Review: Captives #2

July 19, 2017

By Ben Boruff

For nearly a decade, a friend and I have been working our way through Smallville, The CW's melodrama starring Tom Welling as a hormonal, somewhat simpleminded Clark Kent. My friend and I live hours apart, but we find time every few months to meet somewhere and watch a couple episodes. (We recently finished the ninth season, and I am very excited to start the final season soon.) It has been a rocky journey. We had to endure the infuriating awkwardness of teenage Clark; the inclusion of one-shot villains like Alicia Baker, a lovestruck high schooler who surprises young Clark with both kryptonite and sex; and, more recently, the inability of the show's writers to reconcile their desire to highlight Lois Lane's confidence and their knee-jerk assumption that every season needs a Damsel in Distress.We watch Smallville because we appreciate the fun absurdity of melodrama, and I recommend Captives for the same reason.

Review: Captives #1

May 31, 2017

By Ben Boruff

In its eighth season, How I Met Your Mother introduced the world to The Dobler-Dahmer Theory. This theory proposes that, in the context of a potential relationship, "If both people are into each other, a big romantic gesture works, like Lloyd Dobler holding up the boombox outside Diane Court's window in Say Anything..., but if one person isn't into the other, the same gesture comes off serial-killer crazy, or Dahmer." Alexander Banchitta tests this theory, perhaps unintentionally, in Captives, his Rapunzel-esque medieval fantasy comic about a pretty girl in a tower and the host of sexually frustrated men who attempt to save her.