Today In Pop Culture: The Britannic Takes To The Seas

By Jeffery X Martin

Thanks to the movie magic of James Cameron and the pesky Celine Dion song, millions of people know all about the good ship RMS Titanic. How everyone on board was happy, from the rich people in first class to the immigrants in steerage. How Billy Zane went nuts and tried to shoot Leonardo DiCaprio. How the ship hit an iceberg, split in half, and sank like a stone. How even that wasn’t enough to kill Kathy Bates, because not even God can kill Kathy Bates.

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Movie Review: Girls’ Night Out

By Richelle Charkot

Nearly 14 million women in America binge drink 3 times per month. Photo Credit: White Pine Pictures

It is perhaps a little too appropriate that I’m writing this review of Girls’ Night Out with an upset stomach because I’m growing more concerned that I might be allergic to beer, in spite of the fact that I for some reason keep going out and drinking beer.

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TV Review: Fuller House S1 E01, “Our Very First Show, Again”

By Tyler Hodg

Photo credit: Michael Yarish/Netflix

What ever happened to predictability?

Well, it appears it was tucked away and saved in the case of an unasked-for sequel show to the sitcom Full House. Netflix has revived unforgettable characters and ushered in new ones for their latest original series Fuller House–a show that plays off the familiar formula of its predecessor. And really, who would want it any other way?

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Blu-Ray Review: The Graduate

By Jeffery X Martin

Mike Nichols’ film from 1967, The Graduate, is a darkly humorous ode to the disenfranchised and distant. It’s also a definitive bad romance. The movie has a lot to say about toxic people and how they can mess up your life. Then again, pretty much everyone in The Graduate is toxic.

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Today in Pop Culture: Last Dance With Lawrence Welk

By Jeffery X Martin

Let’s call it synergy. A television show comes along that loves and understands its core audiences so well will inspire a kind of devotion that borders on obsession. We’ve seen it happen with sci-fi shows like Firefly, Star Trek, and The Twilight Zone. Do you think today’s audiences would feel the same kind of adoration and allegiance to a show that regularly featured polka music?

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Music Review: Bill Carter, Innocent Victims & Evil Companions

By Melissa Bratcher

Texas-based Bill Carter may be best known for co-writing Stevie Ray Vaughan’s biggest hit, “Crossfire.” You may also know him from “Anything Made of Paper,” written for the West Memphis Three’s Damien Echols, and featured in the documentary West Of Memphis. Or you might know him as a member of the band P, a collaboration with Butthole Surfers’ Gibby Haynes, Johnny Depp, and Sal Jenco. With his newest album, Innocent Victims & Evil Companions, you’ll know him as a songwriter with poetic lyrics, a singer with a fabulous ragged tenor, and the master of fine tunes.

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Today In Pop Culture: You Did Nazi This One Coming

By Jeffery X Martin

It’s my belief that most people enjoy a good party. If that’s true, then the converse must also be true. Most people do not enjoy a bad party. The problem starts when you’re in a party that you think is good, but practically the rest of the world believes is horrible. That’s not an overstatement.

Especially if you were a member of the Nazi Party, which was formed on this date in 1920.

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TV Review: The X-Files, Episode 6, “My Struggle II”

By Jeffery X Martin

…and that’s it.

The reboot of The X-Files is over, ending with the direct sequel to the first episode. I wish there were easy answers here, a quick snazzy way to recap everything and make it nice and tidy.

But The X-Files was never about nice and tidy. It created a mythology that spread throughout time and culture, from the Mayan calendar to smallpox immunizations. The X-Files absorbed everything and spit it back out, twisted.

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TV Review: Outsiders S1 E03, “Messenger”

By Laury Scarbro

The third installment of Outsiders very much feels like a filler episode, I’m not going to lie to you. But as is common in television, there are times when these kinds of episodes are necessary to build plot, and it’s important to remember that episodes like these are what set up a bigger story later on.

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TV Review: The Walking Dead S06 E10 “The Next World”

By Laury Scarbro

After an insane amount of slaughter last week, this week’s episode of The Walking Dead is way more low-key. Except for one thing, that is.

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