Yazar: patriot

This article contains spoilers for The Electric State. The Electric State has many problems: derivative plot, lackluster acting, indifferent visual style. But the most troubling issue might be the way it portrays AI. In The Electric State‘s fictional 1994, a technological leap in 1990 allowed machines to become self-aware. They immediately rebelled against their creators, […]

The post The Electric State Confirms How Sci-FI Stories Use A.I. Characters Must Change appeared first on Den of Geek.

TikTok has become a popular place for actors to post behind-the-scenes footage in recent years. It gives them a chance to connect with their fans and share a glimpse at what happens when the cameras aren’t rolling on their favorite series. In shows like Bridgerton with a large ensemble cast that might not always be on camera, it also gives the actors a way to cut loose in between takes and bond with each other.

These TikToks may often be spearheaded by younger cast members like Florence Hunt, who has had a number of her behind the scenes videos go viral with millions of likes, but that doesn’t mean that others in the cast don’t participate. Hunt, who plays Hyacinth Bridgerton, one of the youngest of the siblings, has convinced a number of cast members to join in on her TikToks, From Simone Ashley (who plays Kate Sharma) and Jonathan Bailey (who plays Anthony Bridgerton) to Adjoa Andoh (who plays Lady Danbury) and Ruth Gemmell (who plays Violet Bridgerton), it seems like almost everyone is down to have a little fun with Hunt in between takes.

While chatting with Den of Geek at our SXSW studio about her show Mix Tape, we got to ask Hunt about when we might get to see some BTS TikToks from the upcoming season of Bridgerton. “I have a few, I have a really good one, actually,” she says. “But I can only post them when the season comes out.” 

Since Bridgerton season 4 is currently filming and isn’t set to even wrap until April, it will likely be a while before Hunt gets to post these videos and we get to see the “really good one” she’s talking about. As much as she wishes she could go ahead and post them, she’s already had more than a few close calls saving her videos to drafts. “The amount of times I’ve nearly accidentally pressed ‘post’ because the ‘draft’ button is next to the ‘post’ button, I think I’d be fired forever,” she explains. “So hopefully that’s not going to happen.”

As hard as it is to wait for these small nuggets of life behind-the-scenes of Bridgerton, if her season 3 videos are any indication, they will be worth the wait. It’s especially fun to watch behind-the-scenes TikToks of period dramas. Watching actors participate in fun and sometimes silly modern social media trends while in their costumes and on these stylized sets adds another layer of amusement that makes these videos so enjoyable to watch. Their characters may oftentimes be serious and focused on their duties in Bridgerton’s posh society, but it’s nice to know that the actors who play them aren’t afraid to let loose.

Hunt’s other seri

And that’s another SXSW for the history books. At the same festival that saw a keynote talk given by the CEO trying to bring the Woolly Mammoth back, cinephiles and genre enthusiasts also got a new Babak Anvari banger, the unicorn horror-comedy you never knew you needed, and a reported return to form by Matthew […]

The post Everything We Saw at SXSW 2025  appeared first on Den of Geek.

Stakes naturally feel high on almost any first date. As much as it is an opportunity to meet or better acquaint yourself with someone, first dates can also be veritable leaps of faith. There is an air of mystery or suspense when you put yourself out there. And if you’ve ever had such a rendezvous at a restaurant, you know how much worse it is when catching strangers staring at the proceedings, eager to judge how the evening’s dinner and a show goes for the new potential couple.

Unfortunately for Violet and Henry (Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar), they have a truly enraptured audience during the brisk 100 minutes composing Drop, and this anonymous viewer is determined to dial in requests—which run the gamut from Violet being coerced to steal something out of Henry’s briefcase to, eventually, slipping a little poison into his drink.

That is the perfectly concise and sharpened hook at the center of Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach’s breezy script. The screenwriters, along with director Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day and Freaky), are out to build a high-concept worthy of an old Alfred Hitchcock thriller, albeit with the modern veneer of a 2020s Blumhouse production and the literal height of the film occurring at a skyline restaurant (so you just know someone is going out that window even before Violet confesses to a fear of heights).

One of the several appeals of Drop, then, is how it tweaks familiar formulas and tropes. Hitch himself once said that suspense “is the bomb underneath the table, and the public knows it [but the characters do not].” Yet in this movie, Violet is only too aware of the proverbial bomb, and she is being encouraged to detonate it or some anonymous watcher will have her son murdered (the stranger is “dropping” photos and hideous threats by way of internet memes to her phone).

The riff on Apple’s AirDrop, which in the film is simply suggested to be an alternative knockoff called “Digidrops,” is also clever. Some of the best thrillers and horror movies tap into the technological zeitgeist of their times, be it Scream inspiring millions to invest in CallerID or for that matter Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder, and there is something surely disquieting about us finding ways to make it even easier for strangers to hide beneath a veil of anonymity while messaging our devices.

Not that Violet or Henry aren’t immediately creeped out when they discover someone is AirDropping her cryptic memes in the restaurant. One of the sharper elements of the script is that she doesn’t initially keep the messages to herself, and the pair muse what kind of weirdo would be sending “internet humor” to a woman at a date bar. Sudde

No event is more synonymous with the teenage American experience than prom. And the film industry, Satan bless it, has never lost sight of that fact. Prom movies are dime a dozen in the high school subgenre, ranging from the sweet (Never Been Kissed) to the spirited (Footloose) to the downright Shakespearean (10 Things I […]

The post SXSW Grand Jury Winner Slanted Is The Substance for Prom Season appeared first on Den of Geek.

Given its mission to seek out new life and new civilizations, Star Trek doesn’t give its physicians the most glamorous jobs. Captain Kirk and Commander Riker get to go on adventures, Picard and Spock wrestle with complex questions. The doctors just clean up the mess.

And yet, the doctors remain some of the most intriguing characters in all of Trek. The advice they offer the captains, the moral dilemmas foisted upon them by the patients sent to their sick bays, even their romantic entanglements. All of these make for compelling stories, which might be why all of the Trek doctors are pretty great. There’s honestly not a bad one on this list, even if the shows around them are sometimes lacking.

Still, there are a few caveats we need to put in place, which means some of the docs get left out. This list ranks only the main doctors, not other types of healers (sorry Nurses Chapel and Ogawa, sorry Counselor Troi) nor doctors who only show up for a bit. That means not only that we’re skipping over Dr. April from The Animated Series or Dr. Royce from “The Cage,” but also The Original Series version of M’Benga played by Booker Bradshaw and the Kelvin universe McCoy played by Karl Urban. Finally, we’re just looking at the movies and TV shows here, so the friendly dinosaur Dr. Shenti Yisec Eres Ree from the Star Trek: Titan novels will not appear.

Still, that leaves us with plenty of great physicians to look at, each of whom any Trekkie would be happy to visit.

9. Catherine Pulaski (TNG)

Perhaps the easiest decision on this list, Dr. Pulaski takes the bottom spot. Yet, even that makes her sound worse than she is. Pulaski already has the odds stacked against her, coming in only for The Next Generation‘s still-shaky second season and briefly replacing a fan-favorite in Beverly Crusher, when Diana Muldaur joined the cast after Gates McFadden’s season one departure. Worse, she makes a terrible impression in her early appearances by bullying Data over the pronunciation of her name.

However, the 24-episode seasons we used to have back then really worked in Pulaski’s favor, giving her time to grow beyond those first impressions. By the time we get to the 15th episode, “Pen Pals,” Pulaski is showing remarkable compassion for a scared child, and even bonding with Data. Had Pulaski got to stick around through season three and longer, when TNG matured into the great show it would become, then perhaps she would be at the top of this list. As it is, she doesn’t quite rank as high as the others.

8. T’ana (

This post contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again episode 4. Prior to the opening credits and right before the closing credits of “Sic Semper Systema,” the fourth episode of Daredevil: Born Again, we see something that feels less from a superhero comic book and more from a grimy 2000s torture porn movie. A masked figure […]

The post Muse Is the Perfect Villain for Daredevil: Born Again appeared first on Den of Geek.

And that’s another SXSW for the history books. At the same festival that saw a keynote talk given by the CEO trying to bring the Woolly Mammoth back, cinephiles and genre enthusiasts also got a new Babak Anvari banger, the unicorn horror-comedy you never knew you needed, and a reported return to form by Matthew McConaughey after he stepped away from the big screen for the last six years.

It was a lot of fun, a lot of work, and as always over too soon. (Spoiler: McConaughey’s much celebrated The Rivals of the Amaziah King is one of the ones we missed!) Be that as it may, we still saw a whole lot from the Film and TV festival selection during our limited time on the ground. Here’s the round-up to prove it.

#1 Happy Family USA

Animated sitcoms don’t usually make a habit of concluding their first episode with the events of Sept. 11, 2001. But then again not many animated sitcoms are Prime Video’s #1 Happy Family USA. Created by comedy superstar Ramy Youssef and South Park producer Pam Brady, #1 Happy Family USA follows the Husseins—a Muslim family in New Jersey doing their best to project patriotism amid a very dark time in American history. 

While that setup is bleak (and undoubtedly reflects Youssef’s own experiences growing up as a Muslim-American during the turn of the 21st century), the series ends up being quite a cheerful experience. Young Rumi Hussein (Youssef) befriends a talking lamb and tries to bang his teacher (who may or may not have a personal connection to His Airness, Michael Jordan). His dad Hussein Hussein (also Youssef) breaks out into pro-America song numbers routinely. Also, Grandma (Randa Jarrar) appears to have Doc Ock arm attachments.

Each episode of the show, which has already scored a two-season order at Prime, opens with faux MPAA text warning “Rated H for Haram: Allah please forgive mistakes in this program.” Rated H it may be, but that could just as easily stand for “Halal.” – Alec Bojalad

American Sweatshop

Most folks objectively recognize the internet is a terrible and unpleasant place. But most of us also never think about the poor souls who are encouraged (tricked?) into trying to clean it up for lawsuit-fearing tech companies. Director Uta Briesewitz and star/producer Lili Reinhart care thoug