Danielle Ryan

Awards shows are self-congratulatory parties that rarely feel like they're actually made for the audiences at home, but the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards actually felt like a worthy celebration of the artform of television. Because it's a special…

It should go without saying that a "Squid Game" reality competition series is a terrible idea. Seriously, I shouldn't have to say it and this series was doomed to completely miss the point of "Squid Game" just by its very existence, but here we are.…

Cults and multi-level marketing schemes have an awful lot in common: they target the vulnerable, separate members into different tiers to create a hierarchy for control, and only really serve the people at the very top. In the three-episode Netflix…

Good news, everyone — "Futurama" is back! Again! The animated comedy series from creator Matt Groening has been canceled and revived several times now, with four different "endings," one for each time the series has been canceled or intentionally…

Last year's Academy Awards ceremony was an unmitigated disaster, with horribly written jokes, awkward hosts, and the whole Will Smith-Chris Rock slap debacle. This year is the first time the full audience is back post-pandemic and it's a pretty big…

If there's one thing that author Anne Rice loved writing about, it was toxic, messy relationships. Her novels were soapy, supernatural southern gothics that luxuriated in dark sensuality. Her most famous series of novels was The Vampire Chronicles,…

There's almost always a market for gritty westerns, but there's been a bounty of well-made, pitch-black tales of the American west lately. Joining the ranks of shows like "1883" and films like the Academy Award-winning "Power of the Dog" is "The…

Many "Game of Thrones" fans felt burned by the HBO series' final season, leaving some to wonder if there's even still an audience for "Game of Thrones" spin-offs. Seven hells, I wondered if "House of the Dragon" was something even I wanted, despite…

It's been 26 years since the world's dumbest duo, Beavis and Butt-Head, starred in their own major motion picture. In "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America," Mike Judges' chuckling cartoon creations accidentally ind themselves the subjects of a nationwide…

Season 3 of Netflix's "The Umbrella Academy," based on the comic series of the same name by My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Bá, is finally here. The season took a bit longer to get to our screens due to the pandemic, but…

Superheroes have been a part of popular culture since their inception in the 1930s but are now at a point where they are nearly an all-consuming part of the media. Superheroes are a kind of modern American mythology, replacing the pantheons of old…

Music fans have argued for decades about the origin of punk music, with some claiming it began in New York City with the Ramones, while others claim it all began in London with the Sex Pistols. Though they both originated in the mid-1970s, it's…

True crime adaptations have the tricky task of maintaining tension and drama while knowing that at least some of the viewers already know how it all shakes out. The facts and details have to be presented in a way that appeals to true crime fanatics…

The first season of "Russian Doll" was a riff on trauma therapy using a time loop, forcing its two protagonists to relive their pain in order to overcome it. Season 2 digs deeper, interrogating generational trauma through time travel. Our two heroes,…

Fables have an important place in every culture, using magic or unrealistic storytelling conventions to help teach audiences a real-world lesson. Each of the stories in the new Apple TV+ series "Roar" is a different fable about womanhood, and some…

Action thrillers, especially ones about military or ex-military special operations, are a dime a dozen. Post-9/11, these stories of brave men and women fighting in the name of patriotism and nationalism were everywhere. For every "Hurt Locker" there…

Tense situations tend to bring out the worst in people, and few situations are as potentially charged as a home invasion and hostage situation. In "Windfall," the latest from "The One I Love" director Charlie McDowell, three unnamed protagonists are…

Dystopian fiction has been pretty popular on television for a while now, thanks to shows like "The Walking Dead," "The Handmaid's Tale," and "Snowpiercer." As our own world feels increasingly unfriendly, many turn to dystopian dramas to feel less…

Some true stories are almost too incredible to be believed, like Denmark's Arctic Expedition in 1909. Led by Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen, the team set out to dispute the United State's claim on Northeast Greenland. If the team could prove that Greenland…

"The Boys Presents: Diabolical" is an animated anthology series from the twisted world of Garth Ennis' "The Boys," with eight unique tales. Each comes from different creators, with stories by Ennis, Eliot and Ilana Glazer, Evan Goldberg and Seth…