Category Archives: Retrospectives

The Swinging Pendulum: Hannibal, Fannibals, and Bryan Fuller


Hannibal_2_13_13Hannibal Lecter is one of the most well-known fictional characters of all time. Thomas Harris will go down in history for changing crime novels, crime stories, and for creating the popular culture’s need for serial killers. Bryan Fuller will go down in history for creating some of the most beloved television series about death, the after life, and food. All of which were tragically cut short. Hannibal, however, has been renewed for a second season on NBC, something which Bryan Fuller was actually pretty sure about (x).

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Thoroughly Animated: A DC Animated Movies Retrospective-Part 2


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Alright, we are pretty much up to the years where I started legitimately watching and buying these films regularly. Boy, were these fun films, I loved most of them and even the ones I didn’t totally love, I still really liked. It was also around this time that DC started attaching animated short films to their DVD and Blu Ray releases. These were called DC Showcase, they ranged from really small relatively unknown characters like The Spectre to very well known characters like Catwoman. These shorts normally last for ten minutes and it is a really cool way to see an animated version of characters who otherwise would not have a shot at their own animated feature.  DC Showcase also came out with a short film called Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam.  This was significantly longer than the previous showcase shorts, with a running time of 25 minutes. The other things that appeared on this Blu Ray were the previous short films from the other movies, making at least the length of a normal release. The Superman/Shazam short is one of the best, it is essentially the origin story for the character Shazam and I think they pulled it off wonderfully. I did not know much about the character until I had seen this, and it made me a fan of the character. On some DVDs and Blu Rays they also put out two to four episodes of Batman the Animated Series, Superman the Animated Series or Justice League. The episode will normally parallel what is in the movie, or at least have a similar character in there. Continue reading

As It Ever Was: The Cabin in the Woods in Retrospection


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The Cabin in the Woods isn’t your typical horror film. Well…it is, but it also isn’t. I’m gonna put a spolier warning on this article – just in case. If you haven’t seen Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s groundbreaking entry into the ever growing genre of horror, then you should. It truly is a cross-genre masterpiece. Not since Scream has the horror genre been so utterly flipped on its head, and beautiful so.

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Signing a Contract to Be a Slave: Dollhouse in Retrospection


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Dollhouse. How do we even begin to talk about Dollhouse? It might be the most ambitious of all of Joss Whedon’s shows, and, while it is deeply flawed, it’s also one of the most interesting. 

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I Cannot Believe My Eyes: A Retrospective of the Quest to Dr. Horrible


The 2007-2008 television year was a dark time. Well, for some people. For fans it meant that there weren’t going to be new episodes, but for the writers it meant that the future of contracts would yield so much more. That being said, the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike hit like a storm that we, as fans, didn’t really predict. Or at least I didn’t because I was fourteen and I didn’t pay attention to the industry the way I do now.

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Had Joss Whedon had a show on television at the time, though, he would have had the same problem that 120 other “hyphenates” had. Joss is a showrunner – meaning he’s both head writer and executive producer. He, quite literally, runs his shows. The WGA strike causes a lot of conflicts because head writers were striking as writers, but they were still contractually obligated to work as executive producers. Whedon, however, wasn’t running a show.

While it’s always sad when Joss Whedon doesn’t have a show on air, we probably wouldn’t have Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog if there had been something on television. But let it never be said that Joss Whedon isn’t inspired, because he is and he delivers on those fantastic ideas.

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Comically Whedon Part 4: Buffy, Angel and the Whedonverse in Comics


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Fray Connections!

We all remember those tragic days; they will live on in history as a moment of great fandom disappointment. Of course, I’m talking about the days that Buffy, Angel and Firefly were all canceled. It left a hole in our hearts, leaving us wanting more and more. For a while, we gave up hope. That is, until 2007, when Joss Whedon surprised us all with the announcement that Buffy was coming back, but not in the way that we thought.

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Comically Whedon Part 3: Fray


Joss’s comic book career, up until this point, had been filled with him writing other peoples characters (the X-men and the Runaways). However, Joss Whedon is at his best when he is working with his own characters. This way, he’s not limited to the personalities and continuities of previously established and well known people. It also means he can kill off whoever the hell he wants to and no one can do a damn thing about it. So around the time “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” was coming to an end Joss decided to create a comic book set in the same world as Buffy, but with more of a punk rock/sci-fi edge to it.  He called it Fray.

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Comically Whedon Part 2: The Runaways


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Before I even knew that Joss Whedon had a run on this book, I loved the Runaways series. It was fun, had a great story and characters, and was created by Brian K. Vaughn, who wrote one of my favorite Maxi-Series of all time-Y: The Last Man. Continue reading

Comically Whedon Part 1: Astonishing X-Men


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Man, this Image is first class.

Joss Whedon seems to be a master of all mediums. He has written and directed films, created TV shows, and even wrote a few comic books. Today I will be looking at my favorite X-Men run of all time. This is especially strange since the X-Men as a concept kind of bug me (more on that later). The concept of Astonishing X-Men was brilliant, it was canon, but also not canon. It contained elements of the original comics but avoided the big crossover events and for that I have mad respect for the series.

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Big Damn Heroes: A Firefly Retrospective


What can I say about this show that hasn’t been said many times before. It is a show just happens to be miles ahead of its time and will be remembered forever. Now I could tell you all about the story and every connection. I could tell you everything about the characters and their developments throughout the show. Since I’m sure you’ve heard or read that kind of article many, many times before, this article will not be that. Instead I am going to tell you what makes this show stand out from others and if you haven’t watch it… Why? Stop reading this and go watch it for yourself. Seriously. Go. Anyways…Fireflyopeninglogo

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