Copyright12/22/20Dec 226Copyright12/22/20CopyrightYouTube’s Copyright Filter Is Crushing Video Critique—And It’s Getting WorseKatharine Trendacosta92In July, Harry “hbomberguy” Brewis shared a video on his popular YouTube channel called “RWBY Is Disappointing, And…
Decade's End12/19/19Dec 19 201910Decade's End12/19/19Decade's EndThe Decade Fandom Went CorporateKatharine Trendacosta92In the last twenty years, fandom and mass culture have basically merged. Fans and fandom spent the 2000s fighting…
Jun 27 2019116/27/19When Fandom Is the ProblemKatharine Trendacosta394“Fandom”—the participatory community that grows out of a piece of media—has come to dominate pop culture. Fandom is…
Movies4/30/19Apr 30 20196Movies4/30/19MoviesCalm Down About SpoilersKatharine Trendacosta314Spoiler culture—the capital-D Discourse surrounding how much of the plot you should know before heading into a piece…
Movies11/21/18Nov 21 201810Movies11/21/18MoviesHow Fantastic Beasts Failed at Representation, and What J.K. Rowling Can Do About ItKatharine Trendacosta247I come not to bury J.K. Rowling, but to praise her. Harry Potter was an honest to god phenomenon, impacting my…
Nov 17 20179411/17/17Farewell, io9, It's Time for Me to Return to My Home PlanetKatharine Trendacosta156Dearest io9ers, this is it: After many years and almost as many job titles, it is time for me to say goodbye.
Nov 17 2017611/17/17Dear Beloved Nerd Actors: No More Hamlets, PleaseKatharine Trendacosta90Listen, I give all the props in the world to genre fiction for its persistent casting of stage actors in its…
Television11/16/17Nov 16 20178Television11/16/17TelevisionSonequa Martin-Green Thinks Discovery's Burnham Will Be Captain Someday... But How?Beth Elderkin and Katharine Trendacosta168The star of Star Trek: Discovery has come out and said that her character, disgraced first officer Michael Burnham,…
Television11/13/17Nov 13 20178Television11/13/17TelevisionLast Night's Star Trek: Discovery Was a Great Climax to a Show We Never GotKatharine Trendacosta350The midseason finale of Star Trek: Discovery, “Into the Forest I Go,” finally got this show to the place it should…
Books11/10/17Nov 10 201717Books11/10/17BooksAuthor Tamora Pierce on Straightforward, Inclusive FantasyKatharine Trendacosta22Tamora Pierce is a prolific author of fantasy books, most of which feature young women as protagonists and many of…
Movies11/10/17Nov 10 201713Movies11/10/17MoviesWhat Star Wars History May Tell Us About Rian Johnson's New TrilogyKatharine Trendacosta and James Whitbrook213Yesterday, the news dropped that Rian Johnson’s time in the Star Wars universe would not end with The Last Jedi.…
Television11/8/17Nov 8 201712Television11/8/17TelevisionRiverdale's Jughead Is a Shitty WriterKatharine Trendacosta118Riverdale is a delightful mess of a show. Absolutely none of it should work, and yet season one was a confounding…
Television11/6/17Nov 6 201710Television11/6/17TelevisionStar Trek: Discovery Riffs on an Original Series Episode With Muddled ResultsKatharine Trendacosta277Last night’s “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum” ended on a cliffhanger that sets up a big showdown for next week’s finale.…
Nov 3 2017811/3/17'By the Sheen of the Foam, I Beheld Two Skelingtons Sitting in Their Coffins'Katharine Trendacosta44Out on a walk by the beach at night, you look out into the sea and see... two skeletons surfing on their coffins.
Books11/3/17Nov 3 201712Books11/3/17BooksLooking Back at Han Solo's Evil Twin, Lando's Wife Hunt, and the Insane Corellian Trilogy BooksKatharine Trendacosta99Hello, and welcome to another installment of “Oh god, why do I keep volunteering to re-read the worst Star Wars Expan…
Television10/30/17Oct 30 20177Television10/30/17Televisionio9 Is Stuck in a Time Loop of Explaining Star Trek: Discovery's Use of Harry MuddKatharine Trendacosta89Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson) reappeared this week in an episode that took a crack at one of scifi’s most venerable…
Television10/30/17Oct 30 201714Television10/30/17TelevisionLast Night Was Star Trek: Discovery's Best EpisodeKatharine Trendacosta274If you’ve been sitting around waiting for Discovery to find a balance between classic Trek storytelling and its…
Oct 26 20171210/26/17What Change to Canon Do You Find the Most Infuriating?Katharine Trendacosta563Something that Star Trek: Discovery has thrown up, once again, is all the questions that surround canon. How much of…
Oct 25 20172510/25/17The Most Mind-Boggling 'Sexy' Costumes of Halloween 2017Katharine Trendacosta276Halloween is one week away, and you know what that means: It’s time for the annual collection of utterly confusing…
Trailer Frenzy10/25/17Oct 25 20175Trailer Frenzy10/25/17Trailer FrenzyA Magic Wand Is a 'Nuclear Bomb' in the New Trailer for the Fantasy Cop Movie BrightKatharine Trendacosta98The goal of Netflix’s Bright is clearly to slam together the tropes of the buddy cop movie with those of fantasy. So…