jacobclifton.com · Where Were We
Where were we?
It’s what you say when you’ve been away. It’s also the whole job of a recap: here’s where the story stands, here’s what it cost, here’s what it means.
Two kinds of piece live in this column. Recaps and criticism, in the form I learned over fourteen years at Television Without Pity: the episode, then the argument underneath it. And letters, which are what I write when the thing I’ve been watching is my own life.
The latest
Where we are.
The column is just getting started. New pieces will appear here as they’re published.
Two ways in
Recaps + criticism
The episode, then the argument.
Recaps in the old Television Without Pity form, and criticism for the things that don’t come in episodes.
Letters
The other thing I watch.
Personal essays, written as letters: longer, looser, addressed to whoever is reading.
From the archive
Start with these.
Criticism
Yellowjackets Season 1: What the Show Is Actually Doing
The survival horror, the timelines, the girls, and what the show is really about underneath all of it.
Recap
the Nevers: Touched — a Post-TWoP Recap
Episode one, recapped in the old Television Without Pity tradition.
Criticism
Euphoria + Dysphoria
Season one as television event, emotional experience, and argument: what the show wants from you, and whether it earns it.
Criticism
Caprica Six & The Rainmaker of Kiau Tchou
A reader says Battlestar Galactica is all about Caprica Six. What a rewatch of the finished series does to every character’s arc.
Criticism
Maman Fatale: Is Every Noir Woman Some Gay Dude’s Mother?
On Romeo Is Bleeding, Suddenly, Last Summer, Misery, and the devouring woman in film and fiction.
The backstory
Television Without Pity
Fourteen years at Television Without Pity: how it happened, what it meant, and where the work lives now.
Keep up
Follow the column.
At least five pieces a month, a mix of the personal and the critical. That’s the promise, and it lives on Patreon. Prefer email? The Wild Magic newsletter sends dispatches when there’s something worth saying.