in his bad-ass armour (as Felicity was in a wheelchair because of him, his 'failure'). Instead it's almost like 'hey remember when Darkh attacked us and you were paralysed for a couple of weeks there?' I could have the same criticism of Arrow being back in action last year so soon after his duel with Ra's as well. He goes from 'Stabbed in the chest' to 'swinging on ropes' in the space of a few episodes. Show him doing re-hab, physical therapy, falling off the damn salmon ladder! You don't just shrug off being stabbed in the chest, even in peak physical condition. I also never got the level of hate for Katie Cassady/Laurel? Yeah there were times when her character wasn't great, but then the whole series took time to find it's feet. And this was a damaged character, losing her sister at a young age, divorced parents, alcoholic father, addictions of her own? So she was unpredictable, and unreasonable as a character and people didn't like that but for me that somehow made her more 'real' in a way. Then she found her sister, and lost her all over again and I think that's when the writers realised what they wanted to do with her. Of course the backlash then was that Sara Lance's character had been killed off and Laurel was 'replacing her' but it all led to the stand-out moment (and it was the last truely powerful scene in the show for me) of her digging up her sister's corpse, flying to Nanda Parbat and immersing it in the Lazarus Pit to bring her back. Wow. From then I think Laurel was my favourite character on the show (Especially with Ollie/Arrow ever more marginalised), she effectively took the lead of the team when Ollie and Felicity skipped town to be happy in suburbia. For me writing the show I'd have kept Felicity with Ray, she didn't win Ollie back from the League anyway with luuuurve it was all part of his plan to join them. And with Ray off with the Legends have her be paralysed. Let the story run. People end up in wheelchairs in real life and don't have a magic-wand make them all better. When Ray gets back and finds out, deal with him being angry at Ollie for not protecting her, have him feel guilty himself for not being able to save another woman he loved. Give the characters real dramas to agonise over. Relatable. Not 'you didn't tell me about your son that you never knew about who's Mum was blackmailing you not to tell anyone about...' You don't need the grave. They re-visited that grave scene so many times before we found out who was in it. Such a cheap writing trick, what's wrong with subtle forshadowing? Laurel's death would have had so much more impact if no-one knew a character was going to die! Don't have Laurel die. Have Felicity being paralysed as Ollie's big failure. Put Felicity in a glass case in the Batcave a-la the Robin Costume...an airtight one (jokes). But turn that into a big thing. It should have been a big thing! Is anyone going to even remember her in the wheelchair? Have Ollie guilty for his failure because he took his eye off the ball and got his friends hurt. Have him become Batman in a green hood for all intents and purposes, driven, relentless about saving the city, beating up petty thieves. Give him a vicious edge, return him to being THE VIGILANTE. THEN the story could be how Laurel (the only girlfriend/ex-girlfriend of Ollie's on the show who we've never 'seen' him with since his return) brings him back from that. Always thought that Laurel/Ollie was the relationship the show was building to, after he sailed off with her sister, got stuck on an island for years then came back from the dead. And Amell/Cassidy always looked very natural with one another when they've shared screen-time IMO, I always really bought that these were two characters with a LOT of history who knew one-another the best. Can't see that Laurel would have left Ollie after finding out about his son and the circumstances around it because they've overcome worse (presumed dead, cheating with her sister, sister presumed dead, OMG you're actually The Arrow...). Flash, by contrast, has been all about dealing with the BIG BAD this season. Girlfriend for Barry, how he and Iris feel towards one another is all good, but it's been an aside to 'How are we going to beat ZOOM. HE'S STILL OUT THERE" (Ok so maybe that phrase was a bit over-used this year). It's a shame that both shows, that share a writing room, haven't been able to deliver the same quality.

Well, it was going to struggle with living up to expectation. It was typical Doctor Who though with a few 'false reveals' and eventually using the Tesselector robot which we'd already seen to 'dodge' the Doctor's death. In that respect it was quite well-structured. I suspect it will hold up to repeated viewings better than the original run-through, sometime the anticipation of the ending will spoil the overall experience? I think if it was a 2-parter it might have been more fun to explore the 'world where history is happening all-at-once'. Was a fun concept and interesting to see characters pop up in different roles. Glad we got to see Amy and Rory in the finale too. Was a pleasent surprise with them being left off the teaser. And the ending hinted at some BIG happenings to come. Gonna have to re-watch 'Silence in the Library' AGAIN now. Wonder if River really whispered The Doctor's name in his ear in that episode? Or 'Look in my eye?' Lol

Shadow stripes and blue-collar? Was a nice one.

Was thinking that actually. Can we call the kit 'cursed' yet? Bad move to move away from the traditional (and wildly popular) red shirts anyway but for those of us who are superstitions it doesn't bode well that it's already 'unlucky'. Though I suppose there is only so much Umbro could think of to do with a red shirt?