Taboo and the Knowledge Gap

FX's series Taboo is a fascinating watch in a lot of ways. It's a well-acted, well-written, well-directed affair of the gritty world of Britain in the wake of the War of 1812 with its former colonies in America. But as anyone who's watched it knows or will tell you, it's the protagonist, James Keziah Delaney, who …

Redemption: Fiction’s Two-Edged Sword

Change is integral to fiction, and the more powerful the change, the more powerful the reader experience. This is why redemption is such a gripping journey in fiction. Seeing a character transform before our eyes into a better person, atoning for their failures and mistakes, and overcoming the past to live for a better future fills us …

Fifty Shades of Toxic – The Framing of Unhealthy Relationships in Fiction

My Inner Goddess is over in a corner protesting this post (and drooling slightly, for some reason). The trailers for the new Fifty Shades Darker movie have been popping up everywhere, and it felt like the right time to do this post. Fiction has had a problem in recent years with the portrayal of relationships. …

Why I Hate Children (in Fiction)

Over the holidays, I binged my way through the Netflix original series Stranger Things, an 80s style paranormal-mystery-horror-scifi-thriller-extravaganza, and was completely and utterly spellbound. It's cleverly written, well-acted, genuinely scary and heartbreaking, and one of the best shows I've watched period. That's probably not a big revelation to most of you who have seen it, …

What Measure is Forever? – Immortality in Fiction

After a slight drought of inspiration, I finally decided on a topic to blog about. I recently saw the movie Dr. Strange. While I enjoyed the film overall, it suffered from Marvel's usual "weak villain syndrome" (see previous posts here and here on that). Given little backstory or motivation for his goal, Kaecilius is just one of those villains …

Critiquing The Magicians: M for Mature?

Hello, and welcome to the second round of critical paddling thoughtful critiquing into The Magicians and why it failed to work for me. Last time, I talked about the concept of Set-Up and Pay-Off and the delicate balance it requires to get your audience invested and satisfied. This time, I'll be talking about a much …

Critiquing The Magicians: Set-Up and Pay-Off

Criticizing a book when you are as of yet unpublished seems to smack of tempting fate. But I wouldn't be the critical reader I like to think I am if I shied away from a controversial opinion. So for the next two posts, I am going to flagellate review Lev Grossman's book The Magicians and where …

Is Suicide Squad Suicide-Worthy?

Unless you've been taking shelter under a rock lately, you might have heard some unkind words circulating about DC's latest superhero movie, Suicide Squad. Having seen the movie and being the objectivist I am, I've decided to share my own thoughts. Spoilers, obviously. I'll start off by saying that I have no stakes in the …

Sinners and Saints

There are times when the reactions of the fan community can be as interesting as the source material itself. In keeping with the theme of villainy and Game of Thrones from last post, it would be remiss of me not to touch on Cersei's competition in season 6, the High Sparrow, who made me ponder …

Villains are Made, not Born

Game of Thrones has always been a glorious example of grippingly realistic characters. Through its current six seasons on air, it has offered us a host of very flawed, but very engaging characters. Perhaps one of the show's most gripping characters has been Cersei Lannister. For a long time, she's walked the thin line between …