When Stranger Things ended their first season I didn’t feel that there was a need to continue. The character’s had had their arcs come full circle, most loose ends were neatly tied and, despite the ending being left slightly ambiguous, for the most part, it was wrapped up ...

Make it So Again

There are certain story templates that we see played out over and over throughout the years, decades and centuries.

One of my favorites is the one where the Old Warrior or the Old Master is called out of retirement to rejoin the fight for one last ...

In an attempt to cool down during the heatwave that has taken over two-thirds of the country, all Saturday was spent at the movie theater watching Toy Story 4 and the new Iive-action Lion King movie on IMAX. Toy Story 4 picked up where Toy Story 3 left off and ...

The Mysterious Stranger


This is about ‘the mysterious stranger’ in fiction. Well, one of the variations of that, at least. I'm not talking about the mysterious stranger who becomes the MC's lover in a romance novel, or the mysterious stranger who knocks on the door or gets into ...

Last week, I was in a classroom and the plans on the desk were to show a DVD. “Oh good, Zootopia it is!” I said as I happily loaded the disc into the computer. I had already seen the movie three years ago when it came out in theaters, so ...

When do you bail on a series, movie or story?

We had a pretty fine conversation on the Quackcast last week that wandered into the category of “endings” and when they're set up well vs badly and such. I had a similar convo today with someone about various series ...

Happy June 1st everyone!

I have been youtube-crawling today around the cinema pop-culture side. And as I was watching assorted comments and commentary on a whole lot of YA (i.e. Young Adult) and children's books and TV/film/animation series, from Harry Potter to The Last Airbender to ...

Noako is an unusual lady, slightly… draconic… but she looks human enough. She lives with her best friend Ebony, a vamp who also happens to be a vampire, a very slutty one. And then comes along young Holly, a red-headed lesbian, to be their lodger. Along the way they meet ...

This is a topic that Ozoneocean suggested to me and I have to say I'm quite intrigued to tackle it and start a conversation perhaps around the concept as a plot device but also as an issue of the relationship of the creators and the audiences.

Betrayal can be ...

image by Ben Burgraff

When writing a historical fiction, it's very likely that you will need to include some actual historical personalities along with your historically-adept yet fictional cast.

Depicting a historical character is hard enough when there's a general consensus among historians and popular belief about who ...