(courtesy CBS) If there is one thing that the classic sitcom excelled at, it was not pretending that everything in life was perfect. Oh, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) and his equally dandy brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce) aspired to that superlative state of being with their eyes always on the just-so Continue Reading
TV
On 9th day of Christmas … I watched A Storm for Christmas
(courtesy IMDb (c) Netflix) Finding the perfect anything in a very imperfect world is a challenge at the best of times, but even more so at Christmas, ironically because it’s at this time of year, when people yearn the most for this flawlessly elusive state, that they seem to miss Continue Reading
Hello tinsel-tinged nostalgia: The lost 1980s Christmas specials
(courtesy Laughing Squid) Christmas used to be defined by the specials that aired on Network TV. While videos were a thing, it wasn’t yet common in the Eighties for people to routinely have the movies and TV shows they loved on the shelf to watch whenever they wanted, and so Continue Reading
On 6th day of Christmas … I put 15 more pop culture ornaments on my tree incl. ABBA, Parks and Recreation, Ziggy and Goofy
(via Shutterstock) What, what, you say, you have yet more ornaments to place upon the tree? Why yes, yes I do; every year I tell myself I’ll stick to 9 or 10 new ones, just the best of the best and yet every year, 50 to 60, sometimes more make Continue Reading
On 1st day of Christmas … I put 15 new pop culture ornaments on my tree incl. Ted Lasso, Schitt’s Creek, Shazam, Peter Pan, Peanuts … and more!
(via Shutterstock) Take one look at this blog and you realise I love pop culture. LOVE IT! So while the first ornaments I bought for my own grown-up tree in 1992 were relatively standard baubles and department store trinkets, soon followed by Hallmark ornaments by the metric ton, I soon Continue Reading
Love and pirates: Thoughts on Our Flag Means Death season 2
(courtesy IMP Awards) How often do we really get to follow our heart? Quite a bit if we’re so inclined in this far more freedom enabled age but back in 1717 at the height of the Golden Age of Piracy? Not as much as you’d think. Sure, as Stede Bonnet Continue Reading
Finish together: Thoughts on Sex Education season 4
(courtesy IMP Awards) Saying goodbye is never easy and that has never felt more poignant and obvious than during the final season of Sex Education, the fourth to be exact, in which a somewhat diminished cast spend much of their final year at school trying to better work out who Continue Reading
Festive movie review: Love at First Sight
(courtesy IMP Awards) Is there such a thing as fate? The answer to that huge, almost unanswerable question, likely rests on which side of the freewill vs inevitable destiny line you call on; if you’re a freethinker, the idea that you are somehow shackled to a particular outcome is odious Continue Reading
It’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas ads … time to engage your heart (and yes, wallet)
(via Shutterstock) One of the old chestnuts, and not the fun kind that get festively roasted an on open fire, that comes out is every Christmas is how evil it is that this most iconic of festivals has been completely and utterly commercialised. And while, yes, perhaps we have taken Continue Reading
Time to face your fears with Orion and the Dark
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTOrion (Jacob Tremblay) seems a lot like your average elementary school kid – shy, unassuming, harboring a secret crush. But underneath his seemingly normal exterior, Orion is a ball of adolescent anxiety, completely consumed by irrational fears of bees, dogs, the ocean, cell phone waves, murderous gutter Continue Reading