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:
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Writing in Public (Or: Why I’m Doing It This Way)
There was a period in my life when I couldn’t write at all. This serialized novel is, in part, my answer to that. Here’s the longer version.
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Holder Stone — Extended Portrait
She has been alive for a thousand years, and she has spent most of them trying to help. Here is what that costs, and what it has made her.
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The Problem With Gods in Fantasy (And Why Maeve Is Different)
Gods in fantasy fail in one of two ways: too powerful to be interesting, or too human to be divine. Maeve is an attempt at a third option.
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Chapter One: The Gathering
The pale beach outside Port Yuma. Seven Dreamers waking up scattered and hollow, without names or memories — or any idea what they’re capable of.
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Prelude – Holder Stone
For the next hour, Holder thought, I am the only Dreamer in the world. And the only one that can protect the world from us, too.