Friday, April 15 2011
Whedon and Company: Worlds Await
The formal creation of Buffy Studies -- and therefore Whedon Studies -- was born with the creation of the online journal Slayage 10 years ago. Here the coeditor of Slayage, Rhonda V. Wilcox, offers some reflections on our obsessions with the output of a certain TV creator.
Wednesday, April 13 2011
Joss Whedon: Pioneer of the Body Count
Among Joss Whedon's greatest contributions to television has been the continual use of the Body Count, the willingness to kill off recurring characters in order to ratchet up the narrative tension and create a sense of danger.
Tuesday, April 12 2011
The Power of Fandom in the Whedonverse
While viewers watch television and film for entertainment, it's easy to forget that these media are industries. In this essay the changing relationships between creators, studios, distributors, and an increasingly active fandom are examined.
Wednesday, April 6 2011
TV’s Grim Reaper: Why Joss Whedon Continually Kills the Characters We Love
Among Joss Whedon's greatest contributions to television has been the invention of the Body Count, the willingness to kill off recurring characters in order to ratchet up the narrative tension and create a sense of danger. This is the first of two essays examining Joss Whedon as a televisual mass murderer.
Friday, April 1 2011
Nathan Fillion Misbehaves All Across the Whedonverse
Both because of his several roles in Joss Whedon series and because of his extensive interaction with fans, Nathan Fillion has emerged as one of the best-loved actors in the Whedonverse.
Monday, March 28 2011
‘Doctor Horrible’: Lessons from the Musical-Tragi-Comedy-Internet Sensation
Dr. Horrible repeats many of the themes found in Joss Whedon's television series. Here we are reminded of three "lessons" found in other creations.
The Night Billy Buddy Died: Dr. Horrible’s Tragicomic Inversion of Spider-Man
The accidental death of Penny, the girl Billy Buddy aka Dr. Horrible loves, has parallels to the deaths of several comic book deaths, though none so much as the death of Spider-Man's girlfriend Gwen.
Friday, March 25 2011
“What a Crazy Random Happenstance”: Destiny and Free Will in ‘Dr. Horrible’
Among other things, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog provides a meditation on good and evil and the role that choice plays in embracing one or the other.
Joss Whedon 101: “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”
From the moment it first hit the Internet in the summer of 2008, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog received near universal acclaim as one of the web's first great creations. With Whedon proclaiming that his future work will be direct to Internet rather than TV, this could be the shape of Whedon's work to come.
Friday, March 4 2011
Why Cast a Spotlight on Joss Whedon?
PopMatters will, over the next five weeks, publish almost 60 essays and/or interviews on pop cultural icon Joss Whedon. So just what has he done that is worthy of such attention, and why should we care?
