While some shows can actually stick the landing and produce stellar second seasons, Season 2 is often the worst era for many TV shows. This was because the initial challenges of the first season were often overcome, and it is in Season 2 that a series must really justify its existence and showcase it has the staying power to tell an ongoing story over the course of years. While shows can sometimes recover from lackluster second seasons, for others, it signaled the beginning of the end and its slow decline into irrelevance. Some of the most popular TV shows of…
Author: Stephen Holland
West Movies have long built on repeated tropes that define the genre. Like the exciting stories of how cowboys, bandits and outlaws make their way through a lawless life across the Wild West frontier, many tropes and clichés have been repeated time and time again to the point that they become easily associated with the genre itself. These tropes helped create a cinematic language for Western movies and helped them stand apart from other types of genre films. Many of the best Western movies ever made are packed with tropes and clichés from the genre. The acclaimed collaborations of icons…
The 1980s were an incredible era for Action movies And were the inception point for some of the greatest franchises of all time. With major stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone dominating the box office, the action franchises of this decade had a unique aesthetic and energy that meant, even after all these years, they are still loved and rewatched by hordes of action movie lovers. What’s most impressive about the best action franchises of the 1980s was their longevity, as many have continued to this day through sequels, prequels, revivals and reboots. As a truly revolutionary decade for…
The West The genre has long been a touchstone of American popular fiction, with an extensive history of spawning television shows. While the genre has experienced ups and downs in popularity, like an Old West hero, the Westerns always triumphantly return, because the genre has constantly reinvented itself for each era of television. From family-friendly black-and-white half-hour adventures to modern neo-western explorations of social and political tensions, the western genre has remained relevant throughout television history. In the same way that the greatest Western films have earned their place as cinematic classics, Western television series have carved an important place…
Countless Film directors Are known for repeatedly making similar movies, although some manage to reinvent themselves with something new. It can be a filmmaker who was pigeonholed in the action genre, who later went completely against the expectations of the audience to release an epic romance that defines the rest of their career and has an incredible impact on cinema. Other directors are known for catering primarily to a male audience, who then show themselves a new dimension with a highly feminist story that embraces female empowerment. Many of the best directors of all time are categorized by their longevity…
While it can be a special experience to witness a truly terrifying horror movie in theaters, there have been some fantastic scary movies that never made it to the big screen. While the advent of the Internet means that many horror movies are available straight to streaming, there are also many excellent straight-to-DVD or even straight-to-VHS horror movies from years gone by. The often low-budget releases did not have to limit themselves to box office expectations and, in some cases, were able to be more ambitious and unique as a result. Some of the best non-theatrical released movies have been…
The many incredible action movies of Jason Statham have turned him into one of the most popular modern action heroes in cinema, and he has a lot of great movies that still need sequels. While Statham has participated in his fair share of franchises, his filmography boasts countless movies that have a lot of life in them and heroic characters that audiences would love to see on the big screen again. After proving his skills for hand-to-hand combat, intense car chases and death-defying stunt work, there are so many characters that Statham should bring back for one more movie. Statham…
There were so many great ones Fantasy Movies over the years that never got the box office love they deserved. As a genre that relies on viewers getting swept away by alternate worlds and tales of magical wonder, sometimes it takes a while for the value of a fantasy story to be recognized by viewers, and it’s only years or decades later that a Fantasy The film takes its rightful place as a cult classic. Other times, films that should have been great are handled poorly, and subpar films are released that don’t reach their full potential. Some of the…
Although to the average moviegoer, a film may seem like a definitive work of art, the truth is that directors often have tampered with their visions, and the result is not their preferred version of the movie. In some cases, this was rectified by allowing directors to go back and re-issue their own Director’s cutComplete with deleted scenes, restructured stories and wildly different creative decisions. In some cases, as in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner: Final CutThis becomes the preferred version of the film, as it best represents what the filmmaker envisioned releasing during production. The best director’s cuts add to…
Horror movies have been notoriously snubbed by the Academy Awards, even though so many scary movies clearly deserved to win Oscars. This is especially obvious with the power of hindsight, as years later, many of the actual Oscar winners were largely forgotten by viewers while the horror releases made it through the ages. The sheer terror and emotion in horror movies are also ripe territory for fantastic performances that never get the accolades they deserve. Many of the best horror movies of all time came out of awards season Oscar-less, and even though most viewers would agree that they deserved…