– By Sam Hendrian – Too tired to watch a whole movie at the end of a long day, the father and son sit down to enjoy a couple half-hour reruns of Seinfeld, sharing many a hearty laugh before it is time to hit the sack. The next morning, their laughter may continue as they …
Fate and Free Will in Netflix’s ‘Dark’
– By James Powers – Editor’s Note: Potential Spoilers Below for Season 1 of ‘Dark’ Most of us have probably had the freaky experience, in some high school world lit class, of reading Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex. In case you don’t remember, that’s the one in which the doomed protagonist tries and fails to avoid …
Striking Out with ‘Striking Vipers’; What ‘Black Mirror’ Gets Wrong About Relationships
– By Joe Campbell – Spoilers below for the Black Mirror episode ‘Striking Vipers’. Black Mirror has been heralded as the new Twilight Zone, so much so that when CBS debuted a modern version of The Twilight Zone, many people wondered what the point was in a world where Black Mirror already existed. Created by British …
Deadwood: A Case Study on How to Execute a Masterful Opening Scene
– By Matthew Sawczyn – On May 31st, in a mere few hours, HBO’s critically acclaimed Deadwood will revive itself for one final shootout, in its culminating feature film of the same name. One final time, we viewers will set foot on the muddy thoroughfare of that the seedy mining town, seeking our fortune with …
The Emptiness of Success in ‘Fosse/Verdon’
– By Sam Hendrian – “You happy now?” These words are spoken by the perceptive writer Paddy Chayefsky (Norbert Leo Butz) to his troubled best friend Bob Fosse (Sam Rockwell) as he sits with a lap-full of awards in the backseat of a limo, and they brilliantly summarize the thematic core of FX’s biographical mini-series …
Hulu’s ‘Ramy’ Is an Important Show – But Not Quite a Good One
– By James Powers – A strange little scene in Hulu’s new show Ramy tragicomically highlights the average American’s tortured relationship with traditional religion. The setting is New Jersey, in the midst of Islam’s penitential season of Ramadan, outside a halal restaurant. A loutish construction worker, having just witnessed a group of Muslim men praying …
Putting the Lion Before the Horse: Screenwriting Lessons From “The Long Night”
– By Matthew Sawczyn – Spoilers Below for Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3 The battle is over. Melisandre sheds her necklace. Drained, worn, haggered, she walks out into the bitter snow… and dies. CUT TO BLACK. First, extreme gratitude to the cast and crew of Game of Thrones. They probably felt like Melisandre …
Seven Traumatized Children Under One Umbrella Academy
– By Carly Twehous – [Spoilers Ahead] At a time when the superhero origin story consumes nearly every available screen, so often audiences get caught up in the bright colors, over-the-top special effects, and elaborate villains intent on world domination, that people begin forget the one thing that makes superheroes so compelling: the hero’s relentless …
‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ – A Timely Exploration of Human Dignity and the Futility of Violence
–By Sam Hendrian– This article contains Spoilers “We all have it coming, kid.” These legendary words from Clint Eastwood’s classic film Unforgiven also form the thematic core of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a feature-length anthology of Western short films from directors Joel and Ethan Coen. Recently released to Netflix, it masterfully employs both dark …