Manic Expression

Hello and welcome to Fanfic Subgenres, where I take a look at subgenres of fan fiction, and then find examples of those same subgenres in professionally-produced works.

One of the most despised genres of fan fiction is the Real Person Fic. It's pretty much Exactly What It Says On The Tin. It's a fictional work involving a real person.

Most of the real people involved in Real Person Fics are celebrities of some sort, be they actors, singers, politicians, o...

Hello and welcome to Fanfic Subgenres, where I discuss subgenres of fan fiction, and how those genres also apply to works by professionals.

This time, I'll discuss the 'song inspired fic'. Song-inspired fics are fics inspired by songs. Often at times, they are fanfics involving the group that did the song, though sometimes they are fanfics featuring characters from television, movies, and so on that are appearing in a story whose events or themes are in line with the lyrics...

Has it really been over a year since I posted my first blog entry on Manic Expression? My, how time flies.

Anyway, I'd like to revisit the subject of my first blog entry, the Star Wars Special Edition changes to the confrontration between Han Solo and Greedo the bounty hunter. If you'd like to read that entry again, feel free to read my d...

Welcome to Why It Just Doesn't Work (WIJDW) where I analyze scenes from movies, comic books, and other entertainments and explain why they are illogical, out of place, and/or just ... don't work.

This column is a bit different. Rather than focusing on just one movie in particular, I'm going to be focusing on the cinematic adaptations of Dr. Seuss' classic books.

Dr. Seuss was one of the most brilliant writers of children's literature ever, producing seve...

Welcome to another installment of Fanfic Subgenres, where I discuss certain subgenres or elements of fan fiction, and then discuss professionally-produced works where those elements also apply.

In honor of Valentines' Day, I'll discuss 'shipping' in fan fiction.

In fanfic and fandom terms, 'ship' refers not to boats at sea or even spaceships, but to 'relationships'. In particular, it refers to romantic relationships between characters in a franchise that ...

It's official. The Nostalgia Critic is officially returning to reviewing.

The announcement came during a special presentation where Doug Walker (as the writer) speaks with his creation, the Nostalgia Critic after weighing the pros and cons of bringing the Nostalgia Critic back.

As someone who defended Doug Walker's decision to r...

Okay, a few weeks ago, I listed the song 'Santa Claus is Comin' To Town' as number one on my list of disturbing and inescapable Christmas songs that the Nostalgia Chick overlooked for some reason. But now, let me talk about the Rankin Bass stop-animation special inspired by it.

Coming off the success of the ever-popular Rudolph the Red Nosed-Reindeer special, this special gives us an origin story for a holiday icon who's been around a lot longer than Rudolph. Namel...

A few years ago, Lindsay Ellis, aka the Nostalgia Chick, released a video where she gave her picks for the top 10 Most Disturbing and Inescapable Christmas Songs.  Her criteria for this were that the songs had to be songs that one can't avoid hearing if they have the radio on for any length of time or do any Christmas shopping, and that they also are in some ways disturbing when you think about them. In many cases, it's the subtext that's disturbing.

Of course, s...

Hello and welcome to another installment of Why It Just Doesn't Work (WIJDW). Here, I analyze scenes and elements of movies, comic books, and other entertainments and explain why they are illogical, nonsensical, and/or otherwise just ... don't work.

This time, I'll be discussing the 2006 movie Stranger Than Fiction. In particular, I'll be discussing a certain part of it that threw me out of the story, so to speak.

The film concerns Harold Crick (...

Well, Halloween is here. And I thought I at least had to write something about Halloween.

But what to write? Do I write a text review of a Halloween classic movie or special? Or do I write about my thoughts about Halloween itself? In the end, I decided to go with the latter.

Halloween is a very odd holiday. It's where people dress up in costumes and, if they're kids, go to knock on people's doors and say 'trick or treat', expecting candy in return. If the...

If you followed the blog section on TGWTG last year, you might remember a collaboration between James Daniel Walsh and James Bevan titled 'Accepting Change'. There, they discussed James Rolfe putting his most popular creation, the Angry Video Game Nerd, into semi-retirement. Over a year later, another beloved Internet personality is doing something similiar, so I thought I'd ask James Daniel Walsh to join in on a similiar discussion.

I think I'll start off by once again quo...

Welcome back to my countdown of the Top Six WTH Moments in Bad Fanfic. Here, I will give my top six picks of some of the craziest moments in bad fanfiction.

If you haven't read the first part, click on this sentence.

Last time, we covered three notoriously bad fanfics, and three moments that were incredibly weird even in context...

If you've read a large amount of fan fiction, or are a regular viewer of the Fanfic Critic, then you know there's a LOT of bad fanfics out there. There are fanfics that write characters horribly out of character, fanfics that are nothing but self-indulgent tripe, fanfics that have horrible spelling and grammar, and fanfics that leave one wondering just what the hell the author was thinking when he/she wrote it.

However, there are also individual moments within ...

Okay, I'll be honest. I'm not all that fond of the anthology series 1000 Ways To Die. It's okay in small doses, or if I'm really bored and am looking for anything on TV. But  there's only so much of its darkly comedic and gruesome approach that I can stand.

Mind you, the stories are mostly fictitious. Many of them are based on urban legends rather than real deaths. Sometimes they are based on real deaths but the people they ...

Welcome to another installment of Why It Just Doesn't Work (WIJDW). Here, I take a look at scenes and elements from various media and discuss why they are illogical, nonsensical, or otherwise just don't work.

This will be another column inspired by DC Comics' recent 'New 52' reboot and the fallout. For those unaware, this past year DC Comics decided to do a continuity-wide reboot of all their titles. This means that just as Christopher Nolan did with the Batman movies, they...

This is my thirteenth blog entry. Perhaps this will be unlucky for me, because I am about to write about a very controversial subject.

      I'm talking about gay characters in fiction, and who should be allowed to 'out' them as gay.

      With homosexuality gaining mainstream acceptance in the past twenty years, there has been an increase in the number of gay characters in fiction. Some may be established...

Welcome to the second of my series of articles I call 'Fanfic Subgenres'. Here, I discuss certain subgenres of fanfiction, and how certain professionally-produced media can sometimes fall into the same categories.

While my first installment dealt with crossover and 'fusion' fics, this one will discuss the 'fix fic'. What is a fix fic, you may ask?

A 'fix fic' is when a fanfiction author takes a certain part of a series (be it a TV series, comic books, a s...

Those who are regular viewers of the Nostagia Critic, the Nostalgia Chick, and Obscurus Lupa are well-acquainted with the two terms I'm discussing here. For those who aren't, I'll try to sum them up.

First off, there's Pointless Padding Scene Time, a term coined by Allison Pregler aka Obscurus Lupa. It's pretty much Exactly What It Says On The Tin. It's a scene in a film that serves no real purpose other than padding out the length of a film. It messes with the pacing and i...

Hello and welcome to WIJDW (Why It Just Doesn't Work). Here I analyze scenes from various movies and other entertainments and discuss why they are illogical, nonsensical, and/or just ... don't work.

Today, I'll discuss the 1988 classic film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. What's not to like about this film? It's where hard-drinking detective Eddie Valiant has to reluctantly team up with a cartoon (or Toon) rabbit to clear the rabbit's name after said r...

After seeing Episode 170 of Fanfic Critic, 'In A Galaxy Far Far Away', I thought I'd post this column discussing two types of fan fiction (and other types of fiction) that are often confused, but are definately different from each other. And I'll give some examples of where they occur outside of fan fiction.

First off, there's the crossover fic. This is where characters from one fictional world's universe meet characters from another fictional world's universe. For example,...