Chindie

My brother was the Trekkie, but I'll take your word for it. Certainly seems like the Walking Dead is rife with them though, which is worrying for a big show. It might benefit from dropping down a few episodes a series if it is the case.

I don't much like Fly. But either way it's still the most obvious bottle episode in history

Indeed. I'm a massive comic guy obviously and even then my last few trips to the cinema have seen me watch - a Star Wars sequel, a fairly high brow British indie production (High Rise), a shit YA dystopia sequel vehicle (the 5th Wave), a Shakespeare adaptation (Macbeth), a gritty thriller (Sicario), a Bond sequel, a Christmas movie (Krampus), 2 comic adaptations (Deadpool, BvS - and Deadpool by it's nature is a send up of the genre in essence) and a Rocky sequel. I'm sure I've missed some, and that doesn't include some of the stuff I wanted to see but didn't, like the Revenant or the Big Short or the Witch. And I'm fairly limited in my cinema tastes - I won't be seeing the latest romcom, it's very unlikely I'll see the latest subtitled critics darling. If you don't want to see the latest comic blockbuster, there's literately dozens of movies a week coming out you could see instead. And most of the time even if you want to only see comic stuff, you couldn't - they come out 4 or 5 times a year.

It's actually slightly unstated for his usual look... He's a very weird character. An action scene in one of his stories usually involves him sitting down and meditating and then loads of bizarre coloured shapes against a black background appearing as he fights things from other dimensions. Usually a giant bloke with a flaming head.

You'll be waiting well into the next decade, all the studios have pans mapped out well into the 2020s. You'll also have Star Wars spin offs filling up the cinema on an annual basis. In fairness though, there is a trend (similar the western trend of the 40s-60s) but on the scale of things, this year taking solely superhero stuff (as you'd be surprised how much stuff is based on comics - the Road to Perdition is a comic adaptation, for instance) you're looking at 5 movies this year, IIRC, and that includes Ninja Turtles. There's a sniffy narrative that sees these movies as the death of cinema or something, but they're a drop in the ocean of what is released every year.

My impression, from hearing people talk about it, is that the Walking Dead operates on the basis of having a bunch of 'bottle' episodes in essence in each series to keep the budget down, but they try make it less obvious than something like Breaking Bad, which has the most obvious bottle episode in history.

Mentioning BvS, it continued its hilarious drop off in takings this weekend by dropping 62%, which is huge. Warner Bros have countered that by saying 'it's still taking a shitload, thanks' and heavily implying, contrary to reports, that it's very likely to turn a profit very soon. They would say that though of course. And as we're on comic movies, here is Dr Strange, Baron Mordo, and whoever Hannibal/le Chiffre is playing. I commend them for making a fairly faithful Dr Strange outfit look less than absolutely absurd. Dr Strange has finished filming now so expect a trailer soon. Attached to Civil War, maybe. Should be interesting if nothing else, the Dr Strange comics are bonkers. Regarding Mads, I've an idea who he is playing, which I hope is correct because otherwise I'm concerned on the basis of the recent set photos.

I managed to play this for the first time the other day. Bearing in mind I don't really like Star Wars all that much (it wasn't a thing in my childhood really so I don't hold it dearly) and I'm rubbish at online FPS titles generally, and I never played the originals, its good fun. It's hamstrung by EA-itis, but there is something quite cool about running about the forest moon of Endor or Hoth with those sounds and effects going on all around you (the sound on it is spectacular, particularly in surround). From my largely uneducated position about the only other thing id hold against out is that some modes seem to stack things against the rebel side to the extent it's almost random if they can win. But it seems fun enough even if you're losing.

Right. Cheers both. I think it's on Amazon Prime these days so can probably get up to the 5th series at least. My concern was with it being samey. Ultimately my impression is that a zombie apocalypse probably gets pretty dull in fairly short order and therefore 6 series of that would probably burn out pretty quickly. There's only so many episodes where nothing happens I can take.

I wish I liked the Walking Dead. The girlfriend loves it, her family loves it, a bunch of colleagues love it, but it's never grabbed me. I watched the first series, then heard the second was shite, so didn't bother with it. Is it worth struggling past the second series?

Yeah I hadn't done much reading on it, in fairness, but you are right. I can only assume either more details have emerged on it making it look dodgier (if that's possible - the fund appears to have been exceptionally clear about is intentions as a tax dodge) or nobody paid any attention to it in 2012, but now it's involved in something obviously shady it's sexier news. Iceland's PM didn't handle things very well when mildly pressed on this...

It's actually starting to look like there more Western exposure than initially noted. France Australia and the UK are amongst the nations looking into it, and David Cameron's late father is in the files.

See, I thought Elektra was incredibly irritating, and far too thin. In a straight fight I think I go Karen... But each to their own

The press will get bored no matter what you do. Protests aren't important, or sexy. If the protests carry on into next season, that will quickly become an 'and finally' to match reports, and then ignored. Because nobody cares about Villa fans, or any fans, having a demonstrated moan for the umpteenth week. My point was more that is easier to draw people into a routine. Particularly if it's something very easy to do, people are inherently lazy so something like 'whistles out on X significant minute' isn't likely to get mass interest because nobody is going to bring their own whistle. Especially if last week it was banners, or walk outs, or tennis balls, or a party. It confuses people. You ultimately want as many people involved as possible, and the key to that is make it bloody simple, and consistent.

I have wondered whether the smart watch might be the shortest lived tech fad since 3d TVs.

I think the whole protest thing might benefit from picking a protest type and sticking to it, making a routine of taking up seats late or leaving early or whatever.

She changes in attractiveness scene to scene. There's scenes where she has that sexy secretary thing going on hard, and there others where she looks a bit weird, gangly and dowdy. It doesn't help that her eyebrows change colour constantly throughout the series as well, sometimes going so light as to almost look like she's shaved them off, which never looks good, and the show often portrays her as incredibly whingy and a bit thick which certainly didn't help.

What did you make of it? I personally think the second series is more consistent than the first but doesn't have the same highs (or lows) of the first either. I also agree with D1 that the show suffers with the same problems across the series, but series 2 for me suffers more for not having a villain that stands up the Kingpin's heights, and for the odd dual storyline that has one clearly interesting story, and one meh one.

He's so much of a fanboy he married Lisa Marie Presley because he loves her dad, and called his son Kal-El because he adores Superman. He's a very odd bloke. But in the right role, he's not a completely bad actor. It's just the right role is once in a blue moon these days.

Thanks both. The house isn't terribly big, 50s semi detached 3 bed so there's not going to be anything like the number of rads needed for somewhere line Davkaus' colleagues place. I also may be able to get rads at cheaper price due to a family friends contact, which might keep the price down. I'm used to the house being cold and we have cavity wall and improved loft insulation done which helps, but others less used to it are less happy with the situation and it does need doing ultimately so will probably just get the lot done once I've got everything in order. Genuinely wasn't aware British Gas would do a full installation, I'll have a look into that.

Anyone know much about having central heating installed? I've never had central heating, the house is a 50s build with the only fixed heating being a gas fire in the living room. My dad always wanted to add in a proper system which typically just never happened (he also wanted to rewire the house as the electrics here have been fiddled with numerous times over the years and 50s wiring doesn't have the best record...), however at the moment the gas fire, which is only a few years old and was shit from day one, isn't working and the hot water system, an immersion heater and also quite new, is playing up as well. Increasingly it looks like I might just have to bite the bullet. Unfortunately I've no idea about this stuff or where to begin, other than the obvious that's it's going to be a nightmare to install and cost a shitload.

It's more likely that the box will incorporated into the new product.

The embarrassment that you might have been able to see (they were on screen for a fleeting moment that I saw) probably had as much, if not more, to do with the shameful crap on the pitch I think. That's a bigger problem for them than some extra bin bags post match day.

'Champions league, you're having a laugh'

Absolutely nailed on... At least there was a fiver on it...