Allyson Johnson

TV/Film Critic and Freelance Writer at Freelance

TV & Film Critic. Co-founder, Editor-in-Chief @InBetweenDrafts . Words at @CambridgeDay @Pajiba @ButWhyThoPC (she/her/hers) 🌈 [email protected]

Articles

The Ongoing Need for More Bisexuality Onscreen In TV and Film

1 week ago | butwhytho.net | Allyson Johnson

The ongoing negligible treatment of bisexuality in film, television, and the world at large is increasingly frustrating.
'Materialists' Review - InBetweenDrafts

1 week ago | inbetweendrafts.com | Allyson Johnson

Celine Song takes a major stumble in her sophomore effort, the surface-level and cloying Materialists. There’s realism, and then there’s cold, calculated detachment. It’s the latter of which the misguided and tonally vapid Materialists falls into, a film that, rather than reigniting a flame, suggests that love would be better staying dead.
The Period Drama Fails to Deliver

2 weeks ago | butwhytho.net | Allyson Johnson

The Buccaneers Season 2 is palatable – vaguely tolerable – as long as you don’t pay attention to the grating performances, the nonsensical storyline, and the vapid pandering to easy branding and girl-power shenanigans. A series that is tailor-made for TikTok fan edits and Bridgerton fans forced to scrape the barrel, chasing bodice-ripping induced highs (here’s plenty of better smut to be found than this), there is no joy nor sense of escapism here. The beautiful gowns remain beautiful.
Joint Venture CEO offers mixed review of Silicon Valley

2 weeks ago | losaltosonline.com | Allyson Johnson

Russell Hancock, president and CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, addressed a remote meeting organized by the Los Altos Community Coalition (LACC) on May 30. Joint Venture is Silicon Valley’s recognized clearing house for regional analysis, and for collaborative approaches to solving the region’s problems. Hancock has been president and CEO since 2003. Hancock began by reassuring his viewers that Silicon Valley is still, despite doom-saying headlines, the world’s most prolific regional economy.
Sense8 10 Years Later

3 weeks ago | inbetweendrafts.com | Allyson Johnson

There’s a pivotal, joyous sequence in the Netflix series Sense8 that remains a beacon for fans of this radical show about the integrity and power of love in all its manifestations. In it, a group of individuals from around the world sing along to “What’s Up,” offkey and exuberant, as they embrace these strangers who now share space in their brains. It’s one of those musical sequences that instantly latches on to the most sentimental of us.
A Crackling Delight From Science Saru

3 weeks ago | butwhytho.net | Allyson Johnson

Picking up immediately where Season 1 left off, DanDaDan Evil Eye wastes little time in reminding us of its intoxicating infectiousness. Based on the manga written and illustrated by Yukinobu Tatsu and produced by the consistently great Science Saru, the film, which comprises the first three episodes of Season 2, launches straight into the mayhem.
Morning Forum audience learns life lessons from national park odyssey

3 weeks ago | losaltosonline.com | Allyson Johnson

Darius Nabors, national park artist in residence, talked about the lessons he learned in his project to visit all 59 national parks in 59 weeks to an absorbed Morning Forum of Los Altos audience May 20. President Abraham Lincoln laid the foundation for what would become the National Park Service when he set aside Yosemite Valley in 1864 “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people,” Nabors said during the discussion.
The Wheel Of Time Deserved So Much Better

1 month ago | butwhytho.net | Allyson Johnson

In the grand swell of “content,” the constantly improving The Wheel of Time defied expectations. Based on the epic – and epically dense – fantasy series by author Robert Jordan, fans of the novels forever knew that an adaptation was unlikely. Due to the size and scope of the series, it would be too expensive and a behemoth of a project. All of which made the original news of the TV series, with Rosamund Pike attached no less, all the more shocking.
Millie Alcock Shines In Meandering Netflix Series

1 month ago | butwhytho.net | Allyson Johnson

Sirens (2025) doesn’t quite know what type of show it wants to be. Unleashing an overreliance on slapstick humor with a sobering throughline at the center, the latest streamer to grace the Netflix barrage of “content” has its charms but is ultimately vapid. If and when the series flirts with bouts of depth, it rears back into something hokier and sillier. It makes for an uneven and disorienting experience across the five-episode limited series.
My Hero Academia Vigilantes Episode 7 Review

1 month ago | butwhytho.net | Allyson Johnson

My Hero Academia Vigilantes Episode 7 is perfectly pleasant and continues to technically strike the right beats, invigorated by strong, vitalized animation. And yet, the longer the debut season continues, the more glaring a major issue becomes. Despite the big names and familiar characters attached to the series, Vigilantes isn’t leaving a mark, regardless of the zippy and kinetic action sequences. The most condemnable aspect of My Hero Academia Vigilantes is that it’s forgettable.