Matt Goddard

For many gamers, it’s in the commercial before it’s in the game. Consoles and their headline franchises have competed on graphics and technology for years. But their advertising has been just as competitive. Rivalry and ad agency creativity has meant some of the biggest video games have made their marks on pop culture through TV campaigns as much as in-game campaigns.
Many commercials have stood the test of time, outliving the games and consoles they promoted. We’ve picked out the best...

Independent cinemas used to be a premier hang-out for students. But with multiplexes pushing smaller venues out of picture, Matt Goddard asks whether it's curtains for the art-house cinema.

Black Hawk Down: Two decades on from the battle whi...

What makes a good movie trilogy? As this list demonstrates, there are many ways to approach it, but no strict formula. Some of cinema’s best-loved trilogies have emerged by accident.
Some trilogies stick to Scream’s jokey formula, increasing threat and spectacle while adding callbacks and twists. Others have picked up unfilmable book sequences and made adapting them look simple.
But there are rules...

Looking for a gift for a friend or loved one who has everything? You should be able to find something in all of time and space!
‘Doctor Who’ has been a gifting machine since it exploded into popular culture in 1963. The volume of merchandise may have varied over the years, but there’s still a healthy vortex of inspired and inspiring gifts available right now.
Although there are plenty of ‘Doctor Who’ toys around, it’s not just gifts for all those little Daleks. You’ll find something for all a...

Netflix’s international popularity has grown massively in the last decade, leading the streaming giant to invest in productions all over the globe. Its hope that the next Stranger Things would come from a country other than America was realized with huge international successes like South Korea’s Squid Game.
Netflix’s success has depended on its dual approach of developing international shows while picking up distribution rights for ones produced by other networks. You’ll find the result of b...

For almost 60 years, Doctor Who has had great success twisting safe and familiar things into the alien and terrifying. It’s a show that loves to pull the rug out from under its audience’s feet, and its greatest, scariest, and most emotional moments arrive when it does that well.
The show’s most enduring monsters owe their success to their distortion of the familiar. The Doctor’s arch-enemies, the Daleks, are a literal representation of twisted hatred. Cybermen could be the future of humanity ...

What is the Doctor without his or her companions? Over the years, each of the Doctor’s incarnations on Doctor Who (we can rule out the War and Fugitive Doctors) has preferred to travel through time and space with some company. Companions have arrived from all times and places and included future humans, inhabitants of pocket universes, and even robots. They’re our window to the Doctor’s adventures, helping us to understand strange worlds, stranger times, and the enigmatic alien traveler who t...

Star Trek first beamed onto television screens in September 1966. The Original Series quickly found itself a place in popular culture, but when it reached an abrupt end after three live-action seasons, it looked as though the USS Enterprise would never complete its five-year mission.
That mission would prove to be an ongoing one, and Star Trek had its best days ahead of it. By its 55th birthday in 2021, the franchise had grown to include 10 series, 10 films, and countless spin-off media, with...

The second trailer for Sony’s Morbius gave us our first full look at the company’s latest addition to the Spider-Man Universe. But who is the comic book character also known as The Living Vampire?
Morbius arrived as a Spider-Man foe in October 1971. He was the second of the web slinger’s major horror-based villains, following in the wake of the Green Goblin’s glider. While Hobgoblin, Morlun, and Symbiotes like Venom and Carnage would later join that club, Morbius was to take a distinctive pat...

The Batcave has collected many incredible items in popular culture. There’s the Batcomputer, the Batbelt, and for fans of Batman’s 1960s movie, Shark Repellent Bat Spray. Most importantly, at the heart of the Cave and always ready to rev into action, is the Batmobile.
Over eight decades, the Dark Knight has patrolled the streets of Gotham in many different iterations of the Batmobile. He’s continually updated them along with his suits and gadgets in his comic book, live-action, and animated f...

Squid Game has become one of Netflix’s biggest series since its release in late September 2021. The South Korean survival drama has attracted a huge worldwide audience with its mix of thrills, horror, and fascinating characters.
Over the course of nine episodes, audiences have been captivated by the plight of the 456 contestants competing in a series of twisted children’s games. Only one player can win the prize that equates to $38.7 million, but to do so, they’ll have to be the last player s...

Horror is as popular as ever.
New properties on the small screen, including Squid Game and Midnight Mass, have won new fans with their mix of satire, suspense, classic horror, and dashes of Stephen King. New releases on the big screen have set a new bar for movie horror, while favorites like Halloween and Candyman have shown that there’s plenty of life left in the old slashers.
Then there’s the wealth of books, comics, video games, and more. As you can imagine, there’s a wide range of horror ...

Jack Kirby earned the nickname ‘King’ for a good reason. No other writer or artist has influenced comic books like the Manhattan native. Although he described comics as a “form of art that anyone can do with a pencil and paper,” Kirby was a prolific all-rounder who left us with a galaxy of works and a multiverse of characters few can match.
When he was 14, Jack Kirby left the Pratt Institute just one week after enrolling. He later explained to The Comics Journal that it was because he “intend...

Netflix has the zombie show for you, whether you are looking for Walkers, shufflers, or supernaturally fast predators.
There’s no doubt the undead have found a happy home on the small screen. And as this selection of series demonstrates, zombies lend themselves to comedy, mystery, and politics as much as horror. When searching for your new favorite zombie series, prepare for a diverse collection, despite the standard Z-names.
The creatures certainly add something extra to an apocalypse, and m...