Alex Mell-Taylor
Bio
I write long-form pieces on timely themes inside entertainment, pop culture, video games, gender, sexuality, race and politics. My writing currently reaches a growing audience of over 10,000 people every month across various publications.
Stories (87/0)
Nimona: Fictional Discrimination At Its Finest
Nimona is a futuristic fantasy story set in an alternate world where technology has surpassed modern-day heights, but the society we see has not moved beyond the politics and aesthetics of the medieval era. The movie is called Nimona, after the shape-shifting persona of the same name that volunteers to be the sidekick of fallen knight Ballister Boldheart. Along the way, these two outcasts not only become great friends but change everything they know about the society they live in.
By Alex Mell-Taylor5 months ago in Geeks
- Top Story - July 2023
The Apocalypse Is Already Here (for some)Top Story - July 2023
As Europeans started to make landfall in America, the apocalypse would soon begin. A disease killing upwards of 90% of the Indigenous population (estimated to be anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions) would soon cause cities to crumble and empires to fall. According to one study published in the Quaternary Science Reviews:
By Alex Mell-Taylor5 months ago in The Swamp
Black Mirror's 'Beyond The Sea' Fails to Deconstruct Toxic Masculinity
The episode Beyond The Sea is probably one of the most disappointing ones in the entire sixth season of Black Mirror. Set in an alternate 1969, it's a story about two astronauts that have the ability to transfer their consciousnesses back down to Earth on their mission's downtime into artificial robots called replicas. This technological feat allows them to maintain their lives back home in a kind of inverse work-from-home situation.
By Alex Mell-Taylor5 months ago in Geeks
Why Can’t “Black Mirror” Kill Fascists?
The Black Mirror episode Demon 79 is a fun romp set in 1979 England. Protagonist Nida is a Brown woman that works at a department store. The episode is set against a rise in white supremacist fascism, particularly the xenophobic National Front or NF. She stumbles across a demonic rune that forces her to sacrifice three bodies or risk causing nuclear armageddon, leading her to take revenge against some of the more awful figures in her life.
By Alex Mell-Taylor5 months ago in Geeks
Can Netflix Critique Itself? (ft. Black Mirror)
Netflix recently launched its sixth season of the anthology series Black Mirror, and its inaugural episode, Joan Is Awful, is quite a doozy. The episode is a bit of self-parody where a Streamberry viewer (i.e. a viewer from a platform very similar to Netflix) named Joan watches in horror as a show is aired based exactly on her life, plus or minus some significant embellishments (she is played by Salma Hayek, yall).
By Alex Mell-Taylor5 months ago in Geeks
‘XO, KITTY’: A Messy, Terrible Show That Might Be the Future of Content
INT. KITTY'S BEDROOM — MORNING A bright and cheerful room adorned with posters of cute kittens. KITTY, a spirited and sassy 16-year-old, bounces around her bedroom, preparing for an exciting day. She wears a pink shirt that says "Cat Lover" and shorts, her hair tied up in a messy bun. Kitty's phone sits on her bed, buzzing with notifications.
By Alex Mell-Taylor5 months ago in Geeks
The Sadly Authoritarian Nature of the Modern Workplace
People often glamorize the life of a boss. This was the appeal of Donald Trump's reality TV show, The Apprentice (and for some, his presidency in general). He had people present to him their ideas, and ultimately, with his infamous catchword, "You're Fired," he got to decide if they were worth his time.
By Alex Mell-Taylor6 months ago in The Swamp
No, a 4th Stimulus Check is Not "Just Around the Corner"
Back in 2020, I wrote a piece called "The Men Who Sold the False Hope of Stimulus Checks" that chronicled an online trend of "finance gurus" reporting about news on the potential release of a second round of stimulus checks. This was after the Trump administration gave out $1200 checks, and people eagerly awaited a second one (there would be three total). An entire cottage industry emerged that tried to tap into people's desperation and, in the process, often directed followers to "get-rich-quick" courses and services. As I wrote in that initial article:
By Alex Mell-Taylor6 months ago in Motivation
The Ugly-Looking Propaganda Mill in Illinois (ft. The Heartland Institute)
Why hello there, traveler, and welcome to the "Apocalypse Tour." This is the walking and architecture tour for all those catastrophe lovers out there, where we note the locations that significantly impacted species 947's collapse (947 were also known as humanity [hyoo·ma·nuh·tee]). We discuss the physical, digital, and sensual locations that contributed to humanity's untimely end on a tiny planet called Earth in the year 90,423 XE (what humans may know as 2XXX AD).
By Alex Mell-Taylor6 months ago in Earth
Queen Charlotte & the Pitfalls of Representational Politics
The Bridgerton series has officially become an expanded universe with the series Queen Charlotte. The story chronicles the origin of the titular Queen and her tumultuous relationship with King George, which, in this alternate history, leads to the desegregation of British High Society.
By Alex Mell-Taylor7 months ago in Geeks
America Has Always Been A Pretty Unrealistic Utopia
The United States of America is both a country and an ideal. The Declaration of Independence put forth the principle that we would be a country where "…all men are created equal" and that citizens would have certain "unalienable Rights [such as] Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." It is a declaration claiming that all citizens are entitled to certain rights under the law because some of our founders thought they were intrinsic to the human condition.
By Alex Mell-Taylor7 months ago in The Swamp
