Murderbot: About As Good As The Books
May 28, 2025
Doctor Who Episodic Coverage: “Wish World”
May 26, 2025
Friday Fiction: I Took A Nap Inside Your Soul
May 23, 2025
Daredevil: Born Again Episodic Coverage: “Art for Art’s Sake”
May 21, 2025
Doctor Who Episodic Coverage: “The Interstellar Song Contest”
May 19, 2025
Friday Fiction: This Interplanetary Meeting Prefers They All Be Served Soup
May 16, 2025
Daredevil: Born Again Episodic Coverage: “Excessive Force”
May 14, 2025
Doctor Who Episodic Coverage: “The Story and the Engine”
May 12, 2025
Friday Fiction: This Cosmic Horror God Prefers Cupcakes
May 9, 2025
Doctor Who Episodic Coverage: “Lucky Day”
May 7, 2025
The Magnus Protocol Reviews: “Public Image”
May 5, 2025
Friday Fiction: This Dragon Prefers Bacon
May 2, 2025
The Magnus Protocol Reviews: “Dependents”
Apr 30, 2025
Doctor Who Episodic Coverage: “The Well”
Apr 28, 2025
Friday Fiction: The Last Flight
Apr 25, 2025
Comparing the first three episodes of Murderbot to All Systems Red is a game of pros and cons. As a “fan” of the book series, I was obviously waiting for certain scenes and anticipating how well someone could play SecUnit, but the actual viewing experience was me going “that was good” followed swiftly by disappointment—and on and on it went.
I think one of the most efficient ways to review “Wish World” is to describe a little bit of what it’s like watching “Wish World.” Because this is one of the weirdest, most unmooring episodes of Doctor Who I have ever seen.
This is the tale of Marcus.
He has a monster inside of him. But not in, like, a metaphorical way. Somehow, by some mechanics, Marcus ends up with a being of immense knowledge inside his soul.
“Art for Art’s Sake” is so settled into what I want from a gritty superhero show that it paradoxically doesn’t give me as much to talk about. The plotlines are converging, interacting, cracking open one another in ways I mostly expected.
“The Interstellar Song Contest” only has one full song in it. The song is beautifully sung, and important to the plot, yes, but “The Church on Ruby Road” somehow gets a fully laid out song, with lyrics, and a dance number, and this one doesn’t? We get the full Mr. Ring-A-Ding number basically twice in “Lux,” but the scenes here keep cutting away for every performance? That’s so weird. This is a weird way to do this story.
I feel like, as these things go, you can already tell a lot of what this story is about from that title.
Yes, finally! “Excessive Force” explodes with all the pent-up energy that this series has been waiting to use. It sets up the stakes and the dominoes so aggressively that there was never any question that Matt would become Daredevil, once again.
“The Story and the Engine” is quite the writing feat. Of all of the episodes this season—or last season—it feels like it has the most going on. Plotlines are not only densely interlocked, but the foreshadowing happens quickly and frequently. And, somehow, this episode is also one of the most expansive for the overall magical lore of Doctor Who.
Last week, we looked at a dragon who enjoyed bacon—as well as some other fun monsters.
This time, the scale is a little higher, but the food involved is just food.
I sadly disliked “Lucky Day” more than I expected. I get the vision. The idea is sound. Frankly, like a lot of episodes in this season so far, this is such a cool idea for a Doctor Who episode. But as time has gone on, I’ve been less and less fond of this one.
“Public Image” is a classic little horror story of an episode. There’s the tiniest cut back to the OIAR, but mostly we spend all the runtime with Heinrich Unheimlich.
Welcome to a world where people can pretend to be heroes and slay monsters!
