Over the past decade, the entertainment industry has seen drastic changes. There has been the rise of streaming services, a focus on big-budget films based on recognisable intellectual property, and an increase in digital media sales at the cost of physical media. In 2023, the Hollywood business model suffered from the detrimental effects of short-term […]
Tag: HBO
True Detective: Night Country – Part Three Review
We’ve reached the halfway point of True Detective: Night Country, and while some things are starting to slowly tie together, the series appears to be doubling down on the supernatural element of it all while continuing to hold key details of our central characters’ histories from us as the story slow burns its way to […]
True Detective: Night Country – Part Two Review
There’s a lot to unpack with this week’s installment of True Detective: Night Country, from the lingering questions regarding the role the supernatural is playing in the case (or is it something much more mundane, like mental health issues – something that has been suggested with Evangeline’s sister, Julia’s, continued refusal to treat what appears […]
Top Ten TV Shows of 2023
It’s that time of year again. The temperature is dropping, the days are growing shorter, and 2023 is drawing to a close. Which can only mean one thing: It’s time for Pop Culture Maniacs’ annual TV Top Ten list! This year in television was a tumultuous one, as it was for all of Hollywood, with […]
Football Documentary Round-Up
With Fall just around the corner, football season is once again upon us. And, with that comes several football-related documentaries hitting the various streaming services. Having taken a look at a handful of them (I’m a sucker for a sport documentary – I honestly think it might be the sole reason I keep up with […]
The Best Show You Aren’t Watching: The Righteous Gemstones
There’s a really great series on HBO that I have been loving for the last few years. It tells the story of a power struggle within a family of spoiled, rich, relatively clueless individuals all fighting to gain control of the family name, fortune, and to receive daddy’s blessing over their siblings. There are three […]
Minx Season Two Review
When HBO Max was purged late last year, one of the causalities was the second season of Minx, the delightful comedy about the creation of a Playgirl-esque magazine in the 1970s. Mere weeks away from wrapping filming their second season, the series was cancelled, although the network told the cast and crew they would be […]
The Best Television Series Set in Each of the 50 States
When my colleague, Kieran Freemantle, tweeted me earlier this week, asking me to name the best television series set in each of the 50 states (sorry Washington D.C.), my first thought was, “Oh my gosh. 50 is a lot of TV shows and that sounds like a lot of research.” But the more I noodled […]
Succession/Barry Series Finales: Analysis
I feel like it’s almost unfair to evaluate the Barry finale right now if, like many of us, you watched it immediately after finishing Succession, which just knocked it out of the park. I do feel a little underwhelmed by Barry, but that could just be the inherent contrast between the styles of the respective […]
Succession Series Finale: Post Mortem
In the end, the number one boy of Succession was the guy who had been willing – since the inception of the series – to put himself in just the right position to secure his continued success. He didn’t seek out power for himself; rather, he placed himself just close enough to the power centers […]