culture

Marvel rings in new year with Wonder Man trailer

culture, Disney Plus, Entertainment, marvel studios, streaming television, Trailers, Wonder Man / DJ Henderson / January 1, 2026

Marvel Studios decided to ring in the new year with a fresh trailer for Wonder Man, its eight-episode miniseries premiering later this month on Disney+. Part of the MCU’s Phase Six, the miniseries was created by Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of Five Rings) and Andrew Guest (Hawkeye), with Guest serving as showrunner.

As previously reported, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars as Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, an actor and stunt person with actual superpowers who decides to audition for the lead role in a superhero TV series—a reboot of an earlier Wonder Man incarnation. Demetrius Grosse plays Simon’s brother, Eric, aka Grim Reaper; Ed Harris plays Simon’s agent, Neal Saroyan; and Arian Moayed plays P. Clearly, an agent with the Department of Damage Control. Lauren Glazier, Josh Gad, Byron Bowers, Bechir Sylvain, and Manny McCord will also appear in as-yet-undisclosed roles

Rounding out the cast is Ben Kingsley, reprising his MCU role as failed actor Trevor Slattery. You may recall Slattery from 2013’s Iron Man 3, hired by the villain of that film to pretend to be the leader of an international terrorist organization called the Ten Rings.Slattery showed up again in 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,rehabilitated after a stint in prison; he helped the titular Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) on his journey to the mythical village of Ta Lo.

A one-minute teaser that leaned into the meta-humor was released just before New York Comic Con last fall, followed by a full trailer during the event itself which mostly laid out the premise as Simon prepared to audition for his dream role. The new trailer repackages some of that footage, except Simon is asked to sign a form stating that he doesn’t have superpowers. The problem is that he does, and the stress of the audition and the acting process itself brings those superpowers to the fore in explosive fashion. So the “Department of Damage Control” naturally declares Simon an “extraordinary threat.”

Wonder Man premieres on Disney+ on January 27, 2026.

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Film Technica: Our top picks for the best films of 2025

best of 2025, culture, Entertainment, Features, films / DJ Henderson / January 1, 2026

lighting up the silver screen

Streamers made a strong showing this year, as did horror. Big tentpoles, superhero sagas mostly fell flat.

Credit: Collage by Aurich Lawson

Editor’s note: Warning: Although we’ve done our best to avoid spoiling anything too major, please note this list does include a few specific references that some might consider spoiler-y.

It’s been a strange year for movies. Most of the big, splashy tentpole projects proved disappointing, while several more modest films either produced or acquired by streaming platforms—and only briefly released in theaters—wound up making our year-end list. This pattern was not intentional. But streaming platforms have been increasingly moving into the film space with small to medium-sized budgets—i.e., the kind of fare that used to be commonplace but has struggled to compete over the last two decades as blockbusters and elaborate superhero franchises dominated the box office.

Add in lingering superhero fatigue—only one superhero saga made our final list this year—plus Netflix’s controversial bid to acquire Warner Bros., and we just might be approaching a sea change in how movies are made and distributed, and by whom. How this all plays out in the coming year is anybody’s guess.

As always, we’re opting for an unranked list, with the exception of our “year’s best” selection at the very end—this year it’s a three-way tie—so you might look over the variety of genres and options and possibly add surprises to your eventual watchlist. We invite you to head to the comments and add your own favorite films released in 2025.

Ballerina

determined young woman holding a flame thrower. — Credit: Lionsgate

Ana de Armas proves herself a fierce and lethal adversary against a cultish syndicate in Ballerina—excuse me, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. Chronologically, Ballerina takes place during the events of John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum. That film gave us a glimpse into John Wick’s (Keanu Reeves) past as he sought aid from the Ruska Roma crime syndicate, led by the Director (Anjelica Huston), where he was trained as an assassin. The Director also trains girls to be ballerina-assassins, one of whom is Eve Macarro (de Armas).

Like Wick, Eve is driven by a personal vendetta: the brutal murder of her father when she was still a child by highly trained and heavily armed assassins. The Director warns Eve that this is a rogue group of lawless cultists and orders her not to pursue the matter. But vengeance will be Eve’s, no matter the cost, as she hunts down the cultists and their enigmatic leader, the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne).

Ballerina has all the eye-popping visuals, lavish sets, and spectacularly inventive stuntwork one would expect from a film set in the John Wick universe. It’s more tightly plotted than recent entries in the franchise, and the globe-trotting locations make narrative sense; it’s not just an excuse for staging a spectacle. As always, the fight choreography is perfection. Eve is smaller than most of the men she takes on, but that doesn’t make her any less deadly, particularly when she’s more than willing to fight dirty. A fight scene with dueling flame throwers is one for the ages. Despite a few minor quibbles, Ballerina is an immensely entertaining and action-packed addition to the franchise.

—Jennifer Ouellette

The Baltimorons

Man in silly hat in front of xmas tree mugging for camera while a woman looks on, rolling her eyes — Credit: IFC

The Baltimorons is a quirky holiday love story about an unlikely pair who find each other by happenstance over the holidays. Didi (Liz Larsen) is a divorced middle-aged dentist whose ex-husband has just gotten married to his much-younger girlfriend—on Christmas eve, no less, so the wedding reception pre-empts Didi’s planned time with her daughter. So she’s on call when a bumbling former improv comedian and recovering alcoholic named Cliff (Michael Strassner) has a dental emergency.

Cliff’s car is towed while she treats him—apparently, this is a regular occurrence—and Didi offers to drive him to the impound lot. They end up going on a quixotic journey around Baltimore, including crashing the family wedding reception and performing at a pop-up improv show, and find themselves drawn together despite their significant age difference.

Director Jay Duplass has a knack for this kind of idiosyncratic fare featuring deeply imperfect yet likable characters, having either written, directed, and/or produced such gems as Safety Not Guaranteed, Horse Girl, Table 19, and Jeff, Who Lives at Home. It falls on Strassner—a Baltimore native who co-wrote the script—and Larsen to carry the film, which they do with considerable charm. You get why Didi and Cliff forge such a bond, even if one questions how long it’s likely to last. The film is also kind of a love letter to Baltimore, aka “Charm City”; if all you know about Baltimore comes from watching The Wire, The Baltimorons will give you a glimpse of the city’s many other neighborhoods and sights.

—Jennifer Ouellette

The Phoenician Scheme

middle aged man, a nun, and a younger man in an airplane cabin — Credit: Universal

Auteur director Wes Anderson‘s films have a visual style and tone all their own, and I’ve been a fan of his understated eccentricity since 1998’s Bottle Rocket. OK, 2023’s Asteroid City left me cold, but Anderson returns to top form with The Phoenician Scheme. Benicio del Toro stars as Zsa-Zsa Korda, a 1950s ruthless arms dealer and industrialist who finds himself the target of government assassins—most likely because of his unethical business practices.

He barely survives one attempt ,and a vision of the afterlife convinces Zsa-Zsa that he needs to mend fences with his estranged daughter Liesl (Mia Theapleton), a novice in a convent. He’s also trying to pull off a risky scheme to essentially overhaul the infrastructure of Phoenicia, traveling around the world to meet with investors and convince them to increase their own shares so he can avoid bankruptcy. Liesl joins him on the journey, along with a nerdy Norwegian entomologist named Bjorn (Michael Cera). Wacky hijinks ensue. It has an intricate, sometimes unfocused plot, but Anderson pulls it off with his usual delicate whimsical touch, bolstered by delightfully deadpan performances from the cast.

—Jennifer Ouellette

100 Nights of Hero

man and woman in medieval dress holding lamps at night — Credit: IFC

This sumptuous historical fantasy is adapted from Isabel Greenberg’s lavishly illustrated graphic novel of the same name, which is in turn an inventive twist on One Thousand and One Nights. Maika Monroe plays Cherry, the wife of a wealthy medieval landowner named Jerome (Amir El-Masry), who for some reason has not consummated their marriage. Obsessed with his wife’s fidelity, Jerome makes a wager with his handsome friend Manfred (Nicholas Galitzine) that if Manfred successfully seduces Cherry within 100 days, Jerome will give him both Cherry and his castle.

But Cherry’s maid, Hero (Emma Corrin), secretly loves her lady and thwarts Manfred’s seduction attempts by regaling him with captivating stories every night to keep her mistress from succumbing to temptation. And Manfred is most definitely tempting, dragging a freshly killed deer to the castle while bare-chested and covered in its blood. The costumes, production design, and cinematography are stunning, mirroring Cherry’s gradual sexual awakening via romantic triangle. Add in stellar performances, and this is a sensual fairy tale for the ages.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Thunderbolts*

group of second-rate superheroes standing together — Credit: Marvel Studios

Thunderbolts* is basically the MCU’s version of The Suicide Squad (2021) with less over-the-top R-rated violence, but it’s just as irreverently entertaining. Black Widow introduced us to Natasha Romanoff’s (Scarlett Johansson) backstory as a child recruited for training as an elite assassin, along with her adoptive sister (and equally lethal assassin) Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh). Thunderbolts* finds Yelena working as a hired mercenary for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), but she’s still grieving the loss of Natasha, and her heart just isn’t in it.

Yelena decides to quit, and Valentina asks her to do one last covert mission. It turns out to be a trap: Yelena is attacked by super soldier John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). The hope what that they’ll all kill each other and be destroyed along with incriminating evidence—which includes an awkward, nebbishy man in hospital PJs named Bob (Lewis Pullman), who is far more dangerous than he appears. Along with Yelena’s adoptive father, Alexei/Red Guardian (David Harbour), they all team up to take down Valentina instead.

It’s well-plotted and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Director Jake Schreier (Robot & Frank, Beef) expertly balances the action sequences with bantering wisecracks and quieter introspective moments that serve to actually develop the characters, each of whom has their inner demons and plenty of red in their respective ledgers. And Schreier has an incredibly talented cast to work with, all of whom give stellar performances. Thunderbolts* is a refreshing return to peak Marvel form: well-paced, witty, and action-packed with enough heart to ensure you care about the characters.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Frankenstein

man in victorian garb in a lab bending over a body on a table — Credit: Netflix

Director Guillermo del Toro has been telling interviewers for years about his enduring love for Mary Shelley’s classic novel and his long-standing desire to direct a film that would capture the novel’s sense of grand Miltonian tragedy. He called this film “the culmination of a journey that has occupied most of my life.” His Frankenstein is probably the most faithful film adaptation yet made (with a few deviations in later acts), even mirroring Shelley’s narrative structure. It’s first told from the perspective of the captain of an Arctic ship trapped in ice en route to the North Pole who rescues a badly wounded Baron Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac). Both Victor and his Creature (Jacob Elordi) then get to tell their versions of the story that brought them to the Arctic.

Known for his lush visuals and high Gothic sensibility, del Toro doesn’t disappoint, with elaborate sets—Victor’s laboratory is a wonder of 19th-century steampunk industrialism—and an innovative design for the Creature. Del Toro is the perfect conduit for this story of an arrogant scientist who tries to play god by creating a monstrous creature, only to become a monster himself. Isaac brings a blend of passionate intensity and cold ambition to his portrayal of Victor, but it’s Elordi who ultimately anchors the film, conveying the fundamental humanity of Shelley’s iconic monster.

—Jennifer Ouellette

The Long Walk

group of young boys walking as a group down a road with armed soldiers at the ready — Credit: Lionsgate

Before The Hunger Games, there was The Long Walk, a 1979 novel by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) about a dystopian alternate history in which one young man from each state in a totalitarian US is chosen to participate in a grueling annual contest. They walk. And walk. And walk. If they drop below 3 MPH or stop to rest, they are executed. They keep walking until only one is left standing as the “winner,” rewarded with whatever he wants for life at a time when the country is mired in a deep economic depression. It’s grim material well-suited for a film adaptation by Francis Lawrence, who has directed every film in The Hunger Games franchise. The dude knows his dystopias.

Cooper Hoffman plays Ray Garraty, a contestant from Maine who volunteers for the walk over the objections of his mother. His first wish, should he win, would be for a rifle to kill the Major (Mark Hamill) in charge of the walk, since the Major had executed his father years before. Ray soon bonds with Pete (David Jonsson), but the stakes become crystal clear when the first walker falls: A boy who develops a charley horse and is summarily shot for sitting down. One by one, each boy falls until just two remain.

Lawrence keeps things tense and starkly minimalistic. There are no elaborate sets or costumes. It’s the interactions between the various walkers that drive the story, punctuated by inevitable deaths. The point is that there is no happy ending, regardless of who technically “wins.” There are some deviations from the novel, but Lawrence retains King’s suitably cryptic (and quite bleak) ending. I’m a fan of Andy Muscietti’s two-part adaptation of IT and Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, but The Long Walk might just edge them out as the best adaptation of a Stephen King novel yet.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Fackham Hall

This gem of a film is basically Airplane! meets Agatha Christie meets Downtown Abbey, spoofing all those British aristocratic period dramas we know and love. Set in 1931, the plot centers on a charming orphaned pickpocket named Eric (Ben Radcliffe), who is mistaken for a new employee when he arrives at the titular manor house of Lord and Lady Davenport (Damian Lewis and Katherine Waterson).

Eric ends up leaning into his new role and is soon promoted, even indulging in a forbidden romance with the Davenports’ daughter Rose (Thomasin McKenzie). Then someone gets murdered, and Eric finds himself framed for the killing. It’s up to Inspector Watt (Tom Goodman-Hill) and his magnificent (removable) mustache to solve the mystery. The cast clearly had a blast, and it’s impossible to resist that wickedly dry, often scatalogical British slapstick humor. Fackham Hall is a bright, shiny bauble that will leave you longing for a sequel.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror

When The Rocky Horror Picture Show premiered in 1975, no one could have dreamed that it would become the longest-running theatrical release film in history—least of all its creator, Richard O’Brien. But that’s what happened as it developed a loyal cult following of fans dressing up in costumes and acting out the lines in front of the big screen, a practice known as shadow casting. Thanks to a killer soundtrack, campy humor, and those devoted fans, Rocky Horror is still a mainstay of midnight movie culture. Richard O’Brien’s son, Linus O’Brien, marked the occasion with his fascinating documentary Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror.

The film has its share of cast reminiscences, but it’s the profound impact Rocky Horror has had over the decades that ultimately shines through—and not just on a broad cultural scale. O’Brien decided to make the film while gathering archival clips of his father’s work. He came across a video clip of “I’m Going Home” and found himself browsing through the comments, deeply touched by the many people, including a soldier in Iraq and a woman grieving the loss of her mother, talking about what the song and film had meant to them.

The film ends with a fan telling Richard O’Brien, “It doesn’t matter what people think about Rocky because it belongs to us, not to you”—and Rocky’s creator agreeing that this was true. You can pair Strange Journey with another film celebrating the milestone anniversary, Sane Inside Insanity: The Phenomenon of Rocky Horror, for a documentary double feature.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Good Boy

adorale golden furred dog in the woods with a concerned look on its face — Credit: IFC/Shudder

I promise you this is not a spoiler, but for anyone too scared to watch Good Boy, the whole point of one of the year’s most original horror movies is that the dog survives. And despite being a “good boy,” from the moment we meet Indy, the dog gives off “final girl” energy, being the only creature in a cursed family house to sense the hauntings that seem to complicate his owner’s illness and drive him closer to death. Relying on lighting tricks and a frenetic, pulsing soundtrack to dramatize scenes where the movie’s star seems to just be acting like a dog, the movie reinvigorates the haunted house story by telling it from a dog’s-eye level and largely obscuring the faces of humans.

Director and co-screenwriter Ben Leonberg told AV Club that he drew this stellar performance out of Indy—who is not a show dog but his own adorable dog—by living in the house where the movie was filmed and building the set around the ways that Indy moved. Come for the pudgy puppy reels, and then be as obedient as Indy and “stay” for the technical feat of watching a man and his best friend turn classic horror devices into dog toys.

—Ashley Belanger

Hedda

young black woman in a ball gown surrounded by party guests — Credit: Orion/Amazon MGM Studios

Tessa Thompson is luminous in the title role of director Nia DaCosta’s film adaptation of the classic Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler. It’s the story of a general’s daughter who marries a stuffy academic for convenience, believing her wild youth is behind her—only to find it’s not much fun being trapped in a loveless marriage, however elegant the surroundings. When a former lover pops up, now involved with Hedda’s romantic rival, tensions build to an explosive climax. This being Ibsen, things don’t end well for anyone.

DaCosta has kept most of the play’s plot intact, but a clever gender swap makes for an interesting twist on the complicated interpersonal dynamics. Nina Hoss plays novelist and recovering alcoholic Eileen Lovborg (a man named Eilert in the play), with Imogen Poots playing romantic rival Thea. Hedda also maintains a flirtation with the lascivious Judge Brack (Nicholas Pinnock), who is manipulative enough to use Hedda’s weaknesses against her. Hedda is among the greatest dramatic roles in theater, and Thompson utterly makes it her own. Is the film a bit stagey at times? Yes, which isn’t surprising since it’s based on a play. That very staginess gives the film a tight, claustrophobic feel, heightening Hedda’s sense of the walls closing in on her once vibrant youth.

—Jennifer Ouellette

The Last Republican

former congressman adam kinzinger in suit and tie with chin resting on his clasped hands during a congressional hearing — Credit: Media Courthouse Documentary Collective

Normally, I’d rather stick hot needles under my fingernails than watch a bio-documentary about a politician, regardless of party affiliation. It’s just not my thing. But we live in interesting times, and The Last Republican is not your standard political documentary. The film follows former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) over the course of his last year in office. Kinzinger was ousted by his own party for his service on the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riotous attack on the US Capitol—and for his outspoken denunciation of then-President Donald Trump’s incendiary rhetoric at the instigating rally and delayed action to quell the rioters.

That’s standard documentary fare. But this one was directed by Steve Pink, best known for 2010’s Hot Tub Time Machine (a personal favorite of mine). Pink is (almost) as far apart from Kinzinger politically as it’s possible to be. Kinzinger chose to work with Pink because he, too, loves Hot Tub Time Machine. And a most unlikely friendship was born. You can see their bond in the trailer, which opens with Kinzinger recognizing that the man he has trusted with his story likely has nothing but contempt for Kinzinger’s political views. “That’s kinda mean,” we hear Pink say off-camera, before cheekily asking how one even becomes a Republican, “because I don’t get it.”

That friendship resonates perfectly with the film’s central theme. “It’s not about a political view,” Kinzinger says in the film. “It’s about what it is to turn against everything you’ve ever belonged to because of some red line you can’t cross.” Had there been more principled congressional members like Kinzinger in 2021 willing to put country over party, even if it torched their political careers—and more friendships across political divides finding common ground—the US would be in a very different and better place today. Kinzinger’s closing J6 committee statement is even more relevant four years later: “Oaths matter. Character matters. Truth matters. If we do not renew our faith and commitment to these principles, this great experiment of ours, our shining beacon on a hill, will not endure.”

—Jennifer Ouellette

Weapons

young boy in classroom with creepy clown makeup and a sinister smile — Credit: Warner Bros.

One of the most terrifying images of 2025 was a mob of kids with their arms extended like airplanes. It came in Weapons, a witchy mystery that begins with every child in a certain middle school teacher’s class suddenly disappearing, except for one, a quiet boy named Alex Lilly. Working off a highly original script and giving an emotional performance that drove some viewers to tears, young actor Cary Christopher wrenches hearts as Alex’s role in the other kids’ disappearance becomes clearer—after the audience meets his Aunt Gladys.

An actual living and breathing nightmare played to unnerving perfection by Amy Madigan, Aunt Gladys reads like voodoo Mary Poppins meets Pennywise the clown. But stuck in the house with this instantly iconic horror character, Alex proves that he’s the most capable caretaker in the family. In the end, he’s the one tasked with helping his aunt “feel better” while spooning as much Campbell’s soup as it takes into the faces of “weaponized” loved ones to ensure they survive Aunt Gladys’ visit.

—Ashley Belanger

Dust Bunny

young girl in bed at night looking scared — Credit: Lionsgate

Dust Bunny is the directorial feature film debut of Bryan Fuller, the creative force behind some of my favorite TV shows over the years, most notably Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, and Pushing Daisies, as well as Hannibal. Fuller has a knack for injecting elements of magical realism into otherwise ordinary settings, and Dust Bunny adds a healthy dose of horror and Labyrinth-style visual aesthetics into the mix to strike a perfect balance between violence, suspense, whimsy, and emotional depth. Sophie Sloan plays Aurora, a young girl in New York City who turns to her neighbor, Resident 5B (Mads Mikkelson, in a role written specifically for him), for help when (she claims) a monster under her bed kills and eats her parents.

Resident 5B is a hitman for hire, and Aurora wants him to kill the monster in revenge, although he doesn’t think the monster is real, and there are, in fact, other bad people who won’t shirk at going through Aurora to get to Resident 5B. Fun fact: the monster design was inspired by highland cows, although Fuller also asked for the monster to be part hippopotamus and part piranha; artist Jon Wayshak proved well up to the task. Mikkelson and Sigourney Weaver turn in terrific performances—Mikkelson even helped choreograph one of the stunt sequences—as does Sloan and David Dastmalchian. Plus, there’s an entire action sequence featuring a Chinese dragon costume. What more could one want?

—Jennifer Ouellette

Wicked: For Good

Glinda the Good Witch and Elphiba in center with supporting characters from Oz in either side — Credit: Universal

Every musical theater fan knows that the second act of a show is almost invariably weaker than the first. Thus, setting the second act of the Wicked musical apart as its own movie was bound to result in a sequel that had trouble living up to last year’s banger-filled mega-hit film.

Wicked: For Good is also where the narrative starts coming apart at the seams a bit, as it necessarily intersects and interacts with the narrative from The Wizard of Oz itself. The leaps of logic necessary to get these “misunderstood” versions of the characters to gel with the ones we see cavorting in that 90-year-old classic are best ignored. But the movie repeatedly throws those connections in our face amid a heavily padded 137-minute runtime that could have easily been half an hour shorter.

Despite it all, though, the quality of the original writing from Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman still shines through. The titular song “For Good” is still an all-time classic, and strong performances carry catchy tunes like “No Good Deed” and “Just for This Moment” (though the latter is robbed of a lot of its inherent sex appeal through some odd directorial choices). Even “The Girl in the Bubble”—a new song created just for the movie–manages to not feel out of place thanks in large part to a winning performance from Ariana Grande and some downright magical camera work.

The worst part of Wicked: For Good, though, might be how its success will almost definitely lead to an expanded Wicked Cinematic Universe, with sequels or prequels that mash these winning characters to death via a bunch of expositional backstory. Let Glinda and Elphaba rest! They’ve earned it!

—Kyle Orland

K-Pop Demon Hunters

This was a surprise mega-hit for Netflix, fueled by a killer Korean pop soundtrack featuring one earworm after another that collectively dominated the charts for weeks. K-Pop Demon Hunters is the streaming giant’s most-watched animated film of all time, and that’s not just because of the infectious music—although the music is why Netflix ended up releasing a highly popular singalong version in theaters (after the film racked up huge streaming numbers). The Sony Animation team delivers bold visuals that evoke the look and feel of anime, the plot is briskly paced, and the script strikes a fine balance between humor and heart.

Earth has been protected from demons for generations by a protective barrier called the Honmoon, maintained by musical trios/demon hunters from each generation. One day, the Honmoon will become so strong it will turn “golden” and seal away the demons forever. The latest incarnation of demon hunters—a K-Pop band called Huntr/x—is close to accomplishing the Golden Honmoon.

Rumi (Arden Cho) is the lead singer, Mira (May Hong) is the group’s dancer/choreographer, and American-born Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) is the rapper and lyricist. But Rumi harbors a secret: Her father was a demon, and she is marked by the telltale purple “patterns,” which she keeps hidden from her bandmates. Hoping to destroy the Honmoon once and for all, king of the demons Gwi-Ma sends five of his demons to form a K-pop boy band, the Saja Boys, led by Jinu (Ahn Hyo-seop). Their popularity soon rivals that of Huntr/x and threatens the Honmoon.

Co-director (with Chris Appelhans) Maggie Kang conceived the story and helped write the screenplay, intending the film to be a love letter to K-pop and her Korean roots. But she also drew on traditional Korean mythology and folklore. Those details add a rich layer of texture to the basic storyline. Granted, the film adheres to a familiar formula, but it’s a winning one. K-Pop Demon Hunters‘ unifying message of the power of music to heal, unite, and build community—celebrating honest authenticity rather than striving for impossible perfection—is a powerful one.

—Jennifer Ouellette

28 Years Later

man and his son running away from zombies in a field — Credit: Sony Pictures

28 Years Later could have been terrible, screenwriter Alex Garland told Rolling Stone, if he went with his original idea about a group of military men fighting to stop bad guys from weaponizing the Rage Virus. But director Danny Boyle didn’t let that happen, instead pushing Garland to think small and deliver a powerful coming-of-age story that’s somehow just as intense as 2002’s 28 Days Later without retreading hardly any of the same territory. A story about resisting isolationism, 28 Years Later is set on a small island where a scrappy community has survived for decades after being quarantined from the rest of the world.

The story follows a young boy, Spike, who leaves home with his ailing mother after he learns that he cannot trust his father to look out for them. A fire is lit in Spike to cure his mother, and no human or infected—not the worm-eating chubby ones or the spine-ripping alphas—can put him off his mission. What starts as a ritual hunt to initiate a boy into manhood turns instead into a tender quest to find the only known doctor on the island, allowing Spike to see the infected and his community in a new light.

Featuring nuanced performances equal parts harrowing and endearing from Jodie Comer as the mom, Isla, and Alfie Williams as Spike, the movie explores the folly of societies backsliding from progress out of fear of the unknown. As Spike’s dread of the infected flickers out, it’s replaced by an urgent curiosity about the world beyond his village. The only thing potentially standing in his way of growing as wise as the doctor is a gang of “pals” named Jimmy. “Howzat!” for a setup to get boots marching into theaters to see the second installment of the new trilogy in January?

—Ashley Belanger

Blue Moon

two men in 1920s suits in a club — Credit: Sony Pictures Classics

Director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Hit Man) had two films released this year. One is Nouvelle Vague, about the 1959 shooting of the seminal French New Wave film Breathless. The other is Blue Moon, about the complicated relationship between lyricist Lorenz Hart and his erstwhile composer partner Richard Rodgers. Both films are exceptional in their own right, but Blue Moon is my choice for our year’s best list. Chalk it up to my enduring fondness for classic Broadway musicals.

The film takes place in Sardi’s restaurant on the opening night of Oklahoma!, which is Rodgers’ (Andrew Scott) first collaboration with a new lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein II (Simon Delaney). Ethan Hawke turns in a powerful performance as Hart, newly (barely) sober and holding court with bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale). He’s rather bitter about his own waning career after he refused to collaborate on the new musical. He’s depressed, and Eddie is reluctant to serve him any alcohol, plus the “omnisexual” Hart’s advances toward the comely Elizabeth (Margaret Qualley) are repeatedly rebuffed.

Oklahoma!, of course, was a smash hit, crowning Rodgers and Hammerstein as the new wonder boys of Broadway. A drunken Hart tragically died just a few months later. Blue Moon‘s intimate portrait of Hart on a night that proved to be a critical turning point is a fitting tribute to one of our greatest lyricists, whose personal demons dimmed his light too soon.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Rental Family

large man on a Japanese train next to a little Japanese girl and other commuters — Credit: Searchlight Pictures

Brendan Fraser is experiencing a quiet renaissance, with highly praised recent roles in The Whale and Killers of the Flower Moon, as well as a role in the delightfully bonkers TV series Doom Patrol. Add his gentle, empathetic performance in Rental Family to that list. Fraser plays Phillip Vandarploeug, an American actor living in Japan because he once had great success with a toothpaste commercial. But the roles have dried up, so Phillip signs on with a company called Rental Family, which hires actors as stand-ins for family members or friends. Phillip is the “token white guy.”

It might sound like a cynical premise—the company basically “sells emotion”—but the film is anything but cynical. Phillip ends up developing strong bonds with two of his “clients”: A young Haifa girl named Mia with an absent father and an elderly man with dementia named Kikuo, who happens to be a retired actor. But what happens if they discover the truth? Rental Family is a low-key, thoughtful reflection on loneliness and our human need for social connection. “Sometimes it’s OK to pretend,” Phillip tells Mia at one point. Sometimes faking an emotional connection develops into one that is genuine and lasting.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Song Sung Blue

msn and woman onstage singing. Man is dressed as Neil Diamong, woman is in a long red dress. — Credit: Focus Features

Hipsters love to sneer at artists like Neil Diamond. He’s dated, his music is cheesy, yada yada yada. But there’s a reason “Sweet Caroline” has become a staple singalong at sporting events, bar mitzvahs, karaoke nights and the like. All that cynicism melts away once the music starts; it’s infectious. Diamond’s music even inspired a popular Milwaukee tribute act in the 1990s and early oughts: Lightning and Thunder. The duo gets their due in the biopic Song Sung Blue, which is in turn based on a 2008 documentary of the same name. (You can watch the documentary on YouTube.) Director Craig Brewer saw the documentary and was inspired to create his own fictionalized account of Thunder and Lightning’s story with all their dramatic ups and downs.

Hugh Jackman plays Vietnam veteran and recovering alcoholic Lightning, aka Mike Sardina, who falls in love with single mom and Patsy Kline impersonator Claire, aka Thunder. She’s the catalyst for their “Neil Diamond experience,” riding the 1990s wave of Diamond’s resurgence while battling both external obstacles and their respective personal demons. The film condenses the timeline and takes some minor liberties here and there, but on the whole it’s quite factually accurate. (The duo really did open for Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder joined them briefly onstage for “Forever in Blue Jeans.”)

Jackman and Hudson are major film stars but one soon forgets, because they dissolve so completely into their respective roles. Hudson received a well-deserved Golden Globe nomination for her performance and I expect an Oscar nod will be coming her way as well; this is her best role to date by far. And yes, Jackman and Hudson actually perform the songs; Hudson’s solo rendition of “I’ve Been This Way Before” towards the film’s end is gut-punchingly beautiful.

Song Sung Blue is ultimately a love story, but it’s also an homage to the power of music to lift us up even in our darkest hours. On every anniversary of his sobriety, Lightning sings “Song Sung Blue.” Lightning and Thunder pour their souls into even the most seemingly insignificant gigs, whether it’s a hostile crowd in a biker bar or karaoke night at the local Thai restaurant. One of the most moving scenes shows Lightning and the Thai restaurant owner sitting alone in an empty restaurant after the latter’s wife has died of cancer and Lightning is struggling with his own personal tragedy—finding mutual comfort by singing “only sad songs” by Diamond on the karaoke machine.

—Jennifer Ouellette

And now for our top three films of 2025, each so different from one another that we couldn’t bring ourselves to choose just one:

One Battle After Another

scruffy middle aged man long plaid shirt on a roadway, standing next to car with open door, pointing a gun with a camera phone in his other hand — Credit: Warner Bros.

My absolute favorite part of One Battle After Another comes when Leonardo DiCaprio’s character falls off a building. The former revolutionary has let himself go a bit after decades out of the game and can’t keep up with the young skateboarders who effortlessly parkour between buildings during an exciting rooftop chase sequence. One Battle After Another is at its best when it subverts the audience’s expectations like this, boiling down action-thriller set pieces into comically realistic mundanity.

The movie also deserves credit for the subtle way it highlights two very different modes of resistance to a disturbingly familiar fascist government. The flashy French 75 revolutionaries manage to get a lot of attention with their bold statement-making operations, but they do little to actually disrupt the horrifying status quo before getting broken up by law enforcement. Contrast that with Benicio Del Toro’s Sensei Sergio St. Carlos, who quietly operates a sort of underground railroad for actual marginalized immigrants that quietly hides and protects them from an overwhelming government apparatus.

The movie’s plot falls apart a bit near the end as Sean Penn’s cartoonishly evil antagonist hunts down Willa Ferguson’s well-acted “hope for the future” child revolutionary. Still, I’d be lying if I said the inherent tension of the chase didn’t have me on the edge of my seat even after two hours.

—Kyle Orland

Sinners

group of black musicians in a local speakeasy facing off against intruding vampires — Credit: Warner Bros.

Ryan Coogler’s vampire horror film set in the Mississippi Delta in 1932 has topped my list of best films since its April release. Michael B. Jordan delivers an Oscar-worthy dual performance as the Smokestack Twins: Elijah Moore (Smoke) and Elias Moore (Stack). They are World War I veterans just returned from Chicago, having stolen money from a gangster. They use the funds to buy an old sawmill to set up their own juke joint for the local black community. For the band, they recruit their young cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), a preacher’s son and gifted blues musician with a gift so powerful, it just might summon spirits of the past and future to join in the festivities.

The opening night is rollicking along until an Irish vampire named Remmick (Jack O’Connell) crashes the party with his minions, turning the revelers one by one. Can the rest survive until sunrise? There are so many layers to Sinners; it gets richer with each subsequent rewatch. You have the racial conflicts of the Jim Crow South and vigilante Klansmen; Sammie’s love for sexy singer Pearline (Jayme Lawson); Stack’s complicated relationship with his white-passing ex, Mary (Hailee Stanfield); and Smoke’s reunion with his long-suffering wife, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku).

Sinners has drawn comparison to Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn, and that film is indeed one of many cited influences by Coogler. But this is very much Coogler’s singular vision: alternately steamy, bawdy, raucous, violent, and bloody, fueled by fantastic music. There’s even a cameo by blues legend Buddy Guy in the film’s denouement. Guy was one of several blues musicians who recorded songs for the film. That makes this easily the best soundtrack of 2025 (sorry, K-Pop Demon Hunters, but you know it’s true).

—Jennifer Ouellette

Wake Up, Dead Man

a dapper detective standing in interior of a Gothic style church with a priest and other people in the background — Credit: Netflix

Private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) might just turn out to be Rian Johnson’s greatest creation. Introduced in 2019’s Knives Out, Blanc’s syrupy Southern drawl and idiosyncratic approach to solving a mysterious New England death charmed audiences worldwide and launched a modern whodunnit franchise. The latest installment is Wake Up Dead Man, in which Blanc tackles the strange death of a fire-and-brimstone parish priest, Monseigneur Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Wick inspired a cult-like loyalty in his central flock while alienating any newcomers. The primary suspect is a young new priest, Rev. Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) who steadfastly maintains his innocence, despite openly clashing with the Monseigneur.

Wake Up Dead Man is a classic locked-room mystery in a spookily Gothic small-town setting, and Johnson repeatedly namechecks John Dickson Carr’s The Hollow Man, widely held to be the most masterful take on the genre. So if you’ve read The Hollow Man, you’ll probably figure out the “howdunnit” pretty easily. Fortunately, there’s still plenty of twists and turns regarding the who and the why of the matter to keep us guessing right up until the end. Johnson always assembles terrific casts for these films, and the characters are always colorful and engaging. But Wake Up Dead Man digs a little deeper, allowing the characters to achieve some personal insight and growth as the mystery unfolds.

The broody church setting isn’t just for atmosphere, either. Sure, this is primarily a murder mystery, but thematically, it explores the nature of both faith and reason, as embodied by Duplenticy and Blanc, respectively, without ridiculing or diminishing either. One Battle After Another might be poised for the strongest Oscar showing, but Wake Up Dead Man is pure pleasure. This third installment rivals the original Knives Out for fascinating characters, atmospheric setting, and sheer plot ingenuity. We can’t wait to see what Blanc gets up to next.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban.

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Stranger Things series finale trailer is here

culture, Duffer brothers, Entertainment, netflix, Stranger Things S5, streaming television, Trailers / Beth Washington / December 30, 2025

Stranger Things fans are hyped for the premiere of the hotly anticipated series finale on New Year’s Eve: they’ll either be glued to their TVs or heading out to watch it in a bona fide theater. Netflix has dropped one last trailer for the finale—not that it really needs to do anything more to boost anticipation.

(Some spoilers for Vols. 1 and 2 below but no major Vol. 2 reveals.)

As previously reported, in Vol. 1, we found Hawkins under military occupation and Vecna targeting a new group of young children in his human form under the pseudonym “Mr. Whatsit” (a nod to A Wrinkle in Time). He kidnapped Holly Wheeler and took her to the Upside Down, where she found an ally in Max, still in a coma, but with her consciousness hiding in one of Vecna’s old memories. Dustin was struggling to process his grief over losing Eddie Munson in S4, causing a rift with Steve. The rest of the gang was devoted to stockpiling supplies and helping Eleven and Hopper track down Vecna in the Upside Down. They found Kali/Eight, Eleven’s psychic “sister” instead, being held captive in a military laboratory.

Things came to a head at the military base when Vecna’s demagorgons attacked to take 11 more children, wiping out most of the soldiers in record time. The big reveal was that, as a result of being kidnapped by Vecna in S1, Will has his own supernatural powers because of his ties to Vecna. He can tap into Vecna’s hive mind and manipulate those powers for his own purposes. He used those newfound powers to save his friends from the demagorgons.

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A quirky guide to myths and lore based in actual science

books, culture, Folklore, geomythology, history, Mythopedia, natural history, Science / DJ Henderson / December 29, 2025

Folklorist/historian Adrienne Mayor on her new book Mythopedia: A Brief Compendium of Natural History Lore

Credit: Princeton University Press

Earthquakes, volcanic eruption, eclipses, meteor showers, and many other natural phenomena have always been part of life on Earth. In ancient cultures that predated science, such events were often memorialized in myths and legends. There is a growing body of research that strives to connect those ancient stories with the real natural events that inspired them. Folklorist and historian Adrienne Mayor has put together a fascinating short compendium of such insights with Mythopedia: A Brief Compendium of Natural History Lore, from dry quicksand and rains of frogs to burning lakes, paleoburrows, and Scandinavian “endless winters.”

Mayor’s work has long straddled multiple disciplines, but one of her specialities is best described as geomythology, a term coined in 1968 by Indiana University geologist Dorothy Vitaliano, who was interested in classical legends about Atlantis and other civilizations that were lost due to natural disasters. Her interest resulted in Vitaliano’s 1973 book Legends of the Earth: Their Geologic Origins.

Mayor herself became interested in the field when she came across Greek and Roman descriptions of fossils, and that interest expanded over the years to incorporate other examples of “folk science” in cultures around the world. Her books include The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy (2009), as well as Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, & the Scorpion Bombs (2022), exploring the origins of biological and chemical warfare. Her 2018 book, Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology, explored ancient myths and folklore about creating automation, artificial life, and AI, connecting them to the robots and other ingenious mechanical devices actually designed and built during that era.

When her editor at Princeton University Press approached her about writing a book on geomythology, she opted for an encyclopedia format, which fit perfectly into an existing Princeton series of little encyclopedias about nature. “In this case, I wasn’t going to be working with just Greek and Roman antiquity,” Mayor told Ars. “I had collected very rich files on geomyths around the world. There are even a few modern geomyths in there. You can dip into whatever you’re interested in and skip the rest. Or maybe later you’ll read the ones that didn’t seem like they would be of interest to you but they’re absolutely fascinating.”

Mythopedia is also a true family affair, in that illustrator Michelle Angel is Mayor’s sister. “She does figures and maps for a lot of scholarly books, including mine,” said Mayor. “She’s very talented at making whimsical illustrations that are also very scientifically accurate. She really added information not only to the essays but to the illustrations for Mythopedia.

As she said, Mayor even includes a few modern geomyths in her compendium, as well as imagining in her preface what kind of geomyths might be told thousands of years from today about the origins of climate change for example, or the connection between earthquakes and fracking. “How will people try to explain the perplexing evidence that they’ll find on the planet Earth and maybe on other planets?” she said. “How will those stories be told?”

Ars caught up with Mayor to learn more.

book opened to a particular page, lying on a moss covered rock — Credit: Princeton University Press

Ars Technica: Tell us a little about the field of geomythology.

Adrienne Mayor: It’s a relatively new field of study but it took off around 2000. Really, it’s a storytelling that has existed since the first humans started talking to one another and investigating their landscape. I think geomyths are attempts to explain perplexing evidence in nature—on the Earth or in the sky. So geomyth is a bit of a misnomer since it can also cover celestial happenings. But people have been trying to explain bizarre things, or unnatural looking things, or inexplicable things in their landscape and their surroundings since they could first speak.

These kind of stories were probably first told around the first fires that human beings made as soon as they had language. So geomyths are attempts to explain, as I say, but they also contain memories that are preserved in oral traditions. These are cultures that are trying to understand earthshaking events like volcanoes or massive floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, avalanches—things that really change the landscape and have an impact on their culture. Geomyths are often expressed in metaphors and poetic, even supernatural language, and that’s why they’ve been ignored for a long time because people thought they were just storytelling or fiction.

But the ones that are about nature, about natural disasters, are based on very keen observations and repeated observations of the landscape. They also can contain details that are recognizable to scientists who study earthquakes or volcanoes. The scientists then realized that there had to be, in some cases, eyewitness accounts of these geomyths. Geomythology is actually enhancing our scientific understanding of the history of Earth over time. It can help people who study climate change figure out how far back certain climate changes have been happening. They can shed light on how and when great geological upheavals actually occurred and how humans responded to them.

Ars Technica: How long can an oral tradition about a natural disaster really persist?

Adrienne Mayor: That was one of the provocative questions. Can it really persist over centuries, thousands of years, millennia? For a long time people thought that oral traditions could not persist for that long. But it turns out that with detailed studies of geomyths that can be related to datable events like volcanoes or earthquakes or tsunamis from geophysical evidence, we now know that the myths can last thousands of years.

For instance, the one that is told by the Klamath Indians about the creation of Crater Lake in Oregon that happened about 7,000 years ago—the details in their myth show that there were eyewitness accounts. Archaeologists have found a particular kind of woven sandal that was used by indigenous peoples 9,000 to 5,000 years ago. They found those sandals both above and below the ash from the volcano that exploded. So we have two ways of dating that. In Australia, people who study the geomyths of the Aborigines can relate their stories to events that happened 20,000 years ago.

Ars Technica: You mentioned that your interest in geomythology grew out of Greek and Roman interpretations of certain fossils that they found.

Adrienne Mayor: That really did trigger it, because it occurred to me that oral traditions and legends—rather than myths about gods and heroes—the ones that are about nature seem to have kernels of truth because it could be reaffirmed and confirmed and supported by evidence that people see over generations. I was in Greece and saw some fossils that had been plowed up by farmers on the island of Samos, thigh-bones from a mastodon or a mammoth or a giant rhinoceros. The museum curator said, “Yes, farmers bring us these all the time.” And I thought, why hasn’t it occurred to anyone that they were doing this in antiquity as well?

I read through about 30 different Greek and Roman authors from the time of Homer up through Augustine, and found more than a hundred incidents of finding remarkable bones of strange shape, gigantic bones that were inexplicable. How did they try to explain them? That’s really what got me going. These stories had all been dismissed as travelers’ tales or superstition. But I talked with paleontologists and found that if I superimposed a map of all the Greek and Roman finds of remarkable remains of giants or monsters, it actually matched the paleontological map of deposits of megafauna—not dinosaurs, but megafauna like mastodons and mammoths.

Also, I grew up in South Dakota where there were a lot of fossils, so I had always wondered what Native Americans had thought about dinosaur fossils. It turns out no one had asked them either. So my second book was Fossil Legends of the First Americans. In that case, I knew the geography of all the deposits of dinosaur fossils. I just had to drive about 6,000 miles around to reservations, talking to storytellers and elders and ordinary people to try and excavate the folklore. So I sometimes would read a scientific report in the media and think, “here’s got to be oral traditions about this,” and then I find them. And sometimes I find the myth and seek the historical or scientific kernels embedded in it.

Ars Technica: What were your criteria for narrowing your list down to just 53 myths?

Adrienne Mayor: I had to do something for every letter; that was a challenge. A few other authors in the series actually skipped the hard letters. I started out with the hard letters like Q, W, X, Z, Y. My husband says I almost got mugged by the letter Q because I got so obsessed with quicksand. I started talking about writing a book about quicksand because I was so obsessed with sand. There are singing sand dunes.

Ars Technica: There’s been a lot of research on the physics of singing sand dunes.

Adrienne Mayor: Yes. Isn’t that amazing? There are even some humorous stories. One of my favorites is that Muslim pilgrims in the medieval period would travel to special singing sand dunes between Afghanistan and Iran. When pilgrims would feel the need to relieve themselves, they would try to find some privacy, yet urinating and defecating on the sand dune caused a very loud drum roll sound.

Ars Technica: Your work necessarily spans multiple disciplines in both the sciences and the humanities. Has that been a challenge?

Adrienne Mayor: I’ve built my career since my first book in 2000 on trying to write not only to other disciplines, but to ordinary educated readers. Some people think it feels like walking a tight rope, but not to me because I don’t have a canonical academic career. I’m an autodidact, I’m not really an academic. So I have absolutely no problem trespassing in all kinds of disciplines. And I depend on the generosity of all these experts.

Some are from the classics and humanities, but an awful lot of them are from scientific disciplines. I think there’s a big tendency to want to collaborate. It’s just that in academia it’s been difficult because people are siloed. So I feel like I have worked as a bridge between the two. Scientists seem very excited to find out that there are epic poems discussing exactly what they’re studying. Paleontologists were thrilled to discover that people were noticing fossils more than 2000 years ago. So the impulse and the desire to collaborate is there.

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Embark on a visual voyage of art inspired by black holes

art and science, black holes, books, culture, Science, science history / Shannon Garcia / December 26, 2025

Gamwell sees echoes of Mitchell’s dark stars, for instance, in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “A Descent Into the Maelstrom,” particularly the evocative 1919 illustration by Harry Clarke. “This seemed to have been an early analogy to a black hole for many people when the concept was first proposed,” said Gamwell. “It’s a mathematical construct at that point and it’s very difficult to imagine a mathematical construct. Poe actually envisioned a dark star [elsewhere in his writings].”

The featured art spans nearly every medium: charcoal sketches, pen-and-ink drawings, oil or acrylic paintings, murals, sculptures, traditional and digital photography, and immersive room-sized multimedia installations, such as a 2021-2022 piece called Gravitational Arena by Chinese artist Xu Bing. “Xu Bing does most of his work about language,” said Gamwell. For Gravitational Arena, “He takes a quote about language from Wittgenstein and translates it into his own script, the English alphabet written to resemble Chinese characters. Then he applies gravity to it and makes a singularity. [The installation] is several stories high and he covered the gallery floor with a mirror. So you walk upstairs and you see it’s like a wormhole, which he turns into an analogy for translation.”

“Anything in the vicinity of a black hole is violently torn apart owing to its extreme gravity—the strongest in the universe,” Gamwell writes about the enduring appeal of black holes as artistic inspiration. “We see this violence in the works of artists like Cai Guo- Qiang and Takashi Murakami, who have used black holes to symbolize the brutality unleashed by the atomic bomb. The inescapable pull of a black hole is also a ready metaphor for depression in the work of artists such as Moonassi. Thus, on the one hand, the black hole provides artists with a symbol to express the devastations and anxieties of the modern world. On the other hand, however, a black hole’s extreme gravity is the source of stupendous energy, and artists such as Yambe Tam invite viewers to embrace darkness as a path to transformation, awe, and wonder.”

One of the earliest scientific images of a black hole, 1979. Ink on paper, reversed photographically. Jean-Pierre Luminet/Astronomy and Astrophysics 1979

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TV Technica: Our favorite shows of 2025

best of 2025, culture, Entertainment, Features, Staff source, television / Mike M. / December 24, 2025

Netflix and Apple TV dominate this year’s list with thrillers, fantasy, sci-fi, and murder.

Credit: Collage by Aurich Lawson

Editor’s note: Warning: Although we’ve done our best to avoid spoiling anything major, please note this list does include a few specific references to several of the listed shows that some might consider spoiler-y.

This was a pretty good year for television, with established favorites sharing space on our list with some intriguing new shows. Streaming platforms reigned supreme, with Netflix and Apple TV dominating our list with seven and five selections each. Genre-wise, we’ve got a bit of everything: period dramas (The Gilded Age, Outrageous), superheroes (Daredevil: Born Again), mysteries (Ludwig, Poker Face, Dept. Q), political thrillers (The Diplomats, Slow Horses), science fiction (Andor, Severance, Alien: Earth), broody fantasy (The Sandman), and even an unconventional nature documentary (Underdogs).

As always, we’re opting for an unranked list, with the exception of our “year’s best” selection at the very end, so you might look over the variety of genres and options and possibly add surprises to your eventual watchlist. We invite you to head to the comments and add your own favorite TV shows released in 2025.

Underdogs (National Geographic/Disney+)

a honey badger investigates a logg in South Africa — Credit: National Geographic/Doug Parker

Most of us have seen a nature documentary or two (or three) at some point in our lives, so it’s a familiar format: sweeping, majestic footage of impressively regal animals accompanied by reverently high-toned narration (preferably with a tony British accent). Underdogs takes a decidedly different approach. Narrated with hilarious irreverence by Ryan Reynolds, the five-part series highlights nature’s less cool and majestic creatures—the outcasts and benchwarmers more noteworthy for their “unconventional hygiene choices” and “unsavory courtship rituals.” (It’s rated PG-13 due to the odd bit of scatalogical humor and shots of Nature Sexy Time.)

Each of the five episodes is built around a specific genre. “Superheroes” highlights the surprising superpowers of the honey badger, pistol shrimp, and the invisible glass frog, among others, augmented with comic book graphics; “Sexy Beasts” focuses on bizarre mating habits and follows the format of a romantic advice column; “Terrible Parents” highlights nature’s worst practices, following the outline of a parenting guide; “Total Grossout” is exactly what it sounds like; and “The Unusual Suspects” is a heist tale, documenting the supposed efforts of a macaque to put together the ultimate team of masters of deception and disguise (an inside man, a decoy, a fall guy, etc.). Green Day even wrote and recorded a special theme song for the opening credits.

While Reynolds mostly followed the script (which his team helped write), there was also a fair amount of improvisation—not all of it PG-13. The producers couldn’t use the racier ad-libs. But some made it into the final episodes, like Reynolds describing an aye-aye as “if fear and panic had a baby and rolled it in dog hair.” We also meet the velvet worm, which creeps up on unsuspecting prey before squirting disgusting slime all over their food, and the pearl fish, which hides from predators in a sea cucumber’s butt, among other lowly yet fascinating critters. Verdict: Underdogs is positively addictive. It’s my favorite nature documentary ever.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Dept. Q (Netflix)

group of people I'm an underground office sanding around a desk — Credit: Netflix

Dep. Q is a rare show that commits to old tropes—an unlikable but smart central character revisits cold cases—and somehow manages to repackage them in a way that feels distinctive. To get a sense of the show, you only have to describe its precise genre. You might call it a murder mystery, and there are murders in it, but one of the mysteries is whether a key player is alive or not, given that a lot of her story takes place in flashbacks with an uncertain relationship to the present. It’s almost a police procedural, except that many of the police are only following procedures grudgingly and erratically. It’s not really a whodunnit, given that you only end up learning who done some of it by the time the first season wraps up. And so on.

Amid all the genre fluidity, the show does a great job of balancing the key challenge of a mystery program: telling you enough that you can make reasonably informed guesses on at least some of what’s going on without giving the whole game away and making it easy to figure out all the details. And the acting is superb. Matthew Goode does a nice job of handling the central character’s recent trauma while helping you understand why he has a few loyal co-workers despite the fact that he was probably unlikable even before he was traumatized. And Alexej Manvelov (who I’d never seen before) is fantastic as a former Syrian policeman who drops occasional hints that he had been an active participant in that country’s police state.

There are definitely quibbles. The creation of a cold case squad happens on the flimsiest of motivations, and the fantastic Kelly Macdonald is badly underused. But the show is definitely good enough that I’m curious about some additional mysteries: Can the team behind it continue to avoid getting bogged down in the tropes in season two, and which of the many threads it left unresolved will be picked up when they try?

—John Timmer

Daredevil: Born Again (Disney+)

Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk sitting across from each other in a diner — Credit: Marvel/Disney+

Enthusiasm was understandably high for Daredevil: Born Again, Marvel’s revival of the hugely popular series in the Netflix Defenders universe. Not only was Charlie Cox returning to the title role as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, but Vincent D’Onofrio was also coming back as his nemesis, crime lord Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. Their dynamic has always been electric, and that on-screen magic is as powerful as ever in Born Again, which quickly earned critical raves and a second season.

Granted, there were some rough spots. The entire season was overhauled during the 2023 Hollywood strikes, and at times it felt like two very different shows. A weird serial killer subplot was primarily just distracting. There was also the controversial decision to kill off a major character from the original Netflix series in the first episode. But that creative choice cleared the decks to place the focus squarely on Matt’s and Fisk’s parallel arcs, and the two central actors do not disappoint.

Matt decides to focus on his legal work while Fisk is elected mayor of New York City, intent on leaving his criminal life behind. But each struggles to remain in the light as the dark sides of their respective natures fight to be released. The result is an entertaining, character-driven series that feels very much a part of its predecessor while still having its own distinctive feel.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Boots (Netflix)

army boot camp recruits running as part of their training in yellow t shirts and red shorts — Credit: Netflix

I confess I might have missed Boots had it not been singled out and dismissed as “woke garbage” by the Pentagon—thereby doubling the show’s viewership. I was pleased to discover that it’s actually a moving, often thought-provoking dramedy that humanizes all the young men from many different backgrounds who volunteer to serve their country in the US military. The show is based on a memoir (The Pink Marine) by Greg Cope White about his experiences as a gay teen in the military in the 1980s when gay and bisexual people weren’t allowed to serve. Boots is set in the early 1990s just before the onset of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” era.

Miles Heizer stars as Cameron Cope (Cope White’s fictional alter ego), a closeted gay teen in Louisiana who signs up as a recruit for the US Marine Corps with his best (straight) friend Ray (Liam Oh). He’s not the most promising recruit, but over the course of eight episodes, we see him struggle, fail, pick himself back up, and try again during the grueling boot camp experience, forming strong bonds with his fellow recruits but all the while terrified of being outed and kicked out.

Heizer gives a powerful performance as Cameron, enhanced by the contrast with Max Parker’s stellar portrayal of the tightly wound Sergeant Liam Robert Sullivan—a decorated Marine inexplicably reassigned to train recruits while harboring his own secrets. Nor is Miles’ story the only focus: We learn more about several characters and their private struggles, and those inter-relationships are the heart and soul of the show. Netflix canceled the series, but this one season stands tall on its own.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Only Murders in the Building S5 (Hulu)

young woman and two older men posing against backdrop of iconic NYC buildings — Credit: Hulu

This charming Emmy-nominated comedy series has made our “Best of TV” list every season, and 2025 is no exception. Only Murders in the Building (OMITB) stars Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez as Charles, Oliver, and Mabel, all residents of the same Manhattan apartment complex, the Arconia. The unlikely trio teams up to launch their own true crime podcast whenever someone dies in the building under suspicious circumstances, chronicling their independent investigation to solve the murder. There’s no shortage of podcast fodder, as this single building has a shockingly high murder rate.

S5 focused on the death of the building’s doorman, Lester (Teddy Coluca), found floating in the Arcadia’s fountain in the season finale. The discovery of a severed finger leads our team to conclude that Lester was murdered. Their quest involves a trio of billionaires, the mayor (Keegan-Michael Key), a missing mafioso (Bobby Cannavale) and his widow (Tea Leoni), and maybe even the building’s new robotic assistant, LESTR (voiced by Paul Rudd). As always, the season finale sets up next season’s murder: that of rival podcaster Cinda Canning (Tina Fey), who lives just long enough to reach the Arcadia’s gates and place one hand into the courtyard—technically dying “in the building.” One assumes that OMITB will eventually run out of fresh takes on its clever concept, but it certainly hasn’t done so yet.

—Jennifer Ouellette

The Sandman S2 (Netflix)

Morpheus holds the key to Hell. — Credit: Netflix

I unequivocally loved the first season of The Sandman, the Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s influential graphic novel series (of which I am a longtime fan). I thought it captured the surreal, dream-like feel and tone of its source material, striking a perfect balance between the anthology approach of the graphic novels and grounding the narrative by focusing on the arc of its central figure: Morpheus, lord of the Dreaming. It was a long wait for the second and final season, but S2 retains all those elements to bring Dream’s story to its inevitably tragic yet satisfying end.

As always, the casting is extraordinary and the performances are note-perfect across the board. And Netflix did not skimp on the visuals, which bring the graphic novel imagery to vivid life. I still appreciate how the leisurely pacing lets the viewer relax and sink into this richly layered fictional world. Part I kicked off with an Endless family reunion that led Dream into revisiting Hell and agreeing to his sister Delirium’s request to look for their absent brother, Destruction. That sets in motion a chain of events that leads to the tragedy that unfolds in Part II. The bonus episode, in which Death gets one day (every hundred years) to be human—an adaptation of the standalone Death: The High Cost of Living—serves as a lovely coda to this unique series, which is pretty much everything I could have wanted in an adaptation.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Ludwig (BBC)

middle aged man in dress shirt and short sleeved sweater meticulously working on a puzzle on an easel — Credit: BBC

Ludwig is a clever twist on the British cozy mystery genre. David Mitchell stars as John Taylor, a reclusive eccentric who creates puzzles for a living under the pseudonym “Ludwig.” When his identical twin brother, Cambridge DCI James Taylor (also Mitchell), goes missing, his sister-in-law Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin) convinces John to go undercover. John reluctantly pretends to be James to gain access to the police department in hopes of finding out what happened to his twin. He inevitably gets drawn into working on cases—and turns out to be exceptionally good at applying his puzzle skills to solve murders, even as his anxiety grows about his subterfuge being discovered.

The best crime shows deftly balance cases-of-the-week with longer character-driven story arcs, and Ludwig achieves that balance beautifully. The writers brought in a puzzle consultant to create the various crosswords that appear in the series, as well as a special cryptic crossword done in character as Ludwig that appeared in The Guardian. The first season ended with a bit of a cliffhanger about what’s really been going on with James, but fortunately, the BBC has renewed Ludwig for a second season, so we’ll get to see more of our cryptic crime-solver.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Poker Face S2 (Peacock)

red haired woman in thigh boots and leather jacket standing in front of a classic blue sports car — Credit: Peacock

Poker Face is perfect comfort TV, evolving the case-of-the-week format that made enduring early TV hits like Columbo and Murder, She Wrote iconic. The second season takes the endlessly likeable BS-detector Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) to the end of the road after she overcomes fleeing the mob in her 1969 Plymouth Barracuda. Along the way, Charlie pals around with A-list guest stars and solves crimes, winding her way from Florida to New York as each delightful new caper serves not to ramp up tension but to disrupt how viewers anticipate Charlie will move. Some might think that the lack of tension made the season weaker. But creator Rian Johnson recently revealed that he expects Poker Face to cast a new lead detective every two years. That makes it seem clear that Charlie’s second season was more about release.

In the most memorable episode of the season, “Sloppy Joseph,” the front row of an elementary school talent show suddenly becomes a bloody splash zone when a bullied boy is framed for killing the class pet, a gerbil, with a giant mallet. That scene is perhaps an apt metaphor for Johnson’s attempt to keep modern-day viewers from turning away from their TVs by shattering expectations. It’s unclear yet if his formulaic TV hijinks will work, but if anyone decides to pick up Poker Face after Peacock declined to renew it, Peter Dinklage is next in line to become the world’s greatest lie detector.

—Ashley Belanger

The Gilded Age S3 (HBO)

young woman with her parents in evening dress standing in an opera box — Credit: HBO

I was a latecomer to this eminently watchable show created by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), who also gave us the Emmy-winning sensation Downton Abbey. Instead of following the adventures of post-Edwardian British aristocracy and their domestic servants, the focus is on ultra-wealthy Americans and their domestic servants in the 1880s and the social tensions that arise from the “old money” versus “new money” dynamic of this rapidly changing period. The Gilded Age has been described as an “operatic soap” (rather than a soap opera), replete with a hugely talented ensemble cast donning lavish costumes and cavorting in extravagantly opulent settings. It’s unadulterated, addictive escapism, and the series really hit its stride in S3.

Old Money is represented by Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski), a wealthy widow who lives with her spinster sister Ada (Cynthia Nixon); orphaned niece Marian (Louisa Jacobson); and son and heir Oscar (Blake Ritson), a closeted gay man seeking to marry a rich heiress. Living just across the street is New Money, personified by robber baron/railroad tycoon George Russell (Morgan Spector) and his socially ambitious wife Bertha (Carrie Coon) and their two children. You’ve got Marian’s friend Peggy (Denee Benton) representing the emerging Black upper class and a colorful assortment of domestics in both houses, like aspiring inventor Jack (Ben Ahlers), who dreams of greater things.

Fictionalized versions of notable historical people occasionally appear, and two figure prominently: Caroline Astor (Donna Murphy), who ruled New York society at the time, and her simpering sycophant Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane). (The Russells are loosely inspired by William and Ava Vanderbilt.) The stakes might sometimes seem small—there’s a multi-episode arc devoted to which of two competing opera houses New York’s social elite will choose to sponsor—but for the characters, they are huge, and Fellowes makes the audience feel equally invested in the outcomes. There were a few rough edges in the first season, but The Gilded Age quickly found its footing; it has gotten better and more richly textured with each successive season and never takes itself too seriously.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Outrageous (Britbox)

Aristocratic Family photo circa 1930s with everyone lined up along the grand staircase — Credit: Britbox

The Mitford sisters were born to be immortalized one day in a British period drama, and Outrageous is happy to oblige. There were six of them (and one brother), and their scandalous exploits frequently made global headlines in the 1930s. This is ultimately a fictionalized account of how the rise of Hitler and British fascism fractured this once tight-knit aristocratic family. The focus is on smaller, domestic drama—budding romances, failed marriages, literary aspirations, and dwindling fortunes—colored by the ominous global events unfolding on a larger scale.

Nancy (Bessie Carter) is the primary figure, an aspiring novelist with a cheating husband who feels increasingly alienated from her older sister and bestie Diana (Joanna Vanderham). Diana married a baron but becomes enamored of Oswald Mosley (Joshua Sasse), leader of the British fascist party, embarking on a torrid affair. Another sister, Unity (Shannon Watson), is also seduced by Nazi ideology and has a major crush on Hitler. Meanwhile, Jessica (Zoe Brough) is drawn to the Communist cause, which rankles both her siblings and her traditionally conservative parents.

Things come to a head when Unity goes to study in Germany and becomes completely radicalized, even publishing a vicious anti-semitic screed that shames the family. Diana also goes all-in on fascism when she leaves her husband for Mosley, whom Nancy loathes. Jessica elopes with her Communist cousin to Spain to be on the front lines of that civil war, leading to a lifelong estrangement from Diana. Nancy, the political moderate, is caught in the middle, torn between her love for her sisters and her increasing discomfort with Diana and Unity’s extreme political views.

The Mitford sisters were prolific letter writers all their lives, so there was plenty of material for screenwriter Sarah Williams to draw on when fictionalizing their stories at such a pivotal point in the family’s (and the world’s) history. Outrageous is quite historically accurate in broad outlines, and there are plenty of moments of wry, understated humor amid the family tensions. The gifted cast makes the sisters come alive in all their flawed humanity. There’s no word yet on a second season, and this one ends on a suitable note, but there’s so much more story left to tell, so I hope Outrageous returns.

—Jennifer Ouellette

A Man on the Inside S2 (Netflix)

White haired older man in a nice blue suit and tie standing in front of a blackboard filled with equations in a college classroom — Credit: Netflix

I’ll admit I wasn’t sure how well A Man on the Inside would fare with its sophomore season after knocking it out of the park in S1. I should have known showrunner Mike Schur (The Good Place) could pull it off. Ted Danson plays Charles Nieuwendyk, a recently widowed retired engineering professor. In S1, he was hired by private detective Julie Kovalenko (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) to go undercover at a San Francisco retirement community to solve the mystery of a stolen ruby necklace. In S2, Charles returns to his academic roots and goes undercover at fictional Wheeler College to solve the mystery of a stolen laptop—a crime that just might have implications for the survival of the college itself.

Charles even falls in love for the first time since his wife’s death with music professor Mona Margadoff (Mary Steenburgen, Danson’s wife IRL), despite the two being polar opposites. The show continues to be a welcome mix of funny, sweet, sour, and touching, while never lapsing into schmaltz. The central Thanksgiving episode—where Mona meets Charles’s family and friends for the first time—is a prime example, as various tensions simmering below the surface erupt over the dinner table. Somehow, everyone manages to make their respective peace in entirely believable ways. It’s lovely to see a series grapple so openly, with so much warmth and humor, with the loneliness of aging and grief and how it can affect extended family. And the show once again drives home the message that new beginnings are always possible, even when one thinks one’s life is over.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Andor S2 (Disney+)

Star Wars rebel Cassian in the cockpit of a spacecraft — Credit: Lucasfilm/Disney+

When real-life political administrations refer to officials as Darth Vader in unironically flattering terms, maybe George Lucas made the Dark Lord of the Sith a little too iconic. Showrunner Tony Gilroy made no such effort in his depiction of the fascists in Andor.

During Andor‘s run, which ended this year with S2, the Empire is full of sad corporate ladder climbers who are willing to stab another in the back to get to the next rung of the Imperial hierarchy. The show makes it clear that these are not people to emulate. If more fans watched the show, maybe that message could have landed for them.

For people who grew up with Star Wars and want something more to chew on in our adulthood than endless callbacks to the original trilogy, Andor is revelatory. It colors the war of light versus dark with large amounts of gray because sometimes, as one character puts it, you have to use the tools of your enemy to defeat them (save for genetically gifted farmboys). Maybe most of Star Wars was always supposed to be for kids, but prestige TV viewers got a glimpse of what the universe could feel like if it took itself more seriously. Rather than use the broad strokes of a war of good versus evil, Andor painted between the lines to demonstrate how systemic oppression can look a lot more personal than firing a giant space laser.

For all its great writing and themes, Andor also delivered high stakes and suspense. Although we already knew the outcome of the story, we still held our breath during tense scenes with characters who make the ultimate sacrifice for a future they will never see.

—Jacob May

National Finals Rodeo (The Cowboy Channel)

exterior view of Thomas & Mack area in Las Vegas with banner proclaiming the 2024 Wranger National Finals rodeo — Credit: Sean Carroll

My personal end-of-year TV list would never be complete without a nod to The Cowboy Channel, i.e., the only place where armchair enthusiasts like myself can follow our favorite cowboys and cowgirls throughout the rodeo season. The goal is to rack up enough money to qualify for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR), held at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas every December. This year, I’ve picked the channel’s stellar annual coverage of the NFR itself to highlight. The entire season comes down to this: an intense 10-day competition in which the top 15 athletes in each event duke it out night after night in hopes of winning a coveted championship gold buckle. And night after night, The Cowboy Channel is there with live commentary and post-round analysis.

What I love most is just how unpredictable the NFR can be. Part of that is the substantial monetary rewards that come with round wins; an athlete coming in at #1 in earnings can see even a substantial lead evaporate over just a few nights. Part of it has to do with who wins the average, i.e., who performs the best over ten nights collectively in each event. Winning the average comes with a substantial payout that can lead to unexpected upsets in the final results. But mostly it’s just the human factor: The best in the world can have a bad night, and young rookies can have the night of their lives. An ill-timed injury can knock an athlete out of the competition entirely. And sometimes the judges make inexplicably bad calls with major consequences (*coughStetson Wright in Round 6 saddle bronc *cough*).

It’s all part of the excitement of rodeo. The Cowboy Channel’s in-depth coverage lets us experience all that drama even if we can’t attend in person and lets us savor how the story unfolds in each subsequent round. We celebrate the wins, mourn the losses, and cheer mightily for the final champions. (Stetson did just fine in the end.) Then we gear up to do it all over again next year.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Top Guns: The Next Generation (National Geographic/Disney+)

backs of four fighter pilots walking toward a fighter jet — Credit: National Geographic

The blockbuster success of the 1986 film Top Gun—chronicling the paths of young naval aviators as they go through the grueling US Navy’s Fighter Weapons School (aka the titular Top Gun)—spawned more than just a successful multimedia franchise. It has also been credited with inspiring future generations of fighter pilots. National Geographic took viewers behind the scenes to see the process play out for real with the documentary series Top Guns: The Next Generation.

Each episode focuses on a specific aspect of the training, following a handful of students from the Navy and Marines through the highs and lows of their training. That includes practicing dive bombs at breakneck speeds, successfully landing on an aircraft carrier by “catching the wire,” learning the most effective offensive and defensive maneuvers in dogfighting, and, finally, engaging in a freestyle dogfight against a seasoned instructor to complete the program and (hopefully) earn their golden wings. NatGeo was granted unprecedented access, even using in-cockpit cameras to capture the pulse-pounding action of being in the air, as well as more candidly intimate behind-the-scenes moments as the students grapple with their respective successes and failures. It’s a riveting watch.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Alien: Earth (FX/Hulu)

young woman standing in a futuristic corridor bathed in white light — Credit: FX/Hulu

My first draft of what was supposed to be a 300-ish word blurb describing why Alien: Earth is fantastic ended up exploding into a Defector-esque narrative deep dive into my ever-evolving relationship with Alien 3 as a film and how Alien: Earth has helped reshape my appreciation for that poor broken baby of a movie by mixing the best of its visual techniques into A:E’s absolutely masterful cocktail of narrative stylings—but I’ll spare you all of that.

Here’s the short version without the bloviating: Alien: Earth is the thing I’ve been waiting for since I walked out of the theater after seeing Alien 3 in the summer of 1992. Unlike Alien Resurrection, any of the AvPs, or the wet-fart, falls-apart-like-mud-in-the-third-act swing-and-miss of Alien: Romulus, A:E gets nearly everything right. It’s grounded without being stodgy; exciting without being stupid; referential without being derivative; fun without being pandering; respectful of the lore while being willing to try something new; and, above all else, it bleeds craftsmanship—every frame makes it obvious that this is a show made by people who love and care for the Alien universe.

The thing that grabs me anew with every episode is the show’s presentation and execution—a self-aware blending of all the best things Scott, Cameron, and Fincher brought to their respective films. As I get older, I’m drawn more and more to entertainment that shows me interesting things and does so in ontologically faithful ways—and oh, does this show ever deliver.

Each episode is a carefully crafted visual and tonal mix of all the previous Alien films, with the episodes’ soundtracks shifting eras to match the action on-screen—like Alien 3’s jumpy choir flash-cut opening credits melding into Aliens’ lonely snare drums. The result is a blended world made of all the best things I remember from the films, and it works in the same way the game Alien: Isolation worked: by conjuring up exactly what the places where we used to have nightmares looked and felt like, and then scaring us there again.

I have heard that The Internet had some problems with the show, but, eh, everybody’s going to hate something. I vaguely remember some of the complaints having to do with how some of the new alien life-forms seem to be scarier or deadlier than our beloved and familiar main monster. All I’ve got for that one is a big fat shrug—I’m fine with our capital-A-aliens sharing the stage with some equally nasty new creatures. The aliens are always more interesting as devices to explore a story than as dramatic ends themselves, and I mean, let’s face it, in the past 40-plus years, there’s not much we haven’t seen them do and/or kill. They’re a literary force, not characters, and I’m way more interested in seeing how they shape the story of the people around them.

The tl;dr is that Alien: Earth is awesome, and if you haven’t watched it, you absolutely should. And when I was a kid, I used to regularly get put in time-out in recess for stiff-arming other kids while pretending to be a power loader, so you should consider my tastemaking credentials in this matter unimpeachable.

—Lee Hutchinson

Squid Game S3 (Netflix)

assembly of asian people in matching jumpsuits preparing to compete in a deadly game — Credit: Netflix

In the most violent series to ever catch the world’s attention by playing beloved children’s games, it turns out that the most high-stakes choice that creator Hwang Dong-hyuk could make was to put a child in the arena. For Squid Game‘s final season, Hwang has said the season’s pivotal moment—a pregnant girl birthing a baby during a game of hide-and-seek with knives—was designed to dash viewers’ hopes that a brighter future may await those who survive the games. By leaving the task of saving the baby to the series hero, Seong Gi-hun, whose own strained relationship with his daughter led him into the games in the first season, Squid Game walked a gritty tightrope to the very end.

The only real misstep was involving the goofiest set of cartoon villain VIPs more directly in the games. But we can forgive Hwang the clunky Dr. Evil-like dialogue that slowed down the action. He’s made it clear that he put everything into developing dramatic sequences for the game players—losing teeth, barely eating, rarely sleeping—and he fully admitted to The New York Times that “I have a cartoonish way of giving comic relief.

—Ashley Belanger

The Diplomat S3 (Netflix)

blonde woman on cell phone with a concerned look on her face — Credit: Netflix

Let’s be clear: The Diplomat is a soap opera. If you’re not into cliffhangers, intense levels of drama, and will-they-won’t-they sexual tension, it’s probably not going to be for you. Sometimes there’s so much going on that it becomes almost farcical. If that doesn’t scare you off, what do you get in return?

Superb actors given rich and intriguing characters to inhabit. A political drama that nicely finds a balance between the excessive idealism of The West Wing and the excessive cynicism of Veep. A disturbingly realistic-feeling series of crises that the characters sometimes direct, and sometimes hang on for dear life as they get dragged along by. And, well, the cliffhangers have been good enough to get me tuning in to the next season as soon as it appears on Netflix.

Kerri Russell plays the titular diplomat, who is assigned to what seems like a completely innocuous position: ambassador to one of the US’s closest allies, the UK. Rufus Sewell portrays her husband, a loose-to-the-point-of-unmoored cannon who ensures the posting is anything but innocuous. Ali Ahn and Ato Assandoh, neither of whom I was familiar with, are fantastic as embassy staff. And as the central crisis has grown in scale, some familiar West Wing faces (Allison Janey and Bradley Whitford) have joined the cast. Almost all of the small roles have been superbly acted as well. And for all the dysfunction, cynicism, and selfish behavior that drive the plot forward, the politics in The Diplomat feels like pleasant escapism when compared to the present reality.

—John Timmer

Murderbot (Apple TV)

shot of head and upper torso of white armored robot and a faceless mask — Credit: Apple TV+

Apple TV+’s Murderbot, based on Martha Wells’ bestselling series of novels The Murderbot Diaries, is a jauntily charming sci-fi comedy dripping with wry wit and an intriguing mystery. Murderbot the TV series adapts the first book in the series, All Systems Red. A security unit that thinks of itself as Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård) is on assignment on a distant planet, protecting a team of scientists who hail from a “freehold.”

Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) is the team leader. The team also includes Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski) and Gurathin (David Dastmalchian), who is an augmented human plugged into the same data feeds as Murderbot (processing at a much slower rate). Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu) also serves as the team’s legal counsel; they are in a relationship with Arada (Tattiawna Jones), eventually becoming a throuple with Ratthi (Akshaye Khanna). Unbeknownst to the team, Murderbot has figured out how to override his governor module that compels it to obey the humans’ commands. So Murderbot essentially has free will.

The task of adapting Wells’ novellas for TV fell to sibling co-creators Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz. (Wells herself was a consulting producer.) They’ve kept most of the storyline intact, fleshing out characters and punching up the humor a bit, even recreating campy scenes from Murderbot’s favorite show, The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. (John Cho and Clark Gregg make cameos as the stars of that fictional show-within-a-show.) The entire cast is terrific, but it’s Skarsgård’s hilariously deadpan performance that holds it all together as he learns how to relate to the humans—even forming some unexpectedly strong bonds.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Down Cemetery Road (Apple TV)

short gray-haired room in black coat staring through a mesh fence — Credit: Apple TV

Fans of Slow Horses (see below), rejoice: with Down Cemetery Road, Apple TV has blessed us with another exciting mystery thriller series based on the works of Mick Herron—in this case, his 2003 novel introducing private investigator Zoë Boehm (Emma Thompson). Ruth Wilson co-stars as Sarah, an artist rather unhappily married to a finance bro. A neighboring building is destroyed by an explosion, and Sarah tries to deliver a get-well card to a little girl who survived from her young classmates. She’s inexplicably rebuffed, and her dogged attempts to figure out what’s going on lead her to seek the help of Zoë’s PI partner and estranged husband Joe (Adam Godley). What Joe finds out gets him killed, setting Sarah and Zoë on a collision course with high-placed government officials trying to cover up a pending scandal.

Thompson and Wilson make a dynamic pair. This is Thompson’s meatiest role in a while: Her Zoë is all flinty cynicism and tough exterior, masking an inner vulnerability she’s learned to keep buried. Wilson’s Sarah is the polar opposite in many ways, but she’s equally dogged, and both women are eccentrics who tend to rub people the wrong way. They’re united in a common goal: find the missing girl and bring her kidnappers (and Joe’s killer) to justice. Down Cemetery Road takes a bit of time to set up its premise and its characters, but the pace builds and builds to a big, satisfying finale. It’s not quite on the level of Slow Horses, but it’s pretty darned close.

—Jennifer Ouellette

Pluribus (Apple TV)

blond woman on cell phone in yellow jacket looking dismayed — Credit: Apple TV

After watching five episodes of the nine-episode first season of Apple TV’s Pluribus, I’m still not sure if I should be rooting for protagonist Carol Sturka or not. On the one hand, Carol is one of the last true “individuals” on Earth, fighting to maintain that individuality against a creepy alien pseudo-virus that has made almost everyone else part of a creepy, psychically connected hive mind. Reversing that effect, and getting the world “back to normal,” is an understandable and sympathetic response on Carol’s part.

On the other hand, it’s unlear that being absorbed into the hive mind is a change for the worse, on a humanity-wide scale. Unlike Star Trek’s Borg—who are violent, shambling drones that seem to have an overall miserable existence—the new hive-mind humanity is unfailingly pacifist, intelligent, capable, and (seemingly) blissfully, peacefully happy. In a sense, this virus has “solved” human nature by removing the paranoia, fear, anger, and distrust that naturally come from never truly knowing what’s going on in your neighbor’s head.

The fact that Pluribus has so far been able to navigate this premise without coming down strongly on one side or the other is frankly incredible. The fact that it has done it with consistent humor, thrills, and amazing cinematography transforms it into a must-watch.

—Kyle Orland

Slow Horses S5 (Apple TV)

scruffy bearded older man in a beige trenchcoat walking down busy London street — Credit: Apple TV

There are many things I enjoy about Slow Horses, the Apple TV thriller about some not-great spies based on Mick Herron’s novels of the same name. The plots are gripping. The acting can be sublime. It’s shot well. And in its fifth season, which began streaming this September, Slow Horses engages more with the author’s humor than in seasons past. But with a plot involving the honeypotting of the deluded computer expert almost-extraordinaire Roddy Ho (played to perfection by Christopher Chung), that would be hard to avoid.

Slough House is a rundown MI5 office used as a dumping ground for employees in disgrace—the slow horses. They can’t be fired, but they can quit, and working for Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) is meant to make that happen. Lamb is a veteran of the dirtiest days of the Cold War, knowing not only where most of the bodies are buried but having helped put a few of them there himself. His legendary field prowess is only dwarfed by his repellent personality, mocking and belittling everyone in sight—but often deservedly so.

Each member of his team is there for a different sin, and throughout the season—which involves a plot to destabilize the British government, ripped from an MI5 playbook—we see evidence of why they’ve been consigned to the slow horses. These are not invincible operators, just flawed human beings, perfectly capable of screwing up again and again. And yet, our lovable bunch of losers usually manages to come through in the end, showing up “the Park”—MI5’s (fictional) head office in London’s Regent’s Park, which is usually a step behind Lamb’s quick and devious thinking.

The adaptation is faithful enough to the books to give me deja vu during the first episode, and with just six episodes in a season, the payoff comes relatively quickly. I can’t wait for season 6.

—Jonathan Gitlin

Severance S2 (Apple TV)

man in business suit holding blue helium balloons while standing in an antiseptic white corridor — Credit: Apple TV

The second season of Severance was never going to be able to live up to the constant, slow rollout of gut punches that characterized the first season. Those first 10 episodes ably explored the most important implications of the titular severance procedure, which splits a single person into separate “innie” and “outtie” consciousnesses with distinct sets of memories. The audience got to explore those implications along with the “innie” characters, who were struggling against the boundaries of their odd cubicle life right up until that thrilling final shot.

With so much now revealed and understood, a lot of that fire fell out of the second season of the show. Sure, there were still some loose ends to tie up from the mysteries of the first season, and plenty of new, off-puttingly weird situations on offer. And the new season definitely has quite a few high points, like the big twist revealed when the “innies” get to have a rare outdoor excursion or the extended flashback showing a character trapped in a seemingly endless sequence of social tests she can’t remember afterward.

But S2 also spent entire episodes exploring backstories and mysteries that didn’t have nearly as much emotional or plot impact. By the time the final episode arrived—with a rescue sequence that required an inordinate amount of suspension of disbelief—I found myself wondering just how much more interesting juice there was to squeeze from the show’s brilliant original premise. I worry that the show is trending in the direction of Lost, which drew things out with a lot of uninteresting padding before finally resolving the plot’s core puzzle box in an unsatisfying way. I’m still along on that ride for now, but I really hope it’s going somewhere soon.

—Kyle Orland

And now for our top choice of the year:

The Residence (Netflix)

black woman crouched over on white house lawn with a flashlight at night — Credit: Netflix

Paul William Davies created this delightful mystery comedy, loosely based on a bestselling nonfiction book by Kate Andersen Brower about the maids, butlers, cooks, florists, doormen, engineers, and others dedicated to ensuring the White House residence runs smoothly. In the middle of a state dinner for the visiting Australian prime minister, White House Chief Usher A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito) is found dead in the third-floor game room. Everyone initially assumes it was suicide.

Enter private detective Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba), who most definitely does not think it was suicide and proceeds to investigate. She has about a dozen suspects, and her blunt, rather eccentric personality means she’s not remotely intimidated by the august setting of this particular murder. Cupp even takes the odd break in sleuthing to do a bit of birdwatching on the White House grounds. (It’s her goal to see all the birds President Teddy Roosevelt recorded during his tenure.) Birdwatching is more than a lifelong hobby for Cupp; it’s central to her character and to how she approaches solving crimes. Bonus: Viewers learn a lot of fascinating bird trivia over eight episodes.

Davies has devised a clever narrative structure, telling the story in flashbacks during a Congressional hearing (presided over by former US Sen. Al Franken playing a fictional senator from Washington state). It’s a good mystery with plenty of unexpected twists and snappy dialogue. Each episode title refers to a famous murder mystery; the camerawork is inventive and fun; and everyone in the cast knocks it out of the park. I especially loved pop star Kylie Minogue’s cameo playing a fictional version of herself as a state dinner guest. Davies apparently couldn’t convince her fellow Australian Hugh Jackman to also make a cameo. But Ben Prendergast’s winking portrayal of “Hugh Jackman”—only seen from behind or with his face obscured—is actually funnier than having the real actor.

It would be a mistake to dismiss The Residence as a mere bauble of a murder mystery just because of its playful, lighthearted tone. The show really does capture what is special and unique about the people who keep the White House residence functioning and why they matter—to each other and to America. Cupp’s final speech after unmasking the killer drives home those points with particular poignancy.

Netflix sadly canceled this excellent series, so there won’t be a second season—although I’m not sure how the writers could improve on such a tour de force. Do we really need Cupp to solve another elaborate murder in the White House? If I’m being honest, probably not. But she’s such a great character. I’d love to see more of her, perhaps in a Knives Out-style franchise where the location and main suspects continually change while the central detective stays the same. Somebody make it so.

—Jennifer Ouellette

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Leaked Avengers: Doomsday teaser is now public

Avengers: Doomsday, culture, Entertainment, film trailers, marvel studios, MCU Phase Six, Trailers / Kelly Newman / December 23, 2025

Downey Jr. might be playing a new role, but Marvel is really getting the band(s) back together on this one. The film takes place 14 months after the events of this year’s Thunderbolts*. So we’ve got Avengers favorites Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the new Captain America (Anthony Mackie), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Falcon (Danny Ramirez), and Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Then there’s the Wakandan contingent: Shuri as the new Black Panther (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), and Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejia).

Naturally, the Thunderbolts(aka New Avengers) will appear: John Walker/US Agent (Wyatt Russell), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bob/Sentry (Lewis Pullman), Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). So will the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn). But we also have the original X-Men: Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), Beast (Kelsey Grammer), Magneto (Ian McKellen), Mystique (Rebecca Romijn), Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), and Cyclops (James Marsden).

For good measure, Marvel threw in Gambit (Channing Tatum) and Xu Shang-Chi (Simu Liu). There will also be plenty of cameos, like the Steve Rogers appearance that was recently revealed. We can expect to see (at least briefly) Peggy Carter, Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), among others.

Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18, 2026. Avengers: Secret Wars is currently slated for release on December 17, 2027, and will mark the conclusion of the MCU’s Phase Six.

Leaked Avengers: Doomsday teaser is now public Read More »

Discworld, Daleks, and Deep 13: A geeky holiday TV and movie watchlist

babylon 5, Christmas, culture, Daria, discworld, Doctor Who, Features, film, Gremlins, Mystery Science Theater 3000, star wars, terry pratchett, The Chronicles of Narnia, Tokyo Godfathers, TV / 9u50fv / December 23, 2025

There’s obviously more to Christmas flicks than Netflix romcoms.

I promise that most of this list is better than the Star Wars Holiday Special. Credit: Disney

‘Tis the season for all kinds of festive titles to start appearing in our to-watch queues. For folks who celebrate Christmas in any form, there are a million different movies and TV specials vying for your attention. There are the beloved favorites that we’ll make the time to revisit year after year, plus the seemingly endless number of new titles arriving on the various streaming services this season.

But in all honesty, most of these movies are made for and by the mainstream. So if you don’t want a broad family slapstick or yet another big city girl going back to her small town to learn the meaning of Christmas, here are a few options to bring some geekiness to your screen. Make the season nerdy and bright!

Let’s get it out of the way immediately: Star Wars Holiday Special

It’s almost too bizarre to be believed, but yes, this was a thing that existed, and it lives on in legend. The cast of Star Wars returned for this TV special, where the gang goes to the Wookie planet Kashyyyk to celebrate Life Day. They’re joined by some surprising guests. Golden Girls icon Bea Arthur is in it alongside The Honeymooners’ Art Carney, acclaimed multi-disciplinary performer Diahann Carroll, and the band Jefferson Starship.

Let’s not mince words. The holiday special is bad. But it’s bad in a strangely riveting way that’s kind of hard not to enjoy. And at least it falls chronologically before The Empire Strikes Back, so you can immediately cleanse your viewing palate with one of the series’ best after one of its lowest moments. And the ice planet of Hoth practically makes Empire a Christmas movie of its own, so commit to the double feature for a full night of sci-fi.

Babylon 5‘s surprising “Fall of Night”

For most TV shows, a holiday episode is an outlier that exists separately from the main story arcs. Not so for Babylon 5. “Fall of Night” closes the show’s second season, and it manages to tie together many of the loose ends in a satisfying conclusion while also blending in many of the themes you’d expect from a Christmas episode.

It’s a bit unusual, but it’s definitely a Christmas episode. Credit: Warner Bros Discovery

There’s angelic intervention and gift-giving between Sheridan and Ivanova alongside the heavier topics of interstellar politics. The references to World War II aren’t terribly subtle, but the desperate yearning for peace in the galaxy also makes this a solid choice for science fiction fans to queue up this season.

Doctor Who, many times over

The Time Lords have gifted viewers with more than a dozen festive episodes over the many iterations of Doctor Who. Fans of the old-school series only have one true Christmas episode from the original 1960s run to check out: “The Feast of Steven.” In the modern era, though, the holidays are often when a Doctor passes the mantle to the next in line, so there are plenty of chances to cap off the starring actor’s work in fine style.

Current viewers may most closely connect the Christmas specials to the David Tennant era thanks to episodes like “The Christmas Invasion,” “The Runaway Bride,” and the epic two-parter “The End of Time.” Matt Smith also takes a turn in several strong holiday outings, particularly “The Time of the Doctor.”

The Doctor walks through a Christmas scene — Just one of several *Doctor Who* Christmas episodes. Credit: BBC

This is one of the few television series to treat New Year’s Eve as a winter holiday worthy of its own showpieces, particularly in the past few years. Jodie Whittaker got the NYE treatment with a trio of Dalek-centric stories, most notably with the very funny “Eve of the Daleks” episode.

Hogfather, for a Terry Pratchett Christmas

The wildly funny fantasy author Terry Pratchett is beloved by many readers for his sprawling Discworld novels. A few directors have made the leap from page to screen with Pratchett’s stories, and Hogfather is one of the best adaptations. That could be partly because Death and Susan are two of the best characters in the whole Discworld universe, and they figure prominently in this Christmas tale. They’re also perfectly cast: Susan is played by Michelle Dockery before her rise to Downton Abbey fame, and Death is voiced by stage and screen actor Ian Richardson.

Terry Pratchett. That’s all you likely need to know. Credit: Sky One

In this Discworld take on Christmas, a shadowy group called The Auditors orders the kidnapping of the Hogfather (who bears no small resemblance to Santa Claus). To avert a holiday catastrophe, Death himself takes over the role of delivering presents on Hogswatchnight. This two-part TV movie captures all the irreverent humor that has won Pratchett so many fans over the years, and it’s a must-watch for anyone who adores that peculiar world atop the Great A’Tuin and its quartet of elephants.

Gremlins, the dark horse cult classic option

Gremlins is a cult classic for a reason and one of the more enduring movies for those who aren’t looking for everything to be bright, cheery fun during the holidays.

A gremlin with a Christmas hat — Fun fact: This film managed to scandalize so much that it partially led to the creation of the PG-13 rating. Credit: Disney

You can read it as a send-up of Christmas consumerism, a wacky horror-comedy flick, an impressive showcase of movie puppetry, or all three at once. Plus, it’s just so very, very ’80s. I doubt I have to say much more to sell you on it, because I’d guess most Ars readers already watch it on the regular.

Mystery Science Theater 3000, naturally

Whether it’s in the Satellite of Love or the Gizmoplex, the hilarious brains behind Mystery Science Theater 3000 can spoof any and all terrible movies, including the festive ones. I often enjoy some MST3K as a kickoff to the holiday season with the group’s Thanksgiving shows, but there’s also plenty of bad movie fun to be had in December.

There are a few standouts for true Christmas movie episodes. Experiment 321 sees Joel and bots watching Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, a truly terrible flick from the 1960s in which a Martian leader captures old Saint Nick to try and make the children on the red planet happier. For Mike fans, check out experiment 521, where the film is Santa Claus and even the host skits have a festive theme. Finally, from the Netflix era, Jonah and the bots suffer through The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t in experiment 1113. All three are excellent episodes despite the movies being the cinematic equivalent of a lump of coal in your stocking.

Joel and the bots by a Christmas tree — Joel doesn’t exactly exude holiday cheer, but that’s kind of the joke. Credit: Satellite of Love

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the other experiments have movies set at Christmastime or sneak in occasional festive jokes from the cast. And if that’s still not enough to satisfy, there’s also nearly endless fodder you can find digging through the RiffTrax library—they even spoofed the Star Wars Holiday Special.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (with some Turkish delight)

Many directors have created their own spin on this C.S. Lewis story over the decades, and any of them make for a quality addition to your holiday lineup. It works for any attitude toward holiday time. If you prefer to be agnostic about it, just soak up the winter vibes created by the White Witch and maybe treat yourself to some Turkish delight while you watch. If you’re all about the presents, be sure to watch one of the versions that adheres to the books by having Father Christmas make an appearance. And if you want to honor the religious history, then enjoy the lion Aslan as a non-too-subtle analog for Jesus.

A character from Narnia — The classic BBC series probably won’t work for younger audiences today, but you had to be there, and some of us were indeed there. Credit: BBC

I’m partial to the 1988 BBC adaptation because it was the first one I saw, but the 2005 Disney film is pretty decent as well. Or, if you’ve already seen all of the Doctor Who specials enough times to quote them verbatim, make your viewing choice based on the acting crossovers, because something about Aslan seems to draw performers with ties to that show. In the animated 1979 version, Whovian actor Stephen Thorne voiced the lion, while Ronald Pickup played him in the 1988 adaptation and its sequels.

8-Bit Christmas, A Christmas Story for the ’80s

Remaking a classic is a bold endeavor. We’ve seen many an effort fall flat, especially when the source material is a near-perfect comedy like A Christmas Story. But against the odds, 8-Bit Christmas pulls off the high-wire act with charm and warmth. This version reframes the dream of the unattainable Christmas present by leaping forward a few decades. Rather than Ralphie’s quest for the Red Ryder rifle, Jake wants the latest and greatest in gaming: a Nintendo Entertainment System.

Now, if you were a gamer in your youth, there are some scenes here that will speak to your soul. There’s an early moment where Jake and the other kids on his suburban block are hanging out in the basement of one lucky boy who has an NES of his own. They’re gathered shoulder to shoulder around the tube TV, arguing over who should get the controller next. Every detail in this scene, from the sweaters and the set dressing to the look of rapture as the kids experience the power of a new console for the first time is just perfection.

A kid celebrates playing Nintendo — The film is at least a great concept, and it delivers pretty well on it. Credit: HBO Max

There are also other cute ’80s nods; for instance, while Jake is lusting after an NES, his sister wants a Cabbage Patch doll with the same single-minded desire. Those of us who grew up in the ’80s know that feeling well. Heck, those of us who were huddled over our browsers refreshing in a panic hoping to snag the Switch 2 just earlier this year know that feeling. This geeky tale was a pleasant surprise to find among the modern-day Christmas movie productions.

The otaku choice: Tokyo Godfathers

The otaku nerds surely already know this one well, but I would be remiss not to include this anime masterwork. It’s a poignant addition to anyone’s Christmas viewing list, geek or otherwise. The film is by legendary manga artist and anime director Satoshi Kon, and it received a new English dub a few years ago that’s particularly recommended.

The film is dripping with atmosphere and creative ideas. Credit: Sony

As with so many of the best movies, it’s probably best to go in without knowing too much. The first key point is: It’s a story of three people living on the streets of Tokyo on Christmas Eve. And the second is: while the phrase is trite, Tokyo Godfathers genuinely can and will make you laugh and make you cry.

In Daria, “Depth Takes a Holiday”

In the ’90s, Daria Morgendorffer was the queen of the teenage outcasts, even though she would have hated having that title. The irreverent animated series from MTV holds up impressively well under modern scrutiny. (Although yes, in most available ways to rewatch it, the licensed music is gone. Just cue up the most important tracks you remember when you watch.)

For such an offbeat program, it’s surprising that Daria did, in fact, include a festive episode called “Depth Takes a Holiday.” In this break from the show’s usual reality, several holidays in human form appear in the Lawndale suburb, causing chaos and playing some rock music. Daria eventually agrees to help restore the natural order of things and get these holidays back to their home on Holiday Island, which is just as cliquey and pointless as Lawndale High.

Daria meets surreal mythical characters — It’s a controversial episode, but it has its merits. Credit: Paramount

“Depth Takes a Holiday” is pretty dang weird, and it’s a love-it or hate-it point in the third season. But I say it’s all the more reason to spend December revisiting some of my favorite Daria episodes alongside this. For those in the hate-it camp, you’ll enjoy the other episodes even more in contrast. And if you’re in the love-it audience, mark your calendar to also watch it on Guy Fawkes Day.

Honorable mention: A Christmas Carol audiobook

I realize that an audiobook is not viewing, but any Star Trek fan worth their replicator-made salt should have this title in their Christmas rotation. Patrick Stewart did take a turn in a Hollywood production of this classic tale in 1999, and that’s a plenty good adaptation.

But why settle for one of the great thespians and geek icons playing just a single role? Stewart also narrated an audiobook version of A Christmas Carol, and it is simply stellar. He gets to provide incredible voices for each character, plus he gets really into all the eerier parts of Charles Dickens’ holiday ghost story. Queue this up in your headphones on a snowy winter’s night, close your eyes, and you can really imagine that Captain Picard is personally reading you a bedtime story.

Discworld, Daleks, and Deep 13: A geeky holiday TV and movie watchlist Read More »

Odyssey trailer brings the myth to vivid life

Christopher Nolan, culture, Entertainment, film trailers, The Odyssey, Trailers, Universal Pictures / 9u50fv / December 22, 2025

It’s difficult to underestimate the tremendous influence Homer’s epic has had on global culture. Nolan himself recalled seeing the Odyssey performed as a school play when he was just 5 or 6 years old. “I remember the Sirens and him being strapped to the mast and things like that,” he recently told Empire. “I think it’s in all of us, really. And when you start to break down the text and adapt it, you find that all of these other films—and all the films I’ve worked on—you know, they’re all from the Odyssey. It’s foundational.”

In addition to Damon, the cast includes Anne Hathaway as Penelope; Tom Holland as Odysseus’ son, Telemachus; Robert Pattinson as Antinous, one of Penelope’s many suitors; Jon Bernthal as the Spartan king, Menelaus; Benny Safdie as the Achaean commander during the Trojan War, Agamemnon; John Leguizamo as Odysseus’ faithful servant, Eumaeus; Himesh Patel as his second-in-command, Eurylochus; Will Yun Lee and Jimmy Gonzales as crew members; and Mia Goth as Penelope’s maid Melantho. We also have Zendaya as Athena, Charlize Theron as Circe, and Lupita Nyong’o in an as-yet-undisclosed role.

The Odyssey hits theaters on July 17, 2026.

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Strava puts popular “Year in Sport” recap behind an $80 paywall

culture, paywalls, strava / Shannon Garcia / December 19, 2025

Earlier this month, Strava, the popular fitness-tracking app, released its annual “Year in Sport” wrap-up—a cutesy, animated series of graphics summarizing each user’s athletic achievements.

But this year, for the first time, Strava made this feature available only to users with subscriptions ($80 per year), rather than making it free to everyone, as it had been historically since the review’s debut in 2016.

This decision has roiled numerous Strava users, particularly those who have relished the app’s social encouragement features. One Strava user in India, Shobhit Srivastava, “begged” Strava to “let the plebs see their Year in Sport too, please.” He later explained to Ars that having this little animated video is more than just a collection of raw numbers.

“When someone makes a video of you and your achievements and tells you that these are the people who stood right behind you, motivated you, cheered for you—that feeling is of great significance to me!” he said by email.

Strava spokesperson Chris Morris declined to answer Ars’ specific questions about why the decision to put Year in Sport behind a paywall was made now.

Other users feel that Strava is getting a bit too greedy. Dominik Sklyarov, an Estonian startup founder, wrote on X that Strava’s decision was a “money hungry move, really sad to see. Instead of shipping useful features for athletes, Strava just continues getting worse.”

Meanwhile, Reddit user “andrewthesailor” pointed out, “Well, they want me to pay to look at data I gave them (power, [heart rate] etc). And the subscription is not that cheap, especially when you consider that you are also paying with your data.”

Sana Ajani, a business student at the University of Chicago, told Ars that she used to be a premium member but isn’t anymore.

“I did notice the Year in Sport and was a little annoyed that I couldn’t unlock it,” she said in an email. “I would’ve expected some overall stats for everyone and extra stats for subscribers. Year in Review-type stuff is great content and distribution for most apps since everyone shares it on socials, so I’m surprised that Strava is limiting its reach by only letting paid subscribers see it.”

Neural DSP models John Mayer’s entire amp and effects rig—and it sounds great

amp simulations, culture, guitar, John mayer, neuralDSP / Mike M. / December 18, 2025

Mayer gets the “Archetype” treatment.

Guitarists today are spoiled for choice, and that goes doubly true for players who use computer-based amp modeling software. I’m one such player, and I don’t miss the size, weight, deafening volume, or cost of owning an amp and cabinet collection, to say nothing of all those pedals and cables. For clean to mid-gain tones alone, I already have more terrific options than I need, including Neural DSP’s Tone King and Cory Wong and Mateus Asato, Polychrome DSP’s Lumos, and Universal Audio’s new Paradise Guitar Studio. All work slightly differently, but they can each output record-ready tones that are really, really close to the (often incredibly expensive) hardware that they model, and they each give you plenty of great-sounding presets to start from.

So do we really need one amp sim package?

Neural DSP thinks we do, because the Finnish company just dropped a major new release yesterday called Archetype: John Mayer X. It doesn’t model Mayer’s type of gear but his actual hardware units, along with all the actual settings he uses in the studio and on stage. It even has some presets that he designed. Which is great if you want to sound like John Mayer—but what does the software offer for those of us not trying to cover Continuum?

To find out, I spent a few hours playing with Mayer X, and I came away impressed. Neural DSP has released so many metal amp sims in the last few years that I’ve come to associate the company with downtuned chugga-chugga. Don’t get me wrong: I like long hair, skulls, and palm-muted riffs as much as the next person, but it’s nice to have some variety.

Mayer X brings that variety by modeling three of Mayer’s amps: a 1964 Fender Vibroverb, a Dumble Steel String Singer #002, and a not-yet-released prototype Two-Rock. Each amp also comes with a model of its associated speaker cabinet, in front of which you can freely position zero, one, or two microphones to shape the recorded sound and to control the room tone as desired.

This is standard practice for Neural DSP’s “Archetypes” line, but one wrinkle is the new “three-in-one amp” mode that blends the sounds from all amps at once. Here’s the marketing speak: “It merges all three amps and their matching cabinets with Mayer’s exact settings, mic placements, and EQ decisions, creating a unified, dimensional sound that reflects his full signal path without requiring individual amp balancing.” In this mode, each amp gets a single knob, but you are always free to turn this off and use one particular amp instead, which exposes more controls for that unit.

Also new here is an effect that Neural calls the “Gravity Tank.” This effects unit combines Mayer’s “favorite spring reverb” with the harmonic tremolo found in the Victoria Reverberato. It sounds great; while I like spring reverbs for character, especially on guitar parts, some are a bit too “drippy” for me. And although this one definitely sounds like a spring, it’s subtle and spacious rather than clangy or overly metallic, and the tremolo—which you can sync to your DAW’s tempo—sounds terrific too.

Instead of a compressor pedal at the front of the amp, as in many Neural DSP plugins, the Mayer X Archetype features a rack-mounted compressor (this one is modeled off the famous Distressor) that comes after the amp. The controls are much simpler than a real Distressor, but under the hood, Neural says that it is using “Mayer’s exact attack, release, and sidechain settings”; users, however, only need to spin the Input and Output dials.

Above the compressor is an EQ, but unlike Neural’s usual practice, this is not a multiband graphic EQ. Instead, it’s a four-band semi-parametric EQ with knobs rather than sliders, plus a high-pass and low-pass filter. The EQ is said to “balance the naturally full low end of [Mayer’s] amplifiers.”

There are effects pedals here, too—five are up front, before the amps. You get a volume boost pedal meant especially to thicken the tone of single-coil pickups like those found on Fender Stratocasters or PRS Silver Sky guitars (which Mayer also helped design). Then you get an “antelope filter” that provides a sort of auto-wah effect; usually, I hate these sorts of things, but this one sounds good enough that I could see myself using it on lead lines without feeling like I’m some kind of ’70s funk refugee.

After that come two drive pedals that are modeled on the Klon Centaur, the Ibanez TS-10, and the Marshall Bluesbreaker MK1. That’s right: You get three effects units jammed into two virtual pedals, because one of the pedals has a toggle switch to offer two different tones.

Finally, there’s a bucket brigade delay meant largely for slapback echoes, while a separate post-amp effects section offers more traditional delay and reverb (both hall and plate) for space.

While you won’t find this exact gear and these exact settings elsewhere, several of the amp simulation suites mentioned at the top of this piece provide plenty of “ballpark” options. (Paradise Guitar Studio, for instance, also models a Klon Centaur pedal and offers boost pedals and even more overdrive pedal options, along with spring reverb and bucket brigade delays.)

Whether you need (or “need”) Mayer X depends on just what other gear you have and what kind of tone you’re chasing. To me, the presets in Mayer X sound just slightly more modern than Paradise Guitar Studio, which especially emphasizes “classic” rock sounds from the ’60s to the ’90s. And Mayer X offers so many more amps and effects than Neural DSP’s Tone King, which I previously used for some of these sorts of sounds.

One of the best things about this package is that it is not “hyped” to sound over the top in standalone guitar demos, which is why its sounds fit so well into mixes. Reverb, delay, tremolo, boost, and drive are subtle and judicious, as is compression. Nearly everything is usable if you play anywhere in the pop/blues/rock/funk landscape. Even effects like freeze delay and the antelope filter—two types of effects that generally feel irrelevant or gimmicky to me—here inspire actual creativity. This is my personal taste talking—yours may differ—but the entire Mayer X package offers tone colors I would actually use in projects rather than garish neons that sound “impressive” but are unlikely to work as-is in any given song.

So if you’re looking for Mayer’s brand of smooth-but-full blues-inspired leads or his edge of breakup rhythm tones, John Mayer X is certainly a good way to get it in one package. This doesn’t feel like a cash-in, either; the quality and variety is immediately apparent, especially in new or custom bits like the boost pedal, the antelope filter, the Gravity Tank, and the “three-in-one” amp.

Just to see what I could do with almost no tweaking, I played around with presets for a couple of hours and came up with this short demo that features rhythm, double-tracked rhythm, filtered, overdriven rhythm, and delayed lead sounds. I even laid down a little bass (Mayer X does include a few bass-specific presets to get you started). To me, everything works well right out of the box, and the sounds blend well with each other (and with bass/drum tracks) in the mix, something not always true of presets. A little EQ and some mild master bus processing, and I ended up with the demo below:

Redditors who have played with the plugin so far seem impressed. “Absolutely blown away. Every single amp, mic, cab and pedal option is usable and sounds amazing,” wrote one.

“I’m a mostly clean-to-slight-crunch player, and this is by FAR the most plug-in-and-get-great-sounds-out-of-it NDSP plugin for that style that I’ve tried,” wrote another.

But they also echo my chief complaint. The downside of all these guitar sim plugins is that they are getting increasingly expensive. Universal Audio’s recent Paradise Guitar Studio claims a full price of $199 (I say “claims” because most of the company’s products are on sale most of the time). John Mayer X is going for €169 + tax in the US ($198 at current currency rates), and even more in Europe, while Neural DSP’s previous Archetype, the Misha Mansoor X, is only €125 ($146). Perhaps in this Archetype, the “X” stands for “expensive”?

That’s a lot of scratch for a plugin, though of course this one models gear worth many thousands of dollars and is far cheaper than buying modeling hardware like Neural DSP’s own Quad Cortex. (Those inclined to wait may be able to pick up Mayer X during one of Neural DSP’s biannual sales, often at 50 percent off.) And this one certainly sounds great.

If you’re one of those who suffer from gear acquisition syndrome (GAS), potent in both its physical and digital forms, these $150–$200 plugins add up quickly. Buy four or five and you’re into some real money! So if you already have other clean to mid-gain amp sims that work well for you, wisdom might suggest making your peace with what you have rather than looking for incremental improvements every time a new plugin appears. (There’s always a 14-day trial if you want to test Mayer X first.)

But if you’re newer to the amp sim market or have money to blow on your hobby or just love Mayer’s tones, Mayer X is certainly a wonderful place to start. Will you sound like Mayer? Probably not, given how much “tone” actually resides in the fingers, but you will get a great creative toolkit for bringing out the best in your own sound.

The real takeaway here is that technology has made it an amazing time to be a guitar player. We’re blessed for choices, and those choices get better every day.

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Stranger Things S5 trailer teases Vol. 2

culture, netflix, stranger things, streaming television, Trailers, TV trailers / Beth Washington / December 15, 2025

We’re 10 days away from the next installment of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, and Netflix has released a new trailer for what it’s calling Volume 2. This will cover episodes five through seven, with the final episode comprising Vol. 3.

(Spoilers for Season 5, Vol. 1 below.)

Season 4 ended with Vecna—the Big Bad behind it all—opening the gate that allowed the Upside Down to leak into Hawkins. We got a time jump for S5, Vol. 1, but in a way, we came full circle, since those events coincided with the third anniversary of Will’s original disappearance in S1.

In Vol. 1, we found Hawkins under military occupation and Vecna targeting a new group of young children in his human form under the pseudonym “Mr. Whatsit” (a nod to A Wrinkle in Time). He kidnapped Holly Wheeler and took her to the Upside Down, where she found an ally in Max, still in a coma, but her consciousness is hiding in one of Vecna’s old memories. Dustin was struggling to process his grief over losing Eddie Munson in S4, causing a rift with Steve. The rest of the gang was devoted to stockpiling supplies and helping Eleven and Hopper track down Vecna in the Upside Down. They found Kali/Eight, Eleven’s psychic “sister” instead, being held captive in a military laboratory.

Things came to a head at the military base when Vecna’s demagorgons attacked to take 11 more children, wiping out most of the soldiers in record time. The big reveal was that, as a result of being kidnapped by Vecna in S1, Will has his own supernatural powers. He can tap into Vecna’s hive mind and manipulate those powers for his own purposes. He used his newfound powers to save his friends from the demagorgons.

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