When @mollytempleton.com says she thinks you'd write a great piece about glam rock and loving yourself and The Vampire Lestat, and you look up several thousand words later with a track list... reactormag.com/glam-rock-an...

7 (Un)Easy Steps to Loving Yourself: Glam Rock and The Vampire Lestat - Reactor

What's so great about being a rock star? It doesn't take an interview to tell your story.

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If the point where you tear up in the Spider-Man film is when Peter sees his best friend and unironically brings a bouquet of flowers to table, that's not so bad.

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 6d ago

"What Brand New Day ultimately tells its audience is that change doesn’t need fighting at every turn...Let yourself mutate a little and maybe you’ll like what you find." Marvel did the impossible: a Spider-Man 4. @use-theforce-em.bsky.social reviews Spider-Man: Brand New Day

CGI Appa can hurt you, in fact.

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · last mo.

Rushed storylines, bloated budgets, and corporatization of fan culture: for @use-theforce-em.bsky.social, the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series represents the weaknesses of modern television #ATLA

You know what's a cool message to give little girls right now? That they'd be somehow forever ruined if they chose to take revenge on men who kill their whole families and want to keep them as breeding stock! This is in no way an exaggeration of what the film's hero says, outright, to a 13yo.

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · last mo.

By straying from the original comics, Supergirl fails to become its own movie and fumbles its revenge narrative. For @use-theforce-em.bsky.social, it's a bad sign for the DCU:

Had to stop somewhere on this one, which means that I didn't even get into how it feeds conspiracy mindset in a very bad way...

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Disclosure Day aims for "that good ol’ Spielbergian wonder and awe," but even Josh O' Connor can't save a shaky core and unsubtle ending. For @use-theforce-em.bsky.social, it's the wrong movie for the moment:

Do you like puppets and slapstick and alien politicking and do not need Star Wars to showcase either a) Jedi or b) excessive space battles? You can fit SO MUCH OF THAT in this baby. *slaps hood repeatedly*

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"The Mandalorian and Grogu is not a movie for any old Star Wars fan, or perhaps any old audience. It exists at a weirdo fever dream intersection of specific desires and interests." Hesitant about The Mandalorian and Grogu? @use-theforce-em.bsky.social was too. At first.

Tried to figure out why I walked out of the theater feeling such a profound sense of relief, and then I realized: I hadn't had to think about what a male character thought or how he might react for two whole hours. Maybe you could use that experience, too.

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"Mother Mary offers something that might feel far more precious to over half the population of the world: The chance to exist in a place where the thoughts and opinions of men are never once entertained, centered, or even acknowledged." @use-theforce-em.bsky.social reviews David Lowery's latest film

Nathan Tavares is here for everyone enraged over New Sunnydale never seeing the light of day.

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 4mo ago

"Boring for a man to decide to pull the plug on the show that, at its heart, has always been about challenging power." In the wake of Buffy: New Sunnydale's controversial cancellation, Nathan Tavares looks back at another time when Buffy was powerless:

What if "bravery" as the sole important attribute to enacting positive change is a scam, actually.

Project Hail Mary Knows What Makes Humans Special — And It’s Not Heroism - Reactor

Bravery and self-sacrifice are often tied to stories of heroism — but what if there's a better alternative?

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The problem isn't that the Federation has a War College, the problem is that the existence of a war college seems to skate right over the military aspects inherent in Starfleet from go, and I reeaally hope that they deal with that. reactormag.com/the-united-f...

The United Federation of Planets Has a War College Now — Are We Gonna Talk About It? - Reactor

Are we acknowledging Starfleet's hierarchical makeup here, or attempting to cover it up?

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the demon looked so much like the electricity monster in the Are You Afraid of the Dark? computer game that haunted me as a child

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 5mo ago

It's 1987, everything is black and white, and Conor Marsh needs to save his dog from a video game. @use-theforce-em.bsky.social reviews the uncanny science fiction film OBEX. It's time to touch grass.

And I scream from the top of my lungs "uh... brain attack"?

The Bride! Can’t Decide Which Revolution It Wants to Power - Reactor

In the words of its eponymous character… I would prefer not to.

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For the Valentine's Day crowd! "You’re here, you’re queer—and it’s good for you, actually."

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 6mo ago

"But I think one reason why Heated Rivalry has hooked so many of us is that Shane and Ilya’s romance insists that queer desire and love belong at the heart of the world, not on the margins. It gets you where you live." Author @oliviawaite.com on how #HeatedRivalry presents queer life as thriving:

Sometimes you need a break - why not laugh about the end of the world for a couple hours, instead of swimming in dread?

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die Has a Unique Take on Time Loop Stories - Reactor

Let's go ham on the apocalypse, with glitter and kittens.

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Businesses think they can make jokes at their own "expense," but they can't. Not when they're holding the red veto pen.

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Disney wants you to know they're not a regular mega-conglomerate. They're a "cool" mega-conglomerate, and they'll let Josh Gad curse in Wonder Man to prove it: #WonderMan #Marvel

Next up this January, an important look at intersectional identity, patriarchy, and The Hockey Show...

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 6mo ago

"Come for the butts, stay for the exploration of queer Asian identity." Kevin Ng studies how Heated Rivalry navigates Shane Hollander's overlapping identities within the hypermasculine hockey world: #HeatedRivalry

I really hope you read this one. Indrapramit Das pulls it all together in a way that will help your brain flip that switch you've been scrabbling for.

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 7mo ago

@indrapramitdas.bsky.social, author of The Devourers, reflects on Pluribus, the transformation–of people, countries, art–without consent, and why we hate the hivemind just as much as Carol:

Many thanks to @use-theforce-em.bsky.social & @reactorsff.bsky.social for taking this piece. It's been a while since I've dug into some juicy critical writing, & it felt good (eager to do more). Heads-up that this contains spoilers for s1 of PLURIBUS (which I liked very much, to be clear).

Indrapramit Das@indrapramitdas.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I found the ep in PLURIBUS where Carol--white, American--meets 5 non-white, non-American survivors of the hivemind off-putting, but in a way that made me curious to see where Gilligan was going. Now that I have, I wrote about how empire, privilege, genAI, & resistance converge in the show's subtext:

Please watch Dust Bunny and talk to me about fighting for connection and belonging k thanks

A Family of Monsters: On Dust Bunny and Fighting for the Love We Deserve - Reactor

Okay, the monster IS a metaphor. Just not the one you think.

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Look, I made a joke about it before, but I'm back with receipts this time, and my logic is unassailable...

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 8mo ago

What if The Muppets Christmas Carol is about something else:

Between this and Legend of Ochi this year, the tiny child I used to be feels very seen and loved. (This is my favorite movie of the year, though. Find a theater, Pushing Daisies crowd.)

Dust Bunny Will Have You Demanding That Bryan Fuller Make More Movies - Reactor

Monsters-as-metaphor is a tactic Fuller knows all too well — and he will not be playing by “the rules.”

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I'm just asking questions! (pretty sure it's true, though)

Are the Fantastic Four Leading a Planet-Wide Cult in Their Universe? - Reactor

Sorry, they let Sue Storm do what?

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This one hurt. (Maybe just watch the first and final ten minutes?)

Fantastic Four: First Steps Seems Intent on Proving That You Can’t Make a Good Fantastic Four Movie - Reactor

Fans hoped that getting folded into the MCU would fix the team’s track record on film. It’s clobbering time?

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Everyone wants to talk about Superman saving the squirrel, or saying I love you 3 months into dating, or holding a dying robot, and I just wanna shake them and shout "And *why* do you like that part??" (This is why.)

We Don't Love Superman Because He'll Save Us - Reactor

Superman gives audiences hope — but not as a straightforward savior narrative.

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The Vulcan underground depilation community must be *wild*. Wild, I say. Yes, this is the sort of thing I'm thinking about when I watch TV.

Some Thoughts About Spock's Chest Hair - Reactor

Or: We Need to Talk About Vulcan Manscaping on Strange New Worlds

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I don't care if it's overcrowded, give me every superhero story where we skip origins, always.

Superman Cracks a Long-Forgotten Code to Its Central Character - Reactor

The movie is over-stuffed, but who cares when being kind is the new punk rock?

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I know this is a losing battle and yet! I will die on this hill: SIX EPISODES IS NOT A SEASON IT IS A MINISERIES

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Renewed for Fifth and Final Season - Reactor

Captain Pike and his crew will close out with six final episodes.

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The thing I realized as we put these lists together is that, regardless of subject matter or genre, I have 2 main desires: slapstick soulmate shenanigans or *gay ennui* Even the stuff that didn't make the list pretty much always hit those two categories.

Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · last yr.

EMMET HIVE (@use-theforce-em.bsky.social)

Anywho, here are all my Andor recaps in one place:

Those last twenty seconds nearly ruined the entire show for me. I'm going to pretend they never happened.

Andor’s Participation in One Tired Trope Is Uniquely Infuriating - Reactor

Those final shots really pull the rug out from under the whole thing.

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