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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e76. Music Back in MY Day…
You know what the best music is? The music we listen to. It’s obviously better than everything else and everyone agrees. And the stuff we don’t like is trash. We can all agree on that, right? The problem is… none of us agree on what music WE listen to. Why does that happen? Why is…
Call for Comments: Pop Culture Etiquette
From Hannah: We spend a lot of time on the show talking about how we experience pop culture with other people. I only watched Game of Thrones, really, because I enjoyed sharing it with my friends. We have online communities of strangers, where we can all commiserate over The Bachelor franchise. Back in the olden…
Call For Comments: Monster Class Syllabus
From Mav: Last year we did one of our most fun ideas for a show, the Comics Course syllabus. Basically we got a bunch of instructors together who have taught college classes on comics and all argued it out until we came up with a reading list for a class. Well, we want to do…
e75. Judging a Show by its Pilot?
It’s fall and if you’re a television fan that means you know that we are on the cusp of dozens — or these days maybe even hundreds — of new shows hitting the TV airwaves. And every new TV show starts with a pilot… an episode that introduces you to the show and tries to…
e74. Harry Potter and the Politics of Wizardry
At this point it’s pretty safe to say that the Harry Potter book series is one of the most defining pieces of literature in a generation. Love it or hate it (and if you actually hate it, what’s wrong with you?) you absolutely know what it is… especially if you’re a millennial. But like all…
Call For Comments: Digital Performances and Deep Fakery
From Mav: There’s been a weird thought running through my head on and off for the last few years. How much of an actor has to be present in order for a performance to count as the actor acting? As CGI enhanced performances get more and more common what “counts”? Do we have to rethink…
Call for Comments: Can you judge a show by its pilot?
From Mav: Back when the Game of Thrones aired their finale, we devoted an episode to not just talking about that finale, but the idea of finales in general. We talked about what makes a finale succeed or fail and what some of the best examples were. How important (or not important) is it to…
e72. The Power of Cuteness
The Internet has two main purposes: porn and cute kittens. The reason people like porn is obvious… or if it isn’t… well, that’s a different show. But what about the kittens? Why do we like cute things so much? The answer isn’t as obvious as it seems. For one thing, cute is a complicated concept.…