Marcus Dean

A list of the most well-received infinite time loop movies and how they managed to keep it fresh. Analysing how each one, like the recent Palm Springs and TV equivalents like Russian Doll, handled this well-known concept but changed enough to keep audiences interested.

With 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?

Having 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).

With 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?

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?

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?

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?

A 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?