Andrea's Emporium of Movies and TV (and comics, and video games and books)

Thief: The Dark Project, The Metal Age, Hiding & The Inevitability of Radical Action CW: Spoilers for Thief: The Dark Project and The Metal Age a Honestly, I think the Thief games were just something that I played precisely at the right place and at the right time (very early adolescence) but they were the kind of thing that, if you played them, you can certainly see the appeal of how they would resonate with an alienated teenager. Just an entire game where you're embarking on this fantasy of playing as this person who stalks the shadows, does all of these things without being suspecting them, or otherwise just spending his entire time messing with people, and really just this game about encapsulating the feelings of being "unseen" or of someone who "does not wish to be seen." which is like yeah, that was me back in the day, honestly. It's weird but there's something about these games that really just captured that sort of sense of alienation that I ...

System Shock 2 and Transgender Video Game Discoveries CW: Spoilers for System Shock 2, Planescape: Torment & Metroid (who hasn't had Metroid spoiled for them at this point, lol.) "Look at you hacker, a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone. Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How-how can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?" (hacker does not appear in system shock 2 at all though, lol.) Recently I found out that System Shock 2 is ultimately a game about being a transgender woman which is why it rules. Uh, where does this come from? Glad you asked. Recently when I replayed System Shock 2 this February 2023 I decided out-of-the-blue, on-stream, that SHODAN is someone who imposes this image onto you, turns you into an extension of HER, where you will be subservient to HER, and bend down to HER will, and ultimately I just said to myself "Now, wouldn't this be funny if it turns out she was making you into a woman." and yeah, I went the...

Simpsons Season 4 Reviewed Note: Yeah, this was actually written December 2022 but it was also at a time where I kind of abandoned this project because I was like "OH GOD, REVIEWING ALL THESE EPISODES IS DESTROYING MY BRAIN" but I guess I could come back to it later. When faced with the classic l'ennui, sometimes I'm like "I just need to vibe with some Simpsons episodes" but after a while I kind of did lose my passion for it. Was kind of more to get me in-tune with writing again, so I thought it would be good to at least bring the Season 4 reviews (which were completed) into existence. I do not get how people can systematically review every single episode of a TV show, much less something as long-running as The Simpsons. Managed to only cover the 1989-1993 stretch of the show! SEE, I DIDN'T LIE. THEY WERE COMING (sort of) SOON! Anyway, enjoy! S4E01 - Kamp Krusty Really good. I like the whole sort of dynamic where Krusty sells himself out yet at the same ...

On Romero's Dead Trilogy Night of the Living Dead (1968) Night of the Living Dead has one of my favourite things about horror movies which is when they, unexpectedly, become terrifying. Which is kind of a weird thing to say, but I think Night of the Living Dead is just one of those movies where it's just kind of like that. The opening bits of this movie just feel kind of fun and silly and then it just weaves in more of these devastating circumstances, more horrifying details, until suddenly the end of the movie becomes actually quite terrifying. You just don't expect the movie to be like that, even when it's heralded as being this "terrifying horror classic" because in some way the opening scenes of the movie just makes you see that with more of a sardonic sensibility, like "Yeah, sure, come on. Show me something horrifying." and you're like "Holy shit." by the end of it. It's quite bewildering like that, just how it eases itself in...