NerDemption

By Richard Hatem ** SPOILERS!**   If you haven't seen the episode please do so before continuing! Whee! An episode providing the back-story for my favorite character! We begin in the place I didn't think I would be seeing in this series: the Enchanted Forest! It's a bit like going home, really... seeing familiar faces (though I'm fairly certain Robin Hood was only a recent addition for the "in Neverland" portion... because why have Rumplestiltskin's son return with Mulan to the castle where his father played the Beast and imprisoned Belle to find a portal to rescue Princess Aurora and Snow White--without everyone's favorite outlaw?) and feeling as though we know what's going in other places not shown, because we're so familiar with the timeline. Sure enough, Robin and his men pull off a heist, stealing from a random rich man for the benefit of the poor, oppressed towns under the Evil Queen's rule. We find out

By Rina Mimoun ** SPOILERS!**   If you haven't seen the episode please do so before continuing! Now that the characters have all been introduced, it's time for the onslaught of flashbacks to explain why these characters, why this time, and all manner of confusing plot threads to unearth! The first thing to establish, of course, is Agrabah as a setting.... because it will feature more prominently as more of Jafar's back-story is divulged. One thing of note: it's rather less barren on this show than Disney led us to imagine. Which sort of makes sense, since why would anyone build a city among sand dunes... (what is this, Arrakis?) but whatever. It did bother me slightly, that the designers apparently had no sense when they decided to plop the castle like a crash-landed space shuttle right in the middle of the city... but anyway, moving on! Jafar's visit to a man in the village seems random at first--until Jafar starts pointing out how

By Edward Kistis, Adam Horowitz, Zack Estrin, and Jane Espenson ** SPOILERS AHEAD!**   If you haven't seen the episode please do so before continuing! I love fairy tales. I love well-done adaptations of fairy tales. I loved the premise and the intentions behind the parent show to this series, Once Upon A Time, which took fairy tale characters and re-invented them as "exiles" in a small town in Maine, called Storybrooke. However, there were certain creative liberties taken and casting choices made by the writers that I found rather disappointing. And so, when the announcement came of a spin-off series that would focus the action on Alice and her epical adventure in Wonderland, and without all that nonsense that is adding characters to make evil out to be more of a product of a cruel mother and a tortured childhood than actually evil—sort of like an antihero, but with more angst than a high school full of girls who give everyone the cold shoulder

  THE FANDOMIAN RHAPSODY     Is it the real life? Is it just fantasy? Caught in the fandom, No escape to reality. Open your eyes, Look up to the skies and see. Here comes the TARDIS, Flying right at me The Doctor's easy come, easy go Ponds arrive, Tyler goes Anywhere the TARDIS shows really, really matters to me. Toooooo me! Mama Sherlock took a fall Now I'm tight in Moffat's grip And my life is a massive tip. Mama His life had just begun And now he's gone and fallen all the way. Mama, ooo Fandoms make me cry I sometimes wish they'd never been born at all Gotta carry on, carry on Cause only fandoms really matter Too late Their time has come Sherlock's going to dive, The Doctor's right in overdrive Goodbye everybody – they've gotta go Gotta leave us all behind and face the truth Mama, ooo. (See the evil

*Note: So this is an article I published on a now-defunct blog a few years ago... so some of the assertions on specific shows may be a bit dated, but the principles still stand!   There's a lot that goes into a show. Some of it is fantastic and makes your eyes light up every time someone mentions the title. Some of it is regrettable and makes you grimace when someone mentions it. Sometimes, a show just takes a while to "get its feet under it," so to speak. Sometimes a show starts out strong and then fails so hard you are left wondering, "What did I ever see in this show?" Some shows are fascinating from the outset; other shows, you couldn't care less about the characters and the outcome. So what makes the difference? What is it about shows that make you roll your eyes and cringe? What do your favorite shows get right that keep you so attached to every level of the story arc? Here are at least five key features of each sort... at least, as fa