Some Thoughts On REX (No, Not Oedipus)

This week, I finally caught up on REX, a webseries based on the story of King Aurthur. And I have some thoughts.

1. What's with the title? REX? Am I missing something? Most lit-adaption shows have titles that are a play on the title of the work, or include the name of a main character, or something that indicates what story it's from. The Lizzie Bennett Diaries was Pride and Prejudice, with the main character Elizabeth Bennett. The Autobiography of Jane Eyre was Jane Eyre. From Mansfield With Love was Mansfield Park. This breaks the code. To me, REX is short for Oedipus Rex. I keep forgetting that no one is about to kill their father and marry their mother.

2. I'm not feeling drawn in. The thing about webseries is that the best ones feel authentic, like these are real people who genuinely have a reason to turn on a camera and talk to it. This does not have that feeling. It feels inauthentic. Aurthur, for one, seems completely uninterested in the camera he turns towards himself. As for Lance and Merlin-- I know they're supposed to be brothers, but their chemistry feels like lovers. That is not brotherly teasing, that is flat out flirting.

3. I feel like the company behind Rex doesn't quite understand the appeal of the platform. I avoided watching their first show, In Earnest, because it seemed somehow wrong. One of the thing I love about this platform is it gives voice to the voiceless. I love how people who are underrepresented in Hollywood can be main characters here. Women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, disabled people, etc., can take center stage and we will eat it up. Severe Chill Studios has yet to make a show that doesn't surround a presumably straight white cis male. This is too reminiscent of popular media for me. I came here to hear different voices.

Despite all this, I will probably begrudgingly keep watching. Give it a look and tell me what you think. Am I spot on? Am I being overly critical? Drop a comment.

Hello Lit Lovers!

Well, hello everyone. Welcome to my blog.

My Social Media Marketing class this semester is having us each keep a blog, to be updated once a week, on any topic we choose. As I'm dreaming of working in publishing after graduation (maybe even being a literary agent 20 years down the road), it only seemed natural that I would write about books.

Here's the catch; school takes up most of my time. I'm also on the executive boards of National Novel Writing Month club and the Bradley University Swing Dance Society, plus I tutor at the Center for Learning Assistance. I've got a full plate, so reading tends to take a backseat to my other priorities. I'm not going to be reading a full book every week.

Thus, I won't just be writing about books. I'll be writing about anything literature-related, which may often include adaptions. Over the last year (or four), I've become deeply entrenched in the Literary Inspired Webseries community on YouTube and Tumblr, and I fully expect to write about topics that come up through these shows. Fair warning: topics touched upon can be controversial. In the past, topics brought up have included racial/sexual orientation representation and stereotypes, defining sexual assault, and how to adapt text where people disguise themselves as another gender without being transphobic.

I know, it's heavy stuff, but it's important to talk about. So let's just have a little fun, shall we? Here's a creeper shot I took in London of a guy who looked like he walked out of a Dickens novel... eating Doritos.

Lots of Love,
Sam



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