SMALL SCREEN GIRL
  • Small Screen
  • Big Screen
  • Pop Culture
  • About The Girl
Picture

Entertainment Trends To Leave In 2018

12/30/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
2018 was the year that time stretched long and thick like evil taffy.  Maybe the crumbling of American democracy had some kind of cosmic effect on it, but it felt this year felt like three...and a half. Thankfully, the year was crammed with great television, movies and music.  From Black Panther (yes it was released this year) to HBO's Succession to the return of Christina Aguilera, the entertainment got us through it.  

With that said, Hollywood definitely tried it in too many ways, and here’s hoping they will stay in the endless nightmare-chasm that was 2018.  Here are 8 entertainment trends that should stay in 2018...

Read More
1 Comment

'Black Lightning' Review: It's Lit

1/21/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
When I was a little girl, my mother didn’t buy me clothes with white people on them.  It was her way of making sure I didn't idolize the litany of white characters on television and in books.  I never really noticed until I was older when I was shopping for my niece and was reluctant to the do the same (I literally made her Gryffindor gear with my bare hands.  She raised a proper blerd, don't worry).  As long as I had my Michael Jackson t-shirt or Care Bears nightgown, I was happy. 
 
As I watched Black Lightning from the new CW superhero series and electrocute racist cops that told him to “get his black ass on the ground” and his daughters hold their own against their own personal villain, I felt my inner eight-year-old giggle with glee in a way she rarely had.  Because I saw myself eagerly saving my allowance to buy a Black Lightning shirt instead of my Michael Jackson cards.  Is this why kids love comic books?  Because they get to see themselves and their stories reflected back and heightened by imagination and fantasy?  Because it's so easy to envision themselves as the savior?  

Read More
0 Comments

'Pitch's' Kylie Bunbury Lands Knock-Out New Show

12/15/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
SSGers, did you know that I'm a little bit psychic? It's totally true.

I magically knew that the Hollywood Foreign Press wouldn't nominate Tiffany Haddish for her hilarious, grapefruit-abusing turn in Girls' Trip and would completely ignore Queen Sugar--one of the best shows on television (Word in the street is: they probably don't even watch them). And earlier this week, I was thinking "Why the fork hasn't Kylie Bunbury booked another TV show?"

Ask and you shall receive! (I wish Kim Zolciak-Biermann and her dusty wig would get booted for #RHOA!)

TVLine.com reports that Bunbury, lead in the woefully short-lived Pitch, has drafted to star in the ABC reboot of Get Christie Love.

Read More
0 Comments

Rapid Reviews of 'The Gifted', 'The Rundown with Robin Thede', And More...

10/20/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Every fall, I always make a valiant attempt to watch at least one episode of every new series.  Even with DVR, I usually tap out before mid-October.  While very few pilots piqued by interest this season, even a failed tradition is a tradition.  And since I’m stubborn enough not to learn anything from the past, I’ve also decided to write as many reviews of those shows as possible. 

There are far too many TV shows and so little time,  so here are 6 reviews of new shows in 200 words or less...

Read More
0 Comments

Here's Why An 'Arrow' #BlackLivesMatter Episode Would Never Hit The Mark

9/19/2017

2 Comments

 
Picture
​There are extraordinary hours of television that stick with you because they effect and reflect the very turmoil stirring in your own soul. The second season of Queen Sugar explored the intricately complex subject of police brutality in the black community by following baby-faced Micah West (Nicholas L. Ashe) unlawful arrest and violent mistreatment by a racist police officer.

The plot unspooled in a gut-wrenching study of tragedy, trauma, and catharsis for viewers who are concerned with far more dire things than the amount of their traffic ticket when they are stopped by police. It was far more powerful than broadcast cable's attempts (*side-eyes Chicago PD, Bluebloods and Law & Order: SUV*) because Queen Sugar’s primarily black writers and cast inherently understand the nuance, shame, and fear of existing in a country build on institutionalized racism.  It was a beautiful and intensely haunting reflection of the age-old reflection of the rule to write what you know.
 
And sadly, this is the direct opposite of showrunner Marc Guggenheim's desire to wedge a Black Lives Matter "topical episode" into season 6 of his white-boy-vigilante superhero drama, Arrow.  

Read More
2 Comments

'The Bold Type' Review: Post-Trump Catharsis In A Little Black Dress

8/14/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
When I first saw the trailer for The Bold Type, I could not contain the socket-spraining eyeroll.  For the post-The Sex And The City and The Devil Wears Prada generation, television shows and movies about chic twenty-somethings who move the The Big Apple in search of fabulousness and love at a fashion magazine are about as common as its Tuesday airdate and just as realistic as an airbrushed photo of a supermodel.

I braced myself for faux feminism, the lone minority (Sweet/Vicious' Aisha Dee) to have scraps of a storyline, and lots of pseudo-glam outfits.  

And I have never been more happy to be wrong about everything, including the fashion.  Freeform's The Bold Type is the splashy summer show that lives up to its titular promise by pairing painfully relatable drama with the provocative shot of real female empowerment. 

Read More
0 Comments

Iris West's Superpower is Black Girl Magic

5/1/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
My idle mind is a funny place.  It may look like I'm working or normal or even sane, but most of the time, I'm thinking about really weird things, like what my life would be like as a superhero.  Though I would have to figure out ways to get rich before I'd forfeit my TGIT for saving lives, I often imagine how much easier my life would be if I could throw lightning or take a leisurely super-sonic jog to a gloriously Cheeto-free Earth (On Earth-2 Beyonce is a senator!) like The Flash's Barry Allen.
​
​But Iris West, one of the only members of Team Flash who isn't a meta-human, is forever proving that black girls have a power all their own: black girl magic.

Read More
1 Comment

'13 Reasons Why' Review: A Haunting Cautionary Tale

4/10/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
I will forever loathe Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson for patenting that hyper-intelligent super-polished manner in which teenagers in all high school dramas now speak, especially when I can only pry a few words out of my incredibly intelligent niece.
 
It's one of the very few downsides of 13 Reasons Why, Netflix's latest and possibly best series since House Of Cards.  Based on the novel by Jay Asher, 13 follows Clay Jensen's discovery of cassette tapes his friend Hannah recorded before her suicide dictating the reasons why she decided to take her own life.  It is a haunting cautionary tale about teen suicide, bullying and a rightfully scathing commentary about society as a whole.  ​
 
Overwrought dialogue aside, 13 is an unflinchingly powerful, beautifully written and expertly acted glimpse at the emotional rigors of high school life in the age of Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter--something executive producer Selena Gomez knows more than a little about.  In these times, when compassion seems to be nearing global extinction, 13 Reasons Why is should be assigned homework for everyone, parents and kids alike.

Read More
0 Comments

8 of Television's Most Badass Women 

3/8/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
Women are badasses.  If you don't believe me, turn on your nearest television, if you don't find Congressman Maxine Waters dragging Captain Cheeto with finesse that makes even the Atlanta Housewives jealous, you'll find others organizing protests, saving lives and handling all the things. 

Television is filled with nasty women, kicking ass in their own special ways.  On International Women's Day, it's an empowering reminder to do the same in whatever way you can.  

Here are 8 nasty women television would be lost without...

Read More
1 Comment

'Married To Medicine's' Dueling Conferences Is Reality TV Gold

2/5/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Thanks to Andy Cohen, Bravo has created some of the most decadent reality TV moments in the genre’s history.  Who can forget the ‘Who Gon' Check me Boo?’ greatness from The Real Housewives of Atlanta, the brutally of the Richards’ sisters limo fight or the ‘Scary Island’ episodes from The Real Housewives of New York that proved that truth is always more terrifying than fiction? 
​
There’s another priceless gem to add to Bravo's treasure trove of entertainment: the dueling marriage conferences on Married To Medicine.  

​
Here's all the tea about how this priceless event came to be...

Read More
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Small Screen Girl

    I am an unabashed pop culture and TV-aholic with no plans to ever seek treatment.  Explore this blog and see just how deep my obsession goes. ​   

    Categories

    All
    Arrow
    Award Shows
    Being Mary Jane
    Black_ish
    Black Lightning
    Bravo!
    Celebrities
    Diversity
    Emmys
    Empire
    Features
    Grey's Anatomy
    Hawaii Five 0
    Hawaii Five-0
    Jane The Virgin
    Marvel
    Minority Report
    Netflix
    News
    Outlander
    Pitch
    Previews
    Quantico
    Queen Sugar
    Real Housewives
    Reality Tv
    Recaps
    Reviews
    RHOA
    RHOBH
    Scandal
    Shades Of Blue
    Shipwrecked
    Shonda Rhimes
    Sleepy Hollow
    Spoilers
    Suits
    Supernatural
    The Bold Type
    The Flash
    The Voice
    This Is Us
    Tv News
    Tv Recaps

    Archives

    June 2021
    August 2019
    July 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Small Screen
  • Big Screen
  • Pop Culture
  • About The Girl