Television in General

  Daemon Targaryen, our titular "Rogue Prince," does not feature as centrally in this episode as I had expected. Instead, he lurks at the edges of the plot, informing (explicitly and implicitly) the actions of others - actions meant to secure power, lineage, and dragon eggs. We only actually see Daemon in three scenes, in which he is confronted by A) Otto and Rhaenyra  over a stolen egg (as the potential war of succession heats up); B) his mistress, Mysaria (and interesting decisions about performed accents); and C) Corlys Valeryon, with promises of alliances, battles, and boats. Daemon has made decisions that drive the episode's action - decisions like claiming Dragonstone, knowing that the realm may not accept a female heir - but he is only shown to us as he reacts to the consequences of his off-screen antics, ultimately losing the egg he stole so as to avoid dragon-on-dragon warfare (and for the sake of his affection for his niece, a nice reminder that he isn't a ...

  In 2013, I bought a large glass stein etched with House Targaryen's sigil, the three-headed dragon. Season 3 of Game of Thrones had just aired, my fandom was at its peak, and I wanted to augment my collection of nerdy mugs and glassware at the annual anime convention. There were a lot of GoT-specific options that year, including Direwolves and Krakens, but I settled on the Targaryen sigil since Daenerys was one of my favourite characters and also dragons are real cool.  Flashforward to 2019: Like many Game of Thrones fans, I thought S8 was a narrative disaster. The story beats and character arcs felt more like a bulleted list than an actual story. But what surprised me most about my disappointment was how much it soured me on the show overall. I continue to love and rewatch other shows with bad endings (Battlestar Galactica), and have spent years arguing that a bad ending should not ruin a good journey (this is mostly about how some audiences responded to LOST; I adore the L...

I'm excited to announced that I finally had the opportunity to publish a peer-reviewed article about scripted TV, a real career highlight! A lot of my work over the past decade has looked at disability in news media. Writing about TV like this is the culmination of everything I've ever wanted to do in academic spaces and beyond. The whole special issue,  Autism_Media_Social Justice , is  amazing and well worth your time. This piece was co-authored with my colleagues Kelly Harding and M. Ariel Cascio. You can read the full open access article here:  https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/article/view/2702 Abstract: "Media reflect and affect social understandings, beliefs, and values on many topics, including the lives of autistic and disabled people. Media analysis has garnered attention in the field of disability studies, which some scholars and activists consider a promising approach to discussing the experiences of – and for promoting social justice for – auti...