Jason Gendler's Film and Television Analysis

Jason Gendler's Film and Television AnalysisJason Gendler's Film and Television AnalysisJason Gendler's Film and Television Analysis
  • Home
  • About
  • Writing Portfolio
  • Expert Witness Services
  • Screenplay Consultation
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • More
    • Home
    • About
    • Writing Portfolio
    • Expert Witness Services
    • Screenplay Consultation
    • Blog
    • Contact

Jason Gendler's Film and Television Analysis

Jason Gendler's Film and Television AnalysisJason Gendler's Film and Television AnalysisJason Gendler's Film and Television Analysis
  • Home
  • About
  • Writing Portfolio
  • Expert Witness Services
  • Screenplay Consultation
  • Blog
  • Contact

Writing Portfolio

Film and Television Recaps and Reviews

During my many years within academia, I’ve developed a love for television recaps, avidly following my favorite recap writers and television critics, and writing recaps of my own for Cultured Vultures and for my own film and television website, Jason Watches Television. I've even reviewed films in the recap format. Below are some exemplary recaps and reviews:

 

  • Game of Thrones: This recap of “The Spoils of War” celebrates Game of Thrones at its best, featuring characters to whom we have deep ties coming into direct martial conflict, payoffs to long-simmering serial developments, and subtle moments of character psychology, all of it culminating in an answer to the question of how an army without dragons fares against one with dragons (spoiler: poorly).  


  • Master Of None: What do attending a mosque and drinking at a wine bar have in common? Is online dating an exciting adventure or a monotonous slog? What’s it like to realize you’re falling in love with someone unavailable? I critique a trio of episodes that address these subjects, admiring the series’ deft, understated, and often funny observations about modern life and romance in the 2010s.  


  •  You’re the Worst: Is zany, madcap behavior compatible with psychological sincerity? You’re the Worst answers with a resounding, “Yes, you idiot.” In this recap, I discuss how the series’ characters oscillate between cartoonish caricature and emotionally-grounded humanity, often finding that sweet spot where the two reinforce and balance one another.


  • Better Call Saul: One of the questions at the heart of the Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul concerns how a fundamentally decent character like Jimmy McGill becomes a miserable sleazebag like Saul Goodman. My recap of “Winner,” the season four finale, celebrates the elegance with which the episode takes incremental steps toward answering that question… while also lamenting a lackluster season-long plot involving other Breaking Bad legacy characters. .

  

  • Sharp Objects: My review of the first four episodes of Sharp Objects discusses how the series’ dual mysteries – murdered teens and traumatic pasts – are interwoven, where past traumas resurface in the present, and where subjectivity blurs with objectivity.

  

  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Force Awakens is so derivative of previous Star Wars films that it seems like it should collapse under its own weight, yet it still manages to feel fresh and fun despite its many references parallels, callbacks, rehashes, and remixes. In this spoiler-filled review, I admire how the film revitalizes the franchise by making well-trodden territory seem new again.

  

  • Star Trek: Picard: In this piece, I wrestle with my conflicting feelings about Star Trek: Picard, where my excitement over getting to spend more time with The Next Generation characters is counterbalanced by my frustration with Picard’s attempts to harness nostalgia for the franchise’s history while often seeming to display only passing familiarity with it. The series is almost as frustrating as it is rewarding, routinely tripping over its own feet in its attempts to soar.


  • Welcome to Wrexham: I don’t follow soccer, and have no deep connection to Wrexham, so why do I find the emotional climax of season two – in which Wrexham finally wins a championship – so powerful? This piece unpacks how the series creates such jubilation through its focus not just on the team’s famous owners, its personnel, or the matches themselves, but also by emphasizing the team’s local fans.


More samples of my recaps are available at Jason Watches Television and Cultured Vultures. 

What Constitutes a Recap

Part summary, part critical appraisal of writing, performance, direction, and other aesthetic qualities, my recaps articulate the core strengths and weaknesses of an episode of television while also contextualizing it within the larger sweep of the series or genre, doing so with clarity, nuance, and (hopefully) a dash of wit. The format affords a wide array of tonal approaches: celebratory, satirical, combative, inquisitive, whimsical and so on.

Scholarly Publications

During my time in academia, I have also written a wide range of scholarly film and television articles published in various peer-reviewed journals and edited collections:

  

  • “Serialized Television and the Action Scene: Game of Thrones.” In The Scene of Action (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, forthcoming).
  • “Creative Use of Superpowers in My Hero Academia.” Imagining the Impossible (forthcoming).
  • “Better Call Saul and the Cognitive Effects of Prequel Television Series.” Projections Special Issue on Serial Television. Volume 19, No. 2. (Winter 2025).
  • “‘I Can’ Keep Track of Any of It Anymore’: Cognitive Challenge and Other Aesthetic Appeals in Community.” Solicited for Puzzling Stories: The Aesthetic Appeal of Cognitive Challenge in Literature and Film (New York: Berghahn, 2022).
  • “The Rich Inferential World of Mad Men: Serialized Television and Character Interiority.” Projections. Volume 10, No. 1 (Summer/Winter 2016).
  • “Where Does the Beginning End? Cognition, Form, and Classical Narrative Beginnings.” Projections. Volume 6, No. 2. (Winter, 2012).
  • “Are My Eyes Really Brown? The Aesthetics of Colorization in Casablanca.” Solicited for the Routledge AFI Reader Color and the Moving Image (New York: Routledge, 2013).
  • “Primer: The Perils and Paradoxes of Restricted Time Travel Narration.” Nebula Volume 3, No. 4, December 2006/January 2007.  

What Constitutes a Scholarly Publication

Scholarly publications undergo a process of peer-review, where, prior to publication, manuscripts are vetted by other experts in the publication’s subject matter. These experts anonymously provide comments regarding the manuscript’s strengths, weaknesses, argumentation, research, and organization, ultimately deciding whether a manuscript will be accepted, rejected, or requires further revision before publication. 

Copyright © 2026 Jason's Television and Film Analysis - All Rights Reserved.

Powered by

This website uses cookies.

We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.

DeclineAccept