Great Characters in Television: Dexter Morgan

A character in a television series presents a unique challenge in storytelling because, differently from literature or film, a TV show presents the audience with a continually progressing story on a weekly basis and therefore the characters involved in the story are required to do the same. The strength of a great television character is complexity and consistency; strong motivation, a multi-faceted personality, challenges and faults, and a deliberate evolution – all building and conflicting with each other over the course of a show’s run, a culmination that often, if successful, stretches over multiple years. This hopefully will be the first of a series of articles celebrating the best of these characters that television has to offer.

The Problem With Perez Hilton (and Gossip Media)

I want to talk briefly about gossip, or more specifically about the responsibility of gossip-mongering television shows and websites. I’m well aware that, as a deeply invested consumer of the entertainment industry, I’m willingly jumping into a shark tank. If I run a search on my favourite actors and musicians, I have no doubt that the first dozen results will be more rumour and hearsay than relevant news on their film or music careers. I have no issue with this (I’m also entirely conscious that many of my favourite actors and musicians are as responsible as ET and TMZ for the perpetration of this trend).However gossip writers have become proper journalists, landing columns in newspapers and reports on CNN, and as such, take up the accountability of their other news counterparts. I’m not talking about rumours about a celebrity’s personal life – that’s a topic for another article, and something I’m not informed enough to speak about. What I take issue with is the inaccuracy and dismissal of relevant information in their articles.

Occasional Movie Review: Michael Bay and Transformers

At this point, discussing Michael Bay's blatant love affair for anything big and on fire is beyond redundant; he's turned himself into a walking punchline:

That being said Bay has become the brunt of a lot of criticism for his unwavering movie-making formula. Although I can't say I disagree - the extent to which he continuously relies on the same tools makes his movies both predictable and ridiculous - I have to say with a franchise like Transformers you couldn't ask for anything more. A two-hour action sequence is the perfect job for Michael bay and I would go so far as to say he is probably the only person in Hollywood who could have made it work. And that's exactly what he did. Seeing Transformers was one of the best experiences I've had in a theatre in the past few years. Here is a list of the reasons why it's so entertaining:

My Experience From Book to Film: Shutter Island

In 1954 U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) travels to a remote, storm-beaten island, site of Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, in order to investigate the disappearance of patient Rachel Solando. However, what appears at first to be a missing persons case quickly becomes far more suspicious and the further Daniels’ investigation goes the more disturbing his discoveries become.

My Experience From Book to Film: Watching The Watchmen

Watchmen has always been the gospel of sorts in my comic book side of things. Recommendations and comparisons were sent my way lots of times, to which I always felt a genuine interest and curiosity but nonetheless moved along blissfully ignorant of what exactly I was passing up. When announcements of the Watchmen movie reached me a year or two ago I knew I had only a limited time to experience the comic book on a clean slate and picked up my own copy.

It goes without saying Watchmen is unlike anything I've read. Its plot structure is genially built on intertwining themes and concepts of morality, politics and psychology that delve extremely deeply into society even today, all the while taking place in an alternate universe of the1980’s where Nixon remains president and the cold war has spiraled toward nuclear holocaust. Expanding and building on all of these themes are the characters, all of which are extremely complex and conflicted in their own rights. Moore delivers a wide spectrum of psychoses, vulnerabilities and perspectives relevant to the superhero archetype as well as the human condition as a whole. The story is rich and fulfilling and at times poetic and tragic.