Thinking: On Reviewing What is Put in Front of Us.

One of the things that has been nagging at me over the last few months as I write up reviews for comics and TV shows and the like, is that I rarely seem to give a bad review to anything. I like to think I've got a fairly good sense of critical analysis, and I can be head-over-heals with something (say, The Avengers) and still be open to its weaknesses, whilst watching some generally regarded as poor and enjoy it for what it is without feeling I'm soft-balling it. But I've been in a couple of debates recently regarding films I don't dislike as much as some - Green Lantern springs to mind, but its not the only one - and found myself saying "well, for what it is..." or "not all TV shows can be The Wire".

Which is a problem, because then you are subconsciously grading things on their aspiration, not their final product. Or, as my mind is starting to call it, The Transformers Problem.

TV Review: Justified, Season 3

It doesn't seem so long ago that I said that I thought that Justified's second season was one of the most perfect seasons of TV I'd ever seen. Which is a big claim, although I still stand by it. But for all the greatness of that season, and the buzz for more it left me with, the nagging doubt remained: can the series top that? Is the next season just going to inevitably disappointing, no matter what its strengths may be? So it was with some trepidation we rolled into Season Three of Justified, to see where the show could go from there. Smartly, it chooses to go somewhere different.

So Farewell Then, Star Wars: The Old Republic

So, over the weekend I cancelled my subscription to Star Wars: The Old Republic. My poor Jedi Knight will now be consigned to live out her days in a freezing cave on Hoth, wondering why no-one had the decency to port her back to the Republic Fleet where at least they have a bar and hot running water. She'll never get through your romance options with Doc and his cheesy dialogue and cheesier facial hair. She'll never get to the end of whatever your personal plot line turns out to be. I almost feel sorry for her. But in the end I just found myself not caring anymore, and not feeling the urge to login and play, and so it is no-more. From reading the gaming press, I am not alone.

So what went wrong? I mean, when we started playing SW:TOR I was really impressed with it, and only a few months later, I'm grabbed by ennui. What gives?

Box Set Blues: Game of Thrones, Series 1

Sometimes I’m quite happy about being so behind in TV shows, because it allows me to watch them free from the attendant hype (good and bad) that often attends them, and allows me freedom binge or meander through a series as I see fit. Sometimes, however, it’s a pain, as something I want to watch simply isn’t available to me to (legally) watch. HBO shows are even worse, as the window between transmission and DVD release is artificially lengthened, usually so that the previous series comes out just as the new series hits the screens for the first time. So it’s taken us a year to watch Game of Thrones, which has felt like a long cold winter.