Deepening Dreams by Andrew Collins The way Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer tell it, they pitched the idea for their freshman television show without a storyboard or written synopsis. Instead, the brothers stitched together clips out of dozens of films from the 1980s. That sounds about right. The opening scene of Stranger Things […]
{ 0 comments }
And Everything Turned Out OK by Jack H. Simons The basic story plot for all ages pits ultimate evil against flawed good with the flawed good coming out on top. The protagonist must be flawed because we are all flawed. Only Jesus Christ or an old-timey Methodist would claim sinless perfection, but the rest of […]
{ 0 comments }
Avatar, With Fewer Blue Aliens by Stephen Simons As I suffer through ten minutes of Pokemon cartoons or watch re-runs of G.I. Joe, Thundercats, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a simple truth emerges: Children are easily entertained. And yet, these easily distracted minds can still be captured by the right show, knowing what time it […]
{ 0 comments }
“Why I laugh?” -H. Simpson by Stephen Simons I’m not a Parks and Rec fan. Oops . . . Did you hear that? It was the sound of half the readers of this post suddenly turning hostile. I tried to be a fan. Maybe, only because I watched a YouTube video of Ron Swanson quotes and […]
{ 0 comments }
Genre Smoothy by Stephen Simons Occasionally something comes along that so defies all categorization that it loses its rightful place of recognition or prestige. No, I’m not talking about the XFL. But like the XFL there are many things out there that can’t decide what they are — is it football or WCW wresting, boat or car, manta […]
{ 0 comments }
The Importance of Being Earnest . . . But Not Too Earnest by Stephen Simons Hi, my name is Stephen, (hi, Stephen) and I am (sigh) a Moulin Rouge fan-boy. I still remember the fever with which I called friends and family to tell them, “best movie . . . ever.” (sigh, again) That one movie has discredited me, to […]
{ 0 comments }
X-Files, Fanboy Baiting & Fringe by Stephen Simons The X-Files started something both wonderful and horrible. On the wonderful side, we had a prime time sci-fi show with great writing, deep characters, and a complex evolving plot. Also, it wasn’t Star Trek. But as the show became a hit, a diabolical formula began to emerge that would plague […]
{ 0 comments }
Sherlock: A Study in Awesome by Stephen Simons America has borrowed a lot from Britain’s fictional sources over the last few hundred years. Whether through subconscious influences or direct pulls like Hamlet, starring Mel Gibson, we have found a lot of inspiration from our mother country. From The Office to shows like The Tomorrow People, Being Human, […]
{ 1 comment }
It Was the Worst of TV, It Was the Best of TV by Stephen Simons We have all seen the headlines. “This just in (again): Television is DEAD,” soon to be replaced forever by a nine-year-old’s four-minute video of cats chasing lasers (or possibly cats shooting lasers). And the recalcitrant old guard media giants scramble to make us keep watching […]
{ 0 comments }
“Welcome to Washington” by Andrew Collins House of Cards, the (triple) Emmy Award winning political drama created exclusively for Netflix, taps into our darkest fascinations and confirms our worst fears about the elite political scene in American politics. It left me sickened, but unable to turn away as a plethora of multifaceted characters maneuvered and masqueraded […]
{ 0 comments }
6 members
