Posterity belongs to the leg-pullers
You can give your big idea the grandest name imaginable. But history may prefer the one coined by the bloke taking the mickey.
Ride or Die was a hit. So why did nobody want to ride with it for a second season?
Prime Video’s Ride or Die was a hit with viewers and critics. So why was a buddy show starring women over 50 cancelled? We have thoughts.
We gave local news to Big Tech. Look what happened
Newspapers surrendered the ads, then the audience, then the news itself. Now AI is finishing a job that began two decades ago. Just think what...
9 tricks in the Bayeux Tapestry that film-makers would recognise today
How a 1,000-year-old masterpiece uses momentum, montage, visual tricks and dramatic structure to tell a story that still feels modern.
Billions was brilliant. Then season 5 happened
Showtime’s Billions once made greed, revenge and awful people irresistible. Then Covid, cast upheaval and increasingly desperate plotting broke the spell.
Netflix’s Trust Me exposes the banal truth about cults
Netflix’s Trust Me: The False Prophet exposes the terrifying truth about cults: not charismatic leaders, but ordinary people surrendering conscience.
The dark secret hidden in Hockney’s most famous painting
David Hockney’s sunlit masterpiece looks like an image of beauty and freedom. But look beyond the dazzling colours and something much darker emerges.
Why small stories can still beat sprawling epics
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms shows how discipline, character and constraint revive storytelling when spectacle and bloat become exhausting.
Why novels are speeding up (and readers are not broken)
Shorter chapters reflect screen-era storytelling, not failing attention, as books adapt to film, TV and a culture trained on faster narrative rhythms.
If the universe is maths, humans are story
Story is not decoration but adaptation: the way finite minds compress reality, survive complexity, and turn an infinite universe into meaning.
How Dickens shaped a Christmas story that still resonates
A Christmas Carol became definitive through tight structure, unforgettable characters and a hopeful arc that still resonates.
Train Dreams review: a quiet tale of enduring power
Bentley’s adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novella lets Joel Edgerton carry a story of grief, solitude and survival told in hushed, resonant rhythms.
Review – Conflict of Interest is a razor-sharp noir delight
Thomas Carruthers’ quick-witted thriller revels in old-school Hollywood noir, with sharp dialogue, dangerous charm and twists aplenty.
Review – This Is Not About Me, soft play and harsh truths
Inventive staging and meta storytelling charm, but repetition and structural looseness occasionally blunt the emotional impact.
Review – ROI dissects tech ambition and moral cost
A slick Hampstead premiere probes venture capital, medical breakthroughs and the uneasy line between profit and purpose in a swift tale packed with ideas.