Posted on June 18, 2013 | |
Film casting
Trailers
- Trailer for Killing Season with Robert De Niro and John Travolta
Comics
- Wonder Woman gets a second title for the first time in 61 years
UK TV
US TV
New US TV shows
New US TV show casting
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Posted on June 11, 2013 | |
So normally, around this time, I'd review the latest DC comics that feature Wonder Woman. These usually include Wonder Woman and Justice League, and what with the new super-romance, Superman, as well as various other miscellaneous titles.
Now, reviewing them takes up much more time than it used to and with DC's schedule all over the place, trying to recap them all each month has become harder and harder, particularly since my own work schedule has been all over the place and incompatible with DC's.
More than that, my heart's not really in it. The comics are largely fine (although problematic at times, particularly Injustice: Gods Among Us), but I'm just not loving them anymore and some egregious things have been done since the start of the new 52. So I've decided today that I'm going to stop reviewing them. I'll keep reading them, though, and I might return at some point to reviewing them, since the web stats say this is actually one of the most popular features of the blog.
So let me know if you'd like me to continue, let me know below and if enough people ask, I'll get back to reviewing them. If no one's interested, then TTFN WW.
Ta,
Rob
Posted on May 10, 2013 | |
This entry is one of a series of articles covering religions depicted on TV as being true. For full details and a list of the other religions covered, go to the introduction.
Hellenism
The Greek pagan religion featuring Zeus and the other Olympians isn't quite a dead religion, but it's close. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most influential, dominating Western literature, film and TV to a far greater extent than those in a far healthier state, such as Hinduism. As well as adaptations of Greek tragedies on TV, there have been many adaptations of many Greek myths and the gods have shown up in shows set in the modern day as well as the past. Atlantis, which is currently being made by BBC1, would appear to feature elements of Hellenic religion as well as the Minoan religion of Crete.
Religio Romana
Again, another religion that's not quite dead and still gets featured occasionally in TV shows. A syncretism of native Italian religion and Hellenism, Religio Romana and its literature dominated Western understanding of Hellenism and myths until the 14th century, when an understanding of Greek and Greek literature became to permeate through after the fall of Constantinople. It wasn't until the late 19th and 20th centuries, in fact, that academics realised the two were separate, yet in the last century or so, despite the occasional blurring (e.g. Hercules/Heracles, Wonder Woman's Ares/Mars, etc), Hellenistic literature and Hellenism have now almost totally replaced Religio Romana in the public consciousness.
There are no Roman gods in modern-day TV shows, as far as I'm aware; no adaptation of The Aeneid or the Metamorphoses of Ovid. However, people are far more interested in period dramas set in Roman times than in classical Athens (Athens' misogyny might be responsible for that) or Sparta (everyone exercising naked in olive oil outdoors?), perhaps also because of the Roman empire's continuing influence on everything from architecture to politics to this very day.
However, one of the differences between Roman and Greek religions is that the Roman emperors became gods on their death, so technically any show that depicts a Roman emperor technically is showing a possible future Roman god. How many shows have followed through on that?
Continue reading "Your handy guide to true religions on TV - Hellenism and Religio Romana"
