Welcome to the Munchkyn Zone

I'm Sarah Stegall, and I write reviews of television shows, movies and books. I review mostly science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative fiction, but I might branch out into other genres if something really appeals to me.

We tend to treat popular culture as ephemera, but I choose to treat it as the artistic expression of our times, and as such I try to approach these entertainments from the attitude that some of what they say matters. These are the art forms of our day, and deserve as much intelligent critique as any painting or symphony. How intelligent or useful these opinions may be is entirely left to the reader. 

My reviews are usually carried on the website SFScope for a week before they appear here; if you're looking for, say, the review of the latest episode of Chuck, check out SFScope first. My reviews have also been cited in academic television and cultural studies such as Cult Television, Escape Into the Future, Aliens In America, The Philosophy of The X-Files, and Reality Squared (which called these reviews among "the best critical commentary available on the Web").

What you will find here are not "recaps" of shows, which summarize the plot, but critiques. These reviews contain spoilers. I'm more interested in how and why a particular entertainment succeeds or fails (in my opinion) so I tend to get a tad analytical and more than a bit philosophical. That's how I roll. I hope you enjoy it.

Here's a rundown of SF/Fantasy shows in Spring 2010 I will be reviewing. All times are Pacific:

Contacts me at reviews at munchkyn dot com.

Thanks for stopping by!