The Worlds of Ashley Stangl

Now that July is behind us, I thought I'd do a bit of a wrap-up of the media I've consumed this month. There's something about July that makes fiction especially enjoyable for me. A book or show that would be enjoyable at any other time of year becomes an obsession if I discover it in July. There's just something about this time of year that makes me more likely to delve deeply into fictional worlds and characters, and I have a few new obsessions to share. White Collar   This USA show has been on my radar for a long time. I figured I would like it, because I love stories about art thieves.  But when I watched the pilot on Netflix, it was more than just enjoyable. It was EVERYTHING I LOVE and it SPOKE TO MY SOUL. Neil is a delight--the charming, clever and snappily-dressed criminal who breezes through life on one scheme after another. His dynamic with Peter, the cop who worked for years to catch him and now has to solve mysteries with him, is fantastic. Plus, the...

"Finding Nemo" is possibly my favorite Pixar movie, so I was skeptical when "Finding Dory" was announced. "Finding Nemo" needed nothing more. A sequel would only dilute its power. But the more I heard about the film, the more I believed that this wasn't just a cash grab, that Pixar might just have a good story to tell.  I wasn't disappointed. Though "Finding Nemo" remains a perfect film in and of itself, "Finding Dory" adds a new angle that enriches the story in ways I'd never considered. The plot is simple: A year after the first movie, Dory is living happily with Marlin and Nemo, when her faulty memory suddenly allows her to remember the parents she lost years ago. The three fish cross the ocean and search for her parents in the Marine Life Institute, a fish hospital in California. They meet new characters and run into several mishaps along the way, all of which are very amusing, leading to a glorious, over-the-top cli...