Category: Television
3 Thoughts on Kindle Unlimited
I have a roundup on Amazon’s latest innovation over at Mere O Notes so if you’re wanting to learn more about Kindle Unlimited, start there. I. Our Technocratic Libertarianism While Mark Lilla is basically correct in saying that we live...
The Abolition of Walter White
In most ways, the debate regarding TV’s big four–The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men–will rage on as each team makes their case for why their show is superior. In many cases, this really will come down to individual taste....
Pedro at 40: How a Television Show Changed the Way a Generation Viewed LGBTQ Persons
Vote for Pedro My generation might best be defined as those who remember watching Pedro Zamora die of AIDS in our living rooms. If you’re not familiar with Pedro, he was an openly gay, HIV-positive castmember in the third season of...
The Frame for Watching Mad Men: When Joan sells Johnny
Brian R. Gumm is a licensed minister in the Church of the Brethren, worshiping and periodically ministering in a United Methodist parish in rural Iowa. His telecommuting day job is Distance Learning Technology Analyst for Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg,...
Should Christians Watch Mad Men? A Rejoinder
Editor’s Note: This guest post is by Nick Olson, who writes film reviews at a host of places including Filmwell and Christ and Pop Culture. I have a confession: when watching seasons 1 through 4 of Mad Men a couple...
The Ethics of Watching Mad Men
In a recent Comment piece, Jamie Smith argued that one of the foremost challenges facing Christians today is not whether or not we ought to engage popular culture–that battle has been won. The new question we have to face is...
House of Cards: Kevin Spacey, Tolkien, and the Bible
It’s an easy, common observation to note that you can learn about a culture by observing the heroes it creates. The culture that creates a hero like John Keating of Dead Poet’s Society is different than the one that creates...
Downton Abbey as a Jane Austen style Tragedy
The third season of Julian Fellowes’ BBC hit Downton Abbey has finally arrived in the United States, and it’s getting all the buzz you would expect: most notably, from my perspective, the series has recently received positive coverage in Books...
A mind is a terrible thing to waste on comedy
Eddie Izzard is a gifted, but he’s burying his talent. How can I claim this, and why should I be bothering about the speck in his life before the log in mine? As to the first, I shall attempt to...