AvidBards
Reflections

Destigmatizing Fanfiction – A Conversation with Damien Gerard

Actor Damien Gerard, who is known for his work in Call of Duty: Black Ops War and most prominently on the hit HBO Max show Our Flag Means Death, recently joined me in a discussion about the importance of fanfiction. Fanfiction, and fandom culture in general, has long been surrounded by stigma – and to that, storytellers like Gerard agree that this needs to be changed. In this interview, I was lucky enough to sit down with him and hear his incredibly thoughtful insights on the topic.

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TV Shows

Our Flag Means Representation – an Analysis of Everyone’s Favourite Pirate Show

By now, you’ve probably either heard of or watched HBO’s latest hit show Our Flag Means Death, created by David Jenkins. After seeing tons of buzz, fanart, and general discussion about the show online, I already knew it was a show I’d enjoy, especially since many were applauding its queer characters and narratives. And though I was a bit late to the game in watching it (the finale premiered at the end of March 2022), I finally binged it this past weekend.

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Reflections

Why I Want to See More Intersectional Queer Representation in Media

Visibility matters. It’s a simple enough concept, one we’ve heard time and time again. And yet, there is still a huge gap in mainstream TV and film media that needs to be filled. While I fully acknowledge that it has taken a long time for LGBTQIA+ stories to make their way to small and big screens, we are now at a point where we need to work harder to normalize intersectional queerness. As such, I expect those in storytelling industries to prioritize underrepresented queer voices, because there is simply no excuse not to make queer people of colour, people with…

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Books

Book Review: ‘Sub-Lebrity*: *The Queer Life of a Show-Biz Footnote’ by Leon Acord

At AvidBards, we continue to be honoured when authors ask us to review their books. Though we’ve admittedly been much slower to take on new books and respond to requests in the last little while (especially throughout the pandemic), one request that really piqued our interest was actor Leon Acord’s memoir entitled Sub-Lebrity*: *The Queer Life of a Show-Biz Footnote.

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TV Shows

Doom Patrol: Humanizing Heroism

Doom Patrol, one of the latest TV show additions to the DC Universe, is dark, witty, and surprisingly poignant. If you haven’t heard of it, I wouldn’t be surprised: it wasn’t on my radar either until someone I knew told me to drop everything and watch it immediately.

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TV Shows

American Gods: Season 1 vs. Season 2

During quarantine, I found myself buying an Amazon Prime subscription so that I could finally watch a bunch of shows I’ve been dying to catch up on, and American Gods was at the top of my list (along with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Boys, and Good Omens, all of which I will inevitably review in the future!). Naturally, two weeks into my Prime binge, I had already watched the full two seasons of the show. And while I absolutely loved Season 1, I can’t necessarily say the same thing about Season 2. Here’s why. (Warning: major spoilers for both…

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