Sarah Osman
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.
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
AlRawabi School for Girls
AlRawabi School for Girls is a binge-worthy teen drama that is not only well written, but features a stellar cast of newcomers. While the plot is fairly universal, the insight it offers into Jordanian culture is what makes it stand out.
Eye-Openers: Oscar’s Best Documentary Contenders
Often overlooked in the sea of awards season glitz, the Academy’s finalists in the Best Documentary category become history’s time capsules. Many of them have also proven to be prophetic, exposing insights and issuing forewarnings from the front lines of urgent issues, from climate change (An Inconvenient Truth) to gun control (Bowling for Columbine) to
Why Watch the Emmys? We Found 25 Reasons
You’d be forgiven if you didn’t know that the “Oscars of Television” were happening Monday, January 15th (8pm ET/ 5pm PT on Fox and FXX). That’s because they were pushed four months from their usual September date, thanks to the actors and writers strikes, and it’s been a mad scramble to hype all of the
What to Watch on Your Flights This Holiday Season
Airline entertainment options can seem like the discount racks at Marshall’s — a hodge podge of last season’s cast offs and Weird Barbie concoctions that haven’t exactly considered your frame of mind and fellow flyers. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find some treasures. They’re just hard to spot based on those one sentence
Sarah Mina Osman
A Tourist’s Guide to Love
A charming, transporting escape watch for anyone looking for a feel-good romcom that invites you to add Vietnam to your travel bucket list … and to learn to take life, and love, as it comes.
The Exchange
A smart, unique workplace drama set in wealthy 80s Kuwait, The Exchange drops us into a vibrant world we haven’t seen before and looks at it through the eyes of the only two women working at the Kuwaiti stock exchange.
6 Timely Diplomacy Lessons from Netflix’s New #1 Show
In the midst of all the hype about a dating show (Love is Blind) and a dark, LA-set comedy (Beef), a complex political drama that requires undivided attention rose to the top of the Netflix chart by Diplomacy Lessons From Netflixs: The Diplomat. At its core, it’s a series about bureaucratic machinations, yet the show
A Watercooler Guide to Jump in to Barry
A Watercooler catch up guide to HBO’s dark comedy, Barry, including the need to know on the characters, previous seasons, and what to expect for the fourth and final season.
Beef
The filet mignon of stories about pettiness and hostility, Beef takes a darkly comedic look at how anger can be a source of motivation and creativity when channeled properly. It works as a vicariously vent for our own frustrations: nasty yet somehow therapeutic.
Tiny Beautiful Things
Tiny Beautiful Things promises small and delivers big — one woman’s life refracts into universal ponderings about love, death, and parenting. Come for Kathryn Hahn’s magnetic performance, and stay for the series’ delightful and relatable particularity.
What to Watch Next? April Highlights
From the hotly anticipated to the sneaker hit, and a hotly anticipated hit about sneakers (forgive me), this weekend is filled to the brim with worthy premieres. The Affleck/Damon duo is back, musical theater lovers are well-fed with Schmigadoon’s return, and a deserving band gets a deserving tribute. Let us help you sort out your weekend
A Grammy Salute to the Beach Boys
A stirring all-star tribute concert honoring the Beach Boys, who brought love and joy for so many in their commercial peak of the Sixties, and received it back from talents like John Legend, Brandi Carlisle, Charlie Pluth – and so many more.
Jon Stewart and the Evolution of Satire
“Evolution of Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful.”— Molly Ivins Comedy has the potential to be the great equalizer. And no one has wielded the power of humor as compellingly as Jon Stewart. The godfather of righteous outrage, the former MTV host was instrumental in bringing investigative comedy to mainstream
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.
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.
Rising Star: Our Interview with Dune & The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare‘s Babs Olusanmokun
He is best known for his recent breakout sci-fi roles – from the fierce fighter Doctor M’Benga in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to Jamis – the Freman and best friend to the protagonist Paul – in Dune Parts One and Two. But Babs Olusanmokun has been acting for two decades. A Nigerian-American who speaks
From Aristocrat to Waiter in a Grand Hotel: A Gentleman in Moscow
It’s 1920s Moscow, four years after the start of the Russian Revolution. The aristocracy has been put on trial, staring down their inevitable doom. Count Alexander Rostov, a Russian aristocrat, is sentenced by a Bolshevik tribunal for “social parasitism” — the crime of living off of the efforts of others. His fate is surely death,
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.
The Classic Film Education in Colin Farrell’s Sugar
If you solely go by the trailer, Colin Farrell’s new Apple TV series might seem like a familiar L.A. noir: A private detective named John Sugar gets hired by a legendary Hollywood producer to investigate the disappearance of his granddaughter, and soon finds himself unraveling a wicked web of family secrets. Apple TV+ A genre
A Career Reinvention Watchlist
As layoffs continue in the wake of a year of ominous headlines about the bots who are replacing us, a recent EY report found that over 70% of employees are reeling from AI anxiety. That actually sounds low. The idea of having to concoct a new livelihood – one that won’t be taken over by
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