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10 (Psychological) Reasons Why We Like Benjamin Linus | “Lost” Series | Movie Analysis

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It is easy to identify and focus on a villain’s negative traits. In books and movies, the forces opposing the hero display a wide range of undesirable, nightmarish traits. They’re supposed to scare us and in most situations, it works. But we don’t always hate the bad guy. Sometimes, a villain’s magnetism is simply too strong …

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SKEPTIC’s REVIEW: “Surviving Death” (2021) | NETFLIX Original Series | Movie Analysis

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The Premise  As long as we cannot, yet, scientifically answer some of humanity’s biggest questions about life, death, and human nature, the door remains open for a variety of sub-topics and alternative explanations, some of which rather pertain to a Gothic realm than to the modern world. When we cannot answer what consciousness is through …

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11 Psychological Hits and Misses in “Bridgerton” | Bridgerton (2020) | Movie Analysis

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A modern, American interpretation of Regency-era England, with a hint of Jane Austen. That’s “Bridgerton”, the Christmas present we all got from Shondaland and Netflix at the end of 2020 [Thank you!]. The new series, based on the novels of Julia Quinn, is a daring mix of period drama and social rights advocacy. It follows …

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10 (Psychological) Reasons Why We Like Mrs. Danvers | Rebecca (2020) | Movie Analysis

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Mrs. Danvers, the sinister housekeeper at Manderley, is a powerful villain, dominating both book pages and screens with her manipulative presence. She is the main antagonist in Daphne du Maurier’s novel “Rebecca”, her main victim being the new wife of Maximillian “Maxim” de Winter, a young girl of modest roots who finds herself thrown in …

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Providential Agent of Chaos: The Psychology of “Messiah” | NETFLIX Series

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An exercise in both Faith and Critical Thinking, NETFLIX’s series “Messiah” tests personal limits and ruffles morality feathers worldwide tackling humanity’s biggest issues via bite-size questions, vague clues, and sustained advocacy for personal agency. Needless to say, I am looking forward to a second season. In 2012, during an episode of the Australian television program “Q+A”, …

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10 (Psychological) Reasons Why We Like Michael Corleone

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He’s a mafia boss. He’s doing all the things mafia bosses do. Through lucrative endeavors that include everything from illegal gambling businesses to money laundering, extortion, and murder, Don Michael Corleone led the Corleone crime family to full American and international underworld success and domination. And we still like him. No matter how bad things …

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Brief Psychological Interpretation of Santa’s Image – as depicted by Thomas Nast

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  Merry Old Santa Claus, by Thomas Nast. Woodcut published on 1 st January 1881 by Harper’s Weekly. The picture above portrays Santa Claus as imagined by Thomas Nast in  Harper’s Weekly, January 1, 1881, p.8-9. Given the fact that this is the drawing that generated the current image of Santa Claus, I propose a brief psychological interpretation of it, just …

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