Review: The Batman
The movie's whole idea seems to be that if Batman truly wanted to make Gotham a better place, he'd find some other way to do it, perhaps involving politics.
Reviews
Review: The Second Shooter
Despite caricaturing (some) gun owners, Nick Mamatas' conspiracy-fueled science fiction novel avoids moralizing in favor of dark humor.
Review: South Park
The veteran satirists tackle major issues in America's increasingly divisive culture war with no condescension, cringe, or partisan preference.
Review: Inventing Anna
Some critics have described Anna Delvey as a "symptom" of the "disease" of "capitalism"—not simply a selfish crook eager for money and fame.
Review: The Nineties: A Book
Culture critic Chuck Klosterman's latest covers Nirvana, the first Iraq war, American Beauty, Waco, VCRs, and Ross Perot.
Review: Justice Is…
Preet Bharara's new children's book, Justice Is... purports to be "a guide for young truth seekers."
Labor Econ Versus the World
Bryan Caplan's latest book covers the hypocrisy of unpaid collegiate internships and a defense of the professoriate against the charges of laziness.
The Book of Boba Fett
The Empire has dominated the Star Wars franchise's narrative, but the characters who inhabit that universe simply live their lives.
Ozark
A show about an American heartland scourged by black-market drugs, vice, politics, and bureaucratic power
Revenge at All Costs
The Iranian metal band Confess was charged with blasphemy and anti-government propaganda in 2015, before fleeing to Norway. Their latest album documents this experience.
Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy
The new documentary revisits the draconian political response to the crack cocaine "epidemic" of the 1980s.
The Wheel of Time
Looked at one way, it's a lesser Game of Thrones. Looked at another, it's a show about governance and social power in the absence of contemporary governmental institutions.
Four Hours at the Capitol
This new HBO documentary portrays the January 6 riot as more of a temper tantrum than an incipient coup.
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
When the multiplayer role-playing game hit the market in 2010, it was a disaster, panned by critics and series fans alike. But developers retooled it and it found a committed audience.
This Is Us
Randall's actions hint at the dark side of people who are just trying to make things better for everyone—regardless of whether their victims want the help.
Dopesick
The new Hulu miniseries promotes pernicious misconceptions about opioids, addiction, and pain treatment.
Arcane
The show details friction between the privileged innovators of a steampunk city and the impoverished slums underneath it.
Impeachment: American Crime Story
Ryan Murphy's take on the Clinton impeachment has a bipartisan message about the corrupting nature of power.
70 Over 70
A new podcast talks with a bunch of older people not just about their pasts, but about their perceptions of the present.
Dangerous Visions and New Worlds
An anthology looks back at science fiction's New Wave.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Larry David isn't afraid to lay bare how much of politics is about appeasing the masses.
Once a Bitcoin Miner
Crypto was a scene where people without proper credentials and connections in the world of high finance could strike it swiftly rich.
Trade Talks
A new podcast reminds us that even complicated macroeconomic issues can be fruitfully reduced to the sum of individual action.
The Eternals
The film is suffused with the patronizing notion that good superheroes are benign despots who know what's best for the rest of us.
Once Upon a Time at Bennington College
Lili Anolik weaves decades-old hot gossip into an insightful generational portrait of how media upheaval enabled fresh ways of telling stories.
Succession
The show eschews simplistic political commentary, choosing instead to spoof America's self-obsessed, self-dealing elites.
The Wall/El Muro
Pointing to famous walls in history, the exhibit acknowledges that the idea of borders is ancient—and regrettably, so is fear of foreigners.
The History and Politics of Public Radio
James T. Bennett's libertarian critique argues that noncommercial radio can be detached from the state—and that it's better that way.
White Lotus
The true villains of Mike White's new show are two Gen Z college students practicing militant wokeness.
Foundation
The TV adaptation of Isaac Asimov's classic trilogy is still fundamentally about the ways in which politics and objective truth inevitably clash.
Squid Game
The dystopian show portrays people caught up in South Korea's massive consumer debt culture.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
For the most part, the series' characters revere due process rights rather than seeing them as something to be trampled in pursuit of justice.
A Scientific Life on the Edge
Stanton Peele's memoir of his "lonely quest to change how we see addiction" contradicts the prejudices that still dominate the drug policy debate.
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Sally Rooney's books mix moderately annoying Marxism with moderately depressing sex and produce results much better than you'd expect.
The Best of Cold War Culture
Books, films, and more related to the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Loki
Even the most powerful cosmic demigod can be foiled by the even-more-powerful machinations of bureaucracy.
The Industrial Revolutions
The new podcast charts the changes to society wrought by mechanization, mass production, and scientific advancement.
The Chosen
Christian media has a track record of creating hopelessly bad productions, but Dallas Jenkins' TV series is a cut above.
The Family Firm
Context, tradeoffs, and preferences matter—both in parenting and outside of it.
The Sims 4: Cottage Living
You can finally set up a farm with crops and animals such as cows, llamas, and chickens—heedless of zoning rules!
The Innocence Files
Netflix's limited series documents how bad forensics, faulty witness testimony, and misconduct by police and prosecutors let us down.