The Staircase 🤬 Series Review

  

Written by Thelonia

The Staircase is considered the granddaddy of all true crime documentaries. The original 2004 documentary (8 episodes long) centered around the murder of Kathleen Peterson and her husband Michael's defense strategy during his 2004 trial for her murder (on the title Staircase). The series came back for 2 episodes in 2012 to cover Michael's efforts at getting a retrial (minimal spoilers), and was recently picked up by Netflix, who also produced 3 new episodes (filmed in 2018) which brought the entire series of 13 episodes to Netflix, where it could be consumed in one go by a whole new market who perhaps missed the original series.

Really, if you like true crime documentaries, or know anything about this case, you will probably just wind up yelling at the tv screen for approximately 90% of The Staircase's run-time.

🙋 Which TV Show Should You Binge Next, Based on Your Interests? 👀

Written by Thelonia & Tia

We know that in this age of "too much content" it can often be hard to find a new show to watch. So we figured, why not make it easy? Below is our list of recommendations for TV shows you can start watching right now, based on other shows (and sometimes books/films) you may already like. Let's simplify the recommendation process.

🕵️‍♀️ Who is the Black Hood on Riverdale? 🕵️‍♂️ Here Are Our Wildest Theories

Written by Tia

Who is A—I mean the Black Hood—on this season of Pretty Little Liars—I mean Riverdale? It's the question everyone's asking. With each episode in season 2, the Black Hood stalks the town of Riverdale, tortures Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart), and attempts the occasional murder—with a very low success rate of one confirmed kill out of seven attempts. (Note: It is possible, however, that in the most recent episode—season 2, episode 6—the Black Hood commits his second successful kill, but that has yet to be confirmed.)

The big question surrounding the Black Hood right now is his identity, which remains unknown, but which Betty is on the case to discover, in order to bring him to justice. You've all heard the typical theories—that the Black Hood is Hal Cooper (Lochlyn Munro), Hiram Lodge (Mark Consuelos), Sheriff Keller (Martin Cummins), or Betty's long lost brother Chic Cooper (Hart Denton)—and maybe some of the more "out there" ones—that it's actually Penelope Blossom (Nathalie Boltt), Tall Boy (Scott McNeil), Kevin Keller (Casey Cott), or even Betty herself—but the cast continues to insist that they haven't seen anyone pin down the right person yet.

So here I am, ready to pin. Here are some of my (more daring) theories of who the Black Hood is, given that most of the more obvious ones are already taken:

Black Mirror 🔮 Episodes Ranked

Written by Thelonia & Tia

Black Mirror will be back for its fourth season before the end of this year (there is no specific release date out as of right now), so we thought that—while we wait—we might as well release our definitive ranking of all the Black Mirror episodes so far (seasons 1-3).

We'll be going in reverse order, starting with the episode we thought was the worst, and moving toward our number one pick. Let's do it!

🤷‍♀️ Who's that Riverdale character like? 🤷‍♂️

Written by Tia

"Who does that Riverdale character remind you of?" It's the question I can't stop asking. If you're anything like me, you've very quickly gotten obsessed with the new CW show Riverdale, and can't help but compare it to other (trashy, whoops) teen favorites like Pretty Little Liars and Teen Wolf.

Don't get me wrong—I love these shows deeply. But I do so with awareness of their use of cliches and cheesy, impossible-to-believe moments. Honestly, the best part of these shows is often their flair for the dramatic and indulgence in cheese! It's what makes them truly fun to watch.

With this show especially, now that I've really dedicated good time to watching similar teen shows across the spectrum of Gossip Girl to Shadowhunters, I can't help but compare Riverdale characters to characters from other shows. Of course, that is not to say that any of these characters are copies of each other in any way, but rather that these characters draw on similar tropes, and thus are undeniably comparable in some way.

However, I will admit that I have a tendency to think people have more similarities than they do differences (which, it turns out, is very divisive when it comes to saying actors look or seem like each other). But if you're relaxed enough to say that you think Nina Dobrev and Victoria Justice have more similarities than differences, then you'll be game for this post.

Anyway, here are some of the biggest comparisons I can't help but make:

A Crash Course on Eurovision

Written by Thelonia

“Gay Hunger Games” is usually the phrase used to describe Eurovision to people who have never heard about it, but despite its admittedly flamboyant components, the Eurovision Song Contest actually has a long history of trying to bring countries together with an equally long history of only creating more conflict.

This is a crash course on the history behind the sometimes confusing competition, as well as an overview of what we can expect this year.