Let’s just get this out of the way first: in Red Queen, a young woman is dragged from obscurity, thrust into a deadly competition, and then embroiled in a revolution. Comparisons to The Hunger Games are inevitable and warranted. Fortunately, Red Queen riffs but doesn’t replicate. It has its own world and its own rules, which in this dystopia …

For those of you still with us, Sailor Moon and everyone she loves are in deadly peril. Time for drastic measures! Or…well, time for running, anyway. Chibi-Usa is missing, and King Endymion enlists Tuxedo Mask to rush off with him, but they tell Venus to stay put. Which she does, although she pouts that she …

Just about the only thing Sailor Moon Crystal has going for it at this point is its ability to create striking images. I’m not talking about character creation; the characters are still flat. I just mean that there is some good staging going on, creating drama and power, despite the otherwise lackluster visuals. In the …

Crystal has a lot of problems (it also has qualities, I will not deny it), but for this arc in particular, I think I’ve finally figured out what the root issue is. It’s boring. And time-traveling magical girls trying to save future-paradise-Tokyo from an evil invading planet should not be boring. I realized this because I wanted to …

At last, the long-awaited exposition! Chibi-Usa is from the 30th century, and she’s here to get Sailor Moon’s help. With what, you ask? Well, it’s not clear. And she can’t bear to return to the 30th century. Not even to take Sailor moon. And she can’t bear to say any more than that. So…yay exposition? …

So the world ended. As apocalypses go, it wasn’t the worst: there were no zombie pandemics or nuclear holocausts. Most people even survived it. Unfortunately, a decade later, they’re still surviving, not really thriving. It’s not the standard dystopian dictatorship that’s really keeping them down, and it’s not the weird new stars in the sky …

Well folks, Jupiter’s been spirited off to that great enemy base in the sky (not a euphemism, oddly enough), so now it’s just Sailor Moon and her trusty lieutenant Sailor Venus (and Mamoru). They have no leads, no inklings of the Black Moon’s ultimate plan, and no idea what to do next. It’s no surprise …

This week’s Sailor Moon Crystal begins with an extremely extended sequence trying to cheer Usagi up, even though two of her best friends have been abducted to parts unknown, and she should probably be allowed to be sad.  It starts with Chibi-Usa lending her a doll, and ends with a long arcade scene in which …

While other people were watching Dawson’s Creek, I was watching The X-Files. (Yes I am bragging; yes I am aware you could have watched both; yes I am a snob.  I will try to tone it down, though.)  This show was formative in so many ways, and it’s held up surprisingly well.  Though it can be jarring …

The X-Files became a cultural phenomenon because of its willingness to go for broke on ideas that, like the truth, were really out there.  The following, in order of air date, are the best examples of that boundary-pushing blended with humor. 1. Jose Chung’s From Outer Space (3×20) Like “Once More, With Feeling” from Buffy …