As someone whose educational blindspot is American history, I am always seeking out easier ways to learn about our country’s past than having to sit down and read sizable textbooks and, thankfully, Hollywood has helped me out on more than one occasion. This week, Netflix has dropped a four-episode limited series about a pivotal moment in United States history that deserves to be more than the footnote that it has turned out to be: the assassination of President James Garfield by Charles Guiteau.

Never heard of Guiteau? Forgot all about Garfield? You’re likely not the only one. Death by Lightning is a historical drama that is all at once dramatic, educational, hilarious, illuminating, moving, inspiring, tragic and utterly absurd that is delivered via four powerhouse performances in four episodes that will not only make you want to learn more about James Garfield, but just may help you understand a little better who we are and how we got to this place we are now.

Read more

Memory makes the heart grow fonder, or so they say. Or, at the very least, time makes you forgive some of the little things. Which may explain why, when I find myself looking back on TV shows or movies that I love, I find myself growing more fond of them in time, and forgiving them for minor things that I may have had issues with before. This is certainly evident as I was compiling my Top 25 Movies of the Century So Far list, as I was linking my reviews to my favorite movies, I found that my original reviews of these movies, all of which I have grown to absolutely love, were not all raves, much to my surprise.

So maybe it’s just easier to be more critical the first time around, or familiarity fosters a better sense of fairness, who knows. But it does seem that my first impressions of TV shows and movies aren’t always the lasting ones, which prompted me to go back and see if I perhaps had overestimated a show that bowled me over so much at the time, I thought it was one of the best things I had ever watched.

Well, it looks like I’m not the only one, as this brief meteor of a show, which only had two short but brilliant seasons, is still sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes nine years later, which means not a single critic has published a negative review. In over 42 reviews of the first season and 99 reviews of the second, not a single naysayer. I’m clearly not the only one who agrees Fleabag is perfect. Thank goodness.

Read more

Season two of the glorious Peacock original series Poker Face just dropped, so I figured it’s the perfect time to re-run my review of season one, which I wrote back in January, 2023, published on WeLiveEntertainment.com. The only thing that’s changed in the two years since I wrote this is that Peacock has now even more to offer, so if I haven’t convinced you yet that it’s worth a try, then maybe now’s the time. Enjoy my review of Poker Face, season one, from 2023:

This new era of prestige television that we are lucky enough to enjoy has seen the balance of power shift from the networks to streaming services, as the most awarded, critically acclaimed, and popular shows are now found on any of the multitudes of streaming platforms, each one with their own slate of lauded original programming. Every major streamer has joined the party, even Roku hitting the critical jackpot with their highly-praised original film, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which premiered in November. It seems as if the only major streaming service that hasn’t jumped on the prestige TV bandwagon is Peacock, seemingly happy to bask in its vast catalog of popular shows from NBC’s archives, in addition to churning out under-the-radar original programming marked by reality series, competition shows, and formulaic sitcoms.

Read more

For all of you who dig Australian murder mysteries, Netflix has another good one for you. The Survivors takes place in a small town in Tasmania and the difference in this series is the focus isn’t on the police, it’s on the town’s residents.

Evelyn Bay has a lot of secrets. A lot. And they all seemed to start fifteen years ago when three young people were lost at sea during a terrible storm. Two of them were hailed as heroes, as they died trying to save their friend, Kieran, who survived. Now, fifteen years later, adult Kieran, played by Charlie Vickers, has returned to Evelyn Bay for the anniversary memorial commemorating the tragedy. Oh, did I forget to mention that one of the boys who died trying to save him was his own brother, Finn. So, part of the drama that Kieran is coming home to is the fact that his mother, Verity, played by Robyn Malcolm, has never truly forgiven Kieran for being responsible for Finn’s death. And, of course, the rest of the town also blames Kieran for what happened that night, which is why he ran off to Sydney right after and hasn’t been back since.

Read more

Well, it’s 2025, which means we’re at the quarter-century mark, so everyone is posting their lists of their favorite films from 2000-2024, so I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon and add mine to the parade.

But, before I give you my list, I thought it would be fun if I reminded you of my past picks:

Here were my Top 10 from 2000-2009, published on January 10, 2010:
1. WALL-E (2008)
2. Donnie Darko (2001)
3. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
4. In Bruges (2008)
5. Gladiator (2000)
6. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
7. Memento (2000)
8. Batman Begins (2005)
9. The Hurt Locker (2009)
10. Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

Read more

It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when former Saturday Night Live cast members just could not get any traction at all in TV or movies after they left the iconic late-night show. There was the occasional exception, but for the most part, former SNL cast members’ careers ended up dying a slow death, despite many, many attempts at finding Eddie Murphy-like glory. In the nineties, it became somewhat of a sad joke that if you were on SNL, that meant your career had peaked.

Well, things have certainly changed.

Not only is SNL now considered a proving ground for some of the best talent around, it has demonstrated, time and time again, to be a place for some of the most immensely talented artists to test their boundaries, make connections and, most important of all, gain the confidence and fame they need to be able to make challenging and brilliant work once they’ve left the show. We saw it with Kristen Wiig and Bridesmaids. We saw it with Adam Samberg and Palm Springs. We saw it with Jason and Ted Lasso. And we saw it with Bill Hader and a show called Barry, one of the best television shows produced in the last twenty years.

Read more

Don’t be put off by the title. Murderbot, a new series on AppleTV+, is sci-fi, but it’s a comedy, not an apocalyptic, Terminator-type vision of our near-future where machines destroy humanity. Of course, as of this writing, only seven of the ten episodes of season one have dropped, so who knows what could happen. BUT, for what I’ve seen so far of Murderbot, it is a delightful, even goofy at times, warm and endearingly offbeat comedy about a service robot who has gained free will, and every indication is that it won’t go rogue like its main character.

The great Alexander Skarsgård plays the titular, newly-sentient robot, nicknamed “sec unit,” because he was initially programmed to be a security robot, designed to assist and protect humans on missions to distant planets. He is chosen to escort a group of scientists, whose leader, Mensah, played by Noma Dumezweni, selects him specifically because he strikes her as a little odd, a little different than all the other, more polished, newer robots. That’s because he’s been refurbished—something happened in his past that had to be wiped from his memory, maybe this is where the series title comes from? Hmmm. But this is where the “glitch” may have happened that prompted our loveable sec unit to gain self-awareness. And it is here where Murderbot gains all of its momentum.

Read more

The premise of conquering the beast has been around as long as storytelling has captured human imagination. Myths, fairy tales, superhero sagas, they all tell tales of ordinary men and women going up against an unconquerable foe, armed only with their courage, wit and, more often than not, immeasurable luck.

There is something uniquely human about our species that makes us seek the danger, seek the challenge, seek the beast—for some, facing imminent death is the only way they can feel alive. But most of those challenges here on earth, mountain-climbing, skydiving, cliff-diving, etc, usually feature man vs a stationary object. Climb Mt. Everest, jump out of a plane towards Earth, jump off a cliff into the ocean–it’s hard enough to do any of those things, to master any of those skills, to overcome any of those fears, to have the stamina, strength, endurance and ability to do any of those things just as they are. Now imagine doing any of them while they are moving and trying to devour you at the same time. Imagine if, as you were climbing Mt. Everest, it was trying to swallow you whole while you’re just trying to stay on your feet—just trying to survive.

That is what big wave surfing is.

Read more

I heard the latest Netflix series sensation Dept. Q described as a cross between Slow Horses and House. Now, if you know anything about those two other beloved but decidedly un-traditional shows, one which ran from 2004 to 2012 and the other which is currently running on AppleTV+, they both are centered around one certifiably grumpy guy who also happens to be—of course—somewhat of a genius at what he does, despite how he makes everyone around him crazy. In House, the crazy-maker was played by the always-perfect Hugh Laurie and in Slow Horses, he’s played by the great unwashed master Gary Oldman, so, to be considered in the same creative arena as them is quite high praise indeed, but certainly one that is deserved by Matthew Goode, who earns his misanthropic stripes in Dept. Q with just as much bitterness as Laurie and rueful resentment but thankfully more soap (and certainly fewer farts) than Oldman.

Read more

I was in the mood for action again, so I looked around for a show that could scratch my itch and I found one that did just that. It’s not the typical kind of action, there aren’t car chases or spy shenanigans, but there are explosions and tension galore. If you are looking for a show that will keep you fully engaged, on the edge of your seat and never once bored enough to look at your phone, Trigger Point on Peacock and BritBox is the show for you.

Trigger Point is a workplace drama that centers on Lana Washington, played by Vicky McClure. Lana is very good at her job, which is to diffuse bombs. Yes, this is like the movie the Hurt Locker, which won the Oscar for Best Picture back in 2008, except without war, the desert or all that testosterone.

Lana does have military training and background—she served in Afghanistan in the British military, so there is a Hurt Locker angle—so she certainly knows what she’s doing, but the bombs she is now faced with diffusing are set in and around London, not Bagdad, and that truly makes all the difference.

Read more