Lisa Laman

A few days after the second season of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" dropped on Netflix in June 2026, news broke that the program's viewership had crumbled compared to Season 1. An already challenged production was clearly falling flat on its face, while reviews continued to lament how the show was constantly suffering from an identity crisis. While the third and final season is scheduled to hit Netflix sometime in 2027, it's clear that the series isn't taking off like it was supposed to. The original animated "Last Airbender" was a game-changing sensation, but its live-action TV remake is shaping up to become a flop.

In case you hadn't noticed, discussions about Star Wars matters online can quickly become toxic and overwhelmingly nasty. Some of the franchise's most passionate devotees often spiral into treatises about how Star Wars hasn't been good for decades, or which movies are the nadir of cinema. At times, it can feel like discussing this saga is a losing game and that nothing could unite this often warring fanbase.

"Love is a Many-Splendored Thing", as the song goes. For Angela (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Seth Rogen), the lead couple of The Invite , love is...

As the 10 best movies of 2026 (so far) can attest, 2026 has been a sublime year for cinema. Best of all, that quality has come from superb non-sequel storytelling told on varying levels of scale. The gargantuan "Project Hail Mary," for instance, blew everyone away at the box office

Given how rampantly produced action movies are in the modern world, it can be easy to take this genre for granted. The finer artistic nuances underlining these works can be hard to appreciate when one is bombarded by big-budget American movies whose idea of "quality" action is a bunch of indistinguishable CG mush. As modern action classics like "Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In," "RRR," and "The Furious" have excitingly demonstrated, though, artistry can flourish as vibrantly in action movies as with any other genre. Just because there's a lot of punching and kicking on screen doesn't mean there isn't craft and precision going into the proceedings.

Women superheroes have often gotten the short end of the stick in all media of artistic expression. Even though they've existed in comics since the 1940s, countless comic storylines involving characters like Captain Marvel or Wonder Woman often indulged in misogynistic tropes. As for superhero movies, women-led titles in this realm have often been demonized and seen as destined to be box-office flops. That's in spite of titles like

"It don't take money/don't take fame/don't need no credit card to ride this train," so goes the Huey Lewis and the News song "The Power of Love" that kicks off the original "Back to the Future." Those lyrics aren't just relevant to feeling "twitterpated." They also echo how the greatest charms of the initial "Back to the Future" don't require costly gear or an expensive education to appreciate. Anybody from any walk of life can marinate in the endless joys of 1985 teenager Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) getting whisked away back to 1955 thanks to an automobile time machine made by pal Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd).

Talk shows have a lengthy television history. Within their extensive legacy, there's been hefty conversations about its highs and lows as a genre, which often rest on who is hosting these programs. Talk shows thrive or die based on the person sitting behind a desk; they're the force that drives the entire program. Even

Nowadays, when a movie provides some kind of conclusion, studio marketing leans into it. “The saga will end, the story will live forever”* t...

In December 2025, "Spartacus: House of Ashur" entered the prestige television ring in hopes of becoming the next entry in the list of the best TV spin-offs ever made. This extension of the "Spartacus" universe put the pre-existing character Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay) front and center, while new characters like Neferet/Achillia (Tenika Davis) were introduced. Though set in an alternate timeline from the one "Spartacus" existed in (which explains why Ashur returned from his "Spartacus" demise), "House of Ashur" was still set to continue its predecessor's tradition of grisly violence and beefy bodies clashing in gladiator armor.