Within the last decade, the TV industry has experienced its version of climate change. This rocky evolution is best encapsulated by the phrase “peak TV.” Where the “Golden Age” offered the possibility of narrative and network risk and opportunity, “peak … Continue reading BYUtv’s Extinct Offers a Unique Lesson in Modern Television-Making
In a recent interview with Mic, Ernest Dickerson, the cinematographer for Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It (1986), and Insecure’s director of photography, Ava Berkofsky, broke down how they worked to feature black faces on screen. “The main thing you had to worry about is the reflectivity … Continue reading Insecure’s Season Two Finale Is One Hella Creative TV Moment
I recently learned (in a grief counseling session, no less) about this boring concept in market research called expectation confirmation theory. It proposes that the interplay between a consumer’s assumptions about a potential purchase (their expectations) and their perception of … Continue reading Insecure’s “Hella Blows” Examines the Problem with Having Hella Expectations
If you’ve been watching ABC’s freshman comedy Speechless, it’s not hard to see why the network renewed it for a second season late last week. The show is a quirky, insightful, heartwarming and at times startlingly accurate portrayal of what it’s … Continue reading 23 Things Speechless Season One Taught Us About Life with Disabilities
As TV’s adapted properties regularly prove, deviating from a narrative’s original chronology and character development can be a contentious move. Conversely, it can signal new and exciting storytelling possibilities. In the case of Shadowhunters, Freeform’s adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s The … Continue reading Shadowhunters Executive Producer Michael Reisz on the Art of Adapting “Malec” and What to Expect in Season Two
The ability of streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon to deliver series that creatively, financially and critically rival that of network TV has significantly increased interest in—and decreased stigmas about—web-based media. Critical and audience reception of short form digital content is … Continue reading The 10 Best Web Series of 2016
Luke Cage is the first black male character to lead his own show in the Marvel TV universe. The Netflix series also signals a major shift in the type of casts—and narratives—we see explored in small screen comic book adaptations. The … Continue reading 5 Times Luke Cage Was Unapologetically Black
Hollywood’s habit of (or insistence on) whitewashing, or casting white actors in roles that are historically nonwhite, has been an issue for as long as the small screen has been around. For almost as long, challenges to the practice have … Continue reading 5 TV Shows That Benefited from Racebending
Among the many boons of a service like Netflix is the ability to expand our filmic horizons, whether we’re newcomers to a (sub)genre or aficionados in search of our newest find. When it comes to the ever-expanding realm of LGBTQ … Continue reading The 25 Best LGBTQ Movies on Netflix
I was born 25 years after Gene Roddenberry’s groundbreaking series first aired, but that quarter of a century couldn’t stop the beloved starship Enterprise from earning yet another devoted fan. Or from Star Trek setting my impossibly high expectations for … Continue reading How No Man Has Loved Before: On Sulu’s Sexuality in Star Trek Beyond
Abbey White 