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Review: Elven Kings Under the Sky
J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay have learned nothing in the 685 days since the first season finale of The Rings of Power aired. 20 minutes into the 77-minute long premiere of Season 2, there’s nothing...
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Review: Where the Stars Are Strange
It’s praise with faint damnation to say that McKay and Payne’s best recent decision is to front-load this season with the show’s two best writers. Jason Cahill isn’t going to magically turn this into...
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Review: The Eagle and the Sceptre
Shit. I liked it. That was a nicely done hour of television about how the lure of power thwarts family relationships and uses good intentions for evil ends. It’s the best original work to come out of...
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Outside the Government: Lockdown
. Shortly thereafter, everything went to absolute shit. On March 11th, COVID was finally named a pandemic. The same day, Atletico Madrid played Liverpool in the Champions League, prompting a spike of...
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Heretical Heathenry
. This is the text of a talk I gave on August 24th at Northeast Thing, one of the largest heathen (Norse pagan) gatherings in the United States, archived here for general interest. I got the idea for...
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Review: Eldest
A week ago, I would have expected much worse from The Rings of Power than “slight structural mess.” I’m shocked the show has graduated to “collection of good scenes with some real gems in the mix.” If...
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Just More Suffering (Revolution of the Daleks)
John Barrowman was reportedly confused why all the Daleks were allowed to stand around with their arm-penises while he was repeatedly cautioned not to whip his out. It’s January 1st, 2021. Wham is at...
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America a Prophecy 4: Rose
Every year I write a new essay about one of the worst comic strips ever published, the September 11, 2011 edition of Barney Google and Snuffy Smith. If you want to catch up, it went “here’s a close...
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Halls of Stone Review
“Here, we bring the sun to us. At last, it is daybreak once more in our mountain!” In its own way, The Rings of Power perfectly demonstrates Tolkien’s contention that all good things can be used for...
View ArticlePop Could Never Save Us – Country Matters
Your popcast pals are back to talk Taste, Backbone, Smiles, Anger, and Hot To Go by Chappell Roan. With Sabrina Carpenter suggestively taking about kissing, Stormzy hooking up with Chase ‘n’ Status to...
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A Creation Which I Devastated (The Halloween Apocalypse)
Ironically one of the more iconic marketing images in Doctor Who history. It’s October 31st, 2021. Adele is at number one with “Easy on Me.” Ed Sheeran, Elton John and Dua Lipa, Coldplay and BTS, and...
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Where Is He? Review
Like not-Gandalf in “Where Is He?”, The Rings of Power faces a crossroads. Pre-season finales have a tricky part to play. They need to set the stage for the ending, synopsizing the season to date and...
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Perverting the Course of Human History (War of the Sontarans)
Oops! It’s November 7th, 2021. Adele is at number one with “Easy On Me.” Ed Sheeran, Ed Sheeran, and Ed Sheeran also chart. In news, a crowd crush at a Travis Scott concert killed ten, the House of...
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Doomed to Die Review
maybe not. But also, what the fuck? To Payne & McKay’s credit, they’re finding new ways to fuck this up. Instead of mangling a version of the show that wasn’t working anyway, they’re juxtaposing...
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Ragnarok All Through Time (Once, Upon Time)
Oh gosh, did I upload the wrong image again? It’s November 14th, 2021. Adele ain’t going anywhere on the charts. Neither is Ed Sheeran, but there’s also CKay, Glass Animals, and Arrdee. In news,...
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“The Earth Hath Bubbles as the Water Has”– On ‘Don’t Look Now!’ (1979)
The ideas in this essay were developed in conversation with Elliot Chapman and George Daniel Lea. It is respectfully – perhaps presumptuously – dedicated to Frederic Jameson. “And so, no more than...
View ArticlePop Could Never Save Us: Blackboard Jungle (1955)
Holly and James, your preferred podcast pals, kick into their pop music movie series with this slice of shitty-school-sploitation that rocketed Bill Haley up to the stars. Using his rendition of Rock...
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Review: Shadow and Flame
What a weird show. P&M have finally figured out some of the fundamentals of drama. It would be easy (and somewhat unfair) to say they’re just learning how to do drama by drawing from Tolkien, but...
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Aeolian Tones (Village of the Angels)
Look, I know this one is right. I got it straight off Whoniverse. It’s November 21st, 2021. Adele and Ed Sheeran remain, but they’re joined this week by Taylor Swift’s ten minute expansion of “All Too...
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An Evening’s Entertainment
On Ghost Stories for Christmas with Christopher Lee (2000, BBC Scotland) This essay is intended as a light introduction to a series on the ghost story writer M.R. James, some of his stories, and their...
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