Maddd Science One element of modern pop culture that always fascinates me is how it eats its own tail by referencing and quoting older elements of pop culture. I don't think endless references are a bad thing. Done right, you get The LEGO Movie; done wrong, you get

Maddd Science I've seen a lot of 70s sci-fi art in my day. 19,725 posts' worth as of this morning, if my Tumblr dashboard is to be trusted. The artists that stand out the most tend to be the ones with the most coherent vision, which

Maddd Science Back in late 2015, I found an interesting Wikipedia sub-section about the Comics Code Authority. It's an organization created in response to a 50's-era comic book moral panic: It policed any comic book hoping to make it to the (industry-sustaining) grocery store shelf, checking

Maddd Science The biggest sound design success this Oscar season? Shape of Water, which crystallizes its theme of social ostracization by forcing a silent film heroine to navigate a non-silent film. Listen Carefully, and You’ll Find Guillermo del Toro’s Shape of Water Cameo Julie Miller, Vanity Fair Robitaille’

Maddd Science My recommendation for a fun TV show you probably haven't heard of? Mary Kills People. It's a Canadian black comedy/drama, which should already tell you whether you'll like it or not, but here's the concept: A doctor moonlights as

Maddd Science Sequels, prequels, reboots, side-quels, and the shared universe are all different directions franchises can go now. Also the preboot, as seen in Hannibal, Bates Motel, and that new MacGyver show. This issue looks at a few ways franchises are continuing to spread their tentacles. Fun fact: Alone with

Maddd Science Plenty of good movies from the 80s don't qualify as "good 80s movies." By my standards, they need synths, practical effects, and poor fashion choices. Back to the Future is likely the best example, even if it's mostly set in the 50s

Maddd Science Fanfic — however you spell it — is a great example of the anarchic, copyright-exploding power of the open internet. It's how fans spell out in detail exactly what their creators are missing about a story, while mixing in their own expressions and opinion indiscriminately. It's

Maddd Science Serialization: It's the coolest. It isn't just a narrative trick popular in pulp fiction and Wattpad fanfic. Prestige podcasts and TV love relying on it, too. The Making of Binge-Worthy Serial Narratives, From “S-Town” to “Framed” Ricki Morell, Nieman Storyboard America’s love of

Maddd Science Dark is kind of like Stranger Things if it was way less interested in 80s pop culture and way more interested in how even time travel can't help a small-town community stop the cause-and-effect cycles that determine their pasts and futures. So it's not

Maddd Science One thing we can all agree on: The Last Jedi is easily the year's most entertaining movie when you factor in the sheer variety of opinions everyone had on it. I enjoyed it overall, and am seeing it for a second time today. I'll

Maddd Science Ho ho ho. This newsletter is packed with the true meaning of Christmas, by which I mean cliches, horror, cannibals, and slut-shaming. Let's get into it. 'Tis the season for journalists to stop rolling out cliches! I'd call this article amusingly Grinchy, but

Maddd Science I'm starting out with two articles about why the most quintessential writing advice of fifth-grade English teachers everywhere isn't all it's cracked up to be. Because why tell you when I can show you much more eloquent people telling you? Viet Thanh

Maddd Science I hadn't heard of game design lead Jennifer Scheurle before her viral tweet asking game devs for their game mechanic secrets in September, but I followed her and I've definitely appreciated her game wisdom since. I'm really not a huge gamer — although

Maddd Science Jurassic Park works because the idea of an amusement park coming to life and rebelling against its creators is an immediately delightful idea that appeals to the same instinct for excitement that draws people to amusement parks in the first place. It’s worked for Jurassic Park, Westworld,

Maddd Science If you're going to study the tropes of modern storytelling, movie trailers are a great place to start: They're about a hundred times shorter than films, and since their only purpose is to sell an audience on the film they're signing up

Maddd Science Superhero films: They've sprung up faster and taken over quicker than any past genre in the relatively short history of film. Five of the top ten highest grossing films this year were in the genre, the highest number since last year's top four, which

Maddd Science I'm sure you've heard people complain that Hollywood movies are all just franchise tentpoles nowadays. Welcome to an issue about that. This first essay, which is the whole reason I themed this issue on franchises, is from 2014, but it addresses the whole thing

Maddd Science As a fan of examining the structures that stories rely on, I love meta narratives like Stranger Things. Stranger Things isn't set in the 80s. It's set in a movie-80s that never existed. Granted, that approach has plenty of flaws, but I try to

Maddd Science So I'm planning to center each of these newsletters on a theme, but then not to let the theme take over the newsletter. In other words, just the first few links here would be about scary stories, giving me space to cover the rest of the

Maddd Science Welcome to the first issue! I'm planning to have themes for each issue ("Horror," "Sequels," and "Disney Princesses" are all on the list), but this first one will just function as the calibration issue. I've been thinking about