Liam Mathews

Liam Mathews is the Watercooler's Senior Editor. He's written for Esquire, Gold Derby, TV Guide, and Fast Company, among other outlets. Previously, he was a Reviews and Recommendations Editor at TV Guide. Follow him on Twitter: @liamaathews.
Featured Image

Sexy Beasts

You know how Belle fell for that Beast, who was really just a Furry hiding a hot stud of a prince? That’s essentially the premise of this dating show, which may or may not be a parody of The Bachelor. Shop for your next date or your next pet and have a jolly good howl.

Featured Image

Halloween Kills

Halloween Kills is a worthy entry in the Halloween franchise. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s an above-average slasher movie that will get you in the spooky season mood.

Featured Image

What You Need to Know About Impeachment: American Crime Story

Each season of FX’s American Crime Story franchise, executive producer Ryan Murphy and his team of collaborators dramatize a true crime that dominated headlines in the ‘90s. It’s renowned for finding fresh, compelling angles that re-evaluate well-known stories while providing juicy parts for ambitious actors. The first season, The People v. O.J. Simpson, came out

Read More »
Featured Image

The Voyeurs

A fun, sexy revival of a lost genre with a modern twist. If you like movies that make you feel a little bit dirty for enjoying them, The Voyeurs will float your boat.

Featured Image

After the Dystopian Drama See, Get Inspired by the Blind Magician Documentary Dealt

Welcome to What to Watch After, where you’ll find recommendations inspired by your favorite dark shows and movies that the algorithm couldn’t come up with, and only a thinking human brain would suggest.  Instead of more disturbing dystopian serial killer horror, the Watercooler’s after-watch picks work as “palate cleansers” to help clear your head so

Read More »
Featured Image

If You Loved The White Lotus, Here Are Six Shows to Watch Next

A biting satire series from creator Mike White (Enlightened, School of Rock), White Lotus covers one eventful week at an exclusive Hawaiian luxury resort, where conflict brews between the spoiled rich guests — who are all going through personal crises that money might not be able to fix — and the stressed-out workers who have

Read More »
Featured Image

The North Water

A dark and intense historical saga, The North Water is not for everyone, but it’s a must-watch for fans of nautical period pieces and truly cinematic television.

Featured Image

Reservation Dogs

Reservation Dogs is a fresh comedy series from a community that’s never made a show like this before. It’s one of the best new comedies of the year so far.

Featured Image

She’s Gotta Have It

Free-spirited artist Nola Darling (DeWanda Wise) juggles three lovers while trying to stay true to herself in this sexy comedy-drama series that brings a timely update to Spike Lee’s 1986 film. A hidden gem that ran from 2017-2019, it’s waiting to be rediscovered on Netflix. 

Liam Mathews

Liam Mathews is the Watercooler's Senior Editor. He's written for Esquire, Gold Derby, TV Guide, and Fast Company, among other outlets. Previously, he was a Reviews and Recommendations Editor at TV Guide. Follow him on Twitter: @liamaathews.
Featured Image

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.

Featured Image

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.

Featured Image

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.

Featured Image

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.

Featured Image

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

Read More »
Featured Image

Itaewon Class (Itaewon Keullasseu)

A colorful, ultimately inspiring tale for budding entrepreneurs, restauranteurs, and empire-builders. It also works as a vicarious adventure in Seoul.

Featured Image

The Back-to-College Binge Watch Playlist

Remember when you could sleep until noon, stumble to class in pajamas, and stay up until 2am watching weird art films? Fall is when many of us become wistful about that bumpy chapter of extended adolescence, when you start to discover who you truly are and make some truly regrettable choices.   In honor of all

Read More »
Featured Image

Eddington is a pandemic parable. But what is it trying to say?

Set in May 2020 in a fictional New Mexico town, Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix’s new film Eddington draws some parallels to two of the biggest breakout shows of the past decade: The Last of Us and The Walking Dead. It’s a story about a virus that’s less about death and more about exposing the living.

Read More »
Featured Image

A Watercooler Watch: Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything

Before social media and podcasts, there was one undeniable truth about news-making interviews: if a story mattered, Barbara Walters would be the one to tell it. Landing a one-on-one with her didn’t just mean publicity, it meant you had become part of a national conversation. But while the interview signified that you had made it,

Read More »
2 what-you-need-to-know-about-impeachment-american-crime-story
Featured Image

A Need to Know Guide to Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

The first streaming series in the Godzilla monsterverse is an epic story that straddles two timelines and three generations — explaining the origin story of the people who have studied the colossal creatures over the past 70 years.

Featured Image

20-Something & Figuring it Out: A Post-College Watchlist

I’ve grown accustomed to seeing people my age on screen. The problem is, 23-year-olds are usually playing high schoolers. And while I’ve relished the avalanche of shows and movies about high school’s clique-ridden trials, and even the few that explore college’s rich landscape by College Watchlist, I was ready for something that reflected my own

Read More »
Featured Image

The Adjustment Bureau

An underrated sci-fi thriller that explores free will, destiny, and soulmates, The Adjustment Bureau is an ideal date night movie, blending action and heartfelt performances with big themes that prompt conversation.

Featured Image

If You Were the Last

Though it’s squarely a rom-com, If You Were the Last will pique the curiosity of the sci-fi lover. It’s a date night movie with an undeniable sweetness that never crosses over to cheesy. 

Featured Image

Killers of the Flower Moon

An epic historical drama about an unsettling chapter in American history, Killers of the Flower Moon presents a captivating narrative with exceptional performances that keep you engaged throughout its three and a half hour duration. You’ll be hearing about this one throughout the awards season.

Featured Image

Fair Play

A psychosexual thriller with equal parts boardroom and bedroom drama, Fair Play has elements of a gender issue parable in the vein of Promising Young Woman while feeling truer to the thriller genre. With plenty of Watercooler-worthy moments, it has already inspired plenty of social media discourse. Get in while the getting’s fresh.

Featured Image

“Bargain” Showrunner on the Subtext You Might Miss

It’s been described by critics as “bonkers” (EW) with parallels to Squid Game (NYT), and the dark, binge-worthy disaster series earned high praise from audiences at Cannes Series, the TV equivalent of the Cannes Film Festival. Bargain begins with a group of strangers who have gathered at a mysterious remote motel.  The men have been

Read More »
Featured Image

Movies to Watch After a Breakup

They say two things in life are inevitable: death and taxes. I argue that there is a third inevitability: Movies for a Breakup. No matter how you protect your heart, if you care for someone you will have your heart broken in time. It doesn’t matter if you are the one ending the relationship or

Read More »
Featured Image

The Conversations Project

A revealing series that will shed some new light and spark conversations in your own life. As producer Raina Kelley sums up to the New York Times: “At its most important, it’s basically an example nowadays of how to have a civil conversation.”

Scroll to Top