Television enthusiast, film fanatic and serial procrastinator.
Contributor II
Life Under Lockdown on ScreenWith many countries all over the world experiencing lockdowns and other imposed ways of living – what films have shown this life best? Contagion? 28 Days Later?
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The Best Standalone EpisodesHaving recently finished watching Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet, I was struck by how my favourite episode was #5 Dark Quiet Death – a standalone episode that featured two completely separate characters. It got me thinking of other examples, like a similarly video-game focused episode of You’re the Worst, and countless others. So thought it would be a great idea to accumulate these into an article, or perhaps even analyse why audiences respond to these episodes (as Dark Quiet Death is the highest-rated Mythic Quest episode on IMDB by far).
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The Masked HeroWith The Mandalorian being so successful, what other examples of a protagonist concealing their identity have really struck a chord with audiences? Obviously, an intriguing trait in terms of mystery, are there any other reasons why this has been successful in The Mandalorian? Moreover, what’s the purpose of using a masked hero? What changes when the main protagonist is unmasked? Is there a downside?
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Bucking the Trend or Rinse & Repeat?With the continued success of anthology series like Fargo, American Crime Story and many more, do TV shows have more of a chance if they remain with the same formula that found them success? Or by changing the cast and locale and telling a similar story once more. This could be particularly interesting with the re-emergence of True Detective after a couple of years. Would it have had its season 3 much earlier if it remained with Rust and Marty?
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How Many Times Can We Get Them To Buy It?With recent repacking and re-releases of old titles, what are the most egregious examples of bringing out the same versions of games for that yankee dollar?
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Will an Audience Still Want to go on the Road with David Brent?With his first film in a while, Special Correspondents, coming out on Netflix this week, could look ahead to Ricky Gervais’s next film project, the revival of David Brent in Life on the Road. Is there still an apetite for it? Admitting he was swayed to do the film because of the success of the Alan Partridge movie, will this attempt suffer in comparison to the original? Considering there is no Stephen Merchant involved and that his later online skits of Brent on youtube weren’t as successful, can the movie recapture the formula that made The Office so successful?
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Twin Peak(s) TVA look at the upcoming series of Twin Peaks and how it could differ from the old series and how it fits in with this current era of ‘Peak TV’ and will that have any bearing on how the show looks or how we consume it?
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Actors Changing CharactersI recently read an interview with Stephen Falk commenting about the second season of You’re The Worst and he commented that Chris Geere’s character of Jimmy was not intended to be British but the character was specifically altered after seeing his Audition. This surprised me as a Brit because a lot of Jimmy’s humour is so quintessentially British that I thought his character would have had that running through all of the early scripts. So an interesting article could be how much a certain actor can influence changes in their character, a few more examples springing to mind are Morgan Freeman in Shawshank and Mackenzie Crook in The Office. Could be Film or TV. |
Problematic Creators: How Do We Interact With Their Work? | |
![]() Positives from it then! Some good came from it at least | Getting to the Airport and Other Actions That TV Completely Misrepresents |
![]() What films/TV get it right? I’m trying to think of more realistic ones | Getting to the Airport and Other Actions That TV Completely Misrepresents |
![]() What now? | Getting to the Airport and Other Actions That TV Completely Misrepresents |
![]() True that! It’s part of the DNA in Doctor Who and it needs to exist within it. And they sort of have fun with it too. | Gosh, the Main Character Is Dead!? So, When Do They Come Back? |
![]() Thanks for the help in editing Emily, appreciate your input lots. Completely agree on those two examples, it’s so utterly eye-rolling in BvS but the slight alteration on it in The Dark Knight Rises actually adds so much to the film, as we’re with him in the struggle and we can see how difficult it is for him. Also, great mantra for writing! It’s definitely no fun if all the characters are living un-tormented lives | Gosh, the Main Character Is Dead!? So, When Do They Come Back? |
![]() Made me consider Weeds and MLP in a new light. Like a good article should, it made me learn something and fed a new interest. Good job! | Dear Mr. You Dances With Weeds |
![]() This film made me super sad and I think you captured the essence of that. He found somebody, who to his limited knowledge anyway, was unique and then he treated her the same way that he treated everyone else, got her to stamp out the habits he didn’t like and then was disappointed when she turned out to be the same as everyone else. He was and always will be the creator of his own downfall. | Anomalisa: The Unbearable Monotony of Being |
Really interesting piece, know you mentioned early on how this wasn’t a piece on cancel culture. But would sure like to read one from you that is!