Shot/Reverse Shot: Christmas Minisode!

No full episode this week due to circumstances beyond our control. However, Matt and I did find time to talk about what we hope to see in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Christmas traditions, and our shared ambivalence towards turkey.

Doctor Who - The Time of The Doctor

Coming a little over a month after the "The Day of The Doctor", one of the most triumphant episodes of the revived Doctor Who's run, "The Time of The Doctor" always ran the risk of being overshadowed by its bigger, flashier and considerably more expensive forbear. (I mean, seriously, some of the effects in this episode, particularly the early scenes inside the Papal Mainframe, looked like they hadn't been properly rendered.) It's unfortunate that it had to come so soon after the 50th anniversary spectacular, because any episode in which The Doctor regenerates from one actor to another should be given due weight and consideration, and it's a shame that Matt Smith's departure had to happen in the wake of something so widely celebrated. (Even if, considering that he took over the part from the wildly popular David Tennant, it feels appropriate that Smith's departure is affected by him as well.)

Hope Lies on Television #12 - A Family Tradition, From A Non-Traditional Family

A few weeks ago Adam Batty, the editor of Hope Lies, suggested that I should write about The Simpsons for Hope Lies on Television, with a particular focus on their Christmas specials to provide a bit of seasonally appropriately content for the site. Since I sometimes spend most of my days thinking about The Simpsons anyway, it being my favourite television show ever and the single piece of art which has done the most to shape me as a person, I relished the opportunity, but never really found a way into the subject matter.  Fortunately, the show itself came to my rescue by producing a great Christmas special this year that created a nice framework for the resulting article, which I'm pretty proud of, even if the proof-reading leaves something to be desired on my part.

As an aside, I was surprised to discover whilst researching the article that I had seen all but one of the specials, since my viewing of The Simpsons has been spotty in recent years, so in the end all I had to do was catch that last un-watched episode. The episode in question was "The Fight  Before Christmas," and whilst it isn't the worst episode I've ever seen, but the moment at the very end when they make a joke about a Muppet version of Moe performing oral sex on Katy Perry makes a strong case for being the nadir of the show as a whole.

Things I Learned From Movie X: Home Alone 2: Lost In New York

I've been meaning to launch myself back into writing the Things I Learned From Movie X columns for the last few weeks, but with my new job and having to prepare for Christmas, it fell by the wayside. With the big day looming, I decided that the best way to kick off my new commitment to the feature would be with a review of a "classic" Christmas film that isn't terribly good, and I found plenty of material in the ugly and mean-spirited Home Alone 2: Lost In New York. It was equal parts fun and dispiriting to revisit the film since I loved both of the original Home Alone films as a child, so revisiting it to discover that I didn't like it at all was kind of sad. On another level, the resulting column is one of the funniest things I've written, so it all balances out.