Why is it that American television series tend to have billions of episodes? Take an iconic British series, say, Fawlty Towers: two seasons of six…
CIPC #322: Coffeecompany ad
Not that long ago, I wrote about an advert for a Colombian delivery company. The position depicted there was quite believable, even though it was…
CIPC #321: Chess in literature: the D-quel.
Yes, after the sequel, there is now finally also the d-quel. Yes, I realise how awful that pun is. No, I’m not sorry about it.1…
CIPC #320: Shadow hearts: covenant
Throughout the years, I have discussed quite a few video games son this blog. I have talked about adventure games, strategy games, shooters — but…
CIPC #319: Deprisa ad
Once in a blue moon,1 someone at an advertising agency actually comes up with a decent idea. But the moon has to be a very…
CIPC #318: Midsomer Murders S22 E1, The wolf hunter of Little Worthy
The last time we met inspector Barneby from Midsomer Murders, I barely talked about the series itself and, frankly, I remember nary a thing about…
CIPC #317: Bedazzled
In the early nineties, Harold Ramis was a kind of God of cinematic comedy. He directed Caddyshack, National Lampoon’s vacation, and Groundhog Day, he wrote…
CIPC #316: All in the family S5 E14, Mike’s friend
All in the family is an absolute classic in the ever — but unaccountably — popular sitcom genre of obnoxious people being terrible to each…
CIPC #315: MacGyver S1 E1, Pilot
One of the best ways to see the impact of a particular work on general culture is to look at the traces it left in…
CIPC #314: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Maid of Orleans
One reason I rarely discuss music videos on this blog is that I don’t know of that many which feature chess. Another reason is that…