Week of Review - Thinner (1996)

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

A week from today will mark the premiere of a new remake of the Stephen King classic Pet Sematary.  So far the new film has a lot of positive buzz, which makes sense given we’ve entered into a new Golden Age of Stephen King adaptations.  Seriously between The Mist, Gerald’s Game, Mr. Mercedes, IT, 1922, Dark Tower, 11/22/63, Under the Dome, and Castle Rock Stephen King is undergoing a shocking renaissance of TV and movie adaptations in the 2010s with even more films yet to come.  As such, I’ve decided to look to the past, specifically the ‘90s, as that was the last time Stephen King became the go-to thing to adapt in the horror genre.

However, I’m not planning to look at the big names of King adaptations that have always stuck in people’s memories like Shawshank Redemption, no I’m interested in the weird B and C list adaptations the past has to offer.  After all, there’s really not much left to say about a movie we’ve all agreed is good and should be remember but off-beat oddities that pop culture has collectively turned its back on can be so much more weirdly rewarding and it doesn’t get much more weirdly rewarding than 1996’s Thinner.

Static Thoughts - Who Shot Mr. Burns Retrospective

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

Tonight marks the return of Twin Peaks to our screens.  The original show and its question of “who killed Laura Palmer?” were some of the biggest TV mysteries of all time.  It’s approach to world building and blending high concept mysticism with potboiler mystery is still the gold standard all others strive for today.  Unfortunately, Twin Peaks is also one of those groundbreaking shows that’s already been dissected and explained to death, so instead I'm going to focus on one of its sister mysteries of TV, the Simpsons two-part episode “Who Shot Mister Burns?” 

Produced near the closing of the show’s so-called Golden Age, ‘Who Shot Mister Burns’ may be the largest the show ever loomed in the broad, pop-cultural eye and its approach to audience interaction and mystery has had almost as much impact on TV and movies as Twin Peaks or their shared predecessor Dallas.  I’m not at all kidding when I say ‘Who Shot Mr. Burns’ paved the way for modern cultural darlings like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and new classics of animation like Gravity Falls- let’s dive in. 

Cover Story - Top 15 Simpsons Comics Covers

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

This year marks the 600^th episode of The Simpsons, the little animated series that took the world by storm and then refused to lie down and die.  In all seriousness, I like The Simpsons, in fact I actually like well into the season most ground zero fans consider “past its prime.”  

Even while accepting the show has gone on far too long you still have to concede it’s become a massive pop cultural phenomena with really no equal save maybe the Marvel Cinematic Universe in terms of self-propagation.  

Naturally, that expansive media empire has crossed into the realm of comics, in particular during the mid to late ‘90s after the show runners realized their adult oriented prime time show had a massive audience of grade school kids.  

Matt Groening himself was involved in the production of Simpsons Comics owing to his own love of the medium and a desire to inject a greater amount of levity into a decade that’d become choked with joyless grit and today- we honor him, this is the top 15 Simpsons Comics covers.

7 Big Franchises That Got Weird Albums

Hey I got a list published on the popular podcasting website Laser Time.  Check it out here http://www.lasertimepodcast.com/2015/06/23/7-big-franchises-that-got-weird-albums/