As zombies series, the BBC’s In the Flesh was a cut above the usual stalk-em-and-terrify-em run of the mill. Thoughtfully examining what might happen if a cure could be found for the zombie virus reverting any affected people back to normal and able, in theory at least, back into Continue Reading
Weekend Pop Art: Bright Disney, Dark Burton
Life is all about the light and dark, the fun-filled and the horror-packed, the exuberantly sunshine-y and the bleakly maudlin. That’s why, much as I adore Disney and it’s cute and quirky take on things, I love it when someone like, oh say, artist Andrew Tarusov subverts those squeaky-clean, Continue Reading
Let your heart be light: It’s beginning to look like A Legendary Christmas
Christmas makes me happy. Very happy. And Christmas music makes me even happier. There is something ineffably beautiful and wondrous about it that makes me feel like absolutely everything is going to be OK; it may not be, but oh, it feels that way and that’s enough for me. Continue Reading
Spooked! Simon’s Cat thinks something creepy over yonder lies
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