Max-stravaganza

Season three of Downton Abbey  (or "Series Three" as BBCphiles refer to it) proved that Julian Fellowes is walking the path of least resistance.  The plotlines were engaging, but with the exception of the occasional death, the resolutions were far too simple, sacrificing any potentially profound moments of dread and doubt in order to maintain the understated Colin Firthiness of the status quo. At the first hint of conflict, characters will worry, demonstrably pace back and forth, make loud declarations about how there is no easy resolution to the problem.  Barring an act of God, Downton will be doomed to financial ruin, scandal, a world war!  There are no simple answers, and we cannot stress that point enough. Just when it seems that Downton is about to get hit by a torrential downpour of change and death and ramifications that will forever alter the landscape...they find a shockingly simple, anti-climactic resolution and continue on.  It's becomin...

Game of Thrones is all the rage on the blogosphere and Twitterverse and all those other online sources of baseless opinions which, sadly, I belong to. Even though it puts my soul at hazard, I finally broke down and tweeted: "Okay. I'll be a part of this world." As my college friends can attest, there isn't a TV series that I haven't seen. We all remember that two week stretch during sophomore year where I marathoned seasons 2-5 of Blossom and nearly wrote my term paper on Joey instead of D.H. Lawrence. With Game of Thrones , however, I'm waiting to read the book first. Partly because I hear it's a great read. Mainly I'm doing this for the same reason that before torrenting (what? I would never do that!) V for Vendetta , I read the comic book: so I could say "God, the book was so much better! Why did they change detail XYZ and leave out character Q?" Without reading a single page, I feel entitled and better than most people. Exactl...