SNAPSHOT Upon waking from a satisfying Halloween nap, a languid Simon’s Cat deliciously stretched the sleep out of his limbs while staring at a picture on the wall behind the bed. After he was fully awake, the relaxed kitty suddenly became pensive and suspicious all the while staring at Continue Reading
Oh Q! Star Trek gets a great big comic crossover and it’s all his fault
Can I be honest with you all? I have never much cared for Q. True John de Lancie was absolutely superb in the role, and many of the episodes featuring Q turned a harsh spotlight on humanity’s foibles or brought out something illuminating in one of the main characters, Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Dan and Sam by Matt Watson and Oliver Harud
In amongst the joy and blissful contentment (yes, I am genuinely that happy) of my long relationship to the most wonderful man in the world, there is a niggling, barely-acknowledged thought – what if I ever lost him? It’s not something I actively entertain, of course, preferring to think Continue Reading
Childlike glee: How a female Doctor Who could change the portrayal of women in sci-fi
SNAPSHOT The Doctor has a gleeful, almost childlike personality. He’s a hero with a sense of humor – which makes the character fun and compelling to watch. But that kind of character complexity has been typically reserved for male heroes. Female superheroes are very much pressured to be taken Continue Reading
Book review: The Museum of Things Left Behind by Seni Glaister
It’s a rare thing indeed to reference another review in your own but in this case it’s pertinent because the charmingly appreciative words of Laline Paull, author of The Bees, are what convinced me, along with a whimsically bittersweet title, to buy Seni Glaister’s remarkably lovely first novel with Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: Fishwitch and the surprising selfless acts of love
SNAPSHOT A cantankerous, iceberg-dwelling witch is taken by surprise when a relentlessly cheery merman gets caught in her net and attempts to befriend her. Before long he begins to uncover a secret, long kept buried in the ice. (synopsis via Laughing Squid) What a delightful piece of storytelling this Continue Reading
Movie review: I Kill Giants
If there is one thing that life is very good at doing with its myriad unexpected twists and turns, its delights and its traumas, it’s making us feel like we have absolutely no control over anything. Time and again, our attempts to rein in the unruly beast of life Continue Reading
Onward into moody dystopia: Blade Runner 2049 continues on in comic book form
SNAPSHOT The comic series will continue to unravel the future-set continuity of the Blade Runner universe, picking things up after the events of the long-awaited 2017 movie sequel, director Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, which followed the exploits of replicant blade runner K (Ryan Gosling), whose circuitous existential crisis leads him into Continue Reading
Way before they were Yellow: Coldplay documentary A Head Full of Dreams
SNAPSHOT A Head Full of Dreams offers an in-depth and intimate portrait of the band’s spectacular rise from the backrooms of Camden pubs to selling out stadiums across the planet. The film is helmed by Mat Whitecross – director of Supersonic, the acclaimed 2016 Oasis documentary – who met the Continue Reading
Every family is Atypical (season 2 review)
There is something utterly freeing and refreshing about Sam Gardner (Keir Gilchrist), the protagonist on Netflix’s Atypical. An 18-year-old senior on the autism spectrum, Sam is a reassuring presence for all of us, regardless of who we are or our circumstances, that it’s entirely okay to be yourself, and Continue Reading