The Cutprice Guignol

The Sixth Year: American Sigh Story

Category: Television Review

January 7, 2019

TV Crossovers I’m Mad Haven’t Happened Yet

Well, last week was all ooh, let’s be introspective about sobriety and ooh, let’s moan about Daleks and ooh, let’s talk about the Spiderman movie and its relationship to grief and frankly I’ve had enough. I want to poke my nose into something stupid and fun and entirely pointless, and so today we’re taking a look at all the TV crossovers I’ve ever suggested while munching chocolate at ten in the evening in front of my third Doctor Who rewatch of the year. To the list!

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December 26, 2018

The Worst TV Of 2018

What’s all this “cheer” and “optimism” business? That’s not very on-brand for the Guignol. No, let’s get all miserly in here, and take a look at the worst TV that hit our screens in 2019. Strap in for snark, and on with the list!

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November 14, 2018

The Haunting of Hill House and the Ghosts of Trauma

So, I’ve just recovered from watching The Haunting of Hill House a few weeks ago and boy, do I have some shit to say. From sensational performances, amazing cinematography, fabulous direction, and the only jumpscare that actually got my bowels to twitch in terror, this is quite simply one of the best horror shows I’ve ever seen in my life. No, scratch that – one of the best pieces of horror media I’ve ever come across. Following the interlocking stories of the Crane family, the show investigates both the past of the Cranes, living in the haunted Hill House as children and parents, and their lives after the haunting at the hands of the Hill House ghosts as adults. If you haven’t seen it, off you go and watch it now – spoilers ahead, and I don’t want to ruin anything for you.

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November 4, 2018

Doctor Who: Tumultuous and Random, Direction is Suspect

Well, I mean, uh…

This season of Doctor Who, Chris Chibnall’s first as showrunner, has often felt much like a panicked attempt to fit in every single little idea that Chibnall has ever had for his tenure on the show. And this episode, The Tsuranga Conundrum, is perhaps the primest example of that to date, in an outing that doesn’t offer the cohesive direction for the show that I’ve been craving.

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October 7, 2018

Doctor Who: Tender Adventure Restores Dependence in Series

Well, here we are: back for another season of Doctor Who. But this isn’t like the last time, or the time before that, or the one before that, when stepping into a season premier was the beginning of slowly feeding myself into a ten-week long meat shredder cranked by Steven Moffat himself. No, things are different now. And I’m excited.

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September 20, 2018

American Horror Story S8E2: The Morning After

If there was one word I had to use to describe this season so far, it would be “cavernous”. And that’s not just a reference to the enormous mansion where most of the action of these last two episodes has taken place (kudos to the gorgeous cinematography for conveying that dizzying sense of space, especially in this week’s outing), but because there still feels like a lot of dead space in this story.

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September 18, 2018

Bojack Horseman and the Narratives of the Abused

What does life look like for a victim of abuse after the abuse is over?

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August 30, 2018

Disenchantment, and the Death of the First Season

As I wrote last week, The Simpsons is one of the shows that made me, and Matt Groening, by extension, is one of the creators who I’m constantly interested in: beyond The Simpsons, Futurama and Life in Hell are both fucking fantastic in their own ways, so when Disenchantment, his new show with Netflix, came out, I knew I had to slam myself face-first into it at dangerous speeds.

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August 21, 2018

The TV That Made Me: True Blood

What is the media that made you?

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August 18, 2018

Insatiable: Gross, Grim, Groundless

Look, I get it, I do. There are some stories to be told that are going to piss off a lot of people. I’m publishing a book called Rape Jokes. I’m no stranger to the notion of media that tries to shove up against those uncomfortable edges, that takes on sensitive issues in a brash way in an attempt to demystify the unpleasantness at their core.

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