Any long-running television show tends to look to its past for inspiration. One of the primary drawcards of serialised TV is characterisation, and what better way to flesh out a character than delve into their past. There’s a tendency for this to go bad – I’m thinking specifically of a second season episode of The…
Ever wonder what might happen if Adventure Time’s Jake and Finn ended up in an Enid Blyton novel? Then Over the Garden Wall is the show – or ten-episode miniseries, if you prefer – for you! That’s a slight over-simplification of what’s going on here. Over the Garden Wall shares with Adventure Time a fondness…
Despite growing up at pretty much exactly the right time to be exposed to Sailor Moon on a daily basis, the recent remaster rerelease of the show on Australian DVD is actually the first time I’d seen a whole episode of the show, let alone a whole season. As a child I’d always dismissed this…
I can’t really complain about the woeful storytelling on display in Dragon Academy’s first episode. The series – set in a medieval-kingdom-slash-high-school where students train dragons – is the kind of slight anime entertainment that I don’t expect much from. So I can forgive the preponderance of “As you know, your father, the king” dialogue…
Over at Junkee I’ve written about Making a Murderer, examining how the series manipulates viewers and how, ultimately, those manipulations are in service of a good cause – reinforcing the presumption of innocence. Generally, this is where I’d conclude a repost here on ccpopculture; a quick gesture to the piece which should theoretically speak for…
It took me until the third episode of Ghost in the Shell: Arise (the first instalment of which I reviewed precisely one year ago) to realise that this was a prequel, rather than an alternate universe take à la GITS:SAC. That’s as much a reflection of my obliviousness as it is Arise’s similarities to its…
Over at Junkee, I explained how Please Like Me has established itself as the best television show of 2015 by exploiting the inherent sadness of sitcom stasis. Read the piece here.
Space Dandy’s second season keeps pretty well to the tone of season one – reviewed here – which means plenty of restlessly-creative, energetically-absurd space nonsense revolving around the most narcissistic, impressively-coiffed man in the universe. If you dug the silliness of season one, you’ll be equally appreciative of this, though it’s worth noting there’s slightly…
So I Can’t Play H! is a fanservice anime. Or maybe the fanservice anime, given how shamelessly it’s calibrated to accommodate animated depictions of the naked female form. Here’s its premise: a slender Grim Reaper named Lisara (Aya Endo) strikes a deal with perverted high-schooler Ryosuke (Hiro Shimono), wherein he will supply her with ‘energy’ that…
Thanks to Icon Film Distribution, ccpopculture has 2 John Malkovich prize packs to give away, including Disgrace, RED, Warm Bodies and new pirate series Crossbones, out on Australian DVD on Wednesday December 9th. “One icon stars as another when Hollywood legend, John Malkovich plays Edward Teach, better known as the barbarous pirate Blackbeard in the NBC series, Crossbones. It is 1729 and on…
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