Essays
The twentieth-century James Bond is, to use M's words, 'a misogynist dinosaur, a relic of [a] cold war' that never turned hot, and he's the result of an unholy trinity of (toxic) hyper-masculinity, international terrorism, and whatever the hell 'quintessential Englishness' actually
Reviews
If you haven't seen Mad Max: Fury Road yet, I strongly urge you to. Not only does it tell us, in the wake of summer action blockbusters like Age of Ultron and Fast and Furious 7, that this genre is neither dead nor dying — it tells us that
Essays
I've noticed a disturbing trend -- well, no, that's a blatant lie. It's not a trend, it's part of our culture. But it is disturbing, so it's only a small lie. This fall season, two TV series have premiered that
Literary Fiction
Previously on Death Comes to Pemberley: Episode 2. There's many different ways to phrase Occam's Razor, but this one from the first series of Luther, I've always liked best: All things being equal, the simplest solution is the best solution. If we do believe
Literary Fiction
Previously on Death Comes to Pemberley: Episode 1. Good grief! As Pemberley falls into a state of uncertainty and disarray, Darcy reverts back to his Lord of the Manor persona and drags Lizzie and Georgiana into misery on his coattails. In case you missed it, the subtext beneath Lizzie and
Drama
When I checked my blog stats earlier while preparing for Death Comes to Pemberley, I noticed that someone has found my blog by typing "death pemberley utter shite" into a search engine. Something like this has happened before, with By Any Means, months ago, and I was just
Reviews
Previously on The Escape Artist: Part II. Just two weeks before David Tennant's return to Doctor Who, we see the finale of The Escape Artist, a mini-series full of horrible surprises and gut-twisting turns — both of phrase and character. "No hard feelings" isn't the
Reviews
Previously on The Escape Artist: Part I. The second episode of The Escape Artist is a masterpiece of thriller writing, acting, and lawyering. Barristers defending murder suspects is never easy, it can't be; not unless they're absolutely certain that their clients are innocent. But this, this
Mystery/Thriller
Starring David Tennant, Sophie Okonedo, and Toby Kebbell, The Escape Artist is anything but lightweight. Starting out humorously enough, the life of Will Burton, junior barrister, Number One, and strong contender for Queen's Counsel (aka silk*), takes a sudden but steady decline into the catastrophic. He's
Reviews
You will probably have noticed that I didn't say anything about Severine in my initial review. That was partly because I did love the film and didn't want to interrupt it with a rant and kill the mood, and partly because I wanted to take another
Reviews
We have come full circle. This is it, this is the reboot. Staging the scene in Casino Royale, the Bond franchise has renewed itself. It's the old crew as we know it—but it's new digs, indeed; even as hints as big as anvils are dropped
Science Fiction
Fortunately, for all of us who live outside of the UK, there are many different ways to stay tuned to BBC's Doctor Who without a cumbersome (and rather depressing) delay. In short, the internet. Good ol' World Wide Web, the answer to almost everything -- except perhaps