Essays on TV and film — exploring stories, characters, and the choices behind them.
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
Yellowstone ended, and every streaming service has spent the time since trying to build its own ranch to move into. Netflix’s version is Ransom Canyon, and its second season just rode in at number three on the platform worldwide. If you came to find out whether it is worth eight hours, the honest answer depends … Read more
On March 3 of this year, Netflix renewed Little House on the Prairie for a second season. The first season would not premiere for another four months, and nobody outside the building had seen a frame of it. Streamers almost never do that. The confidence tells you what Netflix believed it was buying: an … Read more
If you came here straight from the last ten minutes of Old Henry, here is the short version. Yes, the quiet Oklahoma farmer is Billy the Kid. He did not die in 1881. The death was staged, with the help of the lawman who was supposed to have put him in the ground, and … Read more
Here is a true story that sounds invented. A man is born into slavery in Arkansas. His owner drags him into the Civil War to fight for the Confederacy, and somewhere in that nightmare he escapes — the legend says he beat the man over a card game and ran. He disappears into Indian … Read more