I’d heard the new X-Files was bad, but I didn’t expect the first episode to be borderline incompetent. The script is terrible, overflowing with unmotivated exposition vomit; the direction is at least as bad, tone-deaf and plodding. There’s the kernel of a decent idea there…
Just finished Crooklyn on the train and I was SO confused by the aspect ratio switch for the visit to the suburbs. I have to say, though, it makes a good case for how overrated the idea that a film is only worthwhile if every…
There’s a civilized discussion happening at Eruditorum Press about the showrunner change coming two years from now. Here’s what I wrote there: Not only has Chibnall never written an outstanding Who episode, but I have a hard time picturing him doing a charismatic, daring, innovative…
This is the first time since “The Five Doctors” back in 1983 that my first viewing of a Doctor Who episode took place in a movie theater, surrounded by other fans. I watched “Day of the Doctor” and “Deep Breath” that way, but both were…
Even though “Hell Bent” is as unrepentantly sci-fi and literal as “Heaven Sent” is allegorical and rich with subtext, even though it’s as chaotic and messy and all over the place as its part 1 is focused and precise, I loved it. I don’t know…
By tradition, before the finale, I rank the year’s episodes and discuss how my opinions of them have changed with hindsight. I’ll list them from my least to most favorite this time. 11. Sleep No More Mark Gatiss seems like a fun guy I’d probably…
The Doctor has lost his best friend. His best friend has forbidden him to take out his anger and grief on anyone else. But he can still take it out on himself. There’s no mystery as to the subtext here. It’s a labyrinthine prison, containing…
I’m tentatively planning, in good company with a whole bunch of other people, I’m sure, to watch the first six Star Wars movies in Machete Order before I see the new one. Machete Order (episodes 4, 5, 2, 3, and 6) does not include episode…
I promised myself I’d take a break after finishing the second season of Hannibal. It got good. REALLY good. Like astonishingly good. The first season was just okay. The second was a work of art. That finale: so frustrating and so perfect. Now that I…
One way to gauge the sturdiness of a work of fiction might be: if you know the big spoiler, can you still enjoy it? The longevity of Hamlet, Citizen Kane, and The Empire Strikes Back (to name just three) suggest that it’s certainly possible to…