Michael*

It feels like he's taken the manic intensity of Ledger, the gleeful insanity of Hamill, and the charm of Nicholson and put it all in a blender. At this point, I'd sooner give him a shot as the Joker on the big screen than have Jared Leto reprise the role.

It's a virtual certainty that I'll have forgotten at least two thirds of the plotlines by then.

Some of the recent episodes tested my patience a bit, but I managed to muddle through. For some reason, the writing in an already pretty wacky show suddenly became very erratic and rushed, particularly in terms of character motivations (Leslie's flip-flop on having Jim murdered, Falcone's nonchalance about his son's death etc). The handling of Jerome has been my highlight so far, Monaghan is doing an excellent job.

Well, it's not a story the Democrats would tell you, it's a Republican legend. Darth Trump was a dark lord of the right, and had such a knowledge of alternative facts that he could even keep the more conventional candidates who he campaigned against, from winning. He became so powerful that the only thing he was afraid of was finding a reputable recording artist to perform at his inauguration, which eventually of course, he did (ish). Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice Darth Bannon everything he knew, and the apprentice took over the government while he slept. It's ironic, he could save others from extreme vetting, but not himself. Sad.

It's another giant red flag that people are being removed for trying to uphold the law. At this point, I'm half expecting Trump to start tweeting the story of Darth Plagueis the wise.

With respect, the kind of 'whataboutery' put forth by people like Watson (whose delivery is atrocious by the way, he sounds like he's reading an instruction manual out loud and switching between sarcasm and needless aggro whenever he turns a page) is the sort of thing we really need to start moving away from at this point. The world has to find a way of rationally discussing this stuff without simply pointing the finger at the lunatic fringe of the opposite side, or the flaws of the other guy. All politicians are flawed, in the same way that all people are flawed, but it doesn’t mean they’re all the same, there’s still a question of extent. No other president has refused to release their tax returns or categorically stated that they’re not bound by any real obligations regarding conflicts of interest (arguably no other president has ever had potential conflicts of interest on this scale). No other president has refused to be interviewed by CNN or the BBC and then immediately afterwards fielded questions from his own pet media organisation about what steps he wants to take in order to silence the press. Clinton had all manner of issues too of course, but she’s not in the race any more, and nothing she's done excuses Trump’s behaviour. Doubly so after he campaigned so hard on the basis of being an alternative to her crookedness. None of this is a partisan thing for me, I couldn't give anything approaching a monkeys about him being a Republican, and it's irrelevant who I agree with on US economic policy. This is about the integrity of the political system, and if any candidate had said and done half of this stuff it would still worry the hell out of me. I sincerely hope he calms down as the months start to slip by and does all the good things it’s possible he may do, but it’s not been an auspicious start.

Musicals just really aren't my cup of tea in any way, shape or form, but it's a Supergirl-Flash crossover and I still fondly recall the ice cream moment on a virtual daily basis, therefore I'm willing to give this a shot. I'm glad David Harewood is going to be in it, too. You just know he’ll have the best reactions to everyone else suddenly bursting into song.

Surely that would call the omissions of Turkey and Egypt into question then, because both countries have experienced high-profile terror attacks in the last year.

It certainly couldn't have been done in response to nationals from those seven countries committing acts of terrorism on American soil, because they haven’t. Although many of the countries listed have either been bombed, invaded or overthrown by the USA. The order seems to be based on two basic principles. That Muslims are guilty until proven innocent, which is blatant discrimination and xenophobia dressed up as policy, and that terrorism correlates only with foreign-born people, which is very obviously wide of the mark.

If I were you, I'd do myself a favour and quit while I was behind. You know exactly why you were given the warning point and your only argument for having it removed is "I've been here for a long time and deserve special treatment".

Mixed feelings when I read this one. Yes, if Joker had been the main antagonist, it would certainly have made the movie more grounded in reality. But that would have also meant more Joker, and I didn't really care much for Leto's take on the character. http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/01/22/suicide-squad-director-david-ayer-wishes-hed-made-joker-the-main-villain

Very welcome everyone. Same time next year?

I think I'm going to go with 'Ewok Finale' from now on. I do like that they've gone for a kind of Last Samurai vibe with the new title, where Jedi could refer to either a singular or plural noun. Adds a dash of mystery to the proceedings, which is never a bad thing.

Love it. Wait, does this mean we can't refer to Return of the Jedi as simply 'Jedi' any more?

Overall, I think the show is very much a case of peaks and troughs. The second season was decent to good, the third wasn't quite as good. Fourth season wasn't good at all, although Neal McDonough gave a fun, scenery-chewing performance as Damien Darkh. This season has been a real refresh from the direction of the previous one, with a couple of episodes that I would go so far as to say were genuinely excellent. Do you watch The Flash at all? When it gets dour, it can be a bit of a yawn at times, but when it's having fun with the material, I generally enjoy it more than Arrow. Jesse L. Martin, Carlos Valdes and Tom Cavanagh are all pretty terrific.

As ever, thanks a million to everyone who took the time to cast votes, leave comments and generally play a part in the proceedings. Commence celebrations or gnashing of teeth now.

And the winner is! 1 (2) Josephine Skriver 451pts

The Results (Top 5) 2 (5) Taylor Hill 416pts

The Results (Top 5) 3 (4) Elsa Hosk 344pts

The Results (Top 5) 4 (7) Lais Ribeiro 341pts

The Results (Top 5) 5 (3) Adriana Lima 303pts

Dearly beloved, the moment of truth has arrived. Here comes the top five...

Blake Lively [1] Eva Green [3]

I take what you're saying on board. Certainly, the title of the topic isn't meant to be taken too seriously, however not all the posts inside are jokey ones. There's been a lot of serious discussion going on too.

We're going round in circles here. To clarify in case I haven't done a good job of explaining myself, I didn't say a topic or subforum dedicated to politics was a bad idea. I said the staff hadn't reached any official decision on whether or not we should have one, which as far as I'm aware is still the case. The reorganisation of a few posts in the interim was meant to address the aforementioned concerns about political discussions in GenTalk, albeit in a small way.