We’ve reached the 9.3rd anniversary of Fifty Shades of Grey , an event of such significance to warrant lodging it in the Netflix Top 10 for a while – there’s surely no higher honor for this thing. The infamous Fifty Shades pop-cultural saga began with the 2011 publication of E.
L. James’ novel of the same title, which began as Twilight fan fiction and eventually became the naughtiest must-read for bored suburbanites harboring FORBIDDEN S&M yearnings – yearnings rendered in such atrocious prose, it had to be intentional. HAD to be.
The book’s success inspired two sequels and therefore three movie adaptations starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, playing Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, two characters almost recognizable as human beings whose romantic relationship made no sense whatsoever but some nevertheless found tantalizing – ironically or otherwise – because their bedroom activities occasionally featured ballgags and butt plugs. Here I pause to note how Time once crowned James one of the 100 most influential people of 2012, and notable critics called the Fifty Shades phenomenon a “society-shifting cultural event.” I don’t bring this up to mock these assertions as ridiculous, but rather, to point out how they were actually sort of true, as life on Earth was considerably better before Fifty Shades existed.
It sure doesn’t seem like coincidence. FIFTY SHADES OF GREY : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? The Gist: The setting: another planet, possibly a wholly.
