How did fans feel about the first two episodes of "Maul: Shadow Lord?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9SaDHmTm1k

Hey Thor,

I enjoyed the first two episodes well enough, and the animation is very good, but the story hasn’t blown me away yet.

I find myself asking why I want to watch this show. Normally, a show needs likeable characters, which was a problem I had with Solo: A Star Wars Story, because I didn’t find most of the characters—such as Lando, Qi’ra, Tobias, and L3—to be very likeable.

In MSL, Devon is likeable, and I’m still undecided about Maul, since he’s supposed to be evil.  Of course, I want to see what Maul is up to, since he’s such an important character in Star Wars, but so far I have an uneasy feeling that the story might be a bit mundane.

Of course, the show might turn out really good.

Best wishes,

John Coffey

Movies: Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi

https://letsallgotothemovie.blogspot.com/2026/04/star-wars-obi-wan-kenobi.html

Harry Potter HBO Trailer (FULL BREAKDOWN)

The films were great.  Why remake them?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiBMePvzV2s

The Bad Batch Is Beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPS6ztLIwQA

Nicholas Brendon dies at 54: Cause of death revealed

I was a fan of Nicholas Brendon because he played Xander Harris on the series Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  This is a far better show than most people realize, and he played an important character.

After the series, he reportedly had trouble getting roles and struggled with alcoholism.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/nicholas-brendon-dies-at-54-cause-of-death-revealed/ar-AA1Z75JQ

The Buffy director and writer Joss Whedon has been brilliant in most of the shows and movies he has worked on.  However, he has fallen out of favor in Hollywood for claims of being abusive to some actors.

What Rob Reiner Told Jerry O’Connell Changed Everything!

Jerry O'Connell was in Stand By Me.  I liked him from the TV show Sliders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxlOi2KLOGE

Best science fiction franchises

Thor Skywalker

Not including Star Wars, what would you consider your favorite "franchise" and why?

@john2001plus

0 seconds ago

Star Trek is arguably the king of franchises, with 13 movies and 13 TV series. 

 Doctor Who has spanned over six decades. I don't like any of the older episodes, but the 2005 reboot hit its peak around 2010, giving us some fantastic stories. After that, the show slowly declined. In recent years, it has been terrible. The series hasn't been officially canceled yet, but it is barely on life support. The BBC nearly canceled it until Disney+ picked it up, but now Disney+ seems to have washed its hands of it. 

 An honorable mention should go to Stargate, which includes one barely passable movie and three TV series. Stargate SG-1 ran for ten seasons, followed by three made-for-TV movies. For years, there have been rumors of a new series or reboot. The franchise isn't dead yet, but it feels like it has done everything it can with its premise. 

 Battlestar Galactica has had four series, although the earlier ones from 1979 and 1980 are too corny by today's standards. However, the 2004 series might be the best science fiction TV show ever made. A reboot/sequel was in development at one point but was ultimately canceled.

Hugh Laurie on the biggest difference between the UK & US

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV4TO0lCNPk

Nathan Fillion Says 'Firefly' Animated Series In Development

https://deadline.com/2026/03/nathan-fillion-firefly-animated-series-development-1236754122/

Nathan Fillion plays a cop on TV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2u5NPDYKd4&t=296s


@pollycide5760
2 weeks ago 
That's an average Friday night interaction between bars for Canadians like Fillion


@grandmofftaylor
2 weeks ago
Correct

Not Another Star Trek Prequel! Star Trek: Year One

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mn20Ys9V30

It has appeared to me that the current Star Trek series, Strange New Worlds, was working toward rebooting the original Star Trek series.  The show has introduced new actors for Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and Scotty.

Traitors Are Hard to Spot

This is from 1923, a prequel to Yellowstone.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fC8h4BgsEY

Wow. This is pretty good. I'm going to have to watch the show.  There is Helen Mirren and Robert Patrick, both looking older.  And Harrison Ford is in the show too.

The plan for "The Acolyte" Season Two would've destroyed Star Wars...

https://youtu.be/D0EQWVPjyMk?si=Q_yiYeriSGmmtUbM

@john2001plus
Hey Thor,

I don't think that the first six episodes of The Acolyte were bad. I don't think they were great either, but I enjoyed them well enough. However, the show failed to stick any kind of landing, with episode 7 being terrible and episode 8 questionable for all sorts of reasons.

I tried to make the case that the show doesn't throw the Jedi under the bus. That is not how I saw it. Instead, I saw it as a handful of Jedi who had gotten in over their heads and didn't handle a situation well. (The real world tends to be messy, so maybe in the fictional world as well.) That is hardly a condemnation of all Jedi. Likewise, it was kind of telling the story from the bad guy's point of view. You responded to my comments in a video by doubling down on the notion that the show throws the Jedi under the bus. Again, that's not how I saw it.

I assumed that Leslye Headland had been taken out of context by some YouTubers, since her early interview turned people against the show before it had even come out. However, with this most recent interview, I have to concede the point. Apparently, she really was throwing the Jedi under the bus.

I can't find the interview, but I've read some people's comments about it, so I don't have the full context. Perhaps Yoda felt political pressure to make the Jedi look good, but this is not a characterization of Yoda that I like.

Best wishes,

John Coffey

Richard Burton on how he had to correct his speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4og6UG2oJuY

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy TV Series 2026

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8622160/episodes/

The reviews for Starfleet Academy have been terrible.  This is from people watching the show, but the 9nth episode got a favorable score.  

Notice that the number of reviewers drops considerably as the series progresses.

Who are you? | Stargate Atlantis: 5x11 'The Lost Tribe'

This is a cool moment in one of the Stargate series.  There were many cool moments and three different series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj-0wx9joUw

For years there have been rumors of a franchise reboot, but it hasn't happened yet. 

The original movie had mixed to negative reviews, although I personally liked it and saw it around 7 times, but the spinoff TV shows developed a large fan base.

Crazy photos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tclyX2FEfk

The Real Monsters Aren’t the Infected

I was always a fan of Graham Greene who passed away recently.  He was in Dance With Wolves along with a few other movies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-xv_0avJJQ

This is from the Zombie streaming series, "The Last of Us", which is adapted from a video game.  I assumed that this was one of Graham Greene's final roles, but according to IMDB, he had dozens of recent roles.

Tragic Details About How I Met Your Mother Star Alyson Hannigan

On Thu, Mar 5, 2026 at 3:18 AM Larry wrote:

https://www.looper.com/2115473/alyson-hannigan-how-i-met-your-mother-star-tragic-details/ 

The title seems like click bait.

I've been a fan of Alyson Hannigan since Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On that show she played a nerdy character. The first actress looked the part, but she didn't work out, so they hired Alyson Hannigan, who Joss Whedon described as someone who "looks like a supermodel."

She later ended up on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, which IMDb lists her as a producer.

Why paying attention to detail matters - BBC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzICJDENBnM

Geordi with a beard, why?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJJaPmQrbB8

Why are Star Trek consoles filled with rocks?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvpWUBMUo8U

Star Trek has a LOT of ghosts...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WnZmY84heE

"Risk is Our Business" - speech explaining what Star Trek is about

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIU3HrCCT2k

#show #yellowstone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plLvvWgtWtg

@PaulFinestone-l6q
10 days ago
The Battle of the Wilderness (May 5–7, 1864) was the opening clash of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign against Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Virginia. Fought in thick, tangled woods, the brutal, often hand-to-hand, three-day battle resulted in over 28,000 combined casualties and ended in a tactical stalemate.

This Minute Speech is Better Than Entire Sci-Fi Shows

One of the highlights of Babylon 5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRXQAcmRN5E

Ambassador G'Kar and Ambassador Mollari were bitter enemies, as were their peoples, but years later aligned with each other for a common purpose and to achieve peace.

G'Kar was played by Andreas Katsulas, who was maybe the most brilliant actor on the series.  He played the one-armed man in The Fugitive movie.  He occasionally played a villain on Star Trek.

Sam Witwer and Katee Sackhoff joke about William Shatner forgetting his lines in Star Trek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ55ZWNWCY0

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy ratings are bad

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8622160/episodes/?ref_=tt_eps

The Woodstone Bed-and-Breakfast welcomed its first guest

I started watching the whole episode last night.  I only got as far as 22 seconds into this video, but it really cracked me up. 

From the show "Ghosts".  The house is haunted.  The lady is the only one who can see the ghosts.  I think that she resembles Sarah Michelle Geller as Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

The person who says, "Hold up..." is a ghost.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIdPMnkz090

Ghosts TV show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYObl5HDsLo

YouTube has shown me so many videos of this show, I'm going to check it out.

Rose Marie: Al Capone's Lunch: A Kid's Unforgettable Mob Encounter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMHDvTRomUs

Rose Marie is most famous for her role on the Dick Van Dyke show.  She started as a child performer in Vaudeville, and reportedly in places that had some associations with gangsters.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAjeil0x8hw/?hl=en