Commentary: ‘Andor’ Success Highlights The Failure Of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’
When a franchise becomes as vast and expansive as Star Wars, the canon starts to provide new context for already-existing
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Author: Frank Martin
Commentary: It’s Okay That ‘Pluribus’ Is Stupid
TV series tend to want to write smart characters. When they consistently do dumb things in order to move the
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Commentary: ‘Civil War’ Has The Wrong Title
With the current political climate as tense as it is, it’s no surprise that a movie entitled Civil War —
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Commentary: ‘Tron: Ares’ Separates Its Hero From Its Protagonist
Most stories take for granted that the hero and the protagonist are the same character. The strong champion of the
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Commentary: ‘Stranger Things’ Had To Have A Long Epilogue
Audiences should be familiar with finales containing an epilogue. It is a scene or a sequence of scenes that wrap
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Commentary: ‘Slow Horses’ Has Wild Swings In Tone
Tone is an extremely important aspect of storytelling. It’s what determines whether or not a horror story focuses on atmospheric
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Commentary: The Success Of ‘Twisted Metal’ Means It Should End
A lot of shows are built around a singular premise. Sometimes, it plays out over the course of the entire
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Commentary: More Shows Should Do Holiday Episodes Like ‘Rick And Morty’
It’s no surprise that holiday episodes are a big draw amongst television shows. People love holidays, so it makes sense
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Commentary: ‘Slow Horses’ Doesn’t Shy Away From Difficult Scenes
Graphic content has always been a controversial subject when being depicted in media. A lot of topics are very dark
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Commentary: ‘Stranger Things’ Took A Lesson From ‘Fast And Furious’
It’s hard crafting an action franchise as there is a constant need for escalation. Sometimes sequels try to outdo the
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Commentary: ‘One Battle After Another’ Exemplifies The Value Of Shorter Films
Film runtimes have always been a hot topic for movie buffs. Certain genres seem to fall within a certain range
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Commentary: ‘Stranger Things’ Taps Into ‘The Matrix’
One of the main draws of Stranger Things: it doesn’t shy away from its influences and pays homage to the
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Commentary: ‘Far Cry 6’ Made The Story Personal
The Far Cry games have a specific format their stories follow. It usually involves an outsider coming into a violent
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Commentary: The Difficulty Of Storytelling In The Streaming Era
There’s no denying how much cinema has changed since its inception. Between visual effects, camera techniques, and all the other
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Commentary: ‘One Battle After Another’ Combines The Serious With The Absurd
Contrasts between tone and subject matter can always make for entertaining storytelling. This is why horror-comedy can be such an
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Commentary: ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Benefits From Mythology
It always helps a story when characters have a mythology built up around them, especially if audiences are familiar with
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Commentary: ‘Twisted Metal’ Delaying The Tournament Worked In Its Favor
Adapting video games is tricky, as evident by the many failed attempts to do so. Story driven games at least
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Commentary: The Unique Way ‘Andor’ Dealt With The Force
The Force and Force users have always been an integral part of the Star Wars franchise, but they aren’t the
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Commentary: ‘Rick And Morty’ Uses Retcon As A Tool
Retcons are usually viewed as bad things for stories. It means that a mistake was made and something needs to
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Commentary: The Odd Boldness Of ‘Twisted Metal’
Live action adaptations are a tricky thing to get right. Comic books and video games have a lot of room
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Commentary: The Power In Knowing The End Of ‘Andor’
There’s a special kind of magic to prequels. Because they take place before the original tale, audiences have a certain
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Commentary: ‘Gen V’ Put Its Cameos To Work
Cameos are largely fan service. They serve to tie together a universe and make the fans feel as if they
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Commentary: ‘Wicked: For Good’ Highlights The Difference Between Theater And Film
There have been many films adapted from the stage even though both mediums have huge differences in both terms of
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Commentary: ‘M3GAN 2.0’ Is A New Way Of Looking At AI
Artificial intelligence has been the subject of science fiction stories for decades. It’s appeared in everything from books, to television
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Commentary: ‘Wicked’ Could Have Easily Been One Movie With A Big Change
With a long history of stage to film adaptations, Wicked is certainly not the first musical to become a movie.
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Commentary: ‘Andor’s Ending Makes Its Slow Beginning Worthwhile
Slow burn stories are often subjects of controversy. Fans of them say that the ending makes the slow nature of
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Commentary: ‘Peacemaker’ Offers A Unique Way To Examine A Retconned TV Show
There are very few moments, if any, that can match what James Gunn is doing with DC Studios. Specifically, his
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Commentary: ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Is Different Right From The Start
The fourth season of Stranger Things created a huge shift in the series. Up until that point, the main villain had
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Commentary: ‘Andor’ Underscores What True Fascism Looks Like
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Star Wars is all about dictatorship. Right from the beginning, the story focused
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Commentary: ‘Gen V’ Suffers From The Spinoff Curse
Conceptually, spinoffs are great. It’s a way for fans to get extra time with characters and universes they enjoy while
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Commentary: The ‘Peacemaker’ Intro Perfectly Sets Things Up
Intros are very important to a series. Nowadays, people can simply skip them, but that doesn’t mean creators have stopped
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