The essay only really comes alive during the section in which clips from Michael Mann’s 1995 crime epic “Heat” and “L.A. Television” is a glib, not-especially insightful look at the shared history of the two competing formats and how the once-distinct lines between them have blurred in recent years. This segment is not especially revelatory but it does lay out its arguments in a solid and straightforward manner that both film experts and comparative novices should find watchable. “The Ethics Of Revenge” utilizes Park Chan-wook’s brilliant and brutal “Lady Vengeance” as a vehicle to explore both the unending fascination we have with narratives driven by the need for revenge and the storytelling tricks and tropes utilized by filmmakers in the hopes of evoking a response from viewers without tripping over into outright sadism. Blending together history, criticism (especially in regards to the ways in which female characters tend to be developed) and a look at the actual filmmaking process, this is both the best of their contributions and one of the very best of the entire series. “The Duality of Appeal” utilizes expert testimony from Brenda Chapman and Gil Kenan to help explore the dynamics of design, in terms of how animators strive to make visually appealing characters and how CG animation has altered the landscape in that regard. Three of the episodes come from Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou, who have done a number of visual essays in the past under the name Every Frame a Painting and whose efforts here tend to follow a more traditional and historical-minded approach to their subjects with mixed results.

The six episodes cover an array of topics, ranging from broad examinations to close analysis of specific films the approaches similarly veer between the straightforward to the deeply personal.

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