Television | the m0vie blog

New Escapist Video! “A Marvelous Escape” – Falcon and the Winter Soldier – “New World Order” Discussion…

Posted on March 20, 2021 by Darren

With a slew of Marvel Studios productions coming to Disney+ over the next six months, The Escapist has launched a weekly show discussing these series. I’ll be joining the wonderful Jack Packard and the fantastic KC Nwosu to break down WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki as they come out.

This week, we take a look at the first episode of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which offers a promising start to the new show. it does a lot of basic character work, but also establishes a lot of the show’s tone, most notably anchoring it as a Reagan era action throwback. It’s a lot of fun.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: a marvellous escape, escapist, jack packard, kc nwuso, the escapist, the falcon and the winter soldier, wandavision | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Review! On the “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” as an 1980s Buddy Action Movie…

Posted on March 18, 2021 by Darren

I published a new review at The Escapist this evening. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is premiering on Disney+ tomorrow, so I took a look at the first episode.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier obviously exists as a follow-up to the thrills of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, but the most canny shift is to swap the obvious influence of seventies paranoid thrillers on those earlier films for a more bombastic sort of action inspired by eighties action action movies. It’s a switch that works well enough, playing very much to the strengths of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: disney, escapist, falcon and the winter soldier, review, streaming | 1 Comment »

New Podcast! The Time is Now – Season 3, Episode 18 (“Bardo Thodol”)

Posted on March 17, 2021 by Darren

Last year, I was thrilled to spend a lot of time on The Time is Now discussing the second season of Millennium. Since the podcast has moved on to the third season, I have taken something of a step back as a guest. That said, I have been a bit more active in the second half of the third season. I was flattered to get an invitation to discuss Bardo Thodol with host Kurt North.

As with Saturn Dreaming of Mercury two episodes prior, there’s an appealing oddness to Bardo Thodol, which often feels like something of a waking dream. It is an episode that seems to exist as a collection of dream imagery combined and compressed into an episode of television. It’s an episode that I struggle to properly makes sense of which, which is undoubtedly part of the appeal.

As ever, you can listen directly to the episode here, subscribe to the podcast here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Millennium, Podcasts! | Tagged: bardo thodol, buddhism, kurt north, millennium, podcast, the time is now | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “WandaVision” and the Death of Ambiguity…

Posted on March 15, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With WandaVision ending just over a week ago, I had some thoughts about art, ambiguity and meaning. You know, small things.

One of the more interesting aspects of WandaVision was the way in which it presented itself, and was received as, a “mystery box” show. It was framed and treated as a puzzle to be solved. What’s interesting about this is the care that the finale took to carefully explain and confront each possible fan theory and speculation, to communicate very simply and very straightforwardly not only what its audience was supposed to take from this story, but also how they were supposed to feel in response to certain key plot beats.

This is arguably a reflection of a larger trend in pop culture, in which there’s a strong rejection of the idea of ambiguity and an embrace of the idea that everything has a fixed meaning that can be clearly determined and objectively derived. This ignores the reality that art exists in ambiguity, that there’s no simple, single decoder ring and that meaning is often something derived from conversation between the art and the audience consuming it.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies, Television | Tagged: apophenia, Brain, doctor who, lost, mind, plot holes, plot summaries, the prisoner, the sopranos, the x-files, wandavision | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “WandaVision” Lags Behind “Legion” and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”….

Posted on March 5, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. Today marked the release of the WandaVision finale, so it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the season as a whole, and where it stands in terms of the modern television landscape.

One of the most striking aspects of the first half of WandaVision‘s first season was the skill and fidelity that the show demonstrated in recreating classic television sitcoms. The show’s basic conceit found the characters journeying through television’s history and hurdling towards the present. Unfortunately, WandaVision stumbled when it hit the present, particularly when compared to two relatively recent shows tackling similar themes and working in similar genres blending fantasy and reality as meditations on trauma and mental health problems: Legion and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: crazy ex-girlfriend, escapist, Guilt, in the frame, legion, Marvel Cinematic Universe, mcu, Mental Health, power, responsibility, Television, violence, wanda maximoff, wandavision | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Time is Now – Season 3, Episode 16 (“Saturn Dreaming of Mercury”)

Posted on March 2, 2021 by Darren

Last year, I was thrilled to spend a lot of time on The Time is Now discussing the second season of Millennium. Since the podcast has moved on to the third season, I have taken something of a step back as a guest. That said, I was flattered to get an invitation to discuss Saturn Dreaming of Mercury with host Kurt North.

To describe Saturn Dreaming of Mercury as a “strange” episode is something of an understatement. It’s an ambitious and thematically rich meditation on the idea of parenthood, and the responsibilities and fears that come with that, but framed through a lens close to abstract surrealism. It’s one of the most distinct and unusual episodes in the larger Ten Thirteen canon, even if I am not entirely sure that I can explain what exactly happens in it.

As ever, you can listen directly to the episode here, subscribe to the podcast here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Millennium, Podcasts! | Tagged: childhood, Chip Johannessen, doubt, existential, fear, kurt north, millennium, parenting, the time is now | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 6, Episode 12 (“One Son”)

Posted on February 27, 2021 by Darren

Coinciding with The X-Files‘ move from Vancouver to Los Angeles, there has also been a shift at The X-Cast. Tony Black is no longer running the show, but it is instead now being run by Sarah Blair, Kurt North and Carl Sweeney. I was thrilled to join Carl to talk about one of the most important episodes in the show’s history: One Son.

With One Son, the show closes the book on one of the most important chapters in its history. Kind of. Sort of. A little bit. Of course, it was also about drawing down the curtain in other ways. There’s a very credible argument to be made that this mid-season two-parter marked the last time that The X-Files was truly event television. This makes One Son an interesting and complicated piece of television, a bit of ambitious storytelling that has to cover a lot of ground very ruthlessly. The result is an episode that isn’t entirely successful, but is still fascinating.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: carl sweeney, conspiracy, conspiracy theory, mulder, one son, scully, the x-cast, the x-files | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “A Marvelous Escape” – Re-Runs…

Posted on February 27, 2021 by Darren

This week, we take a look at the eighth (and penultimate) episode of WandaVision, which offers a lot of backstory and a healthy dose of retcons. It’s a mixed back as the show beds down for its endgame, combining beautiful lines and interesting images with decidedly unambitious plotting and clunky construction.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Elizabeth Olsen, exposition, flashback, retcon, Sitcom, Television, wanda, wandavision | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Superman and Lois” Finds Superman Saving Smallville…

Posted on February 26, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. Given the premiere of Superman and Lois this week, it seemed like a good time to take a look at the new show, and the new spin that it puts on the classic Superman mythos.

Smallville has always been an essential part of Superman’s backstory, even before it was named as such. When Superman was created, it made sense to bring some rural values into anonymous and hostile cities, with Superman importing many of the progressive ideas that he inherited from his adopted parents to the crime- and depression-ridden American cities. However, times have changed. Superman and Lois finds Clark returning to a version of Smallville that is at once unrecognisable and familiar. Superman and Lois shrewdly reverse’s the character’s classic journey.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: depression, metropolis, recession, rural america, Smallville, superman, superman and lois, wholesomeness | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Enterprising Individuals – “More Mooney, More Problems”

Posted on February 25, 2021 by Darren

I am always thrilled to get a chance to talk about Star Trek with other fans, so I was thrilled at the invitation to join the wonderful Aaron Coker on Enterprising Individuals to talk about The Immunity Syndrome. The bulk of the episode came out last week, and is well worth your time if you’re specifically interested in discussing that individual episode.

However, the initial recording session was actually much longer than the version that appeared last week. It was a more casual and free-form conversation, covering everything from the state of the modern franchise to Doctor Who and plenty of stuff beyond. It’s a bit unfocused and wild, but I really enjoyed chatting with Aaron on such a wide range of topics.

You can listen to the episode here, back episodes of the podcast here, click the link below or even listen directly.