Using role reversals to shed light on gender issues in our society is not new. It has been going on for a long time, particularly in science fiction. Gender issues are in the spotlight at the moment, particularly with the ...
Read More »Everyone needs a good laugh: Comedy and satire
I don’t know about everyone else, but these days I prefer a good comedy to endless hours of depressing drama. And yet, most of the widely praised TV and film are hopelessly depressing. Even some of my favourite shows get ...
Read More »Matthew McConaughey: A little tequila, sunshine and tacos never hurt anybody
Matthew McConaughey has been around for more than 20 years, gracing our screens with his chiseled features and lovely Texan twang. But only recently has he really been given the roles and recognition he deserves. I’m not ashamed to admit ...
Read More »The DC of it all: The television history of DC Comics
DC comics have had a fairly steady presence on TV since the early 1950s. They’ve had both hits and misses, but on the whole, they have managed to build a large fan base for their television endeavours. I recently looked into ...
Read More »The battle of the superheroes: Marvel vs. DC
When people think of comic books, they tend to think of DC and Marvel. The big names from the golden age who gave us such iconic characters as Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Captain America. For over a decade, ...
Read More »There’s a villain in all of us: Good characterization for bad characters
I was listening to Lorde belt out ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack when I had a thought: ‘By Jove, she’s right!’ It isn’t like the song is new – or one I’m unfamiliar with ...
Read More »Nostalgic Impulse: Why M*A*S*H is still relevant
Back in 1983, M*A*S*H bowed out, having been running for 11 years (eight years longer than the real-world war it depicted. The episode, Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen was two and a half hours long, two hours longer than the normal ...
Read More »The legend of Buffy
‘Where are all the daughters of Buffy?’ asks Naomi Alderman in the recent Radio 4 Front Row Special on cult TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. What she is really asking is this: why, after the huge, lasting success of ...
Read More »All aboard the Neil Gaiman train
Back in 2010, I was fairly new to Twitter. As always, I was desperately (or cleverly?!) trying to keep up with the modern world. I had heard about this ‘one book one twitter’ book club event taking place; the idea ...
Read More »What we know about Star Wars VII and what we want to see (and what we don’t)
I was very young when I first discovered Star Wars. While bored at an Easter gathering at my grandparent’s house, I was looking through their collection of VHS that they’d taped off the TV. The selection was woeful. At least, ...
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