jokerside

Long Reads and cartoons on Film, Music, TV, Gaming and the Arts

[thejokerside]

Game of Thrones Season 8: Our verdict on the final season

Game of Thrones Season 8: Our verdict on the final season

Jokerside’s occasional review sets can’t resist a game, not least the end of the Game of Thrones. The genre TV phenomenon of the 21st century set itself a steep challenge for its eighth season. Long removed from its ongoing prose source, was there any chance it could end the Game in a way that lived up to its previous highs?

We were there every week with a full review of each episode – here’s…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

Chairmen of the Voord - Four Writers, One of Doctor Who’s Oldest Monsters

Chairmen of the Voord – Four Writers, One of Doctor Who’s Oldest Monsters

We don our flippers and take a swim with the curious monsters of the early 1960s that, though intended to be the new Daleks never to return to the television, but whose enigmatic appearance proved fertile ground for writers and creators in other media…

11 April 1964 and the fifth serial of Doctor Who screened on the BBC. Fans that the show had scooped up since its arrival the previous November…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

Marvel: The best of the MCU - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Marvel: The best of the MCU – Captain America: The Winter Soldier

As Avengers Endgame arrives to close to 11 years of Marvel storytelling (even if it isn’t quite closing off the MCU’s Phase 3), we take a look at the film that remains a benchmark for the MCU.

“Call in the asset”

THE MARVEL UNIVERSE HAS A HEALTHY FUTURE AHEAD OF IT ON THE BIG AND SMALL SCREEN SCREEN.  BUT ENDGAME, NOT LEAST IN NAME, PROMISES TO COMPLETE THE CYCLE THAT BEGAN IN 2008. It’s…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

The Curse of Fatal Death at 20 - Setting up the Moffat era in 20 moves

The Curse of Fatal Death at 20 – Setting up the Moffat era in 20 moves

Can it really be 10 Comic Reliefs since Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death? The sketch showpiece of the 1999 fundraiser that amused, reminded and affected 10 years after the classic series ended. A further 20 years on, it’s proved to be more than a novelty.

It told us pretty much all we needed to know about writer Steven Moffat’s time in charge of Doctor Who…

“Die Doctor, Die!”

WHEN STEVEN…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

Star Trek Discovery Series 1: Our review of Trek's new Wagon Train to the Stars

Star Trek Discovery Series 1: Our summary review of the first year of Trek's new Wagon Train to the Stars

Jokerside doesn’t often do reviews, but when it does, it’s for something big. When Star Trek returned to its natural small screen home for the first time in 12 years we were there to chart every episode of Discovery‘s first year. You can catch the in-depth reviews over at Jokershorts, but here’s the full season summary and for those rushing to Black Alert!

STAR TREK DISCOVERY SLUNK ONTO SCREENS…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

Personas: Running from Valentine - David Bowie’s Other Egos

Personas: Running from Valentine – David Bowie’s Other Egos

As Lazarus prepares to open in Amsterdam, a glimpse at one of David Bowie’s most fascinating, incendiary and final creations. The enigmatic Valentine swooped in an unassuming fashion before seizing a supernatural life of his own and linking the reality with fiction….

Valentine’s Day is Perennial…

DAVID BOWIE’S LAZARUSRETREATED FROM LONDON IN JANUARY 2017, CLOSING THE CURTAIN ON THE SECOND MAJOR LEG…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

Personas: Chasing Major Tom - David Bowie’s Other Egos

Personas: Chasing Major Tom – David Bowie’s Other Egos

His fate remains shrouded in jewel-encrusted mystery, but David Bowie’s first significant creation had staying power. The enigmatic Major Tom remained his constant if infrequent companion through accidents, addiction, life…

“There’s Old Wave. There’s New Wave. And there’s David Bowie.”

SO RAN THE CATCHY RCA ADVERT FOR HEROES IN 1977. FOR THE TIME IT WAS A STRANGELY ASTUTE SENTIMENT, NOT JUST FOR…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

Chopping Down A Dolls House: What if The White Album was a single album?

Chopping Down A Dolls House: What if The White Album was a single album?

The Beatles, more commonly known as the White Album, turns 50 today. A difficult, brilliant hulk of an album, it’s spent five decades defying the many questions it throws up. Is it the band’s best album? Is it the start of their break up? What is Honey Pie all about?

But no question comes larger than the one that emerged after a chance remark from producer George Martin in the 1970s: Should the…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

Personas: Letting the Evening Go with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles Other Egos

Personas: Letting the Evening Go with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles Other Egos

It was 51 years ago… that the Beatles disappeared, shunted to the side by an Edwardian military band. The Lonely Hearts Club Band, taught to play by Sgt. Pepper two decades before. On their golden anniversary, the most famous band in the world’s most famous alter-egos still capture the imagination…

“Sgt. Pepper invented himself, because he had to”

If you dig this post man, please click to vote…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

The Dark Knight at 10: 10 ways it Introduced a Little Anarchy

The Dark Knight at 10: 10 ways it Introduced a Little Anarchy

“Why so Serious?”

Heath Ledger’s Joker, disappearing pencils, Harvey’s lucky coin, love triangles, Batpods and a Caped Crusader having to cross the line. Cinema’s greatest comic book adaptation was released 10 years ago.

It’s a decade since the majestic centre point of Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy simultaneously elevated the perception of what comic book films could be on film and set a…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

Halloween V: Re-carving the Pumpkin - Michael Myers Zombie-style

Halloween V: Re-carving the Pumpkin – Michael Myers Zombie-style

  Halloween had tried a partial reboot for its 20th anniversary, but it was Rob Zombie who took the definitive slasher back to basics just before it’s 30th. Are you ready to head further behind the mask of Michael Myers than ever before? It’s brutal and all a little bit like history repeating…

“Sam, it’s a fucking massacre”

NINE TIMES LUCKY. AFTER 2002’s RESURRECTIONWRENCHED THE FRANCHISE BACK…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

Halloween IV: Watering Down the Franchise (H20 and Resurrection under the knife)

Halloween IV: Watering Down the Franchise (H20 and Resurrection under the knife)

He always comes back. One year on from Jokerside’s retrospective of the first six instalments of the Halloween franchise, we turn to the short-lived 20th anniversary revival. Very short-lived, although the start wasn’t as wet as it sounds…

H20 WAS RELEASED A MERE TWO YEARS AFTER THE SIXTH INSTALMENT, THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS. BUT IT PROVED THAT IT WASN’T SO MUCH THE TIME AS THE OCCASION THAT…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

Fictionside 105: When Franchises Head to Space!

Fictionside 105: When Franchises Head to Space!

Sometimes it makes utter, inarguable sense to take your franchise to space!

Often it doesn’t!

Our bi-annual Fictionside series heads to the stars with five franchises that did the same, as our fifth anniversary finds us zooming back to Earth!

WE’RE NOT HEADING TO SPACE – WE WERE ALWAYS THERE! As we take a long turn to head back to Earth for our fifth anniversary refit, at the end of our first…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

Marvel's Inhumans: Partial Eclipse of the Big Screen?

Marvel’s Inhumans: Partial Eclipse of the Big Screen?

There’s no hiding place now. Marvel’s moon dwelling Inhumans have evaded a live screen adaptation for years, but now it’s caught up with them. Jokerside visits their comic past and reviews their television future. At the cinema, of course. It can’t really be that bad, can it? Well… Shh, the King’s about to speak…

It’s no King’s Speech…

The show’s apparent existential crisis couldn’t deter fans…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

Doctor Who Series 10: The Final Verdict on the Twelfth Doctor's Final Journey

Doctor Who Series 10: The Final Verdict on the Twelfth Doctor’s Final Journey

It’s a month since the Doctor fell. Jokerside took the final journey of the Twelfth Doctor head on with in-depth reviews of every episode. Here’s the digested series review…

THE TENTH SERIES OF DOCTOR WHO SWEPT THROUGH SPRING AND SUMMER LIKE MANY BEFORE, BUT THIS YEAR WAS TINGED WITH THE BITTERSWEET. Like the oily tears of a Cyberman or the salted pulp of a sewer Dalek, it was more bittersweet…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

Fictionside 104: Heroes & Villains

Fictionside 104: Heroes & Villains

This half-birthday we pick out 10 of our favourite heroes and villains …

IT’S JOKERSIDE’S FOURTH AND A HALF BIRTHDAY, AND SO HERE’S ANOTHER OF OUR BI-ANNUAL FICTIONSIDES AS WE CAREER TO THE CLOSE OF JOKERSIDE’S FIVE YEAR MISSION! THIS TIME ROUND, This time round, we’re picking out some of our favourite fictional heroes and villains. And wouldn’t you know, some of them are a bit misunderstood…

Ac…

View On WordPress

[thejokerside]

1966: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at 50

1966: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at 50

“Kicking off with a different loner”

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was released in Italy 50 years ago today, completing Sergio Leone’s hugely influential trilogy. The Dollars Trilogy? The Man With No Name trilogy? Whatever it completed, however it fits with the other films, Jokerside salutes the 50th anniversary of a classic that created and consolidated a sub-genre…

IT’S 50 YEARS SINCE ENNIO…

View On WordPress