Essays on TV and film — exploring stories, characters, and the choices behind them.
In Evil Dead Burn, Alice is expected to keep proving her loyalty to her dead husband, Will. At the family meal after his funeral, his father, Edgar, objects to her missing wedding ring and the clothes she wore to the service. Those complaints make her appearance into evidence against her. His family treats her distance … Read more
Murder in a Small Town is filmed mainly in Gibsons and nearby communities on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, in Canada. Its fictional world places Gibsons in Washington state. There is another location to keep straight: L.R. Wright’s original Karl Alberg novels were set in Sechelt, a different town on the same Canadian coast. The series … Read more
In Joe R. Lansdale’s novel The Thicket, Cut Throat Bill is a man. In the film, the outlaw is played by Juliette Lewis, who built the character around a badly damaged voice. That change has consequences beyond casting: it raises the question of what people expect a woman to do with a young captive, and … Read more
LEGO One Piece retells the first two seasons of Netflix’s live-action One Piece in a two-part animated special. Usopp, the crew’s enthusiastic storyteller, gives their newest companion, Tony Tony Chopper, his version of the voyage. Netflix’s official description confirms that recap format. For viewers who want to discover the live-action story without knowing its major … Read more
Hillman College is fictional. In Netflix’s A Different World sequel, however, parts of the campus belong to Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Clark Atlanta University. These are real historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, in Atlanta. There is no single Hillman campus to enroll in. The series assembles its college from places that already … Read more
The disappearing acts in Wonka’s The Golden Ticket were built to work in front of the contestants. According to illusion designer Adam Mada, the person sitting opposite a vanishing player had to be fooled along with the television audience. These were practical illusions, performed on set. Nobody was actually teleported, and the claim does not … Read more
Katie Wilcox’s Shark Tank deal in the 2026 family comedy The Breadwinner is fictional. So is the Star Minder, the household organizer she pitches. The Sharks and their set are real, but the investment exists to send Katie (Mandy Moore) on a business trip and leave her husband Nate (Nate Bargatze) in charge of their … Read more
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist uses handmade animation because its directors wanted an intimate, tactile way into a subject usually explained through screens and expert interviews. Co-director Charlie Tyrell told POV that the imperfections of physical objects, including fingerprints on puppets, were part of the appeal. The choice gave the film … Read more
Lizzie Borden was acquitted because the prosecution did not persuade a jury that she had murdered her father and stepmother beyond a reasonable doubt. The case had gaps in its physical evidence, important testimony was excluded, and her defense benefited from ideas about what a respectable woman could do. On June 20, 1893, the jury … Read more
Yes. Netflix’s The Doll is based on Lalka, the Polish novel by Bolesław Prus that appeared in book form in 1890. The six-part series keeps the central pair: Stanisław Wokulski, a merchant who has forced his way into wealthy Warsaw society, and Izabela Łęcka, the aristocratic woman he wants. But “based on” needs an asterisk … Read more