​The geek world felt a disturbance in the force earlier this week as filmmaker and pop-culture icon Kevin Smith suffered a heart attack following the recording of his debut stand-up special. Luckily, the Director and Comic Book Man came through the experience relatively unscathed, allowing fans to breathe a sigh of relief that Jay wasn’t prematurely torn away from his hetero life mate Silent Bob. It also inspired a great opportunity of reflection on Smith’s lengthy, varied career and the unrivalled influence he’s had on the movie world. A lot is written about Smith and his work but people often forget that…

​It feels like anyone with an iPhone can make a movie today, mainly because, well, they can. However back in the early 90s, making a fully fledged feature film was a bit harder than whipping out your smartphone and hitting record. In 1993, Smith had to take out (and max out) eight to ten credit cards and sell his extensive comic book collection just to scrape together the modest $28,000 needed to bankroll his debut film Clerks. Shooting nights in the convenience store that he actually worked in certainly helped keep costs down however the whole experience wasn’t cheap or any guarantee of success. Without a back-up plan in place, Smith took a huge financial - and personal - risk bringing Clerks to the screen but if he hadn’t have done, that 90’s new wave indie-scene may never have happened at all. 

Style over substance may have first been introduced by 60s French New Wave films but it didn’t really hit mainstream American audiences until the mid 90s. Quentin Tarantino often receives the lion’s share of praise for revolutionising the ways in which dialogue can be bent, twisted and colloquialized in order to shift a narrative forward but Smith was doing this too in his own equally foul-mouthed way. For every award-winning 'walk through the shadow of darkness’ speech and shoegazey ‘I don’t believe in tipping’ chatter ala Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, you’ll find just as many (if not more) meta-speeches in Smith’s work. From pondering the manual labour-casualties involved in blowing up the Death Star, to the heartbreaking reality that Jay and Bob won’t get to live like fat cats selling dope in the fictional Shermer, Illinois - Smith may not have won a Palme d'Or for his ability to capture the lexicon of everyday speech but it certainly paved the way for others to follow in his footsteps.

It’s hard to imagine a time where a Marvel or DC superhero wasn’t dominating every multiplex, toy store and cereal box and yet back when Smith was starting out, comic book movies were in short supply. Still, that didn’t stop the writer/director and View Askewniverse mastermind from nurturing his passion. In fact, you only have to look as far as his sophomore feature Mallrats - the self-referential celebration of the ink and paper fantasy world we now consider mainstream - to see just how dedicated he was (and still is) to shining a light on the worlds, universes and characters he holds so dear. Critically panned on its release, Mallrats almost derailed Smith’s fledgling career before it had even properly began but cut to 2018 and it feels more relevant than ever. He was even sowing the seeds of a shared-universe long before Marvel Studios suited up. These days Kevin Smith may have the official title of Comic Book Man thanks to the AMC TV show that boasts his name but make no mistake - he earned it. ​

Perhaps the key to Smith’s longevity as a popular presence among film fans is his transparency. Unlike your Steven Spielbergs, JJ Abrams and even his own contemporaries like Richard Linklater, Smith and his work felt more tangible than anything that came before it. From his first Clerks post-screening discussions to his debut (and now legendary) Evening With DVD recordings, Smith not only spoke to his fans through his work on screen but if you were lucky enough, he’d actually show up in your town and chat to you in person. Maybe the most refreshing thing about this process is the fact that he doesn’t just talk but listens too. It’s why Twitter feels like such a natural fit for the Director and his chatty character. Kevin Smith just isn’t content with creating his own brand of popular culture, he wants to join the conversation about the wider picture that’s influenced us all and unlike other filmmakers working today, he wants to know what you thought of it as well.

It’s been a difficult week for Kevin Smith but these are just a few (of many) reasons why we should all be thankful he’s still around. Get well soon, Kev!

What's your favourite Kevin Smith moment? Let me know in the comments section below!

​Awards season. That unapologetically back-slappy period where society’s richest and most privileged come together to reward each other with golden statues. While us ‘normies’ (that’s probably what they call us, right?) don’t get to partake in the fun, that doesn’t mean we come away empty handed. Our gift is getting to see first hand the stream of painfully awkward situations these live ceremonies often birth. Moments like...

​Let’s start with the basics. Watching stars fumble through their acceptance speeches is often a hotbed for awkward award show moments. Not least of all when they start to get played off halfway through their ‘Thank You’’s, ‘I Love You’s’ and ‘Oh God, this is so unexpected’’s. Some throw caution to the wind, refusing to have their moment in the sun cut short. Others meanwhile start to get flustered and decide to power through, increasing their rate of speech to T&C-levels of super-speed and coming across like malfunctioning robots. Family Guy funnyman Seth MacFarlane certainly saw the comedy in this when he hosted the Oscars back in 2013. And you thought swimming with sharks was tense.

Being an awards show host is a thankless job. Try too hard and you get criticized for pushing things Ricky Gervais-levels of too far. Don’t try enough and you get labelled boring, no better than a garden variety James Franco and Anne Hathaway double-act. However regardless of the host, there’s one thing you can rely on: a bit of crowd interaction. This can go either way but it’s always funnier (for us, at least) when the person being discussed totally does not find the host’s comments remotely humorous. At. ALL. Craggy-faced misery guts Tommy Lee Jones is a fine example of this. In his own infamous words to Jim Carrey whilst shooting the (Razzie) award winning Batman Forever, he just cannot condone this kind of buffoonery. 

​What’s that? Some veteran star is being honoured for their services to cinema? Oh, and they're going to accept the award ON STAGE, you say? Like, on live telly? Where absolutely anything can and probably will happen? Well then, that surely won’t be eye-scratchingly painfully viewing for everyone in the world, ever. Almost any time any veteran actor returns to the stage (Bar badass Christopher Lee, that is) to accept an honorary award the preceding spectacle is near-unwatchable. They’re chaperoned out confused, wide-eyed and often running on some sort of 5-minute internal delay, all while a sweaty-palmed hosts stands cautiously nearby to re-steer the car if they see it veering perilously towards the non-PC trees. Please, for the sake of your lasting legacy, stay at home. 

​The grit-teeth awkwardness of award shows isn’t confined to the ceremony stage. Red carpet correspondents (a sort of B-Movie version of a main host, usually Alex Zayne-shaped) stalk the perimeter of the show, ready to pounce on unsuspecting celebs trying to get into the venue. With a camera and microphone thrusted in their face, the interviewee is then quizzed about all manner of boring stuff from clothes, predictions and whatever the hot-topic of the moment happens to be. However the real fun of this awards shows patter is its pure unpredictability. There’s something devilishly moreish about the combination of live telly and pure on-the-spot confusion that can result in some truly weird moments. Like when Paris Hilton’s mate Kimberly Stewart accidentally shot off down the red carpet on the chopper she was inexplicably riding or that time Nick Nolte forgot how to speak at 2012’s Oscars. This pre-show stroll is the gift that keeps on giving.

Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments section below!

It’s been awhile since we left Tony Soprano eating with his family in that diner. Two whole years have passed since Don Draper dreamed up his last big ad campaign at that mountain retreat. In just over a year’s time, Westeros will be through with fighting and the battle for the Iron Throne will be done and dusted. Old news. Over. Kaput. What will we watch then? Will there be anything out there in telly land worthy of taking the place of these epic water cooler shows or has the wave of amazing TV silently crashed into the shore and disappeared without any of us noticing? 

It was shows like these that heralded in television’s golden age just over over a decade ago. In the years that followed, small screen entertainment just got better and better, from gripping hour-long dramas like The Wire and Breaking Bad to smart, quick-hit comedies like 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation. TV quickly established itself as the place to be, often overtaking its big screen counterparts in terms of quality, depth and overall enjoyment. Big name stars flocked to the series format and awards were won.  It was even powerful enough to bring gone-before-their-time shows back from the dead, with avid viewers embracing high-brow programming and demanding more from those who controlled its fate. However while we were all busy binge watching, we stopped paying attention to how long this flip of fortune may last. 

To say that 2017 saw a lot of changes in film and television is a bit of an understatement. Revelations about Harvey Weinstein not only rocked Hollywood but had ripple effects in all corners of show business, including television. Many of the shows that helped redefine what could be done in the format were affected. Kevin Spacey was unceremoniously fired from House of Cards; FX cut all future ties with Louis C.K; Transparent star Jeffrey Tambour hinted at his departure from the award-winning show and Netflix has yet to decide the fate of Aziz Ansari’s Master of None. Similar to how allegations against Brand New front-man Jesse Lacey signalled a time-to-move-on book-end to the emo genre for let down fans, perhaps this whistle blowing marks the end of a golden era for television entertainment. 

Separating the art from the abusers involved in creating it can be a confusing process for all those who related to, and built aspects of their identity around, the shows impacted by recent allegations. For years, the stream of unparalleled and abundant television entertainment seemed too good to be true and as the Weinstein scandal and its fallout continues to unfold, we may have discovered that that's exactly what it was. Maybe this is the right time for television’s golden age to come to a close. As for what comes next? Only time will tell. However it’s safe to say that big changes are certainly on the way. 

What do you think we can expect from television's Silver Age? Let me know in the comments section below!