Around The Twist

Yes, Kevin, you are a directing trainwreck. Just a heads up: this is major spoiler territory for the latest episode of Riverdale . This was a musical special. 'Special' is a term I use loosely. Frankly, I don’t even know what I’ve just watched. Riverdale used to be a murder mystery/high school drama hybrid, did it not? Who killed Jason Blossom was the storyline, and there was enough cheerleading and who’s dating who to keep it at least attached to a genre. So why have they gone in the most absurd direction ever by having a musical episode? And who took Stephen King’s Carrie and decided to make it into a musical, let alone with horrible songs and embarrassing dance routines? WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA? This episode, aptly titled ‘A Night to Remember’, had so many head-scratching moments that I genuinely don’t know where to begin. I don’t know the source material as well as I’d like to, but naturally Veronica was playing Chris, the bully, singing about how ...

To Beatrice, When I was a kid, I loved Lemony Snicket’s novels A Series of Unfortunate Events . I loved them so much, in fact, that I have a tattoo of an eye on my left ankle (sorry mum and dad) just like Count Olaf. The whimsical nature of the books, the child-friendly take on the gothic genre, the steampunk fun, the blend of sinister and silly, even the names of the characters – Bertrand Baudelaire and Quigley Quagmire being my personal favourites – made for enjoyable, intriguing reading. I enjoyed trying to solve the mysteries of each book, and being blown away when I usually came to the wrong conclusion (I was seven, ok, leave me alone) even though the plot had been planned so intricately. I very much enjoyed the 2004 film adaptation, A Series of Unfortunate Events , but I longed to see more; the latter ten books of the franchise never made it to the big screen. So, as you can imagine, I was practically frothing at the mouth when Netflix announced they were making a television s...