Themenastics

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and ‘The Orville’: To Boldly Go Where We’ve Already Gone
Features/Television

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and ‘The Orville’: To Boldly Go Where We’ve Already Gone

By
 / 3 November 2017

Whereas Star Trek: Discovery continues to explore ideological complexities, so far The Orville seems little more than a celebration of Seth MacFarlane's love of the Star Trek property and his ability to indulge in expensive cosplay.

‘Twin Peaks’ and Its Twisted Reflection
Featured: Top of Home Page/Television

‘Twin Peaks’ and Its Twisted Reflection

By
 / 14 August 2017
The return of Twin Peaks fundamentally reshapes the theme of the entire text, refashioning it into a meditation upon reflection, and the inability to know oneself.
‘About Time’ Is the Donald Trump of Romantic Comedies
Featured: Top of Home Page/Film

‘About Time’ Is the Donald Trump of Romantic Comedies

By
 / 14 April 2017
About Time professes to celebrate life, but instead celebrates perhaps the most narcissistic, selfish behaviour ever rendered in film.
The Spoiled Little Man-Child They Made King: Celebrity, Richard II, and Donald Trump
Culture/Featured: Top of Home Page/Politics/Theatre

The Spoiled Little Man-Child They Made King: Celebrity, Richard II, and Donald Trump

By
 / 9 February 2017
Did Shakespeare predict Trump? No. That's ridiculous. He just wrote a play about a thin-skinned, petty, self-aggrandising narcissist whose poor leadership drove an empire to ruin. Totally different.
Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ Trumps Reality TV
Featured: Top of Home Page/Performing Arts/Television/Theatre

Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ Trumps Reality TV

By
 / 8 December 2016
Shakespeare's As You Like It employed every signature reality show convention three and a half centuries before television even existed.
Things Strange: The Dungeon Master of ‘Stranger Things’
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Things Strange: The Dungeon Master of ‘Stranger Things’

By
 / 4 October 2016
Stranger Things crafts something wholly individual out of the chrysalis of the past, turning the comfort of nostalgia against itself.
Romeo + Juliet + Baz Luhrmann: Reconsidered
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Romeo + Juliet + Baz Luhrmann: Reconsidered

By
 / 11 April 2016
Baz Luhrmann's films are not subtle. So why do I like Romeo + Juliet so much?
Chaos Does Not Mean Despair in Bowie’s Soundscapes
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Chaos Does Not Mean Despair in Bowie’s Soundscapes

By
 / 5 February 2016
What Bowie's music describes, again and again, is that we were endlessly, relentlessly killing ourselves.
Night-Wing Media: Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart’s Lessons in Discourse
Culture/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Television

Night-Wing Media: Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart’s Lessons in Discourse

By
 / 14 October 2015
Through the levelling power of humour, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report cut through the culture's sensationalism and panic to remind us of the baseline of normality beneath all the hysteria.
’24 – Live Another Day’ ‘Cause You’re Gonna Die Anyway
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’24 – Live Another Day’ ‘Cause You’re Gonna Die Anyway

By
 / 17 August 2015
24 began sugared-up on gooey clichés of liberty and freedom -- and ended in hypoglycemic shock. Would a new series be worse for our health?
Look at You, You Big Silly, Says ‘Assassin’s Creed 3’
Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Games

Look at You, You Big Silly, Says ‘Assassin’s Creed 3’

By
 / 12 June 2015
Assassin's Creed 3 is an enormous, beautifully rendered sandbox game designed to kick sand in your face.
Still Life: The Portrait of Time in ‘Boyhood’
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Still Life: The Portrait of Time in ‘Boyhood’

By
 / 17 April 2015
Boyhood sets itself the daunting task of reflecting the breadth of a human adolescence, but it instead reveals that it is in life's minutia that we find the most meaning.