Curiosity Quills
Here’s how the story doesn’t end: TV adaptations that make it up as they go along
TV’s rapacious interest in book adaptations has been expanding lately. Today, novels are seen as springboards and not holy writ, and TV shows are happily going way off the reservation.
Read MoreSpace, the final frontier for gender stereotypes
Space heroines are few and far between in movies and on TV. While occasionally you get your Ellen Ripleys (Alien) and Princess Leia (Star Wars) the truth is women rarely make it to fictional space in any kind of leadership capacity.
Read MoreSad songs say so much: the enduring appeal of songs that hurt your heart
You don’t have to look far to find songs about sadness. Popular music of all genres has trafficked forever in lyrics that tell terrible tales, suggest dark motives and insist that we all live in a vale of tears. Plus, there’s a catchy chorus.
Read MoreWriting Dead: Why Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse still ask the big questions in ‘The Leftovers,’ ‘The Returned’
Years after “Lost” went off the air, two of its co-creators, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, are still asking the big questions in “The Leftovers” and “The Returned.”
Read More10 scripts, 2 Oscars: Which writers will take home the best screenplay awards?
The writer on a movie set is a second-class citizen, a vestigial remnant that might once have served a purpose but who, once filming has begun, can only get in the way. Once a script leaves the hands of its screenwriter, unless said screenwriter is also directing, they’re less useful than an appendix. Nobody wants…
Read MoreArisia 2015: My schedule, and how I’ll defy both time and space while there
Coming to Arisia 2015? Here’s where you’ll find me, hoping to be in two places at once….
Read MoreIt’s a Terrifying, Asphyxiating, Not-So-Wonderful Life After All
“It’s a Wonderful Life” aired again on TV recently, as it does pretty much every year around Christmastime. And whether you’ve actually watched it or not (and I do recommend you give it a chance), you probably know the story of George Bailey, whose life is upended one Christmas Eve when a big deposit from…
Read MoreHo-ho-hold the treacle: Most holiday movies stink. Demand better!
After much delay, at last I saw “Maleficent” the other night. And yes, while it is full of exactly what one expects from a Disney film – for (spoiler alert), example, a villain given grace by his vanquisher tries one last time for the win and ends up falling to his death – it took…
Read MoreWhen fantasy writers turn on TV, what turns fantasy writers on? (Hint: Breaking Bad)
On my way to the World Fantasy Convention in Crystal City, Virginia last weekend, I had a chat with an editor, who sighed with dismay that she’d initially packed only four or five books to bring with her for the long weekend. She wondered if that was enough. I began to wonder if I just…
Read MoreTake me now: The seductive nature of TV’s serial killers
TV can be a scary place, and some of its worst offenders are also the best-written and most seductive.
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