Topics: 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?

I 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.

After the conclusion of FX’s successful drama Justified, what other pieces of Leonard’s work could be adapted for either screens big or small? Could be a Literature, TV or Film article depending your angle!

With Better Call Saul wrapping up its first series to critical acclaim and already being confirmed for a second, it’s clear to everyone that spin-off series are starting to become popular once more. With the Walking Dead already working one, what other favourite series would you like to see receive the spin-off treatment? You could analyse why Better Call Saul was a success, in its differences and similarities to Breaking Bad and suggest potential other series from TV’s current crop. For an added bit of fun, you could also talk about ones you’d have to loved to have seen in the past that may have just missed the boat.

After his recently aired new documentaries about criminals pleading insanity and transgender kids, what area should Louis investigate next? After a shift in style over the last couple of years to more serious documentaries, do you want to see him continue in that vein? Or revert slightly? What areas do you think could be interesting for him to explore? Or do you think a return to a subject, like he did with the Westboro Baptist Church would be more interesting?

Having successfully rebooted 21 Jump Street into a successful franchise and helmed The Lego Movie into a one also, the comedic duo are in high demand. Having signed on to write and produce the future installments in the Lego series, while also negotiation a potential Jump Street and Men in Black crossover, they are not actually contracted to direct any of these projects. So what will they do next? You could look at the mass amount of rumours flying around or you could simply suggest a few potential properties that would be interesting to see their kinetic style put to.

Having only seen a handful of episodes and being acutely aware of the critical adulation it has received from many sources, Jane The Virgin is a much better show than any show called Jane The Virgin had any right to be. It got me thinking of more shows that had restrictive names and ended up being much better than their titles would have suggested, another example that came to mind was last years Trophy Wife and Bill Lawrence’s Scrubs follow up Cougar Town, which even wanted to change its name in Season 3. Also for a little fun aside, you could have a brief look at shows that didn’t transcend their titles and were just bad all round like Baby Daddy and Gary Unmarried.