To ensure that the next two episodes are packaged together I’ve decided to cover these three Place of the Week entries in one go. Because, let’s say, the quality of this bunch is highly variable. As such I’ll save the … Continue reading Re-Avatar State: “The Waterbending Scroll,” “Jet,” & “The Great Divide”
The Spirit World The first half of Book One of Avatar has been defined by introductions. Introducing the audience to the myriad of details and concepts that will define a high fantasy epic. We’ve been shown the elemental powers, the intricate societies … Continue reading Re-Avatar State: “Winter Solstice Parts 1 & 2”
The King of Omashu The prerogative of this pair of episodes is to finally introduce the audience to the magical environs of The Earth Kingdom and display and the power and possibility of earthbending. It’s a bit odd that it … Continue reading Re-Avatar State “The King of Omashu” & “Imprisoned”
The Southern Air Temple Most of the first article of this series was dedicated to the delicate process of introducing an audience, especially a young audience, to the intricacies of a high fantasy tv show. And how the writing staff … Continue reading Re-Avatar State: “The Southern Air Temple” & “The Warriors of Kyoshi”
In Which Everything Changed When the Fire Nation Attacked Making a good pilot is hard, making a good pilot for a high concept genre show is next to impossible. For the start of such a program, whether fantasy, sci-fi, or … Continue reading Re-Avatar State: “The Boy in the Iceberg” & “The Avatar Returns”
Book 0: Introduction As an individual in their mid 20’s the animated Avatar franchise means a hell of a lot to me. Coming out right at the moment a kid becomes obsessed with the media around them, Avatar: The Last … Continue reading Re-Avatar State: An Avatar – The Last Airbender Rewatch Series
In Which They Don’t Bury People Alive Anymore One of the great difficulties of writing about media is when you come across something that is incredibly solid. A sturdy, thoroughly well made production that doesn’t transcend the upper echelons of … Continue reading Weird, Overlooked, Wonderful 08: Panic Room
In Which the Pink Puffball is Up to Tee One of the reasons Nintendo has been able to succeed for so long in the ever shifting industry called video games is a surprising amount of flexibility when it comes to … Continue reading Weird, Overlooked, Wonderful 07: Kirby’s Dream Course
In Which This Will be Screened in Atom-o-Vision One of the most persistent questions in popular culture is, why are we attracted to scary stories? Why do we, as a public, subject ourselves to simulated terrors when the real world … Continue reading Weird, Overlooked, Wonderful 06: Matinee
In Which There’s a Jump Button One of the problems that has plagued creators for centuries is how to follow up a project of obvious importance. When a work is created that revolutionizes and changes everything it’s difficult to imagine … Continue reading Weird, Overlooked, Wonderful 05: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
In Which the Enemy is Inside I am loathe to indulge the precepts of nostalgia. To looks back and winsomely intone the fall of what was and could’ve been. The framing of “they don’t make them like they used to” … Continue reading Weird, Overlooked, Wonderful 04: The Hidden
In Which There’s a New God In Town The world of video games is one replete with mashups and things that are like other things. More than any medium genre is determined by its relativistic qualities to certain other entries … Continue reading Weird, Overlooked, Wonderful 03: ActRaiser
In Which There’s an Armadillo Tank The strangest thing about progressive rock is nothing really inherent to the genre. Not the extended keyboard solos, the constantly shifting time signatures, the tributes to both classical composers and jazz musicians, nor the … Continue reading Weird, Overlooked, Wonderful 02: Tarkus
In Which, “I Forgot the Opening Line.” The MGM lion does not roar at the beginning of Brewster McCloud. No instead the iconic image spouts off the above statement. It’s the first sign that we’re not in for a typical … Continue reading Weird, Overlooked, Wonderful 01: Brewster McCloud
In Which the World is Both Beautiful and Strange While talking about a film in my last series of articles (Millennial Malaise) I noted that that the series was less about elevating work, than it was about noting certain aesthetic … Continue reading Weird, Overlooked, Wonderful: an Introduction
In Which Twee is on Trial A few weeks ago the trailer for Wes Anderson’s new movie, The French Dispatch, hit the net, and as was expected a wave of reactions followed. Now normally the response to the latest feature … Continue reading What Makes a Good Wes Anderson Movie?
A place to watch Better Call Saul and chat about it. Full spoilers below. Continue reading Better Call Saul Premiere: “Magic Man”
In Which Our Watch Has Ended In 2003 there was nothing as culturally all consuming as The Matrix franchise. Four years after the original burst into the cinematic world a whole universe had popped up around it. For you see The Matrix was not … Continue reading Millennial Malaise End: The Matrix Sequels
In Which Hollywood Only Makes Shit. A lot of the movies we have covered in this series have been concerned with aesthetics. We talked about how Run Lola Run turns its razor sharp style into its themes, how films like Hackers thrive on their … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 52: Swordfish
In Which We Choose Life If Pulp Fiction was the bomb that blew up American cinema in the 90’s than Danny Boyle’s 1996 crime film Trainspotting is the reciprocating force from across the pond in Great Britain. In fact the two filmmakers had similar … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 51: Trainspotting
In Which There’s Only 20 Minutes Left A strong through-line with this series is how frequently the look and feel of a film help preserves it for future inspection. That the decisions of the time create a cultural amber for … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 50: Run Lola Run
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