Author: Mike Gray
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10 Beloved 80s Films That Suck
Film culture from the 1980s is now known for perfecting the blockbuster, creating the teen movie, and churning out tons of (somewhat inappropriate) films for kids. And a lot of movies from this decade have gone on to become true classics: Back to the Future, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ghostbusters, and many more. But not […]
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10 Best Movies That Criticize Consumerism
Consumerism is the natural by-product of capitalism. Really, it’s the natural by-product of being alive: we all need things to survive, after all. Food, housing, clothing, from beginning to end it seems it’s our natural state to consume. But living in a capitalist society also complicates the matter, particularly since in a such a society, […]
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Perfect Directors: Robert Altman
I am an American. That is to say, I was born in, and have spent my entire life, in the United States of America. Everything I know about the world–if not reality itself–is filtered through my experiences and understanding from the sliver of time I’ve been alive from the late 20th to early 21st century […]
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Perfect Directors: Jacques Tati
Directors don’t need to have a long list of movies on their resume to be considered great; in fact, it seems the more movies once heralded filmmakers make, the more likely they are to sully their own good fortune and reputation, living long enough to become the villain–or at least retroactively wreck their own reputation. […]
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Great TV: Mr. Show
Alternative comedy—a vague label affixed to any comedic material that seems unusual, iconoclastic, or transgressive—has gained incredible cultural cachet in the past 30 years. While there have always been alternative comedy figures and material in American post-war pop culture (Ernie Kovacs, Andy Kaufman, SCTV and Saturday Night Live, Bill Hicks, Second City and the rise […]
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14 Forgotten TGIF Shows
While in a previous series of articles/recaps I hit all the major shows that aired on TGIF (well, and Camp Wilder), there were a lot of shows that didn’t take off on the programming block. Here are the forgotten TGIF shows that ran for only one or two seasons that nobody remembers. Early Duds In […]
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Great TV: The Prisoner
Who is Number 1? If you are Number 6 this is a serious question, since Number 6 asks Number 2 this at the opening of every episode of The Prisoner. First airing in Canada in 1967, this spy-sci fi-mystery-thriller was unlike anything ever seen before at the time. a sort of 1960s version of Twin […]
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Totally 80’s: Cartoons!
I spent the first half of my childhood in the 1980s, from 0 to 8, living a Totally 80’s lifestyle in the best way possible: with tons of toys and tons of television. Not that my parents plopped me in front of the TV and forgot about me but they saw that I liked it […]
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Boy Meet World – “If You Can’t Be With The One You Love…”
Boy Meets World is an inexplicably beloved show from the TGIF lineup, although I can’t see why: it’s cheesy, preachy, and worst of all cringe-inducing. I don’t know if that makes it a really good and accurate show about being a teenager or an awful one. My teenage years are abysmally cringe-inducing when looking […]
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Cult Classics: Better Off Dead
Lane Meyer wishes he were dead. He tries over and over–self-immolation, carbon monoxide poisoning, jumping from a bridge, even hanging. But like most things in his life, it never quite goes his way. Did I mention this is a major plot point in an 80’s teen comedy? Better Off Dead isn’t just another teen movie […]
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Great TV: Parks & Recreation
There may be no more likable or positive show that has aired on television so far in the 21st century than Parks & Recreation. Although created by the same producers that adapted The Office for American television, in both spirit and characterization it’s the polar opposite of that other (far more popular) show, which was […]
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Cult Classics: Fateful Findings
Why do we like terrible movies? Not just bad movies or mediocre movies–those are depressingly common and a ton are released each year from big and independent studios alike. Those are then shuffled off into the catacombs of daytime airings on Showtime and the dregs of streaming services, never reaching over two stars in their […]
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