Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut because Silo Season 2 Episode 4 opens up with a grievous deus ex machina that lays out everything Mechanical is up against. It’s literally written on a wall for them to read.

Apparently, despite all their visits to this dark and otherwise unknown area of the Silo, no one ever read these gigantic messages written on a 100′ x 100′ wall and thought, “Gee, that sounds really bad.”

It’s a genuinely face-palm moment, a cringe-inducing flash of “what the actual…” well, you know the rest.

It’s an occasion of “Hey, let’s get this show on the road” condensed down to, “Just write the story on a wall that everyone sees, but no one actually reads until just the right moment.”

While some of the hour returns to the things that make Silo a solid, if slow, series, other scenes are simply immersion-breakingly absurd. I’ll get to that in a few.

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Much of what characterizes Silo Season 2 is the ever-present mystery of the outside world, and Silo 17 is at the heart of it. Juliette’s time there is unnerving, to say the least.

Her lone companion is a man-child, whose mind is also suffering from decades of being, well, solo. Every moment she spends with him is a study in passive anxiety, wondering when and if Solo will explode and become violent.

Shane McRae’s balance between a child and a hair-pulling psychotic is scantily restrained like a balloon that’s half a PSI too full.

Juliette is the voice of reason, but she also has much to do. Exploring Silo 17 is neither a simple nor unhazardous journey. The place is half full of water, and if you fear drowning, this episode may make you a little queasy.

Book readers know there is more going on just past the perimeter, out of sight and out of mind…for now. Unfortunately, as is the case with the first three episodes of Silo Season 2, the feeling of progress is fleeting.

Back in Silo 18, Knox, Shirley, Carla, and Walker decide to ascend the Silo and meet with Judge Meadows. Despite the decision marking the near beginning of the episode, they don’t reach the top until the end of the episode.

Unfortunately, Judge Meadows is no longer in a state for receiving company. Even worse, Judge Meadows is where things truly fall apart.

In an earlier scene, Bernard does something truly horrible, and what follows is a series of romantic gestures that seem so out of place I had to check to make sure my iPad didn’t switch me to some other show.

The level of unreality is truly bad, and it’s hard to imagine putting anyone in Judge Meadow’s place and expecting them to behave the same way.

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It doesn’t end there. The events that transpire afterward are equally ridiculous. Robert Sims’ Lord of the Rings speech is as out of place as everything else and is the icing on the cake in a seemingly bizarre effort to speed the plot along in the most convenient ways possible.

What’s worse is that it doesn’t take much to sit down and think of a few slight modifications here and there that would right the ship. If an armchair TV critic can do that much, surely the writers can as well?

The remaining subplots are relatively short but accomplish much. Robert Sims is still butthurt over Bernard’s decision to skip him in the running for the Head of IT’s shadow.

Robert, Bernard, and Juliette are the entertainment manifestations of all the great empire quotes.

“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”

-Will Durant

Fitting. The “without,” in this case, is the poisonous world beyond the exterior vault doors and automated flamethrowers of the Silo’s threshold.

The “within” is the conflict Sims is generating with Bernard, even as both seek to silence Knox, Shirley, and the rest of the “peasants” from Mechanical.

Judge Meadows is the unfortunate victim of Sims’ machinations and Bernard’s counter. Destruction from within, indeed.

The power dynamic between Robert and his wife, Camille, is fascinating to watch. Ultimately, she’s just as responsible for the internal unraveling as her husband, Bernard, and everyone else.

Thus far, Silo Season 2 is almost entirely conflicting dynamism. As slow as things are moving, there’s pleasure in watching political oscillations and the resulting reactions.

Unfortunately, Juliette is in a bit of limbo as a result. Things are moving along in Silo 17, but only if you’re measuring in millimeters.

Sheriff Billings enjoys a little screen time as well. In this case, he gets to sift through the true meaning of being the Sheriff as he investigates Cooper’s shooting and the source of the firebomb from Episode 2.

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Despite his physical setback, he’s fairly decent at it, asking the right questions, determining motives, and arriving at a logical conclusion, at least in part. The larger, ever-growing conspiracy around him is a bit above the Sheriff’s pay grade.

Silo Season 2 Episode 4 is not going to set anyone buzzing or have you bouncing off the walls in anticipation. The mystery at the center of Silo is a gigantic black hole, sucking us back in with each succeeding episode.

But the reality is that Juliette began the episode in search of a fire suit. An hour later, she found one. Sure, mission accomplished and all that good stuff. But at the show’s current pace, it doesn’t feel like she is anywhere closer to her ultimate objective.

Knox, Shirley, and company made it to the upper levels to speak with Judge Meadows, and the episode ends with them still on the upper levels, mission most decidedly unaccomplished.

This episode relied heavily on convenience and a glaring plot hole. It’s unfortunate because I am really enjoying Silo and hope that this is not a sign of a decline in the overall quality of the writing.

And, as exciting as some of the subplots are in Silo 18, the first four episodes relegate the primary protagonist to short snippets of screen time. There are some big questions in Silo, and Season 2 looks as far from answering them as the beginning of Season 1.

Why is the outside world dead? Why does IT viciously repress history? Who placed IT in charge and why? How is Juliette going to get back, and what will she do when she does?

If the heroine’s journey were measured in quarter-inch segments, it would be a mile long and only the first handful of inches behind her. Episode 4 covered another quarter and did so in a questionable fashion.

Watch Silo Season 2 Online

The post Silo Season 2 Episode 4 Review: The Harmonium appeared first on TV Fanatic.

A series isn’t much fun if it doesn’t have a flawed character who somehow resonates with the audience, whether they lean more dark or are a burst of light. Characters who recognize and embrace their flaws are some of the most compelling to watch.

And we couldn’t resist breaking down some of the characters who fit the bill.

Rafe Cameron – Outer Banks

By now, we’ve discussed what went wrong in Outer Banks Season 4 and even mourned the loss of our comfort show. But moving on, the series is full of flawed characters who are somehow endearing.

No one fits the bill better than Kook King Rafe Cameron. He’s objectively a terrible person at times; his long list of crimes includes nearly killing his own sister, for starters. But this is Outer Banks, baby, where Rafe’s flaws somehow work within this series.

A self-professed killer, Rafe is, at times, mentally unstable, driven by traits like revenge and greed. Still, he’s also bound by values like legacy and family, culminating in him doing unspeakable things for oddly noble reasons.

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Rafe knows who he is and he rarely apologizes for it. However, he does make the necessary adjustments and proves himself through actions. And that’s why there’s something strangely admirable about the character—how he knows himself so well and stands in who he is, good, bad, and ugly.

Rafe isn’t a perfect character or even a good person. Still, he’s authentic, which makes him click into place and resonate well amid the class lines that often revolve around superficiality and identity crises in Outer Banks.

Watch Outer Banks Online

Morgan Gillory – High Potential

Who hasn’t fallen in love with Morgan Gillory and High Potential?

She’s witty, intelligent, messy, and prone to making mistakes in many aspects of her life, but she’s genuinely good-hearted. Her style, openness, and honesty make her stand out. She wears her working-class background on her brazenly bright, gaudy faux fur sleeve.

She is gifted intellectually but realistically stalled in life, making her a less glamorous and more realistic depiction of neurodivergence and genuinely relatable as a character.

She’s imperfect and will be the first to tell you that upfront. She readily accepts that she’s flawed but still strives to be a better mother, friend, and person.

Morgan always holds her own and is true to herself, even though she oversteps boundaries, is pushy, and lacks a filter. That’s what makes her so likable.

Watch High Potential Online

Oliver Wolf – Brilliant Minds

Oliver is absolutely brilliant, as the Brilliant Minds‘ title implies, but he’s such a deliciously complex character, not without many flaws and imperfections. He’s a socially awkward, introverted gay luddite with face blindness! And damn if we don’t love him for it.

Oliver is a fantastic doctor who focuses as much on connecting with his patients as he is on fixing their health issues. His unique approach to practicing medicine is often rooted deeply in a traumatic past of dealing with an emotionally distant mother and a father who battled and died from mental illness.

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Oliver’s flaws and experiences allow him to lead with genuine compassion and sympathy. He not only wholly embraces what makes him different and flawed and his own shortcomings, but he subsequently teaches and inspires other characters to do the same.

Oliver is a quietly inspiring character who continues to battle issues but learns how to step outside of them, and he’s a poster child for how to live one’s life, distancing oneself from shame, self-doubt, and second-guessing.

And we get to see his ongoing journey of unlearning these habits along the way.

Watch Brilliant Minds Online

Beth Dutton – Yellowstone

Beth Dutton has a sharp tongue, quick wit, and the ability to destroy everything in her path, which is one of many reasons she’s one of Yellowstone‘s greatest characters.

She’s a deeply flawed woman hardened by many hurts and betrayals, turning her grief, pain, and previous trauma into a thick armor that makes her nearly indestructible.

She’s fearless, ruthless, intelligent, cunning, unafraid, and unapologetic about doing whatever it takes to get what she desires or handle something. Still, she’s fiercely loyal to most of her family and deceptively soft and vulnerable, particularly when she gets to bury herself in Rip’s arms.

Beth is a host of contradictions, a viper unafraid to strike first, hard, and fast if need be. She is most assuredly an acquired taste to many, but that makes her one of the most genuinely refreshing characters on the air and as real as it gets, baby.

Watch Yellowstone Online

BoJack Horseman – Bojack Horseman

There’s a reason why this character tends to resonate with many viewers when they tune in.

Bojack Horseman is painfully himself throughout the series. He’s selfish, cynical, and totally self-destructive at almost all times. He’s one of the most toxic characters you’ll see, especially to those around him.

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But in knowing that, and how openly he addresses his mental illnesses, addiction issues, and all the ways in which he fails in life, that raw honesty is endearing and refreshing, and in some ways, maybe even deeply inspiring.

He tries to improve, but not so earnestly and consistently that it feels inauthentic and forced. There are no delusions about him.

Watch Bojack Horseman Online

Samantha Jones – SATC

Samantha Jones is a feminist icon of a television character for a reason.

She is sexually liberated in a way that we hadn’t seen, unapologetic about her sexual appetite and desires, brash, bold, and progressive in a way that challenges those around her.

Samantha rarely has a filter. She is blunt to a fault, incredibly vain, and materialistic.

But she is fiercely loyal, protective, and open-minded, and through her relationships, she learns how to be vulnerable, intimate, and committed.

Watch Sex and the City Online

Robert Spearing – Industry

Oh, Robert, the sweet and, at times, pathetic soul that he is, it’s hard not to love every bit of him.

Robert is one of Industry‘s most flawed characters, which speaks volumes for a series that is essentially all about flaws. He’s often out of his depth, someone who tends to lack confidence, fumbles through the basics of his job and is gullible and easily manipulated.

The thing about Robert is that in the world Industry cultivates, he’s mostly a genuinely good person, but because he lacks the ambition, ruthlessness, and arrogance of the other characters, he tends to fall short and stand out.

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But he offers a nice, albeit sad, at times, counterbalance to the other characters, and despite his hopeless love for a woman who’ll never properly love him back or his aspirations to climb up the social class ranks to no avail, you genuinely root for him.

And he holds fast in trying to navigate a world where he’s a guppy in shark-infested waters without sacrificing too much of what makes him. It’s quietly defiant.

Watch Industry Online

Ted Lasso – Ted Lasso

Truthfully, Ted Lasso is so aggressively positive, nice, and kind that it feels surreal and should be one of the most offputting things ever.

It’s a clear facade to some degree, masking deep pain and Ted’s depression, but how he pours himself into being a good person despite how awful he often feels aside is part of what makes the character so great.

Ted Lasso proves that you don’t have to be an asshole just because you’re hurting, and he inspires and often pulls out the best in those around him despite his shortcomings and how he behaves because of them.

Watch Ted Lasso Online

Gregory House – House M.D.

House is an arrogant doctor who completely disregards the feelings of those around him.

And yes, this disregard extends to a mostly abhorrent bedside manner that typically involves him offending everyone in the room.

He’s outspoken, snarky, blunt, and rude, and most of the time, he seems to get off on making people miserable. He also has a pretty bad painkiller addiction that only brings out the worst of his traits when he gets agitated.

But you can never accuse House of not keeping 100 at all times, and there’s something commendable about his willingness to embrace his worst traits without a second thought.

Watch House Online

Rose Nylund – The Golden Girls

How does the saying go? Oh, right, Rose Nylund is as dumb as a bag of rocks.

Her naivete and intellectual challenges make her a flawed character, but her innocence and moments of purity and clarity make up for it.

What’s great about Rose is that she’s conscious of how dumb she sounds often but is also not ashamed of what she doesn’t know.

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She’s always open to learning more and growing and wholly accepts and embraces her shortcomings, even putting up with the ribbing and jokes in the interim.

Most people are too self-conscious to admit when they’re out of their depth, so there’s a bravery to Rose’s authenticity.

Watch The Golden Girls Online

Emily Cooper – Emily in Paris

Emily is easily one of the most annoying characters on the air, and yet, like a bad rash, Emily in Paris persists.

But that’s also what begrudgingly makes us appreciate the character so much. She’s often a walking, talking stereotype of American ignorance, brashness, and entitlement wrapped up in a bubbly package. But she knows who and what she is and how she affects people, and she carries on anyway.

If she can win a person over, she’ll find a way to do so, and her plucky persona and inability to stay down and out even when she should sit down, zip it, take things in, and assess are what make the series so interesting.

She’s bold and smiles in the face of Parisian snobbery, never even considering being anything other than herself.

Watch Emily in Paris Online

Michael Scott – The Office

On The Office, Michael is selfish, self-absorbed, and lacks social and self-awareness.

He’s often narcissistic, and no one sticks his foot in his mouth better. He spends much of the series struggling with these traits and trying to get outside them.

But he cares enough about his colleagues and makes some effort to right things, so his flaws, political incorrectness, and insensitivity work out.

Watch The Office Online

Maggie Bell – FBI

Maggie always takes risks and takes a walk on the dark side of things on FBI.

But she’s so incredibly stubborn that it often gets frustrating.

She always sticks her ground, is opinionated, rarely holds back, and is reckless, making her a genuinely stressful person to watch on cases.

But so many of Maggie’s most frustrating traits make her a great agent, loyal partner, and solid friend, and leaning into these traits rather than straying away from them works for the character.

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Parker – Leverage/Leverage Redemption

There are very few characters like Parker, especially women, making her Leverage‘s breath of fresh air.

Parker has nothing that resembles a filter. She is brutally honest and always speaks her mind while simultaneously displaying a whimsical and childlike innocence.

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She’s whipsmart in an untraditional way, fierce, loyal, and badass. In two different series, she learned how to come to grips with who she is as a person and truly thrive within that.

Parker’s journey towards embracing who and what she is and making everyone around her and the world a better place is one of Leverage’s most lasting impacts.

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Quigley Smitty – The Rookie

Smitty is such a staple on The Rookie that it would be difficult to envision the series without him.

He’s an opportunistic and supremely lazy officer who doesn’t do much unless it’s self-serving and seemingly is riding out the gig until he can retire. On paper, he should be a truly loathsome character as he rarely lifts a finger.

But when he does, he’s shockingly badass and possesses a self-awareness that makes you appreciate rather than resent him. With Smitty, you almost always know who and what you’ll get; something is comforting about that.

He doesn’t mince any words about what he will and won’t do, and he doesn’t feel he has anything to prove, and you have to respect that!

Watch The Rookie Online

Will Trent – Will Trent

Will is constantly evolving as a character.

He battles various issues, from his dyslexia and OCD to his lack of social awareness and inability to get along with others easily.

He seems stuck in his ways, but with time and effort, he comes to grips with who he is and accepts it while making meaningful improvements along the way that enhance his life and those around him.

Of all the characters in Will Trent, he’s one of the most real, grounded, and unapologetic, and also one of the most inspiring.

Watch Will Trent Online

Kitty Song Covey – XO, Kitty

Kitty is such an endearing character, which is one of many reasons Netflix created XO, Kitty for her after the success of the To All the Boys movie franchise.

But Kitty is certainly a character with her fair share of issues, many of which are the catalyst behind her landing in South Korea in the first place.

Kitty is incredibly impulsive, in case moving halfway across the world didn’t already reach that natural conclusion. She is also naive about love and what her true love story should be like possessing some childlike, fairytale idealism far from reality.

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Like many young people coming into their own, she’s often selfish and absorbed, at times lacking insight and awareness about those around her.

But even with all of these flaws, she’s an endearing enough character because she’s genuine about working her way through them and becoming a better person, as well as genuinely figuring out who she is and what she wants out of life.

Watch XO, Kitty Online

Louis Litt – Suits

By now, we all know that Suits has a treasure trove of fascinating and flawed characters who stayed true to themselves and stood in all they were.

But one of the most unexpectedly compelling from the bunch was Louis Litt. He was quick to anger, jealous, often whiny, lacked self-confidence, and desperate.

Louis was also devoted and loyal to those who mattered, smart, and adaptable. He wore his flaws on his sleeve, and despite the occasional moment of being treated like more antagonist and nuisance than ally at various points in the series, his multifaceted portrayal makes him such a great character.

Watch XO, Kitty Online

Somehow, falling somewhere between being an outcast and a mascot.

There are some of our favorite television characters who embrace their flaws, and now, we want to hear about some of yours.

Who would you place on this list? Sound off below!

The post Unapologetically Real: TV Characters Who Embrace Their Flaws appeared first on TV Fanatic.

The condition might’ve been described in Ye Olden Days as that “record-scratch” moment when a person entered a room, and all eyes turned to them in wonder. 

It’s that same center-of-attention dynamic, only all the time and in every room.

But if everyone truly is the hero of their own story, how is Main Character Syndrome any different from just being alive? 

What Are The Symptoms?

It’s when someone considers themselves the main character in someone else’s story. This has traditionally been the one job where you can’t be replaced.

Pulling focus like this doesn’t work well in real life, but it’s surprisingly common on the small screen. 

After all, you don’t have to be an actual main character in order to act like one, as many TV protagonists have discovered. 

In fact, a character doesn’t even have to be particularly virtuous.

It’s a nifty trick for a character to blur the lines between who gets your attention and who deserves it. And a TV landscape filled with anti-heroes makes for excellent camouflage.

So, which questionable protagonists act like their show should be all about them?

If Main Character Syndrome were a person, that person would be Jennifer Coolidge. She remains the premier example in just about every project she’s in, especially The White Lotus franchise.

Her scene-stealing persona usually presents as being completely unaware of how she affects those around her.

That absolves her (at least a little bit) of intentionally causing misery to others and also sets her up as the only person in the room who doesn’t realize how awful her character’s actions are.

But there are other not-so-nice TV protagonists who trick us into seeing them as heroically good.

Watch The White Lotus Online

Guillermo de la Cruz, What We Do In The Shadows

Our favorite long-suffering ex-familiar has always been positioned as the sole voice of reason in a house of, shall we say, strong personalities. 

Guillermo (Harvey Guillen)’s role as an audience stand-in and assumed good guy was based on nothing more than his not being a vampire (and, I suppose, that business about him being related to Van Helsing). 

The series portrayed him as a sweet, innocent babe in the woods at the mercy of a group of vampires. 

But was he, really?

Guillermo helped facilitate countless deaths over the years to feed Nandor and the other vampires. Sure, he did it with a “Mondays, amirite?” shrug, but… he did it nonetheless.

Despite a talent for walking the vampires back from their worst impulses, Guillermo himself almost murdered Nandor at least twice for breaking his promise to turn him into a vampire.

He also disposed of so many dead bodies in their backyard that a sinkhole opened.

Guillermo’s sound bites for the documentary crew always sounded reasonable and generous.

But his actions were more often self-serving and duplicitous, like when he kept his vampire hunter heritage a secret for a very long time (for good reason, but still).

His justifications were understandable after being strung along for a decade of servitude and having to lead a double life on little to no sleep.

However, his thoughts and actions can only be categorized as “good” compared to the vampires around him. And he’s not being honest with himself when he says he wants to lead a normal life.

We saw that most recently with his office job at Cannon Capital, where he was horrified at Nadja’s murderous interference until… it kept getting him promoted.

So, it seems Guillermo is a protagonist who proves that he doesn’t have to be an actual vampire in order to act like one.

Watch What We Do In The Shadows Online

Main Character Patient Zero

Main Character Syndrome has also been known to afflict actual main characters, as seen in the recent ret-con of Carrie Bradshaw as the iconic symbol of that term.

Although that’s perhaps not news for many fans of Sex and the City‘s original run, who have always considered Samantha Jones its true star.

The conceit is that while it’s not ideal to act like the world exists only to be the backdrop for your own life, it’s worse to act like that about the world of your own show.

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Carrie’s self-absorption was always kind of her thing, though, and Miranda called her out on it MANY times (yes, before And Just Like That…, Miranda Hobbes had some serious sass).

However, the tipping point seems to be when other characters are treated like background scenery, not people who also have their own lives in this fictional world.

Watch Sex And The City Online

Back in the “real” world, there’s a character on that teakwood Titanic fever dream we call Doctor Odyssey who would definitely not make room for you on that floating door…

Avery Morgan, Doctor Odyssey

On a ship that’s full of shenanigans, you could strive to be the calm that you’d like to see. Or, you could be Nurse Avery Morgan and add as much drama as possible to the proceedings at every opportunity.

Avery (Phillipa Soo) is extremely competent and super prickly. This sadly reinforces that dynamic where the guys can be fun-loving professionals while the women only get to scowl and keep them on task.

However, Avery is pretty much a sourpuss all on her own. She’s fantastic at her job and wants to be a doctor but resents how long and hard she’s had to work to pay for every step of her education so far.

Avery hates the ship’s over-the-top theme weeks, as well as the passengers and their stupid, predictable ailments.

She REALLY hated Plastic Surgery Week and told the cruise line’s owner as much, which got her fired (don’t worry, it didn’t stick).

Avery’s obviously talented but is so bored in her current position that it makes her dangerous.

She’ll stick to a possibly incorrect diagnosis a beat too long just to antagonize her new boss, Dr. Max, and alternates between encouraging fellow nurse Tristan’s crush on her and cutting him down.

And in quite possibly her worst crime, she does not attend strip poker night with the rest of the crew!

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It was hard to see all this initially because Avery’s angelic features, intelligence, and calm demeanor read as “good.”

But after she rejected Tristan, Avery got jealous when he became interested in a new chef and tried to create problems for them.

Avery is busy enough with medical school on the horizon and a kinda-sorta love triangle with Dr. Max and Tristan.

But she still found time this season to get appendicitis during a once-in-a-lifetime storm and almost had to amputate a woman’s arm in a cave.

Avery is an experienced medical professional who deserves her place on this elite ship’s team. However, she also lashes out in self-destructive ways.

Anchors away!

Watch Doctor Odyssey Online

Liz, Shrinking

For a gentle hangout show, Shrinking has many seriously frustrating characters. But none can come close to meddling next-door neighbor Liz (Christa Miller), an unstoppable force of annoying nature.

In the show’s first season, Liz threw herself into helping a widowed husband and devastated teenage girl stay afloat as they all dealt with loss differently.

A hyper-organized empty nester, Liz had tons of free time and the certainty that she was always right. She took on that role a little too well and became a smothering presence for the grieving family next door.

It’s easy to see why her husband, Derek, cheerfully spends his days away and just goes along to get along when he’s home. Liz is sharply funny and intelligent, which almost makes you like her until the next overstepping thing she does.

Liz’s controlling nature was tamped down in the second season. Her better qualities were allowed to shine with all the characters, and she even went into business with Sean and his food truck.

Then she sold her half of the food truck to Sean’s semi-estranged father without telling Sean first.

And… we’re back! To Season One Annoying Levels of Liz!!

Liz is not subtle about her advanced case of Main Character Syndrome. She sees her fellow characters as projects she can improve and doesn’t listen if they don’t want help.

Watch Shrinking Online

Take Two Aspirin

Self-involved protagonists have long been a TV staple, even if it does seem like there’s more of them than usual.

But it’s true that good shows rely on bad characters, so Main Character Syndrome could be responsible for much of the great television currently on television.

What’s your take on frustrating TV protagonists: Love them or leave them?

Let us know in the comments!

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The post Main Character Syndrome: When TV Protagonists Are Actually The Worst appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Episode 2 covers what she left behind and the reaction to her disappearance over the hill, an event that never happens in series lore.

It’s also an entertaining study of a reactionary, bureaucratic autocracy cloaked in controlled democracy. There are reasons to empathize with Bernard Holland, the head of IT and provisional mayor.

For one, he knows things the audience does not, some of which struggle out from behind the veil of secrecy, telling us that not everything Juliette is doing will lead to paradise and neverending bliss.

Whatever those things are, Bernard is frightened of them enough to pay Judge Meadows a visit, asking for her help to quell the unrest and rising anxiety within the Silo. There’s clearly a history between Bernard and Meadows (romantic in nature?).

For two, absolute control is slipping through his fingers. So long as there is an element (Juliette Nichols) that he cannot reach out and touch — whose puppet strings are just beyond his fingertips — Bernard will never truly be a settled man.

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It’s a simple thing to despise him, but that means neglecting history and the human condition. Malicious despots often think of themselves or their cause as righteous.

Bernard is no different. There is a method beneath the madness, and it’s worked for at least a century and a half.

We’ve also learned a few things, some of which carry over from the previous season. For example, we know that Bernard can see everything Juliette sees, at least until the connection loses signal or when she shatters the glass of her visor.

We know that Bernard is aware of the existence of other Silos, but he was not aware of Silo 17’s demise, at least not from his projected surface.

We know that Solo is inside Silo 17’s version of the same room in which Bernard watches through Juliette’s visor.

Now we know that Juliette’s perspective sparks Bernard into panic mode, driving him to see Judge Meadows for fear of a revolt.

Book readers know there is much more going on in Bernard’s world than meets the eye. On top of that, Robert Sims is every bit the political instrument, subtly orchestrating his own cost-benefit balance and endeavoring to rise within the ranks.

While Bernard and Meadows seek rapprochement through cavalier speeches and subsidies, Sims works with his equally ambitious but more quietly analytical wife.

Sims is resourceful but also jealous and confounded by the fact that he is not Bernard’s shadow — the why and the how driving him to plot his own course.

If Bernard loses Sims, his list of allies grows thin, especially considering Judge Meadow’s demand in exchange for her help.

In many ways, the Silo is a microcosm of nationwide politics, whether they be democratic in nature, despotic, or everything in between.

The ideological viewpoint under which the society in Silo 18 functions is irrelevant to the fascination of watching it unfold on a much smaller, more constrained scale.

It’s also an encapsulated version of the ‘greater good.’ Are Bernard, Judge Meadows, and Robert Sims evil? Or are they guarding against something so devastating that, from a more agreeable point of view, necessitates their control?

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If that is the case, then who is evil? The one who mistrusts the power of knowledge in the hands of the commoner, or the person who cuts through the chain link fence at Area 51 and goes charging in?

In the meantime, rebellion is brewing in the belly of the beast, a cost Bernard is desperately averse to paying. The politics in the down-low are more emphatic and brute.

“It’s a challenging role in that it’s a character within a position of authority that has to take a tremendous burden on his shoulders in order for the silo to survive.“

-Tim Robbins in reference to his role as Bernard Holland

Knox plays a tepid voice of reason, while Shirley is the moody teenager, hopped up on hormones and unable to see the potential consequences of her feral, headlong charge ahead.

This diametrically opposed force is a poison within the lower levels. Rebellions in the Silo don’t have a great history, as Silo Season 2 Episode 1 revealed, and this one is not getting off to a coordinated start.

Knox and Shirley are so opposite that it’s hard to imagine this alliance rolling forward smoothly, especially with brains like Sims and Bernard working to thwart it.

Let us not forget that there are cameras, microphones, and spies everywhere within the Silo. Knox’s approach will seemingly hold everyone back while IT continues to dominate. Shirley’s will doom them all to an early grave.

Episode 1 was all about Juliette Nichols. Episode 2 is the exact opposite, with most of the denizens of Silo 18 believing her dead. This is especially true after Bernard’s big announcement.

Even her closest friends can only speculate, believing in their hearts that their greatest fears are indeed true.

Juliette’s departure over the hill has a resonating impact on everyone, for good or ill. Writer Cassie Pappas and Director Michael Dinner did a good job of conveying the resonating power of Juliette’s supposed demise on the denizens of Silo 18.

It didn’t require a ton of dialogue and numerous references to Juliette, either. The effect is in the actions of those she left behind, the melancholic undertones behind her father’s (Iain Glenn) motions and inflections.

The raw panic behind Bernard’s eyes, the rage behind Shirley’s, and the reverent but resolute measures Knox is willing to take all echo Juliette’s ephemeral presence and loss.

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But, Silo is nothing if not reflective of the human condition — to march forward in the face of overwhelming loss and the near hopelessness of facing something far bigger, more coordinated, and more knowledgeable.

At this point, Silo feels like it needs to ramp things up a bit. Juliette stepped outside for the first time at the end of Season 1 and has only made a modicum of progress since, with an entire episode diverting from her character.

Sure, there is plenty to build up in Season 2, but it just feels like this will go on for a while.

That’s two episodes to set up the stakes in two Silos. Hopefully, Episode 3 will open things up a bit more.

Watch Silo Season 2 Online

The post Silo Season 2 Episode 2 Review: Order appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Over the past decade, the premium streamer has quietly amassed a library of sci-fi shows that offer new ways to explore the genre.

These shows lean on the classics but are largely shaped by how we’re experiencing life in the present moment.

Apple TV+ is definitely not the only champion of sci-fi today, but its popular shows Foundation and Silo are great examples of two new directions the genre seems to be moving in.

Hard Sci-Fi Versus Soft Sci-Fi

Just like other broad entertainment genres, sci-fi contains a ton of different subgenres depending on how nerdy you want to get. The biggest of these subcategories are hard and soft sci-fi.

A super basic “righty-tighty, leftie-loosey” shorthand way to keep them straight is that hard sci-fi focuses on science while soft sci-fi focuses on fiction.

The distinction between these two can get blurred by a lot of shows and ultimately isn’t hugely important except in terms of figuring out what kind of sci-fi you gravitate toward.

For instance, I would have put Foundation squarely in the soft sci-fi camp due to its many religions, neverending sets of Dawn-Day-Dusk clones, and Hari Seldon’s disembodied consciousness popping up every few hundred years like the worst Jack in the Box ever.

However, Foundation is apparently considered hard sci-fi mostly because of its realistic mathematical projections. Because checking the math is what’s most important here, not checking out Lee Pace.

Foundation is a little bit of a curveball because it contains so many different stylistic elements. A more straightforward example of hard sci-fi is The Expanse, a show revered for its scientific accuracy.

Soft sci-fi focuses more on relationships and sociology. Star Trek is arguably the gold-standard example of this subgenre, where the technology serves the characters rather than being a focal point itself.

Of course, technology plays a huge part in Star Trek and many other soft sci-fi shows, such as Firefly. It’s just that the science behind that tech isn’t as dependent on accuracy as it is in hard sci-fi.

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Speculative, dystopian, and alternate history shows fit in the soft sci-fi subgenre, but these categorizations tend to overlap.

While Severance is pretty straightforwardly speculative, you could also say that about The Handmaid’s Tale, which is more often described as dystopian.

Again, none of these categories or subgenres are “better” than any others. But it’s interesting to see just how many different shows fall under the sci-fi umbrella.

Is Sci-Fi Getting Outpaced By Reality?

Science fiction has a long history of anticipating technological advances in the real world.

We may not yet have flying cars like the Jetsons, but a staggering number of innovations we take for granted today were predicted decades ago by sci-fi novels, short stories, and TV shows.

Credit cards, the internet, cell phones — at one point, all of these were just words on a page instead of tangible items in our actual lives.

It seemed an accepted fact that science fiction would always be a step ahead of what we actually saw around us. That is until the debut of Black Mirror on Netflix brought the technological horrors of the future much closer to home.

Black Mirror operated in the same near-future or alternate history present that films like Ex Machina and TV shows like Devs explored.

It featured an enjoyably plausible nightmarish existence that seemed too far-fetched to be worrisome — until it wasn’t.

We’re now effectively in a post-Black Mirror world where our current reality has surpassed almost anything the show could throw at us as a jump scare.

How Sci-Fi Is Changing To Suit Us

Science fiction shows have expanded to accommodate recent viewing trends.

Foundation may be based on a series of books written nearly seventy-five years ago, but its use of low-tech tribal cultures and alternate timelines echoes crowd-pleasing aspects of Game of Thrones and Marvel shows like Loki.

A blend of genres, time periods, and elaborate backstories isn’t alienating to contemporary audiences who are inundated with all kinds of content online.

They are used to juggling large amounts of seemingly unrelated information on a daily basis and are more tolerant of narratives without a clear endpoint.

This increased comfort with ambiguity is especially perfect for dystopian shows based on video games, like Fallout and The Last of Us.

Rather than expand its scope to include a little bit of everything, Silo is a more traditional dystopian show that narrows its focus to the point of claustrophobia.

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It also cloaks its advanced technology in analog trappings that blur the specific time period and history of the world in question.

This trait, shared by many dystopian works, imparts a timeless quality and also provides its characters with a greater sense of agency.

Tech experts thrive in this sci-fi environment as well, but all classes of people are able to use at least the basics of available technology.

This accessible, back-to-basics dystopian ethos blends our reliance on current technology with our perceived survivalist abilities.

The world as we know it may have imploded, but we have a chance at staying alive even if we’re not computer engineers because we can (maybe?) build a fire and replace the battery in a walkie-talkie.

Dystopians also flip the narrative on how technological power is perceived.

In many science fiction works, technology is synonymous with progress and enlightenment, a la Star Trek and Quantum Leap. But in dystopian settings, those with technological power use it to subjugate.

If both the lofty, detached expansiveness of Foundation and the gritty, confined individualism of Silo resonated with audiences, what does that mean for sci-fi going forward?

There’s Always Room For More

Sci-fi may have lost some ground in terms of predicting our future, but it’s still unmatched as a snapshot of our current mood.

Alternate timelines aren’t new, but their mainstream acceptance into non-sci-fi genres has become more commonplace over the past decade.

For All Mankind goes all in on this subgenre, taking the concept of America losing the space race far into the future.

The show’s grounding in actual history differentiates it from Foundation, where alternate timelines branch off a line of history that was imaginary to begin with.

A sci-fi show that’s based in reality also provides tangible stakes for the audience, who are more likely to be invested in a “What If?” that is easier to imagine actually happening.

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The thought of being in the “wrong timeline” can be a source of both comfort and terror. But it also provides a non-denominational view of immortality where alternate versions of yourself coexist across an infinite span of timelines.

This is appealing on many levels, including the notion that it might be possible to jump into a different reality in an expansion of the Sliding Doors concept.

This notion ties back to our constant inundation of information, where we’ve accepted the concept of infinite complexity, but we also yearn for an escape to a simpler reality.

Can We Still Have Spaceships?

Just because sci-fi is creeping into earthbound genres (noir mystery in Sugar, workplace thriller in Severance) doesn’t mean we have to leave the stars behind.

There will always be a place for “traditional” sci-fi that takes place in outer space and encounters alien civilizations.

After all, those have been the genre’s hallmarks for decades. But it’s thrilling to watch sci-fi branch out into new territory that even it didn’t see coming.

Science fiction has never been closer to our current time than it is in the present moment.

Perhaps the genre’s most significant shift is that now, we’re facing the future together.

Do you think sci-fi is heading in a new direction, or is it feeling about the same to you?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post The Future Is Here: How Shows Like Foundation and Silo Are Defining Modern Sci-Fi appeared first on TV Fanatic.

It was a surreal moment that left those who had never read Hugh Howey’s novels facing a year or more of questions and uncertainty. Only the best series are capable of such feats, and Silo’s first outing was more than up to the task.

Silo Season 2 Episode 1 kicks things off, not with Julie, but with unfamiliar faces at an unfamiliar time. It was a bit disconcerting at first — as if we had just skipped a season and entered the triumvirate.

Clearly, things are not going well for these novel characters, who speak in conspiratorial whispers amidst the darkness of the down-deep. Their resolution is no more or less.

A few moments later, Julie is awash in the dead and decaying corpses of thousands, and Season 2 is off to an interesting start.

The confident, stone-faced former sheriff is clearly afraid. It was not a new turn for Julie, but an unfamiliar one at least.

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Throughout Season 1, the outside world was a place to fear but sealed away — an extrapolation, almost theoretical if not for the rare acts of “cleaning.”

The real danger lurks within. Now, there is no “within,” and the only thing lying between Julie and certain death is heat tape and a suit of questionable integrity. Julie’s fear and confusion are palpable and expectant.

This is how the vast majority of the episode plays out, with every frame dedicated to Julie’s plight. The characters and goings-on of her Silo remain silent and unseen.

This was the best route to take, especially after last season’s cliffhanger. Sure, there is a lot going on in Julie’s Silo. Still, it’s appropriate to spend the entire first episode completing her hazardous journey across a desolate landscape and into something new and unexpected.

The cinematography, Julie, and the surrounding set pieces sustain a constant feeling of tension and near-death without ever abandoning the overwhelming curiosity of what has become of this world and why.

The camera stays close to the characters, drawing back during specific scenarios to reveal the massive structures surrounding them and conveying their smallness amongst these megalithic and mysterious structures we know so little about.

The ever-present darkness characterizes the feelings of despondency and desperation. It’s not so much Julie’s journey that darkens the heart, but the world where she lives and fights to survive.

As an avid book reader, I tackled the Wool, Shift, and Dust books long ago, but the series brought those feelings back as if I closed the cover on the first book yesterday.

Julie’s ordeal is harrowing, and her future prospects are bleak. It’s hard to imagine returning to her own Silo, where certain death at the hands of Bernie and crew awaits her.

It’s even harder to imagine how she’ll survive in a world where a single breath outside of her helmet is a giant question mark. Rebecca Ferguson tackles Julie’s impasse with zeal and the appropriate modicum of fear and anxiety bubbling just beneath the surface.

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The derelict silo Julie discovers is a character as well, telling the story of the silo she just left, or at least a possible version of it. Something clearly went wrong here, and the results are in piles outside, throughout the entryway, and jamming the entrance.

The darkness and disrepair set the stage for the solemnity of Julie’s situation and those she left behind. Even so, there are a few bewildering observations in this new yet ancient silo. There are lights. Julie hears music. There are strange sounds emanating from within.

This cold place of death and aged despair may yet hold life. The impact of such a discovery will reverberate throughout the remainder of the season.

It’s easy to get caught up in the mystery and awe of it all. However, this is Julie’s Cast Away, and most of the first episode is spent in silence, without the need for dialogue.

The lone exception is the flashback scenes, which take us back to Julie’s childhood and her first foray into the down deep. At first, it seems as if these scenes are a juxtaposition — contrasting the current state of Julie’s current silo location to her old one.

Unfortunately, it adds little value to her current situation and robs us of the ever-present feelings of awe, discovery, and danger. Flashback scenes are always dangerous to overutilize.

While they don’t ruin the episode, they feel misplaced and unnecessary, re-establishing relationships already established, while the terrors of the world and Julie’s passage through them are constantly interrupted.

It’s one thing to use flashbacks as a character-building device, but Silo had an entire season to create the Julie Nichols we know and fear for. It’s been over a year since Apple TV+ left us hanging, and Julie’s childhood is not what the audience was waiting for.

Regardless of the intrusion factor, the flashback scenes are otherwise well-done and well-acted. There’s little in the way of complaints where the acting on Silo is concerned, even when utilizing kids, a notoriously difficult group to work with for obvious reasons.

Back in the present, Julie’s exploration process is slow and methodical. It’s not until near the end of the episode that she constructs a sound-enough bridge to cross from one side of the silo to the other.

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Granted, in a massive, hollow tomb, I can’t blame her for taking things slow and cautious. There are some genuinely surprising moments, some of which are spooky and resonating, and enough action to keep things moving along at a more or less enjoyable pace.

It’s difficult not to compare Apple TV+’s Silo with the book version, known as Wool. However, the books were well beyond this point, which makes the show feel like more of a crawl: an entertaining crawl, but a crawl all the same.

While Silo Season 2 Episode 1 is a slow start, it does the job, relieving the sense of disquietude the Season 1 Finale left us with. For all of Julie’s effort, the final revelation of this episode seemed surprising but small.

For now, we’ll have to satisfy ourselves with Julie’s discovery and wait until the next episode to possibly get a glimpse of those back in the living silo.

The plot moves ever onward, and here’s to hoping it moves just a little faster in the future.

Did Silo Season 1 meet the enormous expectations set by Silo Season 1?

Share your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to grade the premiere below.

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We love engrossing ourselves in riveting narratives about the darker side of human nature.

Experts have devised numerous reasons why it captivates audiences, from loving mysteries to feeling accomplished from a closed case to general intrigue to wanting to understand the human psyche to just being fascinated by evil.

Regardless of why we crave these stories, we are always looking for the next fix, so here are the most mesmerizing true crime docuseries of 2024.

Unsolved Mysteries – Volumes 4 and 5

While not every single episode of Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries (a reboot of the original NBC Unsolved Mysteries series) is crime-based, the majority are, and the rest may leave you feeling more uneasy than any true crime story could.

Just watch The Mothman Revisited episode in Volume 4 of the show.

As for true crime, Volume 4 covers Jack the Ripper, a husband who found his wife dead in their basement, the discovery of an unidentified severed head in Econmy, PA, and the unsolved murder of a Trenton State College graduate student on the theatre’s stage.

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For Volume 5, the first episode is about two friends who are shot dead and found in a popular Cleveland park, but the creators decided to go with paranormal activity for the rest of the season, discussing a profile of a paranormal researcher, the phenomenon of mutilated cattle, and the Roswell UFO incident.

While these cases may not be solved, their mystique is varied and captivating. Of course, the “who did it” never coming to light is a common reason for the lack of resolution, but we also wonder why, how, and even who surrounds the victim.

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I am a Killer- Season 5

The latest season of I Am a Killer focuses on the disturbing cases of convicted murderers while in prison.

What makes this show so fascinating is how it tells their stories. Its intimate style consists of interviews with the prisoners, the victim’s family or friends, and/or the criminal’s family or friends.

However, the latest season of the Netflix original felt a little different in the best way possible. It focuses more on the psychological factors behind these crimes and how the act of murder or being in jail has changed, or not changed, the prisoner.

You can tell who is a true sociopath, who is lying through their teeth or feels no remorse, who is self-centered, and who genuinely feels guilty and sorry for their victim’s family.

One gripping aspect is that you hear these accounts from the criminal’s perspective, and you start feeling or thinking one thing, but then hearing the victim’s family or friends’ interviews leaves you with a completely different attitude.

The latest season features the story of an inmate who claims to have turned his life around, but not everyone believes him, a young couple looking to run away, which results in the death of the boy’s grandmother and the killing of a store clerk by a 16-year-old.

It also shares the murder of a bar worker through an inmate’s rage, a man convicted of killing his grandmother, and the story of a prisoner who claims it was self-defense against a rival tribe, but eyewitnesses tell a different story.

Watch I Am a Killer Online

House of Horrors: Secrets of College Greek Life

Anyone familiar with the Greek life system understands the basics of how it operates.

But what happens when the dark secrets of these organizations are brought to light? A truly binge-worthy A&E true crime docuseries with an ending episode that needs to be talked about more.

It’s extremely interesting to see how something that, really, at the end of the day, is only “important” for four years of your life and then basically forgotten about can control, manipulate, and ruin the lives of young people who it claimed as “family.”

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Whether you want to hear it or not, yes, sororities and fraternities are cult-like. Maybe not all are upfront about it, but the concept behind their creation and how they operate are.

Each episode tells a story of how the secrecy, power, and control of fraternities and sororities can create a sinister atmosphere, leading to a skewed reality where everything from drug use to sexual assault to hazing deaths to the deep-rooted racism at the University of Alabama has thrived to an unbelievable capacity.

Watch House of Horrors: Secrets of Greek Life Online

Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter

This true crime docuseries is a two-part retelling of a driven mom who wants to solve the mysterious murder of her daughter she put up for adoption as a baby.

Part of the enchantment comes from the idea that this mother never knew or had contact with her daughter after giving her up for adoption.

In 2010 she received a letter asking for DNA from the police in hopes of trying to identify a woman’s body who was brutally murdered. While the body was not her daughter’s, this sparks a truly shocking search of her own as she then learns her daughter ran away from her adopted parents at 14 and was never seen again.

Hitting home to her own story as she also ran away, she knows the police won’t look for her daughter because they didn’t look for her.

How she goes about her investigation with the help of her husband and an online investigator with so much fierceness and motherly instinct, as well as the details revealed at each step, is touching and compelling in a way that is hard to put into words.

The spiritual connection between a mom and daughter who never met and the story’s outcome make this docuseries one of Netflix’s most alluring true crime retellings.

Watch Into the Fire The Lost Daughter Online

Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult

Similar to other careers that lean into the more creative side of the brain, becoming a professional dancer who can solely live on the beautiful art form alone is very hard to come by.

Here enters Robert Israel Shinn, cult leader and master manipulator. Shinn takes advantage of young TikTok dancers with massive potential and offers them a spot at his “agency,” making all their dreams come true.

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At first, everything seems fine, but as stranger things are asked of them, some of the dancers start to realize there’s something very off about the situation.

The story is told through personal accounts of dancers who ended up leaving the cult/agency, plus from the family of a girl who is clearly beyond brainwashed. Sadly, there seems to be no hope of bringing her back to reality.

The infatuation with this series comes from how TikTok seems to be the center of many social media crimes and how Shinn entices these dancers.

Along with how he keeps them and convinces them he is doing what is best for them despite the crazy practices he instills, abuse, and noticeable financial exploitation.

Like most cults, the followers are told their families are bad for them and are coaxed to cut them out of their lives because, you know, cult leaders don’t want their manipulated minds to realize what is going on, nor do they want the media to know.

The way the story is told through first-hand accounts and the family of prominent TikTok dancing sisters gives the docuseries an edge that makes it hard to stop watching.

Watch Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult Online

The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping

The Program is a docuseries that needs to be watched to understand why it is one of 2024’s most mesmerizing series. It is unbelievable, and trying to describe it would almost be offensive to the victims of the featured disciplinary school.

When teens acted up, not that long ago, the answer was sending them to these “troubled teen disciplinary schools and camps,” which were not educational or helpful in any way.

Instead, it created a thriving industry that exploits and abuses children, and it has proven to be hard to take down, given the numerous documentaries surrounding it.

The Program’s emotional rollercoaster will have you crying, feeling sick, and wanting to hug the men and women who were forced to go through a heinous experience that has left many with understandable PTSD.

It is gripping and revealing in a tragic yet beautiful way and has a realness element beyond comparison.

Directed and narrated by a former Academy at Ivy Ridge student, she tells her and other’s stories and films them in such a way that makes you feel as if you are also trying to grapple with the trauma caused by the academy.

Watch The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping Online

The Real Murders on Elm Street

Thanks to Discovery, ID (Investigation Discovery) is home to some of the finest true crime docuseries, and The Real Murders on Elm Street is no exception.

The Max streamable series tells the story of six murders in small suburban towns across America that all happened on different Elm Streets. These deaths tear communities apart and show that evil doesn’t discriminate based on quaintness.

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It starts with an episode titled Killer in the Walls, which takes place in Townsend, Massachusetts, and what unfolds is precisely what the title implies, and it is bone-chilling. It’s followed by a horrific murder in the Spokane area, which describing as overkill would feel like an understatement.

The show’s basis, actual murders on Elm Streets, is enticing, and the unimaginable narrative adds another level of eeriness and enchantment.

The series tackles “the Camp” compound led by Gerald Cruz in Salida, California, whose ideology combined white supremacy and voodoo, followed by the discovery of a body in a trash can during a popular Cincinnati street festival.

The last two stories take place in Minnesota, where a convoluted Thanksgiving missing persons case is full of twists, and in Greenville, Ohio, with the retelling of an actual Halloween murder on Elm Street.

Watch The Real Murders on Elm Street Online

Death in the Dorms

Death in the Dorms Season 2 tells the morbid stories of six college students who died while attending college. Unfortunately, there is something about campus murders that is unsettling but interesting.

Maybe it’s because they are the last place you would think a murder would or should happen, and the tragedy can be pictured by almost anyone who has persuaded a postsecondary education.

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The Hulu true crime docuseries hides no gory detail and includes the victim’s family, friends, and fellow students, revealing how a campus death affects the student body as a whole.

The way it is set up fosters an emotional connection for viewers, leaving an impactful swell of sentiment, making audiences invested.

The schools featured in Season 2 are Jackson State University, Louisiana State University, the University of Miami, Temple University, Binghamton University, and the College of Charleston.

Watch Death in the Dorms Online

American Nightmare

American Nightmare is a true crime docuseries that tells the story of Denise Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, who were tortured and drugged by an intruder, resulting in the kidnapping of Huskins.

This was a very sensational case in 2015 because the details of what the couple underwent were hard to believe, but even more so because, due to some similarities, it became known as the Gone Girl case.

The mesmerizing aspects of this series start with what the two went through that horrific night, then just the disturbingly horrible way the police mishandled this case, how they treated Huskins and Quinn, and how the real perpetrator eventually was caught.

Watch American Nightmare Online

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV

What Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV reveals about Dan Schneider, Nickelodeon, and the company he kept is beyond horrible and shocking.

When I was younger, Drake & Josh, iCarly, The Amanda Bines Show, Zoey 101, and so many more Nickelodeon classics were my childhood. This docuseries is challenging to watch but so unbelievable that turning it off feels like an injustice to the victims.

Not only should the truth be public, but much more needs to be done about the abuse and trauma endured by the many child actors during this time.

It’s shocking that so much was allowed to happen to these children, and the fact that we’re talking about huge names of actors increases the intrigue.

More importantly, it heightens the shock value that not only did this happen but that so many people stood by and let it happen.

Watch Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV Online

American Murder: Laci Peterson

The Laci Peterson murder investigation has absorbed the public for over 20 years now. Anything with that much draw is bound to make a mesmerizing docuseries.

To this day, Scott Peterson, Laci’s husband, insists he is innocent. Although this is not the only docuseries covering the matter, as Face to Face with Scott Peterson was released in August 2024, its interviews with people close to the couple, including Scott’s sister and Laci’s mother, make it something special.

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The enthralling aspects of this case and docuseries are just how convinced members of Scott’s family are of his questionable claimed innocence and how people will take one grain of doubt and hold on to that despite everything else presented.

Of course, we don’t want to think a family member is capable of something so horrible, and these perspectives, plus the detective’s impressive way of presenting the crucial pieces of the case, are truly fascinating.

Watch American Murder: Laci Peterson Online

This is the Zodiac Speaking

Netflix’s This is the Zodiac Speaking gives probably the most notorious serial killer a fresh take, which is not an easy feat considering crime enthusiasts or not; the majority of people have heard of the zodiac killer.

The docuseries is gripping because it features interviews with the Seawater family, who had the suspected man behind the encrypted messages and codes, Arthur Leigh Allen, as a teacher while he was actively killing.

The now grownups perspective is unique, captivating, and bone-chilling.

It’s hard to look away when people are talking about their relationship with someone who they trusted and have fond memories of, who it turns out is strongly suspected to be a serial killer. It’s an infatuating context to give viewers.

There is also a powerful interview with a San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist, who was one of the first people to start suspecting Allen as the Zodiac killer, who also discusses the times when law enforcement almost got Allen, making it fascinating as well.

Watch This is the Zodiac Speaking Online

Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders

Influencers appear to have it all, but the Discovery+ ID docuseries Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders reveals how looks can be deceiving.

There is a dark side to being an influence and an even darker side to the digital communities and social media landscapes where influences get their fame.

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The pace and manner in which these shockingly true crime stories are told are alluring and impressive. Plus, the toxic culture that these communities have fostered and the disturbing situations these influencers found themselves in are unthinkable.

From an outsider’s perspective, we are all curious about what it is like to be an influencer. In retrospect, the concept itself is still relatively new, and the idea that someone can make that much money and gain that much fame from doing what an influencer does is honestly hard to grasp.

So, any true crime docuseries revealing the downside of an influencer’s seemingly perfect life will surely garner intrigue, and the grim revelations are heartbreaking.

Watch Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders Online

Worst Roommate Ever

The Netflix true crime docuseries Worst Roommate Ever has one of the year’s most significant shock values. The stories it highlights are thrilling, ravishing, and effective.

The lengths people will go to, the manipulation, the pure savagery, are mind-blowing. This series can only be described as wild and jaw-dropping.

It is well made and hypnotic because it could be anyone in that situation. It could be you, me, or the average Joe walking down the street. You never know who someone is until you live with them, and that factor alone is hauntingly magnetic.

Watch Worst Roommate Ever Online

Yes, 2024 revealed some disturbingly mesmerizing true crime docuseries.

We hope this list helps you find your next watch.

Let us know in the comments what your favorite 2024 true crime docuseries is.

Here’s to creating new nightmares together!

The post 2024’s Most Mesmerizing True Crime Docuseries appeared first on TV Fanatic.

With Disclaimer Season 1 Episode 7, the limited series concludes with the awaited truth of what happened.

It’s nothing most of us probably didn’t expect this entire time, but if this revelation shocked you, I’m thrilled the series was a ride.

Jonathan was nothing short of a monster, and we spent the entirety of this season watching a trauma survivor get retraumatized again and put through the wringer because a stupid fictional novel and a mother’s desire to coddle her evil ass son because moms and their sons, am I right?

The foot soldiers to misogyny and violence against women are often women themselves.

It’s a lesson we learn repeatedly, yet it never really clicks.

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The relationship between mothers and sons and the desire to protect them versus the guilt when one doesn’t carry through most of the series, right to the bittersweet end and closing minute that had Catherine snuggling her boy.

The entire situation failed Catherine, who at least garnered sympathy from those who may not have had any for her initially.

And the series itself didn’t live up to the hype.

It all came together in the end, but my gripe — and it remains this way — is that we shouldn’t have had to slog through seven hours of Disclaimer’s pretty scenery, conflicting performances, and pretentious narration to finally get to the “thrilling” part of the series.

And it underwhelmed me because it’s something one could have seen a mile away from the moment Catherine bumbled through an explanation and got repeatedly shot down by her insecure, loser-ass husband.

On the topic of Robert, there is something so grating about his character specifically that I’ll never quite shake it.

In a sea, pardon the pun, of despicable and loathsome characters, Robert’s actions are so decidedly unforgivable in that way that only the people closest to us, those who love us, can be more harmful than a true enemy.

Because if you cannot even have the benefit of the doubt from the man who promised to love, honor, and respect you, then what the fuck is even life really?

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Catherine’s point about how he still sat there sniveling and seemed to express some form of relief that she was raped, VIOLATED, and didn’t betray him was spot on.

He’s a self-loathing, self-absorbed louse with horrendous hair. Sorry, I was getting on a roll.

Robert’s extreme reaction, even in the most dire of times, defied all reason, and every moment he spent ignoring Catherine’s calls and texts and walking out of the room whenever she walked in was more grating than the next.

I say this as someone capable of being a petty princess under certain circumstances.

By the end of the hour, it was satisfying that Catherine followed through with the divorce, but it still never felt like Catherine’s voice was as loud as it should’ve been or that she got to have her say full-throated.

She was still extending a level of grace and restraint that presumably reflected her poshness yet was wholly restricted and measured.

Some of it was likely due to how bone-weary and exhausted she was after this ordeal.

But it’s not even lost on us that she still couldn’t tell her husband her truth — it still had to come from another man, Stephen, the one actively ruining their lives.

Robert’s level of misogyny is the insidious type that’s so deeply rooted in a person they don’t even realize it’s there; worse, they likely convince themselves that they’re enlightened and completely incapable of it, and that’s far more discomfiting than the brash, overt displays sometimes.

It’s infinitely more dangerous because it takes root, grows, spreads like a disease, and slowly wears the person on the receiving end down bit by bit.

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Catherine and Stephen’s showdown was long-awaited. Disclaimer does some decent narration work by switching things to first-person, much like Disclaimer Season 1 Episode 6, as she finally gives her account.

We got her story, and when the camera stayed in the present, it largely focused on her, as she was the orator of her own tale, not Stephen or his dead wife.

Then we transitioned to the past again, where Leila George has been doing the Lord’s work and delivering such a compelling performance that it makes most of the slog worthwhile.

In this particular hour, it was a difficult watch as she captured all the raw emotion of a terrified woman who was brutalized and deeply worried about not just her life but that of her son.

As we got Catherine’s side, things clicked into place, like how much she loved spending time alone with young Nicholas.

She learned to appreciate that aspect of her vacation until that fateful evening and subsequent beach death.

It was an absolutely brutal sequence of Jonathan assaulting her, genuinely challenging to watch.

When things switched back to present-day Catherine, and Cate Blanchett captured all the subtle qualities of a trauma survivor, reliving something horrific from the quiver of her voice and faraway glances to stopping mid-sentence to explain her thoughts or some minute detail.

As critical as I have been about this series, I’m not above giving Blanchett and George their absolute due and all their flowers for their respective performances.

George, in particular, is riveting, but I never expect anything less.

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Jonathan was a menace to society.

He took an interest in Catherine from the moment he saw her, essentially stalked her, and then pounced the second he got the perfect opportunity.

She never stood a chance when he came into her room, threatening her with a knife as Europeans tend to do and taking a sick, sadistic pleasure in making her succumb to his every whim while using her sleeping son as leverage.

It was truly sick, like an unsub out of Criminal Minds. Jonathan was evidently a sexual sadist and relished in it; hurting women seemed to bring him a neverending pleasure.

Catherine described his actions as “hateful,” which stood out against this series that aimed to explore how deeply misogyny is rooted in society and our everyday lives and how many people perpetuate it with ease.

Jonathan was not the blushing schoolboy who needed some woman to talk him through satisfying a woman, as Nancy implied in those Disclaimer Sex Scenes.

He was a violent young man who took what he wanted, treated his victims like receptacles for his pleasure, and carried on with his day.

It’s enough to make you wonder how many women he’s done this exact same thing to, aside from Catherine and, most likely, Sasha.

Eventually, once the fog of vengeance lifts from pathetic Stephen, we learn that he knew, deep down, this whole time that his son was a monster but didn’t want to believe it.

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Imagine if he had simply held his son accountable instead of deluding himself as his late wife did.

We could’ve avoided so much.

But even when facing the truth, he still wasn’t willing to hear it from Catherine, happily sitting there as she collapsed to the floor from her spiked tea.

I’m still livid about it because, not to victim blame, but why the devil would Catherine drink a beverage from the man who tried to kill her son?

I can’t be the only one who hoped that was some form of ruse and that she wasn’t that naive.

Sure, maybe I could find a deeper meaning, like how, as women, we are often conditioned to be polite and accommodating to our own detriment.

Her accepting tea from the literal devil wreaking havoc on her life reflects that.

But I have to reach farther than my 5’2 frame, which allows me to make sense of Catherine’s total lack of self-preservation.

Little things like that detract from the message’s meaningfulness or from what Disclaimer executes well when it does.

Poorly communicated texts, generally senseless and illogical actions, and all these “because plot” moments to push the narrative further are just too inane and contrived to bear.

My heart ached for Catherine as she recounted what happened to her in those flashbacks.

Yet she was as irritating as the others in other ways.

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This is Diclaimer’s complicated depiction of its characters.

In the end, I was even relieved that Nicholas survived old man Stephen, even when he, too, was insufferable.

Sadly, the context behind him being the most depressing character of them all is that he witnessed what happened to his mother, but his brain has been protecting him from it all this time.

The funny thing about trauma is the brain can do all this heavy lifting to shelter a person, but the other half can still manifest that trauma in other ways, and the body has a way of remembering, too.

But over to you, Disclaimer Fanatics.

I extend heartfelt congratulations to those who made it through this entire series.

If you wanted to skip to the end, I highly advised you to do so.

How did you feel about this ending? Did you predict it? Sound off below.

Watch Disclaimer Online

The post Disclaimer’s Finale Delivers Damning Indictment & Vindication with Predictable Twist appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Additionally, it’s incredibly volatile as well, which Disclaimer Season 1 Episode 6 illustrates in the most thrilling hour of the series thus far.

The real pity is that this slow-burn thriller was so glacial it’s almost too late even to care.

But alas, if you made it this far, you were rewarded with some of the thrills the series initially promised as we roll toward a satisfactory ending.

Finally, Catherine is finding her voice.

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It’s infuriating that it took her this long to do so, but it seems she has all of her words reserved for the inevitable showdown or, rather, sit-down between her and Stephen.

One indicator that we would finally get Catherine’s story was how the narrative voice shifted during this installment.

The entire series has used the second person when speaking of Catherine.

But as she recalled bits and pieces of her perspective reflecting upon the controversial Italian trip that set this all in motion, we started to hear the first-person narrative.

It’s one of the ways the pretentious storytelling vehicles that the series has utilized paid off instead of, well, being pretentious.

Catherine is finally stepping into her own, only now. She risks losing everything in her life, and she’s so defeatist that she no longer cares.

Whatever facade she was upholding this entire time has long since cracked, shattered into a million pieces with no chance of repair, and we see Catherine stripped bare.

Stephen has done that, and rooting into her past has forced Catherine to face problems head-on.

However, it’s Catherine finally finding her voice, five episodes too damn late, that’s carrying us somewhere juicy and interesting.

From Catherine’s perspective, which frankly feels infinitely more authentic than Disclaimer’s erotica soft porn palooza that took place during that double feature, she was a young mother who craved a family holiday and was bummed when Robert ran off to work.

She spent time with young Nicholas and enjoyed herself more than she had anticipated, but she noticed this random guy, Jonathan, taking an interest in her.

Instead of the public peek show that Nancy envisioned (there aren’t words to describe the 50 shades of Freudian fuckery that whole ordeal is), we got something that felt more akin to the truth: Catherine adjusting her bathing suit and dusting sand off herself.

However, it’s still an unusual play for course-correcting Nancy’s imaginings and fabrications that she pulled out of thin air without sources, with contradictory answers to each questionable segment.

Catherine was a young mom who felt awkward because Robert left her alone with their child, and she didn’t know what to do with the intense attention that this strange young man was directing toward her.

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Catherine admitted that she may have smiled here and there and that, in some way, the eyes on her may have made her feel good or flattered her.

It’s such a distinctly human reaction to have — totally harmless, but she still mentions it in this effort to dissect and figure out why whatever happened between her and Jonathan resulted as it did.

Nancy and Stephen’s golden boy, with the penmanship of a serial killer, was a predatorial young man, right?

We can safely conclude that Catherine was all hushed about this ordeal because Jonathan likely did something to her, and that’s why she didn’t seem to care that he died, or she stumbled through words and had no interest in spending time with his parents and so forth.

Assuming Jonathan preyed on her, it would explain why she didn’t tell her husband about what happened, and she’s been fearful of the truth coming out.

The biggest indication that dear, sweet Jonathan was likely a piece of crap was the fact that his girlfriend Sasha was so fed up with him in some capacity that she literally fled the country mid-vacation, returned to London, and her mother Emma reached out to Nancy to tell her about her son.

But alas, mothers and their sons, am I right?

It seems like, in nearly all cultures, far too many mothers will behave as if the son shines out of their sweet baby boy’s ass and that the entire world is against him rather than said man-child taking an ounce of accountability for anything ever.

For reasons that are wholly unknown, irrational, and irritating as hell, Stephen simply never gave a damn about prodding into all parts of the past when he set out on his revenge quest.

Any reasonable person would’ve probably attempted to look into why Sasha’s mother was calling Nancy to discuss things, but Nancy never shared what, why Sasha left Jonathan in Italy, or even why his longtime girlfriend never came to his funeral.

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But Stephen isn’t a reasonable person; he’s a cartoon villain masquerading as a grieving father and widow.

The extent of his curiosity was only reserved for the woman his wife projected all of her grief and anger towards, and he took up the cause despite recognizing how his wife’s grief literally made her sick and became some form of psychosis, too.

Does their old house have lead? Inquiring minds want to know.

So, if a girl had to guess, Jonathan probably did something unspeakable to Sasha, like maybe the romp on the train during the Disclaimer Series Premiere was an assault instead.

And then he probably went on the prowl, taking an interest in Catherine, and things progressed from there.

We may finally get Catherine’s side of the story, but that’s assuming she doesn’t collapse or whatever else after Stephen’s poisoning with her tea.

Because it’s perfectly sensible to drink tea that a man who is set on ruining your life and whom you caught literally trying to harm your child gave you.

If the tea scene isn’t a fakeout, it will be the most ludicrous moment of this series yet.

The bits we have heard from Catherine may also explain why Nicholas has grown up to become a sad soul who struggles in life.

In addition to almost drowning on that beach, as we know that portion of the story is true, chances are he saw something in Italy, and his mind has been trying to protect itself or help him process it ever since.

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Catherine spoke about how young Nicholas could sleep in bed by himself but needed the door open so he could still see her.

It’s a detail that’s important for a reason, especially when we’re keeping in mind the supposed sexcapades that happened in her hotel room while Nicholas was asleep.

What’s sad is that if Nicholas witnessed something terrible happening to his mother and barely processed it, he did so by pushing her away and making her some villain in his story.

It harkens back to some fragility and how that manifests.

Catherine is getting to tell her side, but it’s not with Robert yet.

Robert is an insufferable twat whom I cannot take anymore.

Whether Catherine had an affair or a young man preyed upon her, it doesn’t even matter; she does not deserve to put up with his petty, small, useless, insecure man.

It’s mindboggling how Robert will listen to anyone but his own wife.

He has yet to give Catherine much chance to speak or attempt to listen at any point in this series.

And he’s such a self-consumed asshole that even with his own son lying in Intensive Care, he’s still finding ways to mull over Catherine supposedly cheating on him with a younger man.

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Just throw the whole man away!

I would say Robert needs to take a long walk off a short cliff, but that seems particularly insensitive given the circumstances.

There’s nothing more aggravating than a man with a bruised ego, and unfortunately, nothing more dangerous.

Robert’s total ineptitude and feelings of emasculation have made him the dumbest character in this series and have led him to risk the lives of his loved ones.

Inviting Stephen, a man whom he doesn’t even know, to the hospital under the guise of being Nicholas’ grandfather for some visit is a level of stupidity that doesn’t have proper words.

But then, so is reading a random book that’s written as fiction as cold, hard fact without actually speaking to the person there.

Robert only proves how out of touch he is at every conceivable level. He was of little use when Catherine told him about the phone call and insisted that something was wrong with Nicholas.

He knew nothing about his friends, his girlfriend, Nicholas’s job loss, or anything else.

Any challenge to his supposed masculinity is of his own doing and making, and it’s disgusting how his issues regarding that are so psychologically, emotionally, and verbally damaging to Catherine and Nicholas, too.

And now, we’re left hanging on the edge, awaiting Catherine to speak her mind.

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Rather than a comeuppance for Catherine, there’s a genuine desire to see her make all those around her pay.

But it never should have reached this point, and it certainly didn’t need to take this long.

Disclaimer would’ve worked best as a movie.

But if we absolutely needed to have a limited series, this is one in which a binge format is infinitely better than this slow roll.

Disclaimer desperately needed momentum.

Over to you, Disclaimer Fanatics.

Watch Disclaimer Online

The post Disclaimer Review: A Thrilling Hour Finally Delivers a Voice for Catherine (Too Little, Too Late) appeared first on TV Fanatic.

So it comes as no surprise that what was once a limited series has now been renewed for a second season.

Of course, situations like this usually mean that the showrunners didn’t have a roadmap for future episodes. And in this case, they’ve decided to take a hard left turn into parts unknown.

According to a new report from Deadline, Presumed Innocent Season 2 will ditch the source material that helped to make the first version such a success.

Those episodes were based on the novel of the same name by Scott Turow.

Season 2, however, will adapt a different legal thriller, Dissection of a Murder by Jo Murray.

Unfortunately, this one doesn’t come with a built-in audience, like Turow’s wildly popular 1987 book.

In fact, no one has read Dissection of a Murder — for the simple reason that it won’t be released until 2026.

Yes, not since the later seasons of Game of Thrones have we seen a popular series roll the dice by adapting a book that has yet to see the light of day.

It’s a pretty big gamble, made even riskier by the fact that this is Murray’s debut novel.

But the buzz around the book is huge, and the premise sounds like a winner.

The story centers around defense attorney Leila Reynolds, who’s put in charge of her first murder trial.

“She’s way out of her depth but the defendant only wants her — and to make matters worse, her husband is the prosecutor. Soon Leila is fighting to keep her own secrets buried too,” reads a logline.

Needless to say, it sounds like compelling stuff.

Of course, Murray is not yet a beloved veteran of the literary world, a la Turow.

But the first adaptation of her work will carry the banner of an esteemed anthology show.

No premiere date or casting news has been announced, but Presumed Innocent will once again boast an A-list roster of producers, including Jake Gyllenhaal, David E. Kelley and J.J. Abrams.

We’ll keep you updated as new production info becomes available.

Over to you, TV fanatics! Are you excited about this major change, or do you wish the writers would’ve imagined further misadventures for the beleaguered Rusty Sabich?

Hit the comments section below to share your thoughts!

The post Presumed Innocent Season 2 to Ditch Scott Turow Source Material, Adapt Unreleased Novel In Its Place appeared first on TV Fanatic.