Favourite Media of 2016

Best Media of 2016

It’s 2017 already, but it’s still dark outside most of the day, and fuck me if it isn’t bloody cold. In this bleak midwinter, I want to take some time to look back at the media I loved best in 2016. Since there’s way too much to choose from, I’ll be looking at my favourite short fiction […]

Favourite Media of 2015

Slices of films, television, comic, book and magazine covers from 2015.

‘Tis the season for best-of lists! Because I, too, am human and have opinions about things, this is mine. Follow the jump for my favourite media of 2015.

REVIEW: Into The Woods (2015)

Into The Woods title card.

Compared to the stage versions, adaptations of musicals for film are a fundamentally different beast. Even leaving aside the philosophical contrast between the protean and ephemeral nature of stage performance and film’s endurance, the fact that big musicals translate into big films means that almost all musical adaptations endure some rejigging for projected mass market […]

Three Scenes from The Battle of the Five Armies (That Exist Only in my Mind)

A title card that reads 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies'.

Lament! The final instalment of The Hobbit trilogy is upon us. Thus undoubtedly ends Peter Jackson’s blockbusting Middle Earth saga, as Christopher Tolkien has made quite clear his opinion of the film adaptations of his father’s work. As if he’s already given up courting the Tolkien estate’s good opinion, Jackson’s final offering takes Middle Earth […]

REVIEW: The Strain, season 1, episode 1, ‘Night Zero’

'The Strain' written in red against a white background.

The Strain was always meant to be a television show. Although the story was originally published as a trilogy of novels, co-written by creator Guillermo del Toro with Chuck Hogan, del Toro had initially envisaged The Strain as a multi-season TV series. The pilot, commissioned by FX after Hogan and del Toro’s completion of the final novel, is co-written and directed by del Toro himself, also executive producer. Airing Wednesday September 17th on Watch, the pilot introduces a thirteen episode season which has already aired up to episode ten in the US – so it’s one to avoid Googling if spoilers are an issue.

REVIEW: The Musketeers season 1, episode 10, ‘Musketeers Don’t Die Easily’

If you’ve ever so much as flicked a glance down my blog, you’ll have noticed that I’ve recently fallen for new BBC series The Musketeers. The costumes, the plotlines, the sexy people constantly touching one another – it was love at first sight. In this, my first television review, I aim with a doleful heart to disentangle the knotty […]

Seven Reasons You Should Watch… The Musketeers

Something you should know about me: there are three things sure to hook me into a new story, whatever medium it comes in. Those are: a period setting, a group cast, and seriously smokingly attractive people. The BBC’s new series Musketeers is batting three for three – or whatever sports analogy you want to insert […]