Sean Weeks
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(He/Him)
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TV, board games, history, anthropology, archaeology, mythology, and literature.
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Current events, modern politics, celeb culture, and popular music.
"Some TV pundit."
-Steven S. DeKnight.
No longer writing about TV.
weekswriter.bsky.social . Check weeksauthor.com or my Muck Rack.
Articles by Sean Weeks
Review of "Number One on the Call Sheet"
Number One on the Call Sheet opens as a leisurely stroll through a museum of talent, illuminated by interviews with many of the brightest stars in the Hollywood firmament. And my, those stars are stunning! You’ll be repeatedly struck by the effortless charisma and vividness of personalities like Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Whoopi Goldberg, and Cleavon Little. If nothing else, Number One is a potent reminder of why we fell in love with them in the first place.
Frostpunk 2 review - The death of millions is a statistic.
Introduction to the World of Frostpunk Frostpunk: The Video Game sports a steampunk coat of paint, the stylish, often meaningless brass cogs and aviator goggles, but the real hook was “global warming in reverse.” It’s a satire equipped with the macabre comedy of that old Robert Frost poem: Some say the world will end in fire Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire.
TV Rewind: Six Feet Under Understood that Life's a Funny Proposition After All
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our TV Rewind column! The Paste writers are diving into the streaming catalogue to discuss some of our favorite classic series as well as great shows we’re watching for the first time. Come relive your TV past with us, or discover what should be your next binge watch below: The dead themselves never bothered me. Blotted red by settling blood, their skin was waxy and pallid, but I’m on the autistic spectrum.
Jokkmokk: The Winter Market Review - Vanished without a trace.
JokkMokk is a 1-5 player card snatchum about kitsch. I don’t mean that in a dour Anton Ego sort of way. I mean that in a Wes Anderson look-at-these-cute-ceramic-doggies-I’ll-take-ten sort of way. With that spirit in mind, the box art goes from “far too busy” to “maybe a littletoo busy.” Its artist, Christina Hägerfors, deserved a bigger box and a bigger board because its current layout feels like playing Where’s Waldo…except that every detail is Waldo.
Zhanguo: The First Empire Review - Tame the dragon; conquer Death.
I hate Caylus. I note that this is probably a bad opinion to own. My encounter with the World’s First Worker Placement™ missed a key rule and robbed it of some potency, so in a practical sense I’ve never played it. When a mind like Cole Wehrle’s praises its mechanical clarity, I should be wary of this opinion. Nevertheless, I hate Caylus. I hate Caylus because unlike most of the people who approach this assemblage of wooden houses and spreadsheets, I expect to see a castle in the end.
Designer of Oath, Root, and Arcs — "I love games, but what I really love is play."
The titles Root, Oath, Pax Pamir, Arcs, and John Company will most likely ring a bell for regular members of the tabletop community. Like any collaborative project, their success can’t be laid solely at the feet of any one person, but they have a common thread: their designer, Cole Wehrle. Cole’s work has won praise for its ability to balance heavy subject matter, insight into complex subjects, and a surprisingly broad appeal (especially given the density of those subjects).
Wizardry Remaster Review - Do you like black-and-white movies?
Wizardry: Proving Ground of the Mad Overlord inhabits an odd space in the library of deluxe remasters. On the one hand, it’s a laudable project that makes a worthwhile contribution to discourse around computer RPG design. Designed in 1981, one year after Pac Man and seven before the first Final Fantasy, it invented the core gameplay loop of its genre. The tension and rhythm of party management, of juggling supplies and wounds and fight versus flight, started here.
Review of Gridlock - Rubik's gains a lot by dropping a dimension. - GAMINGTREND
I buy Rubik’s cubes at the supermarket out of guilt. The brain’s a muscle and I don’t always nourish it properly. When I’m in the middle of something especially stupefying, I need to make promises to my psyche so it doesn’t do anything drastic. “Mistah,” it asks in the tinny register of a Dickensian waif, “we been watchin’ Sistah Wives for the past ‘our. Can we gets somethin’ wiv maths in it?” “Fine, but no addition of sums over five digits, and don’t try to trick me into long division,” I say.
Game Envy Exemplar Wet Palette Review - Gamerfuel.
Product was not provided by the manufacturer for this review. “For thinning my paints, I use ordinary tap water…. [My] palette is anything but hi-tech. I use a cutting mat covered with strips of masking tape. That’s it! (When I grow up and become wiser, I might want to try one of those new and trendy wet-palettes!).” That’s from Colour Harmony: Inside the Artist’s Palette. Its author, Mike Blank, is a Swedish painter whose career in minis reaches back to 1996.
Collectionomics Preview - Redrawing the magic circle.
Civilization designer Sid Meier famously said, “Games are a series of interesting decisions.” If you strictly apply that to what you can measure, the effects of your choices as they ripple across a board, then Collectionomics won’t please you. But if, by “decisions,” you include rhetoric—the art of persuasion and the battleground of opinion—then Collectionomics has the potential to scratch an itch few games can reach.
Interview with Thunderworks Games - Making Worlds Twixt Cardboard
Since he was six years old, Sean Weeks wanted to be a writer. He was the kid who smuggled loose-leaf into family gatherings and vandalized his college textbooks with story ideas. He matriculated at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. While pursuing a creative writing major there, he developed a fervent curiosity in classical studies. He studied Greek, Latin, and the heady canon of Antiquity’s best thinkers.
Board games shouldn't always be about escapism
Wingspan’s a curious revelation - curious because it bears few hallmarks of board game stardom. It doesn’t introduce novelties in cards and dice or a new, more accessible connection to those novelties. It neither invented deckbuilding like Dominion nor popularised worker-placement like Lords of Waterdeep. Its production, while excellent, conformed to expectations.
Lethal Shadows Paint Scythe Review — Sometimes there's no catch.
Product not provided by manufacturer. Given climate change, every aspect of society is looking for ways to keep its pastimes while practicing a little more awareness about our carbon footprint. Regarding painting and painting of little plastic men, it may be impossible to discard petroleum products entirely (until metal sculpts or wooden minis are in vogue again), but mountains of throwaway $2 Taklon brushes always seemed like an avoidable excess.
Gorus Maximus - Dead simple execution.
Gorus Maximus is a trick-taking game for 1-8 players. Yes, points are a good thing. No, you can’t shoot the moon. Yes, there’s a trump suite. Initially, it matches the leading card in a round but it can change to a different suite if someone follows with a card of the same rank, different suite. The first to achieve a round’s top score three times wins. At first blush, the shifting trump seems to be Maximus’ gimmick, but its true appeal lies in seating 6-8.
Shaping the Clay-Previews from PAX Unplugged's Unpublished Hall
Since he was six years old, Sean Weeks wanted to be a writer. He was the kid who smuggled loose-leaf into family gatherings and vandalized his college textbooks with story ideas. He matriculated at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. While pursuing a creative writing major there, he developed a fervent curiosity in classical studies. He studied Greek, Latin, and the heady canon of Antiquity’s best thinkers.
The GamingTrend 2023 holiday guide-Tabletop edition!
At this point you’ve probably gotten your fill of video games and hardware and gear, but now it’s time for some real fun- Tabletop! We’ve got some great picks for those cardboard Santas out there: Light weight games Just one game into boop. and you will begin to see its full potential. The mark of a great abstract game is simple rules with emergent strategies that the players get to discover as they master the game. boop. is abstract puzzley goodness at its best, and an adorable theme to boop.
Mirrorscape preview - A trio of perspectives on the latest attempt to take TTRPG digital.
Dan Hinkin – Lead Tabletop Editor I didn’t get started in tabletop roleplaying until the pandemic. During that time, a friend of mine from the gym asked if I’d be interested in trying out a gaming system of his called Aliens and Asteroids. I bought my first pair of dice from my friendly local game store and sat down at my computer where I met most of this party for the first time.
Corporate Amnesiacs: Netflix and the Broken Promise of Streaming
You’re television incarnate, Diana, indifferent to suffering, insensitive to joy. All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality. War, murder, death are all the same to you as bottles of beer. The daily business of life is a corrupt comedy. You even shatter the sensations of time and space into jagged fragments of minutes, split-seconds, and instant replays. You are madness, Diana, virulent madness, and whatever you touch dies with you.
In the Footsteps of Darwin-On the stamp collecting of the species.
Like ancient Rome, Darwinism seems too weighty for light fare, but Rise of Augustus (“Bingo, mighty Caesar!”) and now In the Footsteps of Darwin prove that no topic’s too dignified to become a cute puzzle. On a box bearing his name, however, the likeness of the crusty English biologist himself is strangely absent. It’s not too difficult to see why. Charles Darwin may have the beard of Santa Claus, but his wizened face can’t sell the cardboard equivalent of Pokemon Snap.
The Alters Preview-Out of one, many
Since he was six years old, Sean Weeks wanted to be a writer. He was the kid who smuggled loose-leaf into family gatherings and vandalized his college textbooks with story ideas. He matriculated at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. While pursuing a creative writing major there, he developed a fervent curiosity in classical studies. He studied Greek, Latin, and the heady canon of Antiquity’s best thinkers.
Frostpunk 2 Preview-"The world stands silent, ripe for the taking."
Since he was six years old, Sean Weeks wanted to be a writer. He was the kid who smuggled loose-leaf into family gatherings and vandalized his college textbooks with story ideas. He matriculated at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. While pursuing a creative writing major there, he developed a fervent curiosity in classical studies. He studied Greek, Latin, and the heady canon of Antiquity’s best thinkers.
Letter to Travis Worthington: The non-consensual model
Editor’s note: This editorial is intended to be a satirical response to recent comments made by Travis Worthington in an interview with Polygon’s Charlie Hall about the use of AI generated art as disclosed in the new Terraforming Mars crowdfunding campaign. GamingTrend recently announced that it will not cover games or publishers who use unethically sourced means of generative AI art in tabletop games. I always knew tech was coming for me. I got the heads-up from Milton Bradley decades ago.
Key Concepts About Power and Religion in Ancient Rome
Introduction Societies dug up and studied the bones of ancient Rome for wisdom, but those bones come from an alien cultural body. As a result, those societies didn’t always interpret them correctly. Whether they know it or not, today’s students could fall into the same error. Unfortunately, we tend to assume that historical worlds are either incomprehensible, something too distant to care about, or identical to our own. The Rome of a distant past is more foreign than we think.
Frostpunk: The Board Game ⏤ Why you should definitely make the effort
Frostpunk: The Video Game sports a steampunk coat of paint, the stylish, often meaningless brass cogs and aviator goggles, but the real hook was “global warming in reverse.” It’s a satire equipped with the macabre comedy of that old Robert Frost poem: Some say the world will end in fire Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire. But if I had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.
Put the Needle Down: An Argument for More Original Scores on TV
Composer Ramin Djawadi’s score is responsible for all the poetry and power of House of the Dragon’s first ten minutes. Game of Thrones’ iconic cello riff begins, then falls away (“bends the knee”) to support a stranger, more martial theme: the Targaryen leitmotif. A dragon soars over a city and the theme soars with it in graceful arpeggios, piercing octaves like clouds.
Venture Brothers: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist. Warner Brothers Discovery provided a copy of the movie for review and all photos. If you wish to see my prior thoughts about the series, click here. Why do we want kids? It’s easier to answer why we have them. Biology. Genealogy. Happy and unhappy accidents.
Adios to the "Side Hustle"
Those ugly grey things. “I don’t like looking at these grey things. Can we do anything about that?” she said. I blinked at her owlishly, bemused. I’d been deep into the tabletop gaming hobby for fifteen years and my shelves sagged with the weight of a hundred boxes, but I’d never considered painting any of the sculpted plastic inside them. I was an awful artist, and (outside of some dabbling with Games Workshop Gondor knights) never a voluntary one.
House, Holmes, and Complicated Genius
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our TV Rewind column! The Paste writers are diving into the streaming catalogue to discuss some of our favorite classic series as well as great shows we’re watching for the first time. Come relive your TV past with us, or discover what should be your next binge watch below: I missed House entirely when it aired back in the aughts, and that was strange. It was one of the few TV specimens a twelve year-old me could readily access.
Ameritrash is dead - long live Ameritrash
In a fit of pique, game designer Richard Hutnik seemingly minted the word ‘Ameritrash’. His forum posts on the topic, held in a digital archive, date back to 2000: "Why is it, at [sic] a rule, they are bound to produced [sic] games run amok with randomness?... I know wargames are a general exception to this rule…. Think of the average game inventor in America. What is s/he trying to hawk? Either a luckfest game… or an abstract strategy game…. [The] “Ameritrash” mentality.
7 best hidden movement board games
If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. About Fury of Dracula Released: 2019 Players: 2-5 Rules complexity: High Strategic depth: High Publisher: WizKids Technically, the genre ‘hidden movement’ refers to games in which one or more players move their character secretly, usually by jotting their position down on a scrap of paper.
Second Letter to Sappho: My Writing Process
Dear Sappho, I thank you for your kind ear and I apologize for my late reply. When Christmas is past and spring is on the horizon, time seems to move strangely. I feel caught in mid thaw. Also, I admit that your last letter gave me some pause. The writing process you described seems to effortless and efficient. Mine is so primitive in comparison that I shudder at the thought of telling you. But your ear has been, as I said, kind. If that doesn’t deserve trust, then what else does?
Succession: On Mythmaking, Patricide, and Escaping the Belly of the Beast
As the legend goes, Jonah spent three days and three nights in the whale. What if it had been a lifetime? What if he’d been born there, in its warm, damp belly? Jonah descended into the beast with a vital advantage: memories of the sunny outside world. A child would know nothing. The roof of the whale’s mouth would be their sky, its flesh their earth. A smart aleck could ask what they’d eat or how they’d breathe.
First Letter to Sappho: How I Came to be a Writer
Dear Sappho, In your last letter to me, you asked me about my writing background. That’s a harder question to answer than it should be. The first obstacle is some scruples about vanity. The second obstacle is brevity. Where does such a journey begin? Maybe in the womb, when nature knits us together. Nevertheless, I must admit that I asked you the same question. It would be impolite to not answer it in turn. I will try, even though I think the task impossible.
Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine's Day Special — Where Does the Harlivyverse Go from Here?
To start, Harley Quinn’s V-Day extravaganza, A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special, winds up for a cozy fireside chat (albeit without the fire) about the spirit of the holiday. It has peppered its hour-long runtime with enough feel-good fuzzies that it looks at first like we’ll get the ol’ hug ‘n learn Seinfeld hated so much. But then it winks. “Sorry, wait, why are we doing this?
Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine's Day Special — Where Does the Harlivyverse Go from Here?
Harley Quinn’s V-Day extravaganza, A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special, winds up for a cozy fireside chat (albeit without the fire) about the spirit of the holiday. It has peppered its hour-long runtime with enough feel-good fuzzies that it looks at first like we’ll get the ol’ hug ‘n learn Seinfeld hated so much. But then it winks. “Sorry, wait, why are we doing this?
TV Rewind: For The Venture Bros. and Fandom, It's All About Love
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our TV Rewind column! The Paste writers are diving into the streaming catalogue to discuss some of our favorite classic series as well as great shows we’re watching for the first time. Come relive your TV past with us, or discover what should be your next binge watch below: In Venture Bros. Season 6, “Maybe No Go,” evil zillionaire Augustus St. Cloud has archnemesis Billy Quizboy and Quizboy’s sidekick, Pete White, tied up and at his mercy.
TV Rewind: For The Venture Bros. and Fandom, It's All About Love
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our TV Rewind column! The Paste writers are diving into the streaming catalogue to discuss some of our favorite classic series as well as great shows we’re watching for the first time. Come relive your TV past with us, or discover what should be your next binge watch below: In Venture Bros. Season 6, “Maybe No Go,” evil zillionaire Augustus St. Cloud has archnemesis Billy Quizboy and Quizboy’s sidekick, Pete White, tied up and at his mercy.
2022 Was a Year of TV Prequels; Here's a Report Card on How They Did
Movie prequels have been around at least as long as Butch and Cassidy: The Early Years (1975) or The Adventures of Young Sherlock Holmes (1985). Still, when Phantom Menace came out in 1999, George Lucas presented it as a bold new horizon for filmmaking. That promise was a corporate vision, not a creative one. Lucas was sometimes the artist who made THX 1138, sometimes a purveyor of cheap plastic toys, and always a tinkerer.
2022 Was a Year of TV Prequels; Here's a Report Card on How They Did
Movie prequels have been around at least as long as Butch and Cassidy: The Early Years (1975) or The Adventures of Young Sherlock Holmes (1985). Still, when Phantom Menace came out in 1999, George Lucas presented it as a bold new horizon for filmmaking. That promise was a corporate vision, not a creative one. Lucas was sometimes the artist who made THX 1138, sometimes a purveyor of cheap plastic toys, and always a tinkerer.
Andor Is Star Wars' Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Editor’s Note: Spoilers for Rogue One and Le Carré’s “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” within. The 21st-century spy is a postmodern figure. They are suspicious of great causes like “spreading democracy,” and jaded about power. Their villains usually come from trusted American institutions (“Treadstone,” CIA, FBI, etc.) that lay claim to the greater good.
Andor Is Star Wars' Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Editor’s Note: Spoilers for Rogue One and Le Carré’s “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” within. The 21st-century spy is a postmodern figure. They are suspicious of great causes like “spreading democracy,” and jaded about power. Their villains usually come from trusted American institutions (“Treadstone,” CIA, FBI, etc.) that lay claim to the greater good.
Rings of Power: On Five-Year Plans, False Starts, and TV’s Second Chances
Rings of Power’s first season is a muddled eight hours of television. The Internet is rife with accounts of its play-by-play sins. The charges are, in no special order: bad Tolkien; bad characters; bad dialogue; bad pacing. Depending on the critic, the solid work of its acting troupe, VFX, and set design buy it some charity, but the objections are surprisingly uniform. But the words “first” and “season” contain one of the strangest truths about modern TV’s architecture.
Rings of Power: On Five-Year Plans, False Starts, and TV’s Second Chances
Rings of Power’s first season is a muddled eight hours of television. The Internet is rife with accounts of its play-by-play sins. The charges are, in no special order: bad Tolkien; bad characters; bad dialogue; bad pacing. Depending on the critic, the solid work of its acting troupe, VFX, and set design buy it some charity, but the objections are surprisingly uniform. But the words “first” and “season” contain one of the strangest truths about modern TV’s architecture.
Game of Thrones' Lingering Influence on Fantasy TV, from Witcher to Rings of Power
It’s a blueprint of sorts: take bloodstained high fantasy novels, then give them the prestige TV treatment. Fantasy fans, who are used to dodgy fare like BBC’s Merlin, will flock to an unusually lavish production. Fans of racier costume dramas like Spartacus or Rome will flock to its familiar spectacle. The result is a bigger tent than anyone could have guessed. Even after a scalding denouement which burned anyone who’d ever loved it, Game of Thrones looms large as a cultural phenomenon.
Game of Thrones' Lingering Influence on Fantasy TV, from Witcher to Rings of Power
It’s a blueprint of sorts: take bloodstained high fantasy novels, then give them the prestige TV treatment. Fantasy fans, who are used to dodgy fare like BBC’s Merlin, will flock to an unusually lavish production. Fans of racier costume dramas like Spartacus or Rome will flock to its familiar spectacle. The result is a bigger tent than anyone could have guessed. Even after a scalding denouement which burned anyone who’d ever loved it, Game of Thrones looms large as a cultural phenomenon.
What We Mean When We Talk About Film Noir
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. William Gibson, Neuromancer Movies borrow from film noir more than any other genre. Whether it takes the form of a straightforward homage (L.A. Confidential) or a few thematic props (Dark City), film noir creeps into frame year after year. Unlike some of its peers, it’s also a style with incredible staying power. True, every generation has a genre which goes supernova and sucks up tickets and scripts.
The Bootstrap and the Iron Crown: How Tyrants Gave Rise to Opportunity
When it comes to rising above, tyrants, rebels, and regime changes provide a thermal updraft. Power struggles swell the fortunes of revolutionaries and their cabinets. They challenge the status quo and loosen its grip. As a result, people who might otherwise die unknown better their standing. The figureheads of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution(1917) and China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) benefited from this.
What Makes Warhammer Interesting
In some dusty corner of the Internet, I have no doubt that there’s a comic about Warhammer Anonymous. Imagine a dungeon-like cellar. Nebbish young men sit in a circle. One by one, they shuffle forward to confess that they, too, like to paint little plastic spacemen. My name is Sean Weeks. I like to paint little plastic spacemen. I’ve gotten passably good at it, actually. My wife and I operate a little paint-for-hire business titled Adventures in Painting.
A Primer on Power and Religion in Ancient Rome
Credit: zardo/stock.adobe.com Societies dug up and studied the bones of ancient Rome for wisdom, but those bones come from an alien cultural body. As a result, those societies didn’t always interpret them correctly. Whether they know it or not, today’s students could fall into the same error. Unfortunately, we tend to assume that historical worlds are either incomprehensible, something too distant to care about, or identical to our own. The Rome of a distant past is more foreign than we think.
Myths of Gods in Disguise from Various Cultures
In Stranger in a Strange Land – Part One, I discussed the Greek concept of xenia. In short, xenia refers to a host’s obligation to a stranger, namely food, lodging, and gifts. A form of paranoia reinforced that practice — the fear that your guest is, in fact, a god in disguise. There’s even a scholarly name for it: theoxenia. Much like how Greece was not (as explained in the aforementioned article) the only culture practicing xenia, other cultures carry their own stories of theoxenia.
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