Jason P. Vest

Given how busy we all are, particularly as the pandemic recedes, perhaps we should thank these lists (and their makers) for not wasting our time or abusing our goodwill, but instead helping us hack our way through that ever-growing thicket of anime, books, films, podcasts, manga, radio shows, stage plays, television series, video games, and the endless number of other cultural productions we feel honor-bound to track despite this impulse being a forever-frustrated wish that, to switch metaphors, cultural capital’s always-hungry maw ensures will never be satisfied.

      On this day, the fortieth anniversary of his untimely death, I come to praise Philip K. Dick, not to bury him. Despite PKD (as he is known to admirers near, far, and wide) only being 53 years old when he passed, on 2 March 1982, from a series of strokes that compounded […]

    On the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, I make this heretical pronouncement: Peter Jackson’s cinematic Lord of the Rings trilogy is better than J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary one. And I say so without embarrassment, no matter how many cultural pedants deem it unthinkable for a literature professor to suggest that the movies are better […]

Ursula K. Le Guin created an alternate history for our wayward species so suitably epic in scope, theme, and detail that it rivals anything Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein conjured during the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.

Ursula K. Le Guin storms the Library of America.

The woman who began her career as a fashion model for Ebony and Jet magazines, who married (and divorced) jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, and whose love of Black people, especially Black women, made her into an activist for most of her long, long life developed her craft so exactingly that she reigns as one of the greatest artists America has ever produced (or ever will produce).

Make no mistake, Octavia E. Butler was among the greatest American authors of the twentieth century. The intervening years have seen Butler’s work reclaimed by literary critics, scholars, and the reading public at large, but the fact remains: She was always terrific, even when too few people affirmed this judgment in the public square.

Doctor Who, “Resolution” New Year’s Special 2019 Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Wayne Yip Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Daniel Adegboyega, Nicholas Briggs, Nikesh Patel, and Charlotte Ritchie Original Broadcast 1 January 2019 (60 minutes)     When the BBC announced in October 2018 that Doctor Who […]

Doctor Who, “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” Series 11, Episode 10 Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Jamie Childs Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Mark Addy, Percelle Ascott, Phyllis Logan, and Samuel Oatley Original Broadcast 9 December 2018 (49 minutes)     Doctor Who’s Series 11—despite the […]

Doctor Who, “It Takes You Away” Series 11, Episode 9 Written by Ed Himes Directed by Jamie Childs Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Sharon D. Clarke, Kevin Eldon, Christian Rubeck, Lisa Stokke, and Eleanor Wallworks Original Broadcast 2 December 2018 (49 minutes)     No matter how good […]

Doctor Who, “The Witchfinders” Series 11, Episode 8 Written by Joy Wilkinson Directed by Sally Aprahamian Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Alan Cumming, Siobhan Finneran, Tricia Kelly, and Tilly Steele Original Broadcast 25 November 2018 (49 minutes)     Thanks to a terrific writing staff assembled by showrunner […]

Doctor Who, “Kerblam!” Series 11, Episode 7 Written by Pete McTighe Directed by Jennifer Perrott Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Julie Hesmondhalgh, Leo Flanagan, Claudia Jessie, and Lee Mack Original Broadcast 18 November 2018 (50 minutes)     Perhaps it was inevitable, given the ongoing controversies about the […]

Doctor Who, “Demons of the Punjab” Series 11, Episode 6 Written by Vinay Patel Directed by Jamie Childs Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh. Guest Starring Leena Dhingra, Hamza Jeetooa, Amita Suman, and Shane Zaza Original Broadcast 11 November 2018 (50 minutes)     “Demons of the Punjab,” the sixth episode […]

Doctor Who, “The Tsuranga Conundrum” Series 11, Episode 5 Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Jennifer Perrott Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Lois Chimimba, Brett Goldstein, Suzanne Packer, and Jack Shalloo Original Broadcast 4 November 2018 (50 minutes)     For anyone who thought that Doctor Who Series […]

Doctor Who, “Arachnids in the UK” Series 11, Episode 4 Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Sallie Aprahamian Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Sharon D. Clarke, Shobna Gulati, Tanya Fear, and Chris Noth Original Broadcast 28 October 2018 (50 minutes)     With “Arachnids in the UK,” showrunner […]

Doctor Who, “Rosa” Series 11, Episode 3 Written by Malorie Blackman and Chris Chibnall Directed by Mark Tonderai Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Vinette Robinson, Joshua Bowman, and Trevor White Original Broadcast 21 October 2018 (49 minutes)     Everything you have heard about “Rosa,” the brilliant third […]

Doctor Who, “The Ghost Monument” Series 11, Episode 2 Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Mark Tonderai Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Shaun Dooley, Susan Lynch, and Art Mali Original Broadcast 14 October 2018 (49 minutes)     As Doctor Who’s Series 11 unfolds, showrunner Chris Chibnall is […]

Editor’s note: This post inaugurates the first in a series of 11 reviews of the recent reboot of Doctor Who, cast with a female doctor.     Doctor Who, “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” Series 11, Episode 1 Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Jamie Childs Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and […]

Rejoice, we are told: Television has never been better. And all that is old becomes new again.