Laurie Ulster
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
If you love the idea of an old-fashioned Star Trek that lives up to today’s standards of inclusion and diversity (so, minus the ‘60s sexism), this is going to be right up your alley.
Watching Star Trek: Picard? Binge These Q and Guinan Episodes First
Q (John de Lancie) and Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) are back in S2 of Star Trek: Picard, so let’s revisit the memorable TNG episodes featuring these two fan-favorite characters.
Abbott Elementary
Abbott Elementary will catch you off guard and surprise you. It captures the balance between comedy and heart, much like its mockumentary predecessors—but with a new spin, because the work these characters are doing truly matters.
The Center Seat
A combination of a deep dive and a crash course into Star Trek from its inception up through the early 2000s, covering the shows, movies, and the phenomenon itself.
Star Trek: Prodigy
The values of Star Trek, and then some: unity, diversity, individuality, optimism, idealism and hope. What more could you ask for? How about the return of Captain Janeway? Yeah, it’s got that too.
Star Trek: Lower Decks
An action-packed sci-fi comedy set in a Star Trek universe that it both reveres and lovingly mocks.
Why Star Trek: Picard Works Better as a Binge
To understand the power of the Star Trek franchise, binge watch Picard. The time is right.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, a Musical About Grief, Is Perfect for Our Time
At its heart, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is a musical about navigating grief. Because of that, it makes a beeline through the clutter of my thoughts and reaches straight into my heart.
Laurie Ulster
The Classic Film Education in Colin Farrell’s Sugar
The classic film education in Colin Ferrell’s Apple TV+ detective series “Sugar” has something to tell us. Our writer Felipe Patterson breaks them down and sheds light on their cultural significance.
What Franklin Can Teach Us About Diplomacy
As conflicts rage on across the world and the need for diplomacy rises, the new Apple TV+ series Franklin — about America’s first diplomat — offers lessons for our times, as a former speechwriter for the US Ambassador to the UN explains.
The Big Door Prize
A fresh, lighthearted comedy that doubles as a philosophical sci-fi mystery, The Big Door Prize’s biggest question is that regardless of how much we have, are we ever truly satisfied? And that’s a poignant query in our consumer-driven, must-document-every-moment-on-social-media world.
You’re the Worst
Through the eyes of two cynics who seem doomed to be alone, You’re the Worst embraces the complexity of modern relationships and the many emotional layers they surface. It’s also an accurate and empathetic portrait of what it’s like to live with clinical depression.
The stars of Manhunt on the history we did not learn
It’s a story that none of us learned in history classes, and it unfolds as a taut, complex conspiracy thriller — one that raises all new questions. Set in 1865, Manhunt focuses on the aftermath of one of America’s most tragic events: the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. With all of the biopics, TV shows, and
The Iron Claw
A moving and nostalgic homage to the sport of wrestling and one of its most beloved families, Iron Claw will fully immerse you into an era and a world that many misunderstand, ultimately telling a story about the potency of a family’s bonds.
Your Seasonal Mood Lift Movie Watchlist
How to cure your Season Mood funk? These 10 movies and TV series will lift you out of your winter blues and inspire your next vacation.
Transport Me: The Best International Horror Movies
Most horror aficionados have seen the American classics and their derivatives: The Shining, The Exorcist, all the Halloween movies, or the other big franchises. Disturbing in their own ways, American horror often follows predictable patterns and tropes. If you’re ready to explore some new worlds and watch something unexpected, it’s time to head overseas. Each
A Conversation Guide to Oscars’ Best Picture Contenders
It’s been nearly 30 years since a blockbuster won the big prize at the Academy Awards. The year Titanic won, in 1998, 57 million people tuned in for the awards show. Compare that to the 10.4 million who watched the 2021 ceremony, the year after Covid sunk the theatrical movie business, and you can see
What to Watch with your Roommates
It’s difficult to share your home with someone you don’t share anything else with. But one of the easiest inroads to friendship is television, and one of the joys of living with others is introducing them to the shows you love, and vice versa. Watching Carrie meet Big for the first time with my new-to-the-show
Holiday Movies to Watch with Each Generation
Deciding what to watch with your family over the holidays is akin to playing Mario Kart. You can be in first place, cruising along when BAM! One of those pesky red shells hit you and now you’re in last place. One minute, you’re sitting down for dinner and everything’s running smoothly, then someone turns on
Transport Me: Holiday Movies from Around the World
If you and your family are getting tired of the same old Christmas stories year after year, why not dig a little deeper and try these picks from around the world?
What to Watch (and Skip) with Thanksgiving Guests
What to watch – and what to skip – if you’re spending Thanksgiving with kids, teenagers, older generations, or all of them under one roof? Your 2022 Watercooler Guide to holiday movies.
Universal Language
An absurdist dramedy about the clash of two worlds, Universal Language entertains as much as it motivates. Beyond the madness lies an urgent plea for unity, an appeal that resonates with people hoping for a better, more harmonious future.
Industry S1
Industry is a series fueled by greed, drugs, sex, and money, and provides all of these ingredients in Federal Reserve-sized quantities. There’s never a dull moment.
Minx
The streaming series about the intersection between feminism and smut could endear even the most skeptical. And what it might lack in delicacy, it certainly makes up for in swagger.
The Sympathizer
Told through the perspective of a conflicted hero with contradicting loyalties, The Sympathizer is an ambitious examination of a spy who can’t help but sympathize — hence, the title of the series — with the enemy. It might make you rethink everything you were taught about the Vietnam War too.
Robert Redford’s Impact: Four Films to Watch
He was “one of the lions,” as Meryl Streep put it, an American touchstone who changed filmmaking and opened the gates for new generations of storytellers, becoming a central force in independent cinema. To understand the impact his films have had – on previous generations, on our culture, on so many other films – we’ve