There is sometimes no greater fuel for a narrative flame than the hunt for a criminal. From the recent brilliant HBO series Task to the 2007 David Fincher masterpiece Zodiac, to the 1991 Best Picture winning Silence of the Lambs, watching cops track down wanted criminals can be an exhilarating experience. In the right hands, the audience gets a glimpse into both sides of the criminal coin that they would otherwise never know: one side whose impulse is to break the law and often to hurt or kill innocent people and the other side those whose life mission it is to stop them at all costs from hurting anyone else. There’s a reason
there are so many police shows on television, why there is such a fascination with serial killers in the media and why the term “if it bleeds, it leads” dictates local news. The only thing Americans love more than crime stories is stories about the criminals getting caught. And when it’s done with nuance, psychological insight, drama and texture—as were the fore-mentioned masterpieces—then it’s a chef’s kiss.
So, when I saw that Netflix had a new feature-length film about the longest and most expensive, and perhaps the most famous, hunt for a serial killer in American history, I was beyond excited. And when I saw the cast was stacked with great talent, including an Emmy winner and an Oscar winner, I was prepared for greatness.
It takes a lot to show us something we’ve never seen before. To present ideas that make us truly think. To make us think in ways we’ve never considered before. To leave us with thoughts that linger for days and make us look at the world differently. To make us question our consciousness, our existence, our humanity, our world, ourselves. Pluribus does all of this and does it with such entertaining wonder (and, admittedly, sometimes true horror) that I am constantly overwhelmed with how refreshing it truly is and how lucky we are to exist in a timeline with Vince Gilligan and the team of writers and directors he has assembled and how lucky we are to be the recipients of this kind of magic trick. Oh, and the magnificent Rhea Seehorn, who never won that Emmy for Better Call Saul that she so deserved? You’d better believe she’s coming for it now.
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. 
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.
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 
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.
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 
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.
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.