There was a time when the best it got for fantasy and sci-fi dorks was the Sunday afternoon triad of Hercules, Xena, and Sinbad, and a smattering of Star Trek spin-offs scattered throughout the week.

But things are different now. Big budgets, lush production, great acting — nowadays, fantasy and sci-fi are cooler than they’ve ever been. They’re more credible and more marketable. The Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films were a huge boon to this process of legitimization, and the increasing popularity of the Joss Whedon oeuvre certainly helps. Hollywood’s attempts to de-kitsch Comic Con staples such as Star Trek and Batman haven’t hindered the cause, either.

Late last month, the return of two particular shows to our television sets proved just how readily the general public is willing to embrace nerdom and geekery in all its epic manifestations. The premiere episode of the third season of Game of Thrones broke records for both ratings and downloads. A few days later, following an uncharacteristic mainstream marketing campaign, Doctor Who‘s seventh series returned after a hiatus and also drew strong numbers. Since then, both shows have been doing well and gaining traction in the non-nerd world. Buzzfeed lists, Community‘s Inspector Spacetime, Saturday Night Live sketches — the sky’s the limit.

Yes, the Doctor is back on TV, as are the Lannisters and Starks. You don’t even have to hide the fact that you’re happy about it. You can celebrate it, in fact. Incorporate it into all the mundane and spectacular moments of your life, including: Continue Reading →

Bollywood. It’s the butt of countless unjust jokes, the subject of many non-Indians’ private obsessions and the soundtrack to an increasing number of women’s aerobic dance classes. It’s arguably also the biggest film industry on the planet and the cinematic home to some of the world’s highest-paid movie stars, and it just spent a few days in beautiful British Columbia.

This past weekend, Vancouver played host to a big event on Bollywood’s 2013 calendar: the innaugural Times of India Film Awards. Bollywood mega-stars such as Aishwarya Rai and Shah Rukh Khan descended on the city for the lavish event, which caused a bit of controversy by costing the B.C. government something around $11 million.

Although rumours of underperforming ticket sales circulated and some B.C. residents worried that the event was a poor use of public money, TOIFA was ultimately a crowd-pleaser, and whether you view the event as a sly political move by the B.C. Liberal Party to garner ethnic votes or a well-intentioned, well-executed celebration of the province’s increasing South Asian population, it’s a sign of things to come. Bollywood outpaces Hollywood in growth, and though it’s not too common yet, a smattering of Hollywood celebrities have made appearances in Bollywood movies and vice versa. It’s a big industry that’s only getting bigger. Considering the popularity of films such as Bend it Like Beckham and Slumdog Millionaire, the appeal of South Asian cinema and culture to international audiences is patent. Continue Reading →

Picture it if you can. Draw it out from your memories, if it’s there. Pull it from your imagination, if you have to. It’s 1993. You’re a pre-teen, too young to remember the Battle of the Brians or Elizabeth Manley’s silver medal triumph at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, but you’re just the right age to know that it’s going to be a big year for Canadian figure skating. In Prague, at the World Figure Skating Championships, Canadians Kurt Browning and Elvis Stojko take the gold and silver, respectively. Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler win the gold in pairs. Yes, it’s a big year.

Fast forward roughly a decade and picture this: Canadian pairs skaters, Jamie Salé and David Pelletier perform a brilliant long program at the 2002 Olympic Games and are declared the winners by American and Canadian commentators. Yet the scores put the Russian pair in the gold medal position. The backlash from media and fans is  immediate and fierce. Then scandal strikes when a French judge admits that she was pressured into giving the Russians winning marks no matter how the other pairs skated. The judge is suspended and, in the end, Salé and Pelletier share the gold medal with the Russians. To prevent future cheating, the International Skating Union replaces the long-standing 6.0 system with a confusing Code of Points method. In the wake of this debacle, the sheen goes off the figure skating world.

Canadian figure skating has produced some great moments since 2002. We’ve had beautiful stories — Joannie Rochette’s bronze medal win at the 2010 Olympics only days after her mother suddenly died — and we’ve had success on the world stage. Still, Canadian audiences have pulled back a little since the glory days of Elvis and Kurt and Bourne and Kraatz. But, if there were ever a time to start returning figure skating’s calls, it’s now. This weekend, if you’ve got time. The World Figure Skating Championships are here on Canadian soil, in London, Ontario, and we’ve got real chances and proper champions. It’s exciting. Let us catch you up on the details. Continue Reading →

The harsh reality of TV fiction is that your favourite characters are played by actors who sometimes want to move on from your favourite shows. In such cases, television writers are faced with the challenge of “writing  out” the very characters whom many viewers had hoped would stick around for long and beautiful story arcs. There are many ways to get rid of a character, but not all are guaranteed to satisfy the viewing public.

Last week, in the series finale of Downton Abbey, the decision to kill off husband and father Matthew Crawley with a car accident was perceived by some fans as an act of cruelty. We loved Matthew; we had hopes for him. We wanted him to go on forever. Unfortunately, actor Dan Stevens only wanted to play Crawley for a very finite three seasons. In an interview with The New York Times, Julian Fellowes, the show’s creator, defended the decision to end Crawley’s life:

When an actor playing a servant wants to leave, there isn’t really a problem — [that character gets] another job. With members of the family, once they’re not prepared to come back for any episodes at all, then it means death. Because how believable would it be that Matthew never wanted to see the baby, never wanted to see his wife? And was never seen again at the estate that he was the heir to? So we didn’t have any option, really. I was as sorry as everyone else.

For TV writers, the comings and goings of actors necessitate both difficult choices and unique problems. Whereas the novel writer controls his characters entirely, the television writer is subject to real people with real personalities and real ambitions. In honour of Matthew Crawley and the writers tasked with offing him, we offer this short guide to writing out TV characters. Continue Reading →

“As long as God keeps making little girls, there will always be boy bands.”
– Lou Pearlman, creator of Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync

I just about screamed my face off when New Kids on the Block announced they would be touring this summer with Boys II Men and 98 Degrees — because they’re my boy band and I have to scream for them. I’ve been screaming for more than 20 years now, and I’ll keep screaming until they disband permanently. That’s what girls do for their boy bands.

It’s the screaming that transforms a band of boys into a boy band. It’s the screaming hordes of girls crowding against barricades, chasing down limos, tearing at their hair, fainting dead at the sight of their beloved Nick or Donnie or Lance or Harry or Bobby. It’s unlike anything you’ll hear at a rock show. People scream at Metallica concerts, but it’s different from the high-pitched shriek that rises from the collective throats of girls responding to their boy band. I know: I’ve screamed for U2; I’ve screamed for Weezer. I’ve even screamed for Billy Joel. But those sounds were nothing compared to what came out of me — and from all around me — the first time I saw my New Kids live on stage.

My mom would tell you that the Beatles were a boy band, and you would balk because neither you nor I would ever put them in the same category as LFO, VIP or Mytown. But she would be right because, in their early years, they elicited the screaming that is the hallmark of the genre. In the ’70s, girls lost their minds over boy bands such as the Osmonds, the Jackson 5 and the Bay City Rollers. It’s a long tradition, encompassing many variations — just look at the multi-generational membership of the Latino vocal group Menudo. But let’s jump forward a few years to 1982, and consider the pinnacle of boy band evolution: the five-piece.

The five-piece boy band — keeper of adolescent girl hearts since the late 20th century — is the ultimate boy band iteration. Broadly speaking, a properly assembled five-piece covers every girl’s fantasy: you get the soulful superstar, the responsible older brother, the bad boy, the baby and the fifth member, who, depending on the group, might be a shy guy, a muscle man or a do-gooder.

We get the five-piece in batches every five to 10 years or so. They saturate the market until they exhaust our patience, then disappear as we find ourselves re-discovering some other pop archetype. I had New Kids on the Block. My younger sisters had Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync. British girls listened to Take That, Boyzone and 5ive. Today’s young women turn to mush over One Direction and The Wanted. Continue Reading →