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.
Reviews
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.
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.
Review: The Big Break Documents Trump's Washington
Washington Post reporter Ben Terris offers a fair treatment to both conservative and liberal activists in the Trump era.
Review: Wonder Boy Chronicles the Life and Death of Former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh
A new book handles the ill-fated CEO's story with respect.
Review: The Covenant Dramatizes the Plight of Afghan Interpreters
Jake Gyllenhaal stars in a film that criticizes the U.S. immigration system.
Review: Unstable Is a Futurist Comedy
A biotech lab led by a lightly fictionalized alternate version of Rob Lowe works to save the world.
Review: The Peculiar Politics of Killer Mike
The rapper is a Bernie Sanders supporter who speaks out about gun rights and free speech.
Review: Did the Waco Siege Inspire More Violence? Showtime Series Explores the Question
The assault on Mount Carmel was meant to bolster the ATF's reputation. It failed.
Review: In Baby J, John Mulaney Contends With His Post-Rehab Image
What happens when a "wife guy" divorces his wife?
Review: Jury Duty Offers a (Fake) Look Inside the Justice System
A supposedly sacred duty devolves into much ado about ordering lunch.
Review: Choose Your Own Adventure in American Futures
The author, whose libertarian leanings are evident, makes readers consider the impact of the choices they make in the voting booth.
Review: Ithaka Chronicles the Fight To Save Julian Assange
"If he goes down, so will journalism," Assange's father John Shipton says in the documentary.
Review: How Tetris Escaped the Iron Curtain
The Apple TV+ film tells the story of an entrepreneur who helped bring a Soviet designer's game to the world.
Review: Computer-Generated Art, Decades Before Midjourney
Futuristically thrilling but aesthetically limited
Review: Ash Ketchum Was a Free-Range Kid
In the Pokemon universe, there's no central government and vital social services are provided by informal clubs.
Review: A Lesson on Political Ambition From Dungeons & Dragons Movie
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is more Rob Reiner than J.R.R. Tolkien.
Review: Henry George's Many Children
The 19th century reformer's influence on 20th century progressives, conservatives, and libertarians
Review: Animal Control Pokes Fun at Real-World Policing Problems
Asset forfeiture isn't funny—but what if it involves tripping bunnies and psychedelic mushrooms?
Review: National Shrine Celebrates St. John Paul II as a Freedom Fighter
Too few remember the pope's opposition to Polish building regulation.
Review: Everything I Need I Get from You Gives a Fangirl's View of the Internet
Author Kaitlyn Tiffany offers a history of fandoms.
Review: The Man Who Hacked the World Captures the Chaos of John McAfee
Author Alex Cody Foster went deep with McAfee for months in an ill-fated attempt to ghostwrite his memoir.
Review: Imperfect Victims Documents Women Who Are Prosecuted for Defending Themselves
Author Leigh Goodmark's end goals of abolishing prisons and defunding police are hard to swallow.
Review: Bragg Brothers' Pinball Depicts Repeal of the Game's Ban in New York City
Politicians in the last century accused pinball of being mob activity.
Review: Poker Face Puts a Modern Spin on Old-School Detective Shows
Knives Out director Rian Johnson offers a twisted vision of the American economy as one populated by makers and moochers.
Review: The Last of Us Humanizes Libertarian Survivalists
Human bonds transcend ideology in the HBO series.
Review: Endangered Documentary Exaggerates Threats to U.S. Journalists
The HBO movie muddies important distinctions.
Review: M3GAN Meets the Demand for Tech Panic
Predictably, the machine-learning robot starts killing.
Review: Nothing, Forever Is Funny, but Not the Way Seinfeld Is Funny
In one sequence, the Jerry Seinfeld stand-in stood onstage at a comedy club for minutes without saying a word.
Review: Victoria 3 Lacks Spontaneous Order
The video game is a 100-year simulation of the Victorian era where the player has centralized control over the government of their chosen country.
Review: The Menu Is Another Movie Mocking Wealthy People
In this film, it's mean and funny enough to work.
Review: Egg Is a Theory of Everything
The book's 12 thematic chapters are dense and rich—like flan, but good.
Review: The White Lotus Explores the Misery of Wealth
The HBO series features what Ayn Rand would call "second-handers."
Review: You Must Remember This Grapples With the Dangers of Nostalgia
A new novel by Reason contributor Kat Rosenfield
Review: The Progressive Backlash Against Influencer Moms
Momfluenced bemoans unrealistic expectations set on American mothers but then establishes new ones.
Review: I Saw Humans Working at the 'Automated' McDonald's
McDonald's invested in some spiffy new toys, but almost everything else stayed the same.
Review: The Clumsy Anti-Muskism of Glass Onion
Hating tech billionaires is The Current Thing.
Review: Are Memes Upending Democracy?
In Meme Wars, so-called "disinformation" experts call for the suppression of more ideas and speakers to protect democracy.
Review: Pelosi in the House Is a Nepotistic Puff Piece
The glowing documentary makes no mention of her failures or even shortcomings as speaker.
Review: The Army of the Potomac Trilogy Brings Together Bruce Catton's 3 Civil War Chronicles
These superb books recount events from the viewpoints of both soldier and statesman, providing a greater understanding of the why and how of the Civil War.
Review: Mastodon Decentralizes Social Media
Elon Musk’s shambolic takeover may not have been great for Twitter, but it was fantastic for Mastodon.
Review: Raising the Bar Brings the Cocktail Revolution Home
Jacob Grier and Brett Adams help aspiring home bartenders build a bar via a carefully sequenced collection of about two dozen bottles.
Review: Mother Country Radicals Spotlights the Weather Underground
Perhaps unintentionally, this podcast holds up a mirror to the social justice movements of today.
Review: Gangsters vs. Nazis Greenlights Meeting Speech With Violence
Praising violence as a response to speech we don't like is a hallmark not of admirable Americanism but of oppressive regimes like Hitler’s.
Review: The Crown Pits British Tradition Against Reform
The lightly fictionalized historical drama shows that it’s hard for staid institutions to grow and change with the times, especially when they aren’t forced to.
Review: Inside Job Reinvents the Workplace Comedy
The Netflix show ostensibly satirizes government control, but it is not made for anyone truly suspicious of government power.
Review: 'How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex'
Samantha Cole's book is marred by vague animosity toward tech companies.
