Michael*

The Mourinho philosophy is fine in a "if we're winning then who cares" kind of way but when things start to unravel, a bit of honesty should always kick in, only it never seems to with Jose. I thought after his sacking from Chelsea that if he'd done a bit of soul searching about his part in what went wrong, he could have led United back to the top. Instead the United job seemed to take his ego to another level. The only real surprise is that it was allowed to carry on for so long.

It's a bit of a mix-up of feelings really, but there's no question that the documentary captures exactly how and why we ended up where we are today. Ellis Short is cast as the villain of the piece of course, which might be a little harsh, because he could easily have come out of it quite well had he given an interview saying that he'd been advised badly and couldn’t justify ploughing any more money in. Doubly so considering how much he’d already invested in a revolving door of players, managers and directors. In the end, I suppose you'd have to say that he did right by us by cancelling the debts.  That being said, Donald and Methven have shown far more business savvy in six months than Short showed in most of his spell as chairman, and our pursuit of Ross McCormack highlighted that most clearly for me. If there was no chance of us paying close to the market rate for McCormack (I think I'm right in thinking that he cost Villa upwards of £10m?) then we should have had other options to pursue on deadline day, and that should have been obvious to someone in Bain's position. Compare that to our interest in Mo Eisa earlier this year, when we were priced out of a deal he went on to join Bristol City, while we signed an alternative in Charlie Wyke a week later. Despite all that, Bain actually came across as far more likeable than I thought. He cut a comical figure at times, out of his depth and on an astronomical salary, but his reactions to certain things, like the Rodwell debacle (in front of a surprised Ashley Fletcher, who’d just signed) could scarcely have been more in tune with the average Sunderland fan. He obviously had some investment in his position with our club, and clearly felt the pain of things going as badly as they did. What was your take, Fred? Did you see things differently watching as a non-Sunderland fan?

No secret that Neymar can come across as a bit of a wazzock at times, but I still enjoy watching him. For all the accusations of diving, ego and indulgence he never shies away from a game, regardless of how he's playing. That takes some guts. Even if he is just in it for himself, the result is a fanatically driven sportsman. As much as we all probably like a guy like Ronaldinho more and rightly so, imagine how much longer he'd have had at the top with Neymar's drive. This lad will almost certainly end up as Brazil's all-time leading goalscorer and I think it would be fair to say that they've had some players down the years.

By scheduling it just a couple of months prior to Avengers 4, I feel like they've already ensured big numbers at the box office. There'll be no way to avoid spoilers for the four or five months that it'll take for the digital release to appear, so Captain Marvel should be an essential cinema visit for folks who want to keep up with the continuity. With something like Aquaman, it could go either way. They might be shooting for something that just isn't possible to do well on the big screen.

Definitely, I think expectations in general will be fairly high considering the movie's implied importance to the ongoing arc. I feel like the mood they were going for with the first trailer was something slightly meandering and ponderous, almost like a hard sci-fi angle. This second one perhaps has more of a conventional superhero feel, so it'll interesting to see where we end up.

Trailer 2 is upon us.

First official trailer

I have high hopes for this one. The promotional material released to date suggests a playful and bright movie with a distinctly entertaining vibe and of course, it's another stellar cast.

Captain Marvel Release Date: March 8, 2019 (US) Director: Ryan Fleck Synopsis Carol Danvers becomes one of the universe's most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. Cast Brie Larson - Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel Jude Law - Walter Lawson / Mar-Vell Gemma Chan - Minn-Erva Samuel L. Jackson - Nick Fury Lee Pace - Ronan the Accuser Djimon Hounsou - Korath Ben Mendelsohn - Talos Clark Gregg - Phil Coulson Annette Bening Robert Kazinsky

My guess is that it would have been considered a fairly mediocre entry into the comic book genre if not for Tom Hardy, whose dual performance has a great, improvised quality. He really throws himself into it, it just feels somewhat wasted in an otherwise incoherent story. There's a chance, if the movie makes money (which apparently, it's been doing in China), that we may see a stronger sequel in the future. As long as they make their minds up whether they want it to be sci-fi body horror, a 'grimdark' superhero flick or a goofy romantic comedy, that is.

Thanos - 'I just killed half the Marvel universe' Netflix - 'Hold my beer'

It's funny with this one, because the reaction I saw before going in was very mixed, not even really collectively but individual fans seemed mostly unsure on what they thought of it. I felt the same way, I certainly had a blast with parts of it but overall it's probably not coherent enough to call a great film or perhaps even a good one. Seems like the sort of thing that could gather a pretty loyal cult following going forward.

S3 was probably my favorite season yet. Very good story, good villains, superb fight choreography. Bullseye done right, Sister Maggie done right. Karen and Foggy at last given plenty of time to shine. It'll be a considerable bummer when Netflix presumably announce the show's cancellation.

Here's the final trailer, too. It could be fun but what works on the page doesn't automatically translate into film, they may have tried something that simply isn't possible to do in this way. I guess I’ll wait for the reviews to appear before deciding on whether it'll be worth a watch or not.

The classic costume making an appearance there. How did I miss that Willem Dafoe was in this?

If I could have my ultimate pick for some Agents of Shield continuity to be featured in Captain Marvel, it'd be to learn more about the Kree specimen that was the source of the revival process used on Coulson. It'd be a nice way to bring everything full circle. Not that it'll happen, but I'd love to see May in the mix too. What with the character being portrayed by the apparently immortal Ming Na Wen, they could save tons of money in CGI costs.

Oh, most definitely. With Phoenix to help solidify the Joker's origins, divorced from the other DC universe movies, and using a particular cinematic style, there's a chance this could turn out to be really refreshing. For what it's worth, I'm pulling for them to get it right.

As pleasantly surprised as I was by the movie, I must confess that none of the promotional materials had gotten me excited beforehand. I think if the trailers had been decent, hardcore fans would still have showed up to see it, despite the mixed reception for Last Jedi. For me, the hype for this was hampered because we kind of already knew where Han, Chewie and Lando would end up and had already heard the references to all the beats. Compare that to something like Rogue One, where we knew the story arc but had no idea about any of the characters, this seemed about as obvious and straightforward as a launching point for a character can be.

I would definitely expect it to borrow some of the emotional tones and plot points of Killing Joke, although I guess we'll have to see how they choose to weave the 'young Bruce Wayne' angle into the narrative. It’s a piece of casting that the fans will have fun debating, I'm sure, but I hope it doesn't pull the focus too much.

Yeah, since the show has slowly inched away from having to tie in with the big screen MCU stuff, it seems very deliberate that S6 is going to be airing post Captain Marvel and Avengers 4. I must confess though, even though it's probably a logistical nightmare to oversee, I really miss the interconnected plot points.

I wasn't familiar with Florence at all beforehand but despite the limited role allowed for her, she made Sinara into a memorable character. Hardly speaking but communicating so much through body language.

One of the things I always appreciated about AoS is that the plot threads never really linger on for more than a few weeks at a time, although parts of S5 became a bit laborious with all the hand wringing by Yo-Yo, Mack and Dove Cameron. That being said, I must confess, I was so sucked in by the thing with Fitz towards the end that I found myself completely forgetting about the subsequent reveal. It was a nice little “caught you not paying attention” moment.

So, a lot of the fans were put out when it was announced over the weekend that Cage won't be returning for a third season, and mildly accepting after the same thing happened with Iron Fist a few days beforehand. It's going to leave a lot of the characters and supporting casts in limbo, that's for sure. Would a Heroes for Hire and Daughters of the Dragon crossover be too much to ask? Cage and Rand had pretty decent chemistry in S2 of Iron Fist.