Media Anatomy

  I have been far from the biggest fan of the films from the so-called "Disney Rebirth." I probably thought Tangled   was the best as its humor felt the most organic and it boasted truly memorable characters whether they be endearing, Rapunzel and Maximus the horse, or menacing, Mother Gothel. Other films, however, like Frozen or Moana boasted exemplary animation but were hampered by meandering plots, thin characters, and often teeth grindingly bad humor. Raya of the Last Dragon definitely suffers from this last problem, while admittedly continuing the trend of absolutely gorgeous animation. Many of the humor sequences do not work because too often it feels like the film is saying "stop, let's have an extended comic sketch" and thus it feels awkward. It also feels awkward because the world of the film is a dark dystopian one so random comic intervals feel like they're there because they're expected rather than that they should be there.  Nevertheless, th...

  There has been a severe backlash towards Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, or AOC, sharing the story of her sexual assault and how she threatened during the terrorist attack on the Capital Building. Just last night the hashtag "AOC lied" was trending on social media. This toxic ideology can be traced back to two popular creation stories. Think of Adam and Eve and how it is Eve who responsible for the end of Paradise because of her tricking Adam into eating the forbidden fruit. Think of Pandora's box, and how Pandora's inquisitiveness leads to her opening the box and dooming humanity. These creation stories establish two precedents that too often guide our society: women are deceitful and women should be quiet. And what do you know: the accusations against AOC are that she is lying and that she should shut up.  Pandora's dooming of humanity These toxic ideals reverberate throughout our media. Think of how often you have heard authoritative women be called "bitches...

 After really loving the Davies era of Dr. Who, I decided to seek out other works of his. It was then that I found a recent project of his, Years and Years . Like so much of Davies' work, this show captures what media  should do but rarely does. It probes our world and is not afraid in making the viewer uncomfortable while doing so. It also somehow juggles a dark cynical portrait of humanity while never losing faith in our capacity to be better. It is a special show I could not recommend enough.  In this series, Davies casts his net wide as he touches on things like technology, immigration, and the rise of fascism. His treatment of technology is fascinating as in many ways it could be read as a repudiation of the popular Black Mirror. While that show almost always shows technology as a force that will end up destroying our lives, Davies prefers a more nuanced portrait. A character seeks to be transhuman, meaning she wants to merge with a computer, and this character ends ...

 Some of my favorite shows growing up were the Star Trek shows as supervised by Michael Piller or made in the legacy of Michael Piller. I characterize this era from TNG season 3, when Michael Piller took over as a show-runner, to the end of DS9, the departure of Ira Stephen Behr, the last hand picked show-runner by Michael Piller. These shows were strongly interested in character and exploring fascinating thematic ideas and have played a critical role in shaping who I am. Dr . Who is a show I barely knew until recently but over the last few months I have been watching every episode of the Davies Era from Rose onwards I have really come to love the show and the warm humanism embodied in the episodes. This post is a tribute to these two men.  When Michael Piller took over TNG, the show was frankly in disarray. To be charitable, the first two seasons had been messes with no real clear vision and characters who seemed overly stiff both literally and figuratively. Scripts often se...

  The film, Conspiracy, depicts the events of the Wannsee Conference where the infamous Final Solution was revealed to various members of the German bureaucracy for the first time. The film does a good job of presenting the events in a way that aligns with the historical truth but its greatest strength is how it fully shows how complicit the people involved were, as even those who were against genocide were still highly reprehensible, such as Wilhem Stuckart. Adding to the film’s power is Kenneth Branagh’s performance as Reinhard Heydrich and Stanley Tucci’s performance as Adolf Eichmann which are both excellent and bring these people to life with frightening realism. The frightening realism is most realized in the final scenes when everybody goes home like they have just discussed a game of golf. The film is interested in painting a portrait of a society that is rotten to the core and in that, the film succeeds beautifully. The main content of what was presented at the Wannsee...

  Star Trek: Discovery launched on September 24, 2017  marking the first time Trek was on the small screen in over ten years. I went in with hope and optimism as I was encouraged by the show's decision to have a black woman be the show's lead for the first time in the franchise's history. Those feeling of hope and optimism are very hard to remember now as over the last three years, which have felt like 30 years, my interest in discussing Discovery, and the other CBS Trek shows, have been slowly crushed.  Soon after Discovery aired, there began to be a wave of bad faith critics who ranted about how Trek had been taken over by "wokeness" or "SJWs" which was obviously nonsense. Nevertheless despite my disagreements with these bad faith critics I did think there were major problems with the story and sometimes acting in Discovery. I hoped to be able to air my critiques and offer good faith criticism that would represent a counterbalance to the overwhelming w...