The Last of Us, based on the game of the same name, first aired 15th January 2023. It follows Joel, a disgruntled smuggler, who’s tasked with taking Ellie, a young girl with a huge secret, through a post-apocalyptic world. However, episode 3 strays from this story. The third episode of the HBO show follows Bill - a redneck doomsday prepper - and Frank - a survivor who finds his way to Bill’s compound. They fall in love and for a moment we feel at peace.

Sayaka Murata’s short story A First-Rate Material follows Nana and her fiancee Naoki, who consistently argue over objects made from human remains. These arguments become the points of conflict throughout the story and show how the rich will always gain from commodification. It's also a comment on the growing anxieties of an ageing society.

Blue Velvet is a dark tale looking into sexual violence, voyeurism and the ideal self. The themes explored in this film all have a centre point though, looking at Western ideals and the American Dream. The American Dream is the ideological belief that the USA has a set of ideals, which allows any and all to prosper and become successful. In essence, if you come to the USA then you can gain, no matter who you are, the pastoral-Esque suburban home with a traditional family. This idea has been contested, however, Blue Velvet tackles these points using both light and dark motifs.

A successful feminist poet should advocate equality between the sexes rather than widening the gap which is still present. Duffy is known for her feminist poetry and often writes about themes such as oppression and social inequality. ‘The World’s Wife’ examines the stories of
generations of previously marginalised women to show the ever-present patriarchal society. However, Duffy’s justification of women’s violent actions and her use of gender stereotypes in her poems seem outdated for a modern political climate.

“The notion of “experimental writing” is difficult to define with any kind of precision”. The most accepted definition is a text that approaches a subject in a radical way. Fight Club could be described to be radical, as it takes Marxism’s central ideas, postmodern tropes and surrealist literary devices in order to create a new radical approach to the role of the individual.

As Starship Troopers celebrates its 25th Anniversary, more critical attention has been placed upon it. Upon its release in 1997, it was not received well and faced a lot of criticism, with the general consensus being that it was a fun movie with wooden acting and too much gore. However, over the past few years, a cult audience has found a new appreciation for it. Calum Marsh, writing for Atlantic, regarded it as, “satire, a ruthlessly funny and keenly self-aware sendup of right-wing militarism,” A thought which continues to grow amongst fans of the film. But how far is this true? Is Starship troopers a pastiche
of right-wing militarism or is it just another patriotic colonial quest?

Fantastic Mr Fox has an ecocritical subtext as the relationship between animals and humans is explored thoroughly. However, relationships between different species are also explored, significantly between Mr Fox and the wolf, in a scene after the climax. The other and the privileged group act as a binary opposition to uncover the ecocritical message of the film: how humans have impacted the natural world and the transition from the other to the privileged group