Pop Culture Maniacs Podcast #20: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

The Rings of Power – Partings Review

With the aptly named “Partings,” The Rings of Power officially pushed each of its four storylines into second gear. While I am still struggling to find a connection worth rooting for in the Southlands section of the series (Arondir and Bronwyn continue to be more archetypal cyphers than actual characters), this was the first week […]

Tough As Nails (Spoiler-Free) Review

We’ve known for quite some time that what often makes the best reality TV is our fascination with watching ordinary people deal with (somewhat) extraordinary situations. That’s the formula that works well for shows like Survivor or Amazing Race, where ordinary folks get stranded on an island or have to travel the world and compete […]

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier – The Whole World is Watching

The biggest benefit to television is that it allows writers to spend time developing characters over the course of hours across a season, rather than being confined to the mere two-hour window provided by most films. As I’ve written about before in these pieces, that was the greatest boon I could see from Marvel branching […]