Meta: Contrasting/Comparing Three Halloween Films

I realize Halloween was a few weeks ago now, but it was as good a reason as any to watch three of my favourite spooky movies and contrast/compare them. Because why not?

It's actually rather fascinating to see how scary movies for young audiences have deeply rooted similarities in their structure, characterization and moral framework. The earliest, Hocus Pocus, came out in 1994, followed by Monster House in 2004 and Coraline in 2009, giving us a trio of horror stories aimed at children in which young protagonists battle malevolent forces that are rooted in folklore and legend (urban or otherwise): one in live-action, one in CG animation, and one in stop-motion animation.

Although Coraline is not strictly speaking a Halloween movie (it's the only one of the three not set on October 31st) all of them feature young people on the verge of adolescence in considerable danger from the supernatural.

Doctor Who: Kablam!

This was a solid episode, one that was clearly inspired by the controversies regarding Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com (which fits into the ongoing political commentary of this season), but also one that was thankfully more story than agenda (not that there's anything wrong with having a message in your story, but I still haven't gotten over that Trump stand-in).

That said, it took an unexpected turn towards the end that reminded me of The Unquiet Dead. In that case, the pro-migrant message was turned on its head by revealing the alien asylum seekers were in fact evil. In this case, the individual behind the sabotage of an exploitative, manipulative, back-breaking system is actually the bad guy. It's...a bit strange.

Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab

This was the long-awaited Yaz episode, and perhaps my favourite of the season so far – though that's acknowledging that these episodes still lack the emotional ommph of seasons past.

I suspect that Chris Chibnall is trying to recreate the style of Old School Who in which every story is largely standalone (granted, they were also serialized, but in themselves were still also one-shots), and can even see the modus operandi of the show's original concept: to teach the audience something about history.

I'm low-key enjoying it, and appreciated the trip to a time and place I know next to nothing about.

Doctor Who: The Tsuranga Conundrum

This was our first hard sci-fi (relatively speaking) episode of the Thirteenth Doctor's run, at roughly the halfway point of the season, and so felt significant in how it signalled the tone and themes of Chibnall's take on the show. You could almost say it was Chibnall's signature offering.

So how did it go?

Links and Updates

I was out of commission for a while, and when I get back all sorts of exciting announcements have been made!

Doctor Who: Arachnids in the UK

Hey guys, I know I've been behind these past few weeks. There have been some real-life issues to work through, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel in that regard, so hopefully I'll be back to regular blogging soon. Until then, I can only offer a brisk commentary on this episode, so here we go...

Woman of the Month: Jessica Huang

Jessica Huang from Fresh Off the Boat

With the release of Crazy Rich Asians, there was one name on everybody's lips: Constance Wu. And that was as good a reason as any for me to seek out Fresh Off the Boat, the sitcom that was her first big break.

I remember the show making quite a splash on Tumblr when it premiered in 2015, and it was the family's matriarch Jessica Wu who dominated the GIF sets that were circling at the time. Despite this show ostensibly centring on her son Eddie, she was clearly the star.

Aside from the fact that Asian-American women don't get much attention on television (the show itself points out that this is the first American sitcom to feature an Asian family since Margaret Cho's All American Girl in 1994) Jessica is also a unique sitcom mum.

Strict and overbearing – sure, we've seen that before. But Jessica's desire for her children to be successful and to remain in touch their Taiwanese heritage are presented as intrinsically Asian qualities that provide much of the familial conflict (and sitcom fodder).

After the Huang family move from Chinatown in Washington DC to Florida, she struggles more than anyone (except her eldest son Eddie) to assimilate herself within her new community. Yet though I'm a sucker for women who are tough on the outside, vulnerable on the inside, Jessica doesn't have time to feel sorry for herself or get insecure about what the neighbours think.

She knows who she is and what she wants – it's just a matter of making sure the rest of the world isn't going to get in her way.

It makes a nice change from the usual brash battle-axe or mousey housewife that usually dominates American family sitcoms. Jessica is a grown woman who can handle a career in real estate and raise three children, and if other people find her too domineering... well, that's definitely their problem.