Where Eagles Dare (1968)

World War Two rages. The Nazis and their pals have conquered Europe and have made inroads into Russia. The Allies are finalizing their plans to invade France and begin pushing the bullies back where they belong… and then the unthinkable happens.

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Marvel’s Agent Carter: We Know Our Value

Many have lauded marvel’s short-lived TV show ‘Agent Carter’ as a triumph for modern feminism (especially because of how the show deals with office politics – Peggy Carter versus the men of the SSR). And while there are more than a few feminist touches throughout the show, I think people who interpret ‘Agent Carter’ merely as a vehicle for feminism are missing the bigger picture.

Paul Milner: The Everyday Sleuth

Although Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle is most the center of this drama (with his name in the title, seems only fair, haha), and comes up with the final piece needed to solve every case, for this article I wanted to focus on another member of the main detective trio as he appeared through Seasons 1-5, Detective Sergeant Paul Milner.

Arriving in Paradise

Okay, let’s be honest with each other. It’s mid-February and winter is dragging its feet and the snowy blues seem like they will NEVER LEAVE! You look out the window and its 14 degrees out and grey and yucky and summer feels like it will never brighten the skies again. Yikes! So humans do the next logical thing. We fantasize about a nice tropical getaway, a paradise with shimmering blue-green water, palm trees, eighty-five degree breezes and a chilled, sparkling glass of murder. Wait, what? That last bit doesn’t fit? Oh, but what if you’re a sleuth, keen on solving mysteries, including that most morbid of its kind: murder? Or better yet, what if that’s your job!

Time for Love: Lucy/Wyatt/Jessica on Timeless

Familiar to any regular television watcher (or any YA novel reader), the love triangle trope has a long history and will probably never go away. Few use it well, however. The device itself lends to drama, so often that becomes the purpose of the storyline instead of furthering the relationships and character development. Timeless is a recent example of a love triangle done well on television. The Lucy/Wyatt/Jessica plotline is that rare thing—a love triangle well-executed for a vast majority of its screen time.

Collapsing a Triangle

I’ll be honest. I took way too long to settle on a topic for this issue, “Love Triangles.”

I sat and stared at my blank computer screen, racking my brains for something—anything!—yet coming up empty. Finally, I complained to a dear friend (and fellow Femnista writer). “Where have all the good love triangles gone? Why, oh why, can’t I think of one?”

Her response was immediate: “Sense and Sensibility! Your favorite Austen story!”

And lo, out of darkness, there appeared a great light… in my brain, that is. “Oh.”

A Siren Call: Love in The Pirates of the Caribbean

Have you ever wondered why a heroine makes the romantic choice she does, because you would have chosen someone else? That difference of opinion has often happened to me over the years, but never more than in the first Pirates of the Caribbean. Seated in the theater, my hands in a popcorn bucket and eyeballs glued to the screen, I knew if I had been lucky enough to be in Elizabeth’s shoes, I would have picked not the dashing and romantic Will Turner, but the witty and reliable James Norrington!

For the Love of a Musketeer

The BBC’s take on this classic work of fiction by Alexandre Dumas captivated me almost from the start with its gorgeous cinematography and costumes, historical time period, and strong bonds of brotherhood that make for interactions both poignant and hilarious. Most importantly for this article, however, are the abundance of romances it gives audiences to fall in love with, all of them playing out in the form of triangles. Divided into three distinct types, the showrunners cleverly wove each one into the fabric of the show.

Nonsensical Geometry: The Two Love Triangles of Jane Eyre

The central romance in Jane Eyre resolves happily. (Do I need to mark that as a spoiler? Surely not! Surely, if you haven’t read Charlotte Bronte’s triumph of a novel by this time, you’ve at least watched a movie version?) Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre overcome every obstacle, including those within themselves, to meet as equals at last in the eyes of all, marry, produce offspring, and live happily ever after. Good for them.

What Are Little Boys Made Of?

One reading subject dominated my growing-up period–The Hardy Boys. Most little girls I knew were reading either Nancy Drew, which I get because my mother is a huge fan even today, or Goosebumps, which was not up my alley. No, my passion was to be one Frank and Joe’s “chums,” off on crazy and reckless adventures with them.