The Flawed Premise of You (Season 2): Episodes 1-5

I’m five episodes into the second season of Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble created series You (previously on Lifetime, now on Netflix) and I find myself constantly musing over exactly what it is about this season that, at least for this viewer, makes it feel less engaging than the first season, as well as slightly …

(SPN) Castiel: Angel or Man?

Please do read about exactly why I'm hooked on the show Supernatural (SPN) in this previous post, and get a sense of why this study of one of my favourite characters ever on television even came about. Castiel has an amazingly complex and brilliantly structured character arc, and while I wrote this about two years …

The Subtextual Symbolism is Strong With This One, or Why I’m Hooked on Supernatural

There’s something deeply alluring about the long-form of most of our modern television narratives. Spending hours getting to know characters and exploring the world they populate is intensely satisfying, and so much of the output that is now readily available is about quality storytelling, catering to us - the audience - as we’ve grown used …

Writing Toolkit: How to Make Theme Work for You

When I started writing, I often began with an image in my head, or a piece of dialogue that had just come to me out of nowhere, and I’d build from there.  Most likely I’d build my narrative castle on air and then, once that castle was built, I’d try to shove a foundation under …

Charlie Kaufman and the Art of Adaptation

Adapting a novel into a film is a sensitive and hazardous process, especially if the novel has already garnered a following of avid readers. When adapting an already existing work the screenwriter may have the leisure of not having to come up with everything from scratch, but they must endure the added stress of wanting …

JOKER and the Pursuit of Happiness

This article contains spoilers throughout. Arthur Fleck has been told his whole life to put on a happy face: by his mother, by society, by himself. He has grown up in the belief that he was put on this Earth to spread joy and laughter, but with the very first scene of Joker, it’s made …