
Lara Kristin Herndon

RRR
A wild, breathtaking, high-octane action blockbuster from India that’s also a parable about the dignity of mankind and the fight for independence and self-rule.

Cowboy Bebop
A strange, poignant and funny adventure with amazing music, a talented cast, and beautifully detailed costumes and sets, the live action Cowboy Bebop adaptation makes you nostalgic for the original—hey, guess what’s also streaming on Netflix? All 26 original episodes!

Last Night in Soho
Last Night in Soho takes horror and coming-of-age tropes and subverts them in a stylish thriller that has more depth than meets the eye.

Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha
With a pretty, beach-y setting, two adorable leads, and a host of beguiling small-town characters, this is K-drama-as-comfort-food.

Muhammad Ali
There’s no better focal point to examine the turbulent racial, religious, cultural, and political currents that shook America throughout the 1960s and 70s than Ken Burns’ Muhammad Ali. Ali transcended the narrow theater of sport to become, for a time, the most famous man alive.

Gossip Girl (2021)
With a witty script packed with up-to-the-second cultural references and tear-jerking teen angst, a gorgeous cast, and a sumptuously-lit Manhattan for a backdrop, the show is a diverting addition to the teen-drama pantheon

Start-Up (Seutateueop)
Every great success starts small. But if you don’t fix the bugs in the source code, they can come back to haunt you later—in life and in start-ups.

Aggretsuko (Aggressive Retsuko)
What if Pam from The Office was secretly a head-banging heavy-metal girl by night? Created by the team behind Hello Kitty, this animated Japanese series has become an international hit.

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
Is it technically a silly stoner comedy from the early 2000s? Yes. But it’s also about the struggles of being young, what it means to “figure things out,” and how you should exit your comfort zone to embrace both youth and maturity.

Fruitvale Station
Based on a true story, the film is a poignant and powerful snapshot of a life interrupted, cut brutally short without warning.

Time: The Kalief Browder Story
This series that goes behind the headlines to get to the raw truths about what happened to 16-year-old Kalief Browder, who ended up in Rikers for three years for allegedly stealing a backpack.

The North Pole
A metaphor for the effects of gentrification, complete with endangered native “species”—the human population.

Kingdom
Packed with horror, action and gore, not to mention a deeper exploration of political game. Season 2’s story focuses on the power struggles amid an epidemic.

Little Fires Everywhere
A series full of powerful lines and dramatic turns that would give the cast of Desperate Housewives a run for their money.

White Lines
While it might leave you with an Ibiza-worthy hangover, jerking you from over-the-top 90s debauchery to telenovela murder mystery to a steamy beach romance, White Lines can also be a tense and transporting caper that might just lure you into an EDM style trance.

Artificial: Remote Intelligence
Ever wanted to jump into Westworld or Ex Machina and redirect a story arc or two? Wishing there was a character you could relate to or just one you could play puppet master to? Here’s your chance to jump in.

Dead to Me
At a time when there is too much actual death everywhere in real life, Dead to Me is a tonic with both the unapologetic sharpness of the humor combined with its emotional groundedness.

The Something for Everyone Show: Poker Face is Back
Can’t agree on what to watch together? Consider putting on your Poker Face. Peacock’s acclaimed mystery-of-the-week series created by Rian Johnson (best known for Star Wars: The Last Jedi and, most relevant here, the Glass Onion films) and starring Natasha Lyonne, is finally back for another season after two long years. That’s great news for

It’s not HBO, it’s The Pitt: How streamers are embracing old TV network models
“It’s not TV, it’s HBO.” Remember that old tagline? For nearly all of its history, broadcast television has been fighting against the perception that it’s subordinate to film as a storytelling medium. Television was just media for the masses, as opposed to the more erudite aficionados of cinema (who, by the way, poured into theaters

Boyhood
Boyhood captures the importance of moments in time as people grow up and contests the idea that any singular moment is defining to your childhood. It’s a film filled with the full breadth of the emotions of childhood, conveying each one delicately to leave you reflecting on its many pensive conversations.

Why Andor is Luring in Non-Star Wars Fans
An edgier Star Wars prequel with a timely story about rebellion, Andor skips some of the more familiar elements of the franchise — from lightsabers to Jedi to the Force — in favor of a more grounded story with parallels in both history and our current moment. While it sets up the legendary world of

Inside the War Zone: A sit down with Warfare’s director and cast
A harrowing new film from Alex Garland’s production banner, Warfare drops viewers into a real-time combat mission in Iraq. Set in 2006, it follows a team of Navy SEALs on a surveillance mission gone awry. Co-written and co-directed by Garland and Ray Mendoza—whose own platoon was ambushed during the real-life event—the film is both brutal

Black Bag
A taut, stylish and steamy take on the high-stakes espionage thriller, Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag keeps you second-guessing every character’s motives until the very end. The tension, the suspicion, the sense that the walls are closing in? It’s all here.