TV storytelling, like that of any creative medium, is essentially the art of recycling of ideas that have seen the light of day many, many times before. Christopher Booker’s 2004 book, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories proposed the existence of a finite number of story ideas, and Continue Reading
TV
Haters Back Off! The hilariously deluded power of self-belief
SNAPSHOT Haters Back Off! is a television comedy series starring Colleen Ballinger, based on her character Miranda Sings, that centres around “the oddball family life of Miranda Sings, an incredibly confident, totally untalented star on the rise who continues to fail upward by the power of her belief that Continue Reading
The tricky business of being Humans (series 2 poster + trailer)
SNAPSHOT In the second eight-part series, Synths all over the world are experiencing ‘a catastrophic malfunction’, or in Mattie’s words ‘waking up’ and questioning the status they’ve been afforded by humans. (synopsis via Den of Geek) From the “Uncanny Valley”, where people recoil from a computer-generated figure that looks Continue Reading
We’re back! Gilmore Girls take us behind-the-scenes of its A Year in the Life revival
If you weren’t already excited about returning to Stars Hollow, which now has its own website – one yet to be updated, thanks to Kirk’s lost password, but it’s there nonetheless and should be updated by the launch of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life on 25 November 2016 Continue Reading
Road to Gilmore Girls A Year in the Life #3: “Rory’s Birthday Parties” (S1, E6)
One of the enduring strengths of the Gilmore Girls is that throughout its seven season run it deftly combined a winning sense of quirkiness with real emotional resonance. Sure much of Lorelai’s (Lauren Graham) dialogue was peppered with witticism, quips and an almost inexhaustible supply of pop culture touch points, but Continue Reading
Fear the Walking Dead: “Wrath” / “North” (S2, E 14 & 15)
*SPOILERS AHEAD … AND A ROUSING GAME OF WHACK-A-ZOMBIE …” Season finales of apocalyptically-inclined shows like Fear the Walking Dead are usually fairly grim, violence-packed affairs when the metaphorical apple carts of all the characters are upset, things go even more to hell in a handbasket than they have Continue Reading
Poster me this! The Flash, The Walking Dead, Legends of Tomorrow
I’m a visual guy. Explain something to me using big, bright pictures and clearly-spelled out steps and I’m happy as a pig in really clean, easy-to-wash-off mud. The same goes for the advertising of TV shows (and movies for that matter) – gift me with a really cool, memorable Continue Reading
Road to Gilmore Girls A Year in the Life #2: “The Bracebridge Dinner” (S2, E10)
It would be fair to say that Stars Hollow, the cosy, postcard-perfect town that Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel) is as much a character in the show as any of its human inhabitants. Sporting the requisite central town square, quaint shopfronts, and cosy neighbourhoods you can walk Continue Reading
From Bowie to Bieber: The under-appreciated art of the music video (curated article)
The spectacular release of Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade earlier this year, and the critical response to it, has fleetingly put the music video in the spotlight. For a ubiquitous and influential art form, music videos tend to be easily dismissed and under-analysed, which means it took something as extreme Continue Reading
What’s going on? What’s happening? Will and Grace cast (temporarily) reunite
In news that thrilled the hearts of almost everyone – TIME Magazine was NOT a fan let’s be honest – the cast of Will and Grace (1998-2006) reunited for an all-too-brief 10 minute episode all about the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. Centred on Will (Eric McCormack), Grace (Debra Messing), Continue Reading