The A.V.  Club on LBD – “Although the basic structure and format of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is what garnered it media attention and critical acclaim, ultimately its stories are what connected with audiences. Without them, this would have just been an experiment.” RT

David R at Unreality wrote a long article encapsulating exactly the problem with Sherlock, Doctor Who, and Moffat’s writing. “More than anything, this season just felt like one long bit of fanservice. I mean that both in the minor sense — like the recurring gags about phrases to put on a t-shirt — as well as in larger story beats. I’ve never seen a moment more desperate to be put on tumblr than that bit in “Sign of Three” when Sherlock, for no reason and completely out of character, decides to prance about in a bearskin hat. That wasn’t Sherlock, it was Doctor Who.” RT

Russell Brand wrote a startingly articulate and powerful article based on his own history of drug abuse for The Guardian a while back. “The mentality and behaviour of drug addicts and alcoholics is wholly irrational until you understand that they are completely powerless over their addiction and unless they have structured help they have no hope… I look to drugs and booze to fill up a hole in me; unchecked, the call of the wild is too strong” RT

Dustin Rowles writes brilliant pop commentary blended with real life, as usual. “But where Shameless especially gets it right is not in the setting, or even the circumstances, but in the way that bad luck seems to follow you everywhere you go when you’re poor. You’re doubly fucked, not just because you’re without money, but because being poor puts you in circumstances in which it’s almost impossible to succeed. If you finally get a job that pays above minimum wage, for instance, it’s almost guaranteed that your car will break down the next day, and you’ll lose that job because you can’t get there on time. When you’re asked to look presentable for an interview, or a school function, that’s sure to be the day that your sewer line leaks into the water line, and both your bathtub and your shitty washing machine will fill up with sewage. It’s practically inevitable.” RT

Tagged: Doctor Who, drug abuse, drug addicts, Dustin Rowles, fandom, fanservice, good reads, help for drug addiction, Philip Seymour Hoffman, pop criticism, pop culture writing, poverty in television, Shameless tv, Sherlock, Steven Moffat, storytelling, the lizzie bennet diaries