Author kennyu4

iZombie Completely Subverts the ‘Boring Boyfriend’ Trope with Major Lilywhite

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From reading that title, I know what you must be thinking: How is it possible for a cleaning detergent to subvert anything on a TV show? Never fear, because the name “Major Lilywhite” actually refers to a character on the show, and despite having an incredibly goofy name and filling the dreaded role as the lead’s “sweetheart ex-boyfriend”, he actually turned out to be a fantastic character in his own right. I’m still pretty shocked at about it all as I type this, because I’ve never really seen something like this being done deliberately. The audience was led into thinking Major would just be Liv’s (the show’s lead) lame “perfect” boyfriend from the past who would show up every once in a while to make her feel guilty and remind her of what she could have had, but instead he’s a fleshed out character with his own world and problems to contend with. He even has a seasonal arc that runs parallel to Liv’s, which eventually converges in the season 1 finale in an explosive way. I would go as far as to argue that Major is one of the most smartly written television characters to show up in recent history.

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Entourage – Existing in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

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The 2004-2011 HBO show Entourage and its recent movie release are fascinating. This is an example of a television dinosaur revived into an era it no longer has a place in. Truly a relic of another age, it’s interesting how this movie shows how much our sensibilities have changed in the last four years. A show that so many unquestionably adored or dismissed as just dumb fun is now being derided by many as toxic.There are a number of reasons for this change in attitude towards it, but I’d wager it has a lot to do with our perceptions on the reality of the world of Entourage. The idea of a bunch of rich white dudes being awful and constantly screwing up but facing almost no repercussions for their behaviour and having everything go their way in the end has become too eerily close to reality. At a time where white and male privilege has fully entered our public consciousness, the existence of something like Entourage seems tone deaf. The problem being in the way the show and movie chooses to confront these “bros”.

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The Dumbest Thing in Recent Memory – Vin Diesel driving off a cliff in Furious 7

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I know what you’re thinking, it’s pretty ridiculous to call out something for being dumb in a proudly dumb action flick like a movie from the Fast and Furious franchise, but hear me out. This scene in particular is especially dumb in the classical sense. It’s not something you have to think too hard about like a movie plot hole, and it’s not something that really takes you out of the movie in terms of how stupid it was (that ship should have sailed long ago). It isn’t “so bad it’s good” dumb, I think it’s a bit too ridiculous for that, but it is a stupid enough moment to make you stop and think about what exactly went on in the writers room.

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How About That Weird Job Interview Conservative Attack Ad?

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Bitter enemies hugging it out after a tragic incident. Not relevant to this article, but still a powerful image nonetheless.

Something you get used to while living in Canada is that we are a passionate bunch when it comes to politics. Sure Americans love to complain about how Congress never gets things done, but how many of them really know what they’re talking about? Even the ones that consider themselves “political” fall into a quagmire when it comes time to explain what they mean when they say they’re “fiscally conservative”. Not so with a large amount of Canadians. We get angry, we get involved, we care. Unfortunately, caring deeply for something comes with the risk of being sucked into the drama and the muck of it. This combined with a boat load of money going into campaigning has led to some truly nasty campaign ads over the years. Historically, no one does crushing campaign ads quite like the Conservatives, and if you need a reference, just take a look:

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The Good Wife – State of Affairs Post Season 6

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A lot has changed since I last wrote about The Good Wife, and unfortunately these changes have been for the worst. After dubbing this show the most impressive show on TV following its amazing fifth season and good first half of its sixth season, the show has hit some unexpected turbulence. The second half of The Good Wife season six was as aimless as its lead was by the end of her arc. A major theme during this period on the show was that Alicia didn’t know what she wanted, which was sadly wholly appropriate for the show since it didn’t seem to know where it was going either. Hitting us with yet another election story line, isolating the Alicia from the supporting cast, and going to great pains to invalidate all of the major changes that happened over the course of the show’s fifth season really put a damper on things. For a series that is often praised for its boldness and refusal to conform to network TV standards, it seemed oddly eager to revert back to its status quo. For those who want a basic understanding of what went wrong, here is a brief overview.

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The End of an Era – The Death of a Laptop – The Fall of a Man – The Quickening

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“A man who loses everything is capable of anything”

– Law Abiding Citizen guy, I think he was in 300 too or something

You see that cryptic quote above? It’s something I often repeat to myself out loud whenever I just missed a bus that would take me home. That feeling of desolation… of being abandoned by fate is something I didn’t fully understand in those instances… not until recently that is. On May 8th, 2015, at 7:45 pm, my laptop died. It was just over three years old and was only one day away from retiring from the force when it was tragically shutdown from a broken recharger port. This laptop, encrusted with Cheetoh dust and dreams, which has endured so much before, was brought down by one obscure mechanical failure. This is a laptop whose ‘S, Q, W, Z, and X’ keys were functioning only selectively, this was a laptop that would freeze after any sudden movements, and this was laptop that was literally coming apart at whatever the laptop equivalent of seams are. The signs were all there, but I still feel absolutely gutted by its death. Especially since this is the second time that its died.

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Three Words That the Internet Ruined Forever

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People have developed so many ways to express themselves with language, and the internet has afforded us with what can be considered an infinite amount of opportunities to do so, but this fact acts as a double-edged sword. So many people are expressing themselves in different ways that many of these expressions (most notably in our language) have lost all meaning. Obviously, this has occurred before the advent of the internet with words like “terrific” and “awesome” essentially meaning totally different things in recent history, but it cannot be denied that the internet has accelerated this process. Just as the internet has changed what it means to be a critic, it has also crept into the development of human expression, often to a negative effect. Valuable words, words that used to hold important meanings have been lost forever within the consciousness of the internet’s populace. There have been many, but today I’m going to look at just 3, so without further ado, let’s begin.

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The Lion King 2 Was a Seriously Underrated Classic

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The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride, the 1998 sequel to Disney’s The Lion King (something you may have heard about), was received poorly from critics. It happens to be another dreaded “Direct-to-DVD sequel” to a Disney film (a distinction that comes with the assumption that the product will be terrible), which probably gave a negative impression from the start, although the plot proved to be problematic as well. If the original Lion King was supposed to be a Disney retelling of Hamlet, this film would be its retelling of Shakespeare’s other supremely famous play, Romeo and Juliet. While its predecessor brought a fresh take on a timeless tale of fratricide, The Lion King 2 suffers from being highly derivative of other romantic stories. You have the outsider infiltrating our lead’s society for nefarious purposes only to end up falling in love with the person he was supposed to hurt and being forced between choosing between love and duty. There is nothing involving the romance between Simba’s daughter Kiara (Neve Campbell) and her boyfriend Kovu (Jason Marsden) that you won’t see coming, but the movie’s true strength lies in the story that is being told around them. Above all else, The Lion King II is a story about parenthood, and as a discussion on that subject this movie is very good.

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Avengers and Why the Ultron Humour Works

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A good villain has the power to elevate any story they’re in. They drive the plot obviously, but more important is the fact that they challenge the hero. Beyond physical confrontation, their goals are in direct opposition to whatever ideal the heroes are striving for, and because of that writers are given a wonderful opportunity to say something interesting about a specific subject. For example, Syndrome from Pixar’s The Incredibles argues that only people’s perception is of value while the rest is irrelevant, but he is proven wrong by the heroes when they demonstrate that the substance and not just the appearance of being a hero matters more than anything else. Sometimes, the villain will carry the weight of the world on their shoulders and if the audience doesn’t connect with them, the story will have an enormous gap. There are many ways to connect a villain to the audience, some of which include sympathy, fear-factor, and relatability. In the case of Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, the titular Ultron is written to connect with the audience using humour.

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Who is “Shut It Down” Evelyn?

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Wearing a bright pink shirt, a long jacket, a bag slung over her shoulder, and a hand in her pocket; this is definitely one mysterious figure. We don’t know much about her other than the fact that she mostly keeps to herself and is apparently psychic, but Evelyn of the “Wedding Objections” Saturday Night Live sketch certainly leaves an impression. Suddenly appearing in the middle of a sketch revolving around the union of a black WNBA athlete and a very British Martin Freeman, Evelyn offers her own objections to what is occurring. The humour of the sketch comes from the fact that virtually all of the bride and groom’s friends and family have major objections to the marriage taking place that come from a place of reason rather than racial tensions, but Evelyn is different. We don’t know why she’s there at all and we never find out what her exact problem with the couple. Everything we do know can be surmised in her opening line. Continue reading “Who is “Shut It Down” Evelyn?” →