Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture

Star Trek Beyond – Movie Review

I guess it says something that a die-hard Star Trek fan like myself took so long to see Star Trek Beyond. (Why did they call it that, anyway? The title makes it seem like the Enterprise crew is going to travel outside the galaxy or something, rather than stay in the nebula-around-the-corner.) This is…

2016 Fall TV Preview

Well, now that the TV season has ended, it’s time to enjoy the summer. But before we all head outside into the sun (Yah, right!), we can take a quick glimpse at what’s coming in the fall (and winter) to network TV. Granted, the sands of television are definitely shifting away from the networks towards…

Captain America: Civil War – Movie Review

So the summer blockbuster season has officially begun! Civil War really kicks the Marvel super-hero franchise up a notch by bringing together most of the characters introduced in previous movies, along with a few new ones. Enough kids have finally arrived at the playground for us to stop playing catch and start a decent baseball…

Seven Summer Movie Sequels 2016

Wow, it’s been a while since I made it out to the movie theatre! But now that we’re all gearing up for summer blockbuster season, I thought I’d pick out seven sequels that I’m looking forward to seeing. I know it’s a little sad that summer movie season is made up of so many sequels,…

Oscar Schmoscar 2016

I’m really cutting it down to the wire this year (since the Oscars are tomorrow) to give my two little cents on some of the nominated movies. As usual, please don’t expect me to predict the winners or have some Oscar-calibre comments. I started this series of annual posts when I didn’t really care about…

Midseason TV 2016 – Plenty of Sci-fi & Fantasy

This is a pretty big year for mid-season sci-fi/fantasy shows. We already had the debut of The Expanse, but there are a bunch more new genre shows that run the gamut from glossy comic-book super-heroes, to Anglo-Saxon legends. Many of them are adaptations of successful books. While I can’t say that any of them stand…

Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Movie Review

Finally, I’ve gone to watch The Force Awakens. I know, judging by the nature of this blog, you’d have thought that I’d have been first in line, bright and early on opening day. What can I tell you? The Force Pushes “Snooze” and Rolls Over For a Bit, OK? Anyway, now that I’ve seen the…

2015 TV Characters: Love and Hate

This season of new shows has definitely not been ground-breaking, and that is reflected in the somewhat flat landscape of new characters. Nevertheless, I have found a few characters to love on new shows like The Grinder and Scream Queens. However, I also found some new characters that I just hate as well (though not…

Downton and the Doctor: Christmas Specials 2015

As I mentioned previously, I love how my favourite UK shows like to do special Christmas episodes. They’re a nice break in the long wait between seasons. I had even hoped that maybe it would be a “trifecta” this year with Sherlock also having a holiday special, but alas “The Abominable Bride” is not airing…