Each season of Black Mirror is like an issue of a great science fiction magazine, particularly one with a focus on near-future tales that examine the complex, usually dark aspects of technology. Like The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror multitasks, mixing in cultural critique with its slick SFnal concepts, jaw-dropping reveals, and intriguing story structures. But whereas The Twilight Zone had a broad genre approach, Black Mirror’s is more specifically centered on futurism and information technology.

Carrie Vaughn reviews Moana, Rogue One, and Passengers.

The Inevitable Broken Heart If you’ve read the story Arrival is based on, “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, you already know the alien language and you will understand everything about the movie from the first frame, you will know exactly how it’s going to unfold, and you will watch it all anyway, enthralled. […]

John Joseph Adams, Theresa Delucci, and Rajan Khanna join David Barr Kirtley in a panel discussion for The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy to dissect and analyze the first four episodes of the new HBO show Westworld.

The real world may seem increasingly dystopian lately, but that doesn’t seem to have quenched our thirst for dystopian visions. Two current shows—one that reaches into the cinematic past, the other straight into the modern zeitgeist—are leveraging the science fictional furniture of dystopia to powerful, if decidedly different, effect.

The opening credits of Sense8 (2015, streaming on Netflix) effectively convey what sort of show it is. Images from around the world set to calm music that slowly give way to more vibrant scenes of life and love as the music increases in intensity, betraying a hint of darkness. This is the planet Earth and the people who live there, it says as it revels in their beauty.

“Safety Lights are for Dudes!” I had no idea what to expect going into this new Ghostbusters movie. The vitriol over it during the previous year has been exhausting. Never have I wanted so badly for a movie to be good, but had so little sign as to whether it actually would be. I’m happy […]

Let me state up front that I have never played Warcraft the game in any of its incarnations, and so may be in a good position to judge this as a movie and not as an artifact of some other thing. Honestly, the only thing I really know about Warcraft is Leeroy Jenkins. But I have played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons.

I think there’s an argument to be made that media outlets are hungry for content that will attract viewers. And nothing looks better than content with a known track record and pre-existing audience. So now companies like Netflix produce sequels to movies that first played some sixteen years ago. How does a sixteen-year-old movie possibly require a sequel? Answer: It doesn’t. Yet here we are, with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny.

This month, we take a look at thought-provoking television shows: Amazon’s PKD adaptation,The Man in the High Castle (Season 1), and the Norwegian political thriller Occupied.