Essays on TV and film — exploring stories, characters, and the choices behind them.
Yellowstone ended, and every streaming service has spent the time since trying to build its own ranch to move into. Netflix’s version is Ransom Canyon, and its second season just rode in at number three on the platform worldwide. If you came to find out whether it is worth eight hours, the honest answer depends … Read more
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 arrived on Netflix this month carrying two numbers that do not belong together: 17 percent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and 82 percent from audiences. That gap is not a rounding error. It tells you how this franchise works. The basics first, since people come looking for them. It … Read more
I didn’t expect to have much to say about a Kevin Hart bachelor-party comedy, and the early reviews suggested I wouldn’t. 72 Hours landed on Netflix on July 24 with a 16% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, a number that usually files a movie under “content” and moves on. Then it went to number … Read more
The premise of Remarkably Bright Creatures sounds like a pitch that got through on charm: an elderly widow bonds with a giant Pacific octopus and a wayward young man. On paper, the octopus is the hook. On screen, you forget about the octopus for long stretches, and that turns out to be both the … Read more
The first scene that stopped me in The Boroughs isn’t the supernatural one. It’s quieter than that. Sam Cooper has just moved into his new retirement community after the death of his wife, and he’s standing in his apartment looking at a box he hasn’t unpacked. He doesn’t open it. He just stands there. … Read more