Seth Harris

Best of the 2010s – My Favorite Television Part 3

Over the Garden Wall (2014)
Born out of the inspiration that Adventure Time brought to Cartoon Network, Over the Garden Wall is a mini-series following two brothers wandering through a mysterious forest and encountering strange people. The series was created by Patrick McCale, who had previously worked on Adventure Time and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. Over the Garden Wall is a deep dive into the Americana aesthetic of the 19th & early 20th centuries. Many musical numbers consist of pre-1950s phonograph recordings. You’ll be reminded of early animation from the 1920s & 30s in many of these episodes. There’s such a remarkable charm to this show that few animated series possess. It’s funny while being genuinely terrifying at moments, enigmatic and wistful. It’s a program that understands what nostalgia actually is and how that feeling is different from reality. Our protagonists drift through abstract forest landscapes emerging into the dreams and fantasies of others, interacting for a while before being pulled into another story.

Comic Book Review – Black Hammer Volume 4: Age of Doom Part 2

Black Hammer Volume 4: The Age of Doom Part 2 (2019)
Reprints Black Hammer: The Age of Doom #7-12
Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Dean Ormston & Dave Stewart

What makes someone a hero? A colorful costume? A suite of superpowers? A catchy name? Jeff Lemire brings us a story about the ultimate sacrifice to give up your life and hopes to save the rest of reality. He plays with the metafiction of writing superhero comics, revealing a world where ideas never came to fruition. The continuity reboot also gets examined as we see what happens when our heroes forget who they were and have to rediscover their heroic identities.

Movie Review – Starfish

Starfish (2018)
Written & Directed by A.T. White

One of the best ways to bring people into a fantastical story, such as in the science fiction or horror genre, is to ground that narrative in human conflict and emotions. We can’t relate to being in the middle of a world-ending cosmic event or being chased by otherworldly monsters. However, the audience can connect to feelings like loss, guilt, the list goes on. Starfish, despite being a sometimes surreal movie, keeps its feet firmly planted in the realm of the human psyche. Now, if it succeeds in conveying a compelling narrative to the audience is another question entirely.

Best of the 2010s – My Favorite Television Part 2

Billy On the Street (2011 – present)
The late-night show is a tired format in the 21st century, the same template slapped on the program no matter what the network. You see, a suited man deliver a monologue, maybe do a skit, interview a celebrity, add, rinse, repeat. Billy Eichner has taken the boring talk show and the game show and blended them together in a chaotic, frenzied, and beautiful mess. Often, Eichner tows a celebrity guest along with him as they rush through the streets of New York, asking passersby lightning speed questions and giving them little time to respond. The best moments are those subjective questions where Eichner inserts his personal opinions as to the correct answer, usually involving Meryl Streep. The series began on the obscure Fuse cable channel, transferred to TruTv, got picked up by Funny or Die, and is now currently sponsored by Lyft. Previous seasons have hopped around digital platforms but currently find their home on Netflix.

Comic Book Review – The Quantum Age

The Quantum Age (2019)
Reprints The Quantum Age #1-6
Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Wilfredo Torres

In the tradition of DC Comics’ Legion of Super-Heroes, Jeff Lemire jumps 125 years into the future of Spiral City to introduce the Quantum League. And just like the core series of this line, things are not what we expect. Once there were bright, youthful heroes operating in the tradition of their 21st-century idols. Now a totalitarian regime has taken over the city. This stems from a conflict with the Martians years earlier. This story also ties into the overall narrative happening in Black Hammer in ways that will surprise longtime readers.

Movie Review – An Elephant Sitting Still

An Elephant Sitting Still (2019)
Written & Directed by Hu Bo

For four hours, we follow a quartet of people through the bleak, washed-out industrial landscape of northern China. Their stories are not exclusively experienced by the Chinese people but are suffering humanity feels across the globe, particularly those living in the husk of communities hollowed out of unfeeling powers that exist in an abstraction that leads to ennui. How can you do anything about inter-generational pain that comes from a source so distant and seems so endless? This is what our four protagonists struggle with as their lives intersect and converge.

Best of the 2010s – My Favorite Television Part 1

Lost The Final Season (2010)
The decade began with an ending, the finale of one of the biggest shows of the 2000s. The phenomenon of Lost is something that will likely never be captured again. It was a network television series that became a must-see obsessive viewing for almost everyone you knew. The series was entrenched in conspiracy and theories, and each fan had their own wild take on what things meant and where the story was going. The reactions to the series finale were definitely mixed, to say the least. Some fans absolutely hated the character-focused wrap-up while others (like myself) defend how the story concluded. I followed the weekly podcast by Damon Lindeloff & Carlton Cuse religiously and knew that the first three seasons were stretched out longer than the creators wanted to. Once the series got to its fourth round of episodes, the show moved at a much faster pace with a clear intention. There was still plenty of mystery, but I argue that a lot of things were answered in subtle, ingenious ways. I also recommend watching the fan edit of Chronological Lost, where all flashbacks come first before the island, and the flash-forwards feel more cohesive. You can find that fan edit on the regular torrenting locations, and it gave me a great appreciation of the whole show.

Movie Review – Luce

Luce (2019)
Written by J.C. Lee and Julius Onah
Directed by Julius Onah

Luce is a difficult movie to wrap my head around. In some moments, it reminds me of the tense ping-pong of dialogue in David Mamet’s work. In others, it is very close to being a cheesy Netflix original. The film brings up troublesome topics that are worth examination, like how black young people navigate the constant sea of labels being tossed their way. But then it will go down a dark road, implying that young women who say they were sexually assaulted might be lying and have a duplicitous agenda. Helping to elevate Luce even in the worst moments is an S-tier cast: Octavia Spencer, Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, and Kelvin Harrison, Jr.

Movie Review – Star Trek: Nemesis

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
Written by John Logan, Rick Berman, and Brent Spiner
Directed by Stuart Baird

You might notice the absence of one film from the Next Generation film franchise in my reviews, Star Tre: Insurrection. My reason for skipping over this film starts first with my disdain for it. It’s an extremely poorly written and executed film. It doesn’t do anything that the other films don’t also do and better. This isn’t saying the other three films are masterpieces because they are riddled with flaws. I’m also looking at the use of time and which movies are most relevant for the upcoming Picard series. Insurrection doesn’t bring anything to the table that will ever be brought up again, or I could be surprised.

Comic Book Review – Black Hammer Volume 3: Age of Doom Part 1

Black Hammer Volume 3: Age of Doom Part 1
Reprints Black Hammer: Age of Doom #1-6
Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Dean Ormston

Black Hammer has always been a series that felt like it had an end date. You could only keep the premise going for so long before the readers needed some resolution. Thankfully, Jeff Lemire understood that and brought us a 12 issue mini-series that provides a definitive ending to the story of these characters. The World of Black Hammer is still a wide-open place to explore. But for now, we focus on the story of Abraham Slam, Golden Gail, Barbalien, Colonel Weird, Talkie Walkie, Madame Dragonfly, and Lucy Weber.