Picard is going to suck. It’s a bastardization of the character, reduced to catchphrases and some Borg plot. The question is, why? Why is it being made? Because member-berries? Because the carnival of 80’s nostalgia that’s been gripping us since the late 90’s just Will Not Die? Because J.J. Abrams ruined Star Trek and no… Read More Things That Are Going to Suck
Stranger Things is starting not to get the 80’s right. Probably it never did. Nostalgia coasts on dusting off old images, making people say “Hey, remember this!” and that’s only fun if it’s in the brightest possible colors. So much of the charm of Stranger Things lay in seeing boys riding around on bicycles, unattended, just… Read More Quick Review: Stranger Things 3
Over at Ace of Spades. I did not realize that The Sixth Sense would have been the #1 film that year were it not for Star Wars. I haven’t seen it in forever, but I have a feeling I wouldn’t dislike it on rewatch (my favorite film from that year, however, remains Fight Club). And, here’s… Read More A Smart Analysis of The Sixth Sense
The Kingdoms of Bran the Broken is neither a Kingdom nor is it Bran’s. Discuss. This analysis, from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, argues that the introduction of Elective Monarchy to Westeros, and especially the election of Bran Stark as its first elected king, is doomed to failure. The reasons are as follows: With the… Read More Bran Stark is Hosed – A Reasonable Prediction From the End of Game of Thrones
In retrospect, both of the statements in this headline invite a “duh” response. HBO’s current stock-in-trade is prestige TV series, and it’s been apparent since the second season of True Detective that prestige television is an exercise in miserabilism. Nothing good can happen and everyone of value has to die or lose what they love unless… Read More HBO’s Chernobyl is Misery Porn, and Therefore Largely Inaccurate
I detest serial killers. By which I mean, I detest the attention paid to them by popular culture. There is a sickness in being as aware of them as we are, something concupiscent in our fascination with twisted pyschopathy. That being said, I am hardly less guilty. I regard From Hell (the graphic novel, not the movie)… Read More Quick Review: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile
I spent a day angry about the Game of Thrones finale. I won’t go into the why, because I’m going to write something larger on that topic later on. Put me in the group of fans that found it highly unsatisfying and leave it at that. Many of those same people have been saying that the… Read More When You Need the Tropes – Game of Thrones Edition
It’s a longish post, but well worth your time. In science fiction stories, there are a limited number of ways to explain the conundrum of how time travel can work in a world where there is both the appearance of free will and the appearance of cause and effect. I doubt I can list all… Read More John C. Wright on Time Travel: An Absurdity Wrapped in a Non-Starter
Anger be now your song, immortal one Akhilleus’ anger, doomed and ruinous that caused the Akaians loss on bitter loss and crowded brave souls into the undergloom, leaving so many dead men– carrion for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done. -The Iliad Below the fold, the climactic scene in the episode,… Read More What Came to me Watching Last Week’s Game of Thrones
This little NetFlick represents the third time Kevin Costner has played an historical lawman up against a famous criminal. In 1987, he did the Hollywood version of Elliot Ness, playing a bright-eyed young crusader forced to get rough to take down Al Capone. In 1994, he did the opposite of that, giving us the grim… Read More Quick Review: The Highwaymen
