Culture

This week, Blizzard released Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, an expansion to the wildly popular fantasy action-role-playing game that tasks players with slaughtering masses of screeching demons and collecting the randomized gear that they leave behind.

Since coming out last year, Diablo IV has been a big success for Blizzard, earning more than $666 million (yes, really) in its first week. But before that release came years of fits and starts, including a predecessor that was perceived within Blizzard as an embarrassment and an iteration that was so drastically different, people began wondering if it was really still Diablo anymore.

Last week, Hurricane Helene spun north into western North Carolina causing catastrophic damage, particularly in the Asheville area and surrounding counties. Entire homes and businesses were flooded, some floating away in a horrific wave of debris.

In the midst of it all, some bird-watchers noticed something: People in some of the most heavily impacted areas were continuing to log sightings in the popular app eBird. As it happens, some of those areas—Buncombe and Henderson Counties in particular—have been birding hot spots for years. Less than a day after the storm passed, as many were still assessing the damage, birders were back to chronicling their finds.

Fans, it seems, are not dancing out of Joker: Folie à Deux.

Director Todd Phillips’ film, which features the return of Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck and the addition of Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, was highly anticipated, especially after the success of the first chapter, released in 2019. Following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, however, there was no shortage of criticism from film reviewers and the audiences who saw it in Italy. Since its US release this past weekend, during which the movie brought in a lower-than-expected $40 million at the box office, that chorus of discontent has grown louder.

Netflix has plenty of movies to watch, but it’s a real mixed bag. Sometimes finding the right film at the right time can seem like an impossible task. Fret not, we’re here to help. Below is a list of some of our favorites currently on the streaming service—from dramas to comedies to thrillers.

If you decide you’re in more of a TV mood, head over to our collection of the best TV series on Netflix. Want more? Check out our lists of the best sci-fi movies, best movies on Amazon Prime, and the best flicks on Disney+.

Streaming services are known for having award-worthy series but also plenty of duds. Our guide to the best TV shows on Netflix is updated weekly to help you know which series you should move to the top of your queue. They aren’t all sure-fire winners—we love a good less-than-obvious gem—but they’re all worth your time, trust us.

Feel like you’ve already watched everything on this list that you want to see? Try our guide to the best movies on Netflix for more options. And if you’ve already completed Netflix and are in need of a new challenge, check out our picks for the best shows on Hulu and the best shows on Disney+. Don’t like our picks or want to offer suggestions of your own? Head to the comments below.

When Katie Santry picks up the call, the police have just finished their investigation. It’s 10 pm on Thursday, and, she says, cops are staying outside her Columbus, Ohio, home all night. She’s candid and friendly for someone going through what she is. Local news and curious neighbors have been outside much of the day. Online, hundreds of thousands of people have become voyeurs in her saga. Police are standing guard around the clock.

Fifty-four Academy Awards and 267 nominations. That’s the sort of canonical foresight the Black List has had since first launching in 2005 as Hollywood insiders’ go-to index of screenwriters. The Social Network, Edge of Tomorrow, Selma, Don’t Worry Darling—each one was selected for the annual Black List survey before going on to critical and commercial acclaim.

“I knew there were great writers and great scripts that existed outside of the Hollywood ecosystem,” its founder Franklin Leonard says. “I wanted to find a way for that to benefit everybody.”

In early September, Warner Bros. released a teaser for A Minecraft Movie, the studio’s new film based on Mojang’s nearly 15-year-old sandbox game. Directed by Napoleon Dynamite helmer Jared Hess, it was, frankly, very goofy. Jack Black was Steve; Jason Momoa was sporting maybe the worst hairdo he’s ever had. Everyone involved, even the animated creatures, seemed to think they were in a different movie.

But that wasn’t what the trolls latched onto. Instead, they fixed on the fact that a Black woman—Orange Is the New Black’s Danielle Brooks—was in the Overworld.

It may not have the shine it once did, but Max (previously HBO Max) is still home to some of the best TV shows of the past 25 years, from The Sopranos and The Wire to Game of Thrones and The Leftovers.

Max has gotten into the original content game too, with highly acclaimed series like Hacks, Station Eleven, and The Staircase (the owl did it!). So even if you’ve watched all of the HBO classics, there’s more to devour.

On top of a table, Princess Zelda magically binds herself to a green machine pouring gusts of wind. She goes zooming across the screen instantly as the air blasts the table forward as well as any jet engine. “Table go vroom-vroom” reads the caption—just a small taste of what an inventive player can do in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the latest in the series from Nintendo.

Echoes of Wisdom is all about finding new ways to use the world’s items. It relies on Zelda’s ability to copy enemies and objects and repurpose them as needed. In the early days of its creation, developers explored different ways the game could be played. That included the ability to edit dungeons by copying and pasting objects like doors or candles, allowing players to essentially create their own gameplay—and their own cheats.