jacobclifton.com · Criticism
Twenty-five years of paying close attention.
I spent fourteen years at Television Without Pity writing about television in a way that was never really about television. It was about grief, transformation, the cost of paying attention, what it means to love something that will eventually disappoint you. The criticism is still happening — here, on Patreon, and in the WATCHING series.
The WATCHING series
The recaps, grown up.
Each volume takes a body of work — a show, a season, an era — and finds the thing running underneath it. Not a reprint. A remix. These are what the recaps were always actually trying to be.
WATCHING
Gossip Girl
WATCHING
Battlestar Galactica
WATCHING
Pretty Little Liars
WATCHING
True Blood
23+ volumes. New releases ongoing. All at Stag + Birch →
Recent criticism
From the archive:
-
Waking Up Without a Name
Seven immortals wake up on a beach with no memories and no names. The amnesia in Oldie isn’t a plot device. It’s a philosophical question wearing a plot device’s clothes.
-
What the Board Game Left Behind
For about two years, I was absolutely making a board game. Not designing it in the abstract — I was playtesting, building mechanics, producing physical prototypes, doing the whole thing.
-
Queene Death — Extended Portrait
A horse-skull mask. 99 silver bells. The ability to move in absolute silence when it matters. The Dreamer of the Glass cannot be killed. This fact surprises them as much as it surprises anyone.
-
Chapter Two: The Price
In truth, she learned later, the Witches had been on watch for something like them, showing up ragged like this, for a week. Dry Witch soothsayers don’t mess around. Neither does Holder Stone.