TV and Streaming

Six Damn Fine Degrees #241: Start-up drama in Tang Dynasty China

MelanieLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

From brotherhood to sisterhood: The Chinese costume drama Flourished Peony (2025) is at its heart a female empowerment story. It was one of the top dramas in China aired this year, featuring Yang Zi and Li Xian, the power couple who earned their first roaring success in 2019 with the crowd-pleaser Go, Go Squid.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: One for all, and all for one

MattLeave a comment

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

Is Wes Anderson basically making the same film over and over again, with minor variations in plot, while the style, tone, cast and crew stay the same? Matt confessed this week that he sometimes thinks this is true when watching the trailers for new films by the director – but once he’s watching the actual films, it’s obvious that there is much more to Anderson than a highly recognisable style.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Grab a slice and enjoy

Matt3 Comments

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

In this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees: more books (Melanie wrote about making her way through Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga), so even less of an opportunity to post a fitting trailer! So, if it’s not too much of an insult to fans of the saga, here’s a trailer for the third season of a different sci-fi saga: Apple TV’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. Obviously we need more adaptations of long-form sci-fi!

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: This post will self-destruct in five seconds (under the sheer weight of trailers)

MattLeave a comment

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

The novels of Thomas Hardy – in particular his last two, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure – are the supreme downers, making you feel for their protagonists and then follow them on their descent into the kind of tragedy that would have made Antigone, Electra and Medea wince. And yet: these are beautifully written books, filled with sadness and anger at a society that chooses cruel judgment over mercy and empathy. Check out this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees to find out why these books have proven to be so enduring for Matt.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: If Tom Cruise is 62 years old, how old does that make me?

MattLeave a comment

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

Being a parent isn’t just about introducing your kids to all the books, films and series you loved when you were their age: in this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees, Melanie wrote about the weird and wonderful shows her (by now 14-year-old) daughter has introduced her.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #231: Things my daughter showed me because they’re really cool

MelanieLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

One of the best things about being a parent and a nerd is that you get to raise another little nerd. You get to shape their taste in series, movies, and books; to point out the amazing parts and the dubious ones. You get to say, “Come here, kid, I want to show you something, it’s really cool!”

And eventually, the moment arrives where they come running and say, “Mama, I want to show you something!”

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Galactus ate my baby!

MattLeave a comment

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

This week, Alan risked the wrath from villagers and… older powers in order to bring us a Six Damn Fine Degrees post about folk horror, touching on recent movies Starve Acre, Fréwaka and I Saw the TV Glow.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #230: Modern Folk Horror

Alan Kuhl GrahamLeave a comment

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

A world away from the urban landscape and its City Lights lies the genre of Folk Horror. But what is “folk horror”? One of the trickiest aspects of a discussion about any film genre is to pin down a good definition. I do rather like what Wikipedia succinctly offers on this score at the start of their entry on the subject:

“Folk horror is a subgenre of horror film and horror fiction that uses elements of folklore to invoke fear and foreboding.”

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Domo arigato, Mr Roboto

MattLeave a comment

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

This week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees was the kind of post that wouldn’t even need a byline: it’s immediately clear that this post about Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights is one of Julie’s.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: No S*#!, lots of Sherlocks

MattLeave a comment

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

This week, we released the latest Six Damn Fine Degrees post by Melanie – which veers away from her more recent takes on South Korean television and takes us all the way to Tarkovsky’s Zone. Stalker is a classic – but not everyone is a huge fan of his particular brand of damp, elliptic existentialism.

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