There's this funny thing that happens with TV shows. Because of the nature of human actors, TV shows are the one type of serialized media where a natural change to the series might be FORCED to occur because forces outside of the narrative require the change of the narrative. That is to say that in a comic book, the Spider-man can go on from issue to issue as long as Marvel wants him to be. If the writers decide to replace Peter Parker with Ben Reilly or Miles Morales that is for storyline reasons and they can change it back whenever they want. But on TV, actors die or move on to other roles. There are contract disputes. People age out of roles. There are budgetary considerations. There are any...
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e173. War of the Readings
The Internet has one main purpose: arguing about things that don’t really matter. I’m sure you’ve seen this, people will fight over whether a movie was good or bad, what the significance of a particular scene of a TV show was, what was the hidden theme of a book, or perhaps most notably today… should…
Excalibur #22: “Shadows Triumphant?”
Excalibur #22 “Shadows Triumphant?” Writer: Chris Claremont Pencils: Chris Wozniak Inks: Al Milgrom Colours: Bran Vancata Editor: Terry Kavanagh Original publication date: May 1990 Anna, Mav, and Andrew are joined by Dr. Safiyya Hosein, whose research focuses on representations of Muslim and Arab characters in superhero comics, to talk about those very things in Excalibur #22, “Shadows…
Call for Comments: Narratology v. Ludology
From Katya: I recently saw a TikTok from Dominic Myers (@gamestudies101) that summarizes the narratology v. ludology split in game studies. Check out their summary because it’s a good one but, simply put, ludology argues that games are a unique medium because they include interactive game mechanics that are distinct from other representational forms. Narratology,…
e172. (More Drinking Than Swearing…) The Culture Of Alcohol
We’ve always had a tag on our show of “the weekly pseudo-academic roundtable with drinking and swearing” but honestly, it’s usually more of the latter. We might be drinking while we record the show, but it really has no bearing on the listener Honestly, the alcohol is usually incidental. Not this week! This week we…
Call For Comments: On Multiple Readings and Variant Interpretations
From Mav: I was having an interesting conversation with friend-of-the-show Andrew Darowski the other day about the idea of multiple readings. For those who don’t know, in addition to the Protagonist Podcast, Andrew is host of a podcast called Disney Animation Minute Essentials where he and his wife Kestra step through classic Disney films one…
Excalibur #21: “Crusader X”
Excalibur #21 “Crusader X” Writer: Chris Claremont Pencils: Chris Wozniak Inks: Al Milgrom Colours: Bran Vancata Letters: Tom Orzechowski Editor: Terry Kavanagh Original publication date: April 1990Anna, Mav, and Andrew are joined by Dr. Martin Zeller-Jacques to tackle Excalibur #21, “Crusader X,” which Mav describes as “definitely, technically a comic.” The players and pencils are new, but the plot…
Call for Comments: Podcasting Yankees in King Arthur’s Court
From Hannah: I can trace my first encounters with the King Arthur mythology to two (very different) Disney adaptations: The Sword and the Stone (1963) and A Kid in King Arthur’s Court (1995). That my interest in King Arthur began with these, er, interpretations of their source material (not to mention the earlier texts) is…
e171. Summertime! Time to Kick Back and Unwind
Somehow, summertime media is special. Or at least, we seem to think it is. We have summertime blockbusters. We have summertime beach reads. We have summer TV specials and songs of the summer. It definitely FEELS like there is something that makes pop culture media “summery.” But we’re hard pressed to say exactly what it…
Excalibur #20: “The Eye of the Beholder”
Excalibur #20 “The Eye of the Beholder” Writer: Michael Higgins Pencils: Ron Lim Inks: Joe Rubinstein Colours: Glynis Oliver Letters: Augustin Mas Editor: Terry Kavanagh It’s out with the Claremont/Davis, in with the Higgins/Lim with Excalibur #20, “The Eye of the Beholder,” a flashback issue we’re charitably describing as “What If Excalibur was Set in…
Call for Comments: There’s a TV Show About an English Department… So We Have to Discuss It?
August 4, 2021
From Hannah: On August 20, Netflix will release its new mini-series The Chair featuring Sandra Oh. It also happens to be about an English department at the fictional, elite Pembroke University. A new trailer dropped a few weeks back and, well, I already have thoughts: https://youtu.be/eOqtBtWGl1Q There’s a conversation that goes beyond this one show.…