Review: Netflix's Real-Life Spinoff Can't Recreate Squid Game's Allure
In Squid Game: The Challenge, contestants don't really risk their lives.
Entertainment
Review: Photographic Glimpses at 20th Century Roots Music
Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz's photos document blues, country, and Cajun music.
Review: Ken Burns Explains the Anti–Native American Plot To Kill Bison
The American Buffalo documentary charts the fall and rise of American bison.
Review: Netflix Delivers a Surprisingly Balanced Take on Vaping
Big Vape presents differing views on the supposed youth vaping epidemic.
The Best of Reason: Comedy's Truthiness Problem
Hasan Minhaj’s stand-up tests the boundaries of fact and fiction.
Review: Exposing a Broken Juvenile Court System
Kids were jailed for minor offenses, as detailed in The Kids of Rutherford County podcast.
Comedy's Truthiness Problem
Hasan Minhaj’s stand-up tests the boundaries of fact and fiction.
Review: Loki Reckons With the Peril of Power
In the second season of his eponymous Marvel series, Loki becomes both more human and more godlike.
Review: A Teen Dramedy on a Native American Reservation
The government abuse that precipitated Native American social woes is not directly discussed in Reservation Dogs.
AI Fraud Act Could Outlaw Parodies, Political Cartoons, and More
The bill is broad enough to target a Saturday Night Live skit lampooning Trump, a comedic impression of Taylor Swift, or a weird ChatGPT-generated image of Ayn Rand.
Review: A Fitting End to Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan is ultimately an anime about what it means to be free.
Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron Is a Dream-Like Swan Song for a Great Animated Filmmaker
A magical, mysterious deeply personal movie about creation and legacy. And also, murder parrots.
Review: Craig Robinson's Extremely Florida Sitcom
Killing It mocks capitalism, but at least it's funny.
Review: When Pirates Take Over Tampa
Real pirates terrorized the Gulf Coast. These modern pirates just want to have fun.
Review: The Album That Helped Make Florida the Epicenter of Death Metal
Death's 1990 Spiritual Healing paints a right-wing culture warrior’s nightmare vision of America.
Review: How To Live to 100
It's not as easy as Netflix's Secrets of the Blue Zones makes it seem.
Review: Painkiller Falls for Drug War Misconceptions
The series foregrounds cases of OxyContin addiction, despite their rarity.
Review: Blind Plea Only Scratches the Surface of Plea Bargains
Host Liz Flock delivers a compelling narrative but misses chances to interrogate the justice system.
Review: Ahsoka Rejects Star Wars' Good-vs.-Evil Binary
George Lucas divided his universe into light and dark. Dave Filoni is dissolving that worldview.
David Fincher's The Killer Is a Subtly Funny Movie About a Loser Assassin
Despite Fincher's reputation as a gloom-monger, his movies are often quite bleakly funny, and his lonely, agitated male loser characters are frequently the targets of the jokes.
Review: When a Fentanyl Thief Slipped Through the Cracks, Women Suffered
A New York Times podcast tells a story about both the drug war and institutional incompetence.
Review: A Podcast With Lighthearted Takes on Grim Historical Events
In The Rest Is History, two historians strike a pleasing balance between fact-dense narratives and witty banter.
Review: Netflix Offers a Too-Lighthearted Take on Becoming a Cult Leader
Narrator Peter Dinklage takes viewers through a step-by-step process for becoming the next Jim Jones.
Review: A Vampire Mockumentary Takes on Local Politics
“It’s really no surprise, the amount of energy vampires in politics," says a fictional candidate for Staten Island comptroller.
SAG-AFTRA's Halloween Costume Rules Are Super Annoying
The union wants you to throw your Barbie costume in the trash, scab.
Review: Slow Burn Steps Inside the House at the Center of Clarence Thomas Controversy
A podcast about a man everyone already has an opinion about.
Is It Time To Trust-Bust Taylor Swift?
The pop singer's new concert film inadvertently makes the case for big businesses with sweeping market power.
Review: They Cloned Tyrone Draws on Old CIA Conspiracy Theories
The political commentary in Netflix's sci-fi comedy isn't exactly subtle.
Review: Who Really Wrote Little House on the Prairie?
Did Laura Ingalls Wilder's libertarian daughter have an outsize role in crafting the beloved children's series?
Review: Silo Shows the Perils of Authoritarian Hierarchies
Leaders depicted in the Apple TV+ series outlaw "relics" of the past, even including PEZ dispensers.
Review: Shiny Happy People Charts the Downfall of the Duggar Family
The Amazon miniseries examines the Institute in Basic Life Principles, focusing on the Duggar family and its multiple sex abuse scandals.
Taylor Swift, Junk Fees, and the 'Happy Meal Fallacy'
Thank Swifties, not Joe Biden, for Ticketmaster's consumer-friendly pricing policy.
Review: White House Plumbers Delivers an Amusing Take on Watergate
This retelling of the Nixon scandal is more in the style of Leslie Nielsen than Robert Redford.
The Best of Reason: The Pirate Preservationists
When keeping cultural archives safe means stepping outside the law.
Review: In The Bear, a Restaurateur Battles Government Bureaucracy
A Chicago sandwich shop's survival depends on cutting through red tape.
Review: Alphabet Boys Explores Federal Cops' Manufactured Crimes
A new podcast asks whether federal agents are catching bad guys or creating them.
The Pirate Preservationists
When keeping cultural archives safe means stepping outside the law
Review: Unstable Is a Futurist Comedy
A biotech lab led by a lightly fictionalized alternate version of Rob Lowe works to save the world.
