(Happy Victoria Day long weekend! And happy birthday, cousin M!) What does it mean to say a story is “like fanfiction”? The phrase is almost always used with derogatory intent. No one says a TV show, movie, or book is like fanfiction to highlight its attractive qualities, even though there…
I hope she dies. Don’t worry, I’m not talking about someone real. And what I’m actually talking about is why I love single-story media like books and movies so much more than I’ll ever love series media like TV, despite the way I get obsessed with TV shows. Which I’m…
Or rather, I just want girls to have friends. In fiction, I mean. In case I’m not being perfectly clear, I would like to see brainy female characters in fiction that does not necessarily focus entirely on “the battle of the sexes”, women, or romance have the same social network…
Disclaimer: any time a familiar story chooses to do an installment from the point of view of a character not the protagonist, I immediately and involuntarily compare it to the Pinky’s POV episode of Pinky and the Brain. You’ve been warned. *sigh* It’s about House again. Sort of. One of…
First, a disclaimer: you can tell this issue matters to me because I’ve managed to get myself sufficiently interested to blog about it by remembering an episode of House that aired way back in November (“Ignorance is Bliss”, to be precise). On the other hand, I did just have a…
So often what I post on this blog is a critique of the stories I’m obsessed with, explorations of why points they bring up or moves they make drive me nuts. Most of the time, I say what I like about them, too, but some of the stories I mention…
Or, perhaps, a few least not-favourite female characters. See, I tend to have this love-hate relationship with female characters. I want to like them – I really, really want to like them, often because they’re one of only a handful of women or girls in their story (sometimes, seemingly, in…
Or, “You Can’t Go Holmes Again”? Let’s face it, between Sherlock and his more modern incarnations like Dr. House, there’s a lot of scope for puns when discussing the Master. Anyhow, so I saw Sherlock Holmes over the holidays. Did I like it? Yeah, overall, it was great. But wait,…
Did anyone else here used to be a big Phantom of the Opera *sigh* “phan” back in the day? As usual, I don’t ask because I actually want to talk about Phantom of the Opera; instead, I’m trying to use the show to shed light on a trope in stories…
Apparently, I’m not done with deciding my favourite stories are sexist yet. (But I am done with sharing this link to the first episode Cracked.com’s new series starring Swaim and DOB, because I for some reason find it to be unadulterated hilarity. Suggestive content, sexual themes, and bad language.) My…