By Dave B.

​I’ve been disappointed in most of Netflix’s science fiction movies and tv shows. Most of them follow an identical pattern: a promising premise, followed by a slow and generic story arc, and culminating in an absolutely terrible and predictable ending. I’ll give Extinction (Netflix) this much: for better or worse, it breaks the typical Netflix sci-fi mold. The movie begins with Peter (Michael Peña) having a nightmare about an alien invasion. We find out that this nightmare has been recurring for some time and is negatively impacting his work, as well his relationship with his wife (Lizzy Caplan) and his two daughters. Lo and behold, despite his wife insisting that he receive psychological treatment for his dreams, an alien invasion does occur, setting the stage for Peter to do whatever he must to get his family to safety.

By Dave B.

​Full disclosure, I’m a big fan of the Mission Impossible franchise. However, I have a contrary nature so I’m not really inclined to like things other people like, unless there is a good reason do to so. Mission Impossible: Fallout provides that reason. It’s entertaining from beginning to end and so thrilling, that it’s the very definition of an “edge of your seat” moviegoing experience. 

By Dave B.

​I’ll admit that for the first three-quarters of Tag (Riaru Onigokko) (2015, currently on Netflix), I had almost no clue what was happening in the Japanese-language, quasi-horror film. The heroine, Mitsuko is a quiet student at an all-girls high school who enjoys writing poetry. While on a bus trip with her classmates, a supernatural wind gruesomely kills everyone on the bus except for her. During her attempt to escape the wind, she is apparently transported to an alternate reality where none of the events that she recalls happening that morning actually occurred. Throughout the movie, Mitsuko is transported to several other alternate realities where, each time, her friends are brutally slain in a variety of unexpected ways.

By Dave B.

​The Darkest Dawn (2016, currently on Netflix) is a sci-fi, alien invasion, found footage thriller that takes place in England. Nominally, the story is about two sisters, Chloe and Sam, who find themselves beholden to the kindness (and unkindness) of strangers in order to survive a mysterious alien attack. This is one of those movies I have mixed feelings about and I imagine that viewer opinion will be fairly evenly split about it. And for the record, I was sober when I watched it, unfortunately.

By Dave B.

​Final Space (TBS) is an animated sci-fi television show that follows the adventures of Gary, who has been held captive on an automated prison ship for nearly five years, basically for being a dumbass while trying to impress a female soldier, Quinn. During his last days of confinement, Gary becomes ensnared in a plot that could result in the destruction of the Earth, and perhaps, the universe. With friends and allies that he acquires along the way, Gary’s journey culminates in a climactic battle, with the fate of reality itself at stake.

By Dave B.

​How It Ends (Netflix) is a nearly two-hour long snoozefest about Will (Theo James) and his soon-to-be father-in-law Tom (Forest Whitaker) racing across the country to save Samantha (Kat Graham), Will’s soon-to-be baby mama and Tom’s daughter, after some vague apocalyptic event occurs. I’m not sure how someone can make a $20,000,000 movie about the apocalypse where almost nothing actually happens, but Netflix is an innovative company and they somehow managed it. 

By Dave B.

​A word to the wise: if you haven’t seen the first season of Dirk Gently, watch it. It’s great and is required for making sense of much of season two. That said, for those who aren’t familiar with Dirk Gently, he’s a holistic detective. That basically means that he solves cases by seeing the fundamental interconnectedness of everything, instead of relying on more traditional techniques such as evidence and procedures. The second season of Dirk Gently (BBC America, currently on Hulu) finds Dirk caught up in a case where he’s imprisoned, but needs to fulfill a prophecy of finding a missing boy in order to save a medieval fantasy dimension from destruction at the hands of an evil wizard. Yes, it’s a weird show. It’s also arguably the best show on television. 

By Dave B.

​If you watch enough movies, you’ll eventually come across some that are truly unique. Yakuza Apocalypse (2015, currently on Hulu) is near the top of that list. A Yakuza boss, who is loved by the people of his town (and unbeknownst to most, is a vampire), is confronted and killed by a rival syndicate. Before expiring for good however, he passes along his powers to a trusted underling, Kagayama, who begins a quest for revenge against the syndicate and those within his own organization who betrayed the boss. Kagayama then inadvertently (at first) begins to spread vampirism around the town. My synopsis may sound a bit odd, but I assure you that these are the least odd events in the entire movie.

By Dave B.

​If you haven’t seen The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu), it’s likely that you’ve heard some things about it. It’s a TV show that graphically depicts a dystopian world where human fertility has plummeted, enabling a theocracy to take over the majority of what was once the continental United States. In this new country (called Gilead), women who have previously borne children are ritually raped by the political elite (with the assistance of their wives) in order to have children. Further, all women are subject to social control in the form of various biblical and quasi-biblical strictures and punishments. For example, women are not allowed to read and they do, their punishment is the loss of a finger. 

By Dave B.

​For starters, watching the first season of Legion is absolutely mandatory for understanding season two. That said, time for the review! Full disclosure, like many people who watched it, I liked the first season of Legion. Unlike many of them however, I didn’t love it. It was undeniably creative and original, but at times it felt like it was inexplicably weird simply to be weird and to appear more intelligent than it may actually be. Legion’s second season takes all of the good aspects of the initial installment to the next level. Unfortunately, it also magnifies some of its more annoying tendencies.