I still have a pair of pipes and mammoths in my closet. Saving them to show the (still hypothetical) kids some day "Check out the crazy shit your dad used to wear back in the 90's!"

replying to promote, great point!

I would have LOVED if someone had explained this in higschool, in exactly this way. What a brilliantly sucinct way of detailing themes, motifs, and the larger world of lit crit. I was one of those annoying kids who sounded EXACTLY like Dr. What, then spent years learning a lot more and ultimately realized what an…

You're totally right and i understand how the biz works, i just hate that the practicalities of business always come before the job of storytelling. I know that that is never going to change, that hollywood is a business, not an art form, but that doesn't mean i have to be happy about it. I don't even care if they…

I HATE it when they do this. We need a yes or no answer dammit, and so do the showrunners! I do not want to have to put up with another Quantum Leap ending... I mean, i thought they did the best they could turning a season finale into a series finale, but if SPN ends in blue light and a title card i'm gonna be SO…

This is great, thanks for the pointers! I'd be a little careful of #8 though. If you don't give them a reason for the change it can look a bit like you forgot a defining character trait in between introducing and reintroducing a character. You don't have to go into a whole long reason, just a simple explanation for…

I totally agree with this (great example with alien/alien3) with one caveat: if the death MAKES them a character that is loved/hated. The mousy character in the back that suddenly takes a level in badass as they die gloriously, the strong character that breaks down and sells everyone out for personal gain, only to…

This is an amazing post! I haven't heard the podcasts but my issues with BSG are pretty much everything you covered here, and its awesome to hear how much of it was actually in the podcasts. Thanks for this.

I gotta disagree. The huge mistake of giving them both blue sabers, the overly fast pace (sword fights are like martial arts, if you go full speed, you can't actually see anything, it's always better to slow it down a tad) and the total lack of decent dialogue during the fight make it, for me, far less good than…

Pardon me but i have to go tear off all my skin and wash myself in bleach. BLEH!!!

"Despite a worthy fact-based story and obvious good intentions, Red Tails suffers from one-dimensional characters, corny dialogue, and heaps of cliches" Or perhaps no-one saw it because it sucked.

Oh wow. I've never been tempted to change my icon before (i love my happy turtle!) but that first pic, with his trunk in the water... SO CUTE!! WANTS IT!!!

*laughs* nope, i knew it was going to be bad, i just didn't think it would be waste of money bad. I mean, how can something with giant robots kicking the crap out of each other be bad? But Robot Jocks was a better damn movie, BY FAR. TF2 was as bad as Manos, so i went for the money and talent spent to be the tie…

You know, i always kind of disliked how they changed the character dynamics from the book of JP to the movie, but i'd never thought about it that way before. And now i'm thinking about Close Encounters, and Poltergeist and... Damn, Spielberg really is a one trick pony. Thanks for the insight!

So do Electric Sheep Dream of Android Shearers?

"before writers finally realize that, well, they aren't all that interesting, and the notion that they're universally relatable as the hook for a show is a crock of nostalgically heteronormative bullshit?" Great comment! You can add Falling Skies to that as well (while i think that was the best of these three shows…

Well, i'm one of them. I'll repeat what i said below:

For me it's not Bay-Hate, or even "you raped my childhood" or any of that. Its a cost/experience analyses. Manos was made for no money by a fertilizer seller and it ended up being hilarious in its badness. TF2 was made for a bazillion dollars by one of the most prolific directors of our time and it is hilarious in…

I'm just glad that, so far, the teacher's name doesn't seem to have been released. Nothing worse than having "showing pornography to children" be the first thing to pop-up when someone googles your name. I hope they manage to keep it out of the news.

agreed.