Why I Love the Audience Avatar

We long to see ourselves onscreen, or to be represented in some way. For me, this could be by seeing a twenty-something guy live in America. Or for many others, it could be a Black superhero finally portrayed in a major franchise film. But at the most basic position, we are all audience members watching stories which are often larger-than-life, and that is why I love audience surrogates.

Parks and Recreation – Hope in a Hopeless World

This time of quarantine has now begun to morph into and merge with a time of unsettling civil unrest. It may seem silly, like getting choked up over a song about a fictional pony, but I believe we can take the positive lessons of Parks and Rec and let them lift our spirits through the negative times in which we live.

How David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Didn’t Ruin Game of Thrones

The behind the scenes of Game of Thrones can serve as a cautionary tale. When you’re tackling something new and ambitious, try to comprehend the journey you’re about to embark on. If at first it seems you’re doing well, it doesn’t guarantee a perfect ending. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss perhaps didn’t understand the full scale of their undertaking, and by the end, they had fallen flat on their faces.

Devs Functions as the Spiritual Prequel to Ex Machina

Alex Garland has been part of a good handful of excellent movies. His work is niche, but it has connected with audiences and critics alike. It’s deep, heady, and thought-provoking fare. While I think Ex Machina is Garland’s best overall work to date, Devs, his recent venture into television miniseries, is his most philosophically engaging piece.

How Modern Family Changed the Way I Think

I love a lot of TV shows. Parks and Recreation, Game of Thrones, Lost, and of course Modern Family are among my favorites. These shows have affected me deeply, brought me to new worlds, stimulated thinking, and given me lots of laughs. But one stands out among the rest – Modern Family.

2020 Golden Globes Predictions

The Golden Globe Awards are tomorrow night after one of the best years for movies and television in the last decade. After a disappointing first half of the year in movies, the rest of the year put out lots of good stuff. I missed out on seeing Motherless Brooklyn, which was nominated for Best Original Score,

King Bran the Breaker of the Wheel

Since The Lord of the Rings movies have been my favorite movies for as long as I can remember, with Harry Potter and Star Wars close behind it, I was ready to hop on the GoT train early on due to the fantasy elements alone. Having never read the A Song of Ice and Fire books, I wasn’t prepared for the deep themes and heavy emotional through lines that seep into the entirety of the show. To me, it is a rich text with so much to be learned from it. Beginning to end, it is my favorite television show of all time.

Examining Jon Snow

Jon Snow garners a lot of flak as a character. He’s accused of being a brooding, gravelly voiced, whiny character. But I don’t think any of this is fair at all. He is a character with a strong sense of duty and morality, and who has no real place in a world where those two things seem to get cast aside by most.

Examining Daenerys Targaryen

Out of all of the character conclusions in Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen is the one that generated the biggest uproar and the most backlash. This turned out to be the story of someone who seemed good – like a glimmer of hope in a dark and hopeless world – making an out-of-nowhere heel turn to the dark side. It’s like Walter White, but without any of the character development, say the critics of this turn.

Examining Jamie Lannister

Who would have thought after the first episode of Game of Thrones that the guy performing incest with his twin sister, who acted like a prideful jerk, and who pushed a young kid out of the highest tower in Winterfell would have fans upset at his death? The answer is, probably no one (except those who had already read the books). Based on that first episode alone, there was nothing redeemable about Jamie Lannister.