Strange Ramblings of an Independent Writer
CBS All Access I know these reviews may seem like a broken record at this point but it has to be said again: I really don’t like the direction the creators decided to go with for Stephen King’s The Stand (2020). Episode Three, titled “Blank Page”, continues the non-linear storytelling that was used in the … Continue reading The Stand (2020) Episode 3 Review
IMDB One of the benefits of my upbringing is that I had a mother who is a nerd. My Mom is a dyed-in-the-wool geek who loves fantasy, comic books, and science fiction. Because of that, I was introduced to these genres at a formative age. One of the first film experiences I can remember was … Continue reading Retrospective Review – “The Terminator”
CBS All Access The Stand is one of Stephen King’s crowning achievements as an author. Combining the King’s love of the supernatural with the terrifying mundanity of a global pandemic, The Stand still has the power to terrify readers, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic showed how precarious society really is to face something like the … Continue reading The Stand (2020) Episode 1 Review
Nothing lasts forever, especially in a Cyberpunk dystopia like the one found in Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. After spending the first four episodes establishing the world and setting up the crew of cyberpunks, the 5th and 6th episodes of the series begin the rapid decline of the group. The violent nature of edgerunner life cannot be … Continue reading The Wheels Come Off – Review of “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” Episodes 5 & 6
When I was six or seven years old, my mother handed me a worn paperback copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. After devouring the adventure of Bilbo Baggins and the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain, I asked if there was another book from that author. My mother, proud that she had piqued my interest in … Continue reading Return to Middle-Earth – Review of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Episodes One and Two
Source: IMDB As a child of the 1980s, I have an unabashed love for a good portion of the films released during that decade. One such film that is made up of one-part machismo and two-parts science-fiction horror is the original Predator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Since that time, the Predator franchise has had some serious … Continue reading A Wise Hunter – Review of “Prey”
When I first heard that Marvel Studios was going to produce a TV show for She-Hulk, I was on-board with the idea, despite knowing there was going to a significant backlash from some segments of the fandom. The latest installment for Marvel Studios’ Phase 4, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, is a light-hearted show based on … Continue reading A New Hulk – Review of “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” Episode One “A Normal Amount of Rage”
Storytelling in long form, whether it’s a television series or a novel, is like chess: setting the pieces in place where they can have the most impact. Episode Six of Stranger Things 4, titled “The Dive”, is a great example of the story’s chess pieces being moved into position where they will have the biggest … Continue reading Into the Upside Down – Review of “Stranger Things 4” Episode Six “The Dive”
Moral outrage is a good thing from time to time. Without it, we would become complacent. But behind many acts of moral outrage are two key emotions: Fear and Panic. Episode Five of Stranger Things 4, titled “The Nina Project”, dives into both of those two emotions and how we as people tend to deal … Continue reading Fear and Panic – Review of “Stranger Things 4” Episode Five “The Nina Project”
Poster Art for the film "Val". Source One of the reasons I enjoy documentaries so much is that they are often filtered through the lens of the filmmaker. What the filmmaker chooses to focus on is how the story is built. There’s a saying I’m rather fond of from Joshua Halberstam: “If you want to … Continue reading Self-Portrait on Film – Review of “Val”