By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 15 seconds ago

Modern sci-fi owes a lot to the 1967 one-season wonder, The Prisoner, a surreal masterpiece that left the viewer wondering what the hero did to be trapped in such a bizarre seaside village, why he was trapped, and how he’d get out. Referring to its hero as only Number Six, The Prisoner’s influence can be felt in countless other series, but one of the best to pull from it aired on the SyFy channel for three seasons, from 2015 through 2017: Dark Matter.

Six strangers wake up on a spaceship with no memory of who they are or how they got there. They use the order they woke up in for names and start working together to solve the mystery. Unlike The Prisoner, they eventually figure everything out, but once they have all the answers, the questions are changed. 

Dark Matter Opens With A Twist

Dark Matter opens up with a dark, beat-up ship as one by one, the six passengers, four men, one woman (The Rookie’s Melissa O’Neil), and a teenage girl, wake up, each with no memory of who they are. On the ship designated Raza, they find a cache of weapons and an android, and learn that the last destination was a mining colony where the workers need protection from the Ferrous Corporation.  On any other sci-fi series, this would be a no-brainer, except the first big twist of the series is revealed at the end of the pilot: the passengers are the bad guys. 

Learning from the android that all of them are wanted criminals, except for Number Five, puts the recovered cache in a new light. They stole it from the group contracted to help the miners, and it’s up to them to kill the miners. It’s the first of many, many twists that Dark Matter throws at viewers during its three seasons, and as far as even the Season 1 reveals go, it’s fairly tame. 

The question remains: who wiped their memories, and why? For as long as that goes unanswered, the crew is left wondering, who can they trust? Who knows more than they are letting on? 

The Prisoner Influence Goes Beyond The Pilot

The universe of Dark Matter is small, as far as sci-fi universes go, with the story placing more emphasis on the characters themselves than any universe-shattering conflict. It has that too, but watching the group of bad guys grapple with their past actions, develop into better people, or fail to become better and embrace being the villain of someone else’s story, drives the story forward more than a hunt for a technological MacGuffin. 

The Prisoner was significantly smaller in scale, while Dark Matter lets the passengers out into the world, and yet, they can’t escape their past. From the pilot to the final episode, who they were will always define them.

Had the Patrick McGoohan classic series been allowed to continue, that was what was going to come next. Number Six would journey across the world but always remain under close watch, control, and unable to escape his fate as a prisoner. 

Dark Matter And Stargate Share The Same Creative DNA

Dark Matter is heavily influenced by another sci-fi series: Stargate. The series was created by Joseph Mallozzi, one of the most prolific writers for the other Star franchise, contributing to SG-1, Atlantis, Universe, and the upcoming Amazon series. If you’ve seen the back half of SG-1, you’ll feel right at home in the world of Dark Matter.

Like Stargate, Dark Matter was also treated unfairly by SyFy, which picked up the series but didn’t develop it, relegating it to the network’s lower-priority original programming in terms of budgets and marketing.

There’s a good chance you haven’t ever watched the series, or even heard about it. Those who have given it a chance, though, have fallen in love with the ragtag crew. 

A Sleeper Hit Streaming For Free

Finding Dark Matter is both easy and surprisingly difficult. It’s streaming for free on the CW website, but try to find anything about it, and you’ll wander into the 2024 Apple TV series, Dark Matter.

It’s such a common problem that even the Reddit for the SyFy series has been overtaken by fans of the new series. Like “Redemption” or “Rise of,” it’s time for the words “Dark Matter” to be retired from Hollywood for a few decades. 

Once you find it, you’ll enjoy Dark Matter. Yes, there are a lot of plot holes explained away by the memory wipe, but there are also a lot of expertly crafted character development and further twists to the story. For better or for worse, this is the type of sci-fi we always need more of: a crew, a spaceship, and morally dubious missions that may or may not save the day. 

By Robert Scucci
| Published 50 seconds ago

I’ve never been a fan of the whole Airbnb thing. If I’m throwing down my hard-earned cash to go on vacation, I don’t want to be up-charged by some overbearing property owner because they didn’t like how I touched the thermostat. I’ve also heard a bunch of horror stories from my friends about how they thought they were being recorded with a hidden camera while trying to have an unforgettable weekend. The Rental takes the idea of an overbearing property owner and makes it so believable that you’ll probably start booking hotel rooms again instead of looking for a remote cabin in the middle of nowhere.

Next Time, Just Book A Hotel

The Rental starts out like your typical “cabin in the woods” kind of horror flick but attempts to offer so much more because its tension doesn’t just come from some unknown outside source of terror but also the pair of couples (and their dog) who party just a little too hard during their stay.

When husband and wife, Charlie (Dan Stevens) and Michelle (Alison Brie), decide to bring Charlie’s brother, Josh (Jeremy Allen White), and his girlfriend, Mina (Sheila Vand), along for a weekend getaway, they’re immediately rubbed the wrong way by Taylor (Toby Huss), the property owner.

Taylor is one of those suspicious property owners who show up at inopportune moments, suggesting he’s keeping a close eye on his tenants during their weekend stay. Mina has reason to believe that Taylor will be an unwelcome presence because he enters the rental property to deliver a telescope so they can look at the stars while the group isn’t present.

Getaway Turned Nightmare

After partying while indulging in a healthy amount of recreational drugs, Charlie and Mina have a romantic rendezvous in the shower, which they immediately regret. The next morning, after swearing they’ll never engage in such an unfaithful activity again, we learn what’s truly at stake in The Rental. Mina discovers that there are cameras hidden in the shower heads, and Charlie decides that it’s best if they find and destroy the footage before Michelle and Josh find out.

Josh, on the other hand, is distracted because his dog, Reggie, goes missing on the second day. Josh, who is so hotheaded that he was once in prison for his violent tendencies, plans to confront Taylor because the rental property has a strict no pet policy, and he suspects foul play. Mina also has her own plans to confront Taylor about the cameras, which results in a violent altercation between Taylor and Josh, who is unaware of Mina’s one-night stand with Charlie.

A Must-Watch For Fans Of The Bear

The Rental is an effective horror thriller that will make you think twice about whether booking a place with a hot tub for a weekend getaway is a good idea. If you’re a fan of The Bear, you’ll appreciate Jeremy Allen White’s ability to convincingly portray a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown when tensions run high. Though he later masters the craft of epically melting down in the award-winning FX on Hulu series, his innate ability to convey such raw emotions at the drop of a hat is evident in this film.

But still, The Rental is a film that somehow doesn’t feel whole when you sum up all of the parts that should, in theory, make this an excellent film. While there is a considerable amount of tension throughout its tight 88-minute runtime, I felt like writer and director Dave Franco had the intention of starting a new franchise without first seeing if his directorial debut was a suitable proof of concept in the first place. Given how open-ended the film’s conclusion is, I smell a sequel in the works, but nothing has been officially announced as of yet.

That is to say, if The Rental turns out to be a stand-alone film, you may find yourself wishing there was a little more to it than what it ultimately offers.

Despite its shortcomings, The Rental is well-acted and has great production values. It’s just not enough to make it the memorable film that I wanted it to be. If a potential sequel picks up where it left off, I may have to reassess my feelings, but for now, I’m left wondering how much better this movie could have been if it fully explored its setting and characters.

As of this writing, The Rental is streaming on Hulu.

By Robert Scucci
| Published 20 hours ago

Florida movies are built differently, and after recently watching 2025’s Mermaid I wanted something that occupied the same territory without all the existential weight. My search led me to Matthew McConaughey’s 2019 drug-addled romp, The Beach Bum, which sees our favorite True Detective channeling his inner Dude in the most unhinged way possible. It’s a story about a nomadic poet who’s a slave to his impulses, lives life just for kicks, and meets countless colorful characters along the way.

Oh yeah, and he’s also filthy rich thanks to his wife Minnie (Isla Fisher), who puts up with his antics because he’s a literal literary genius, and the two share an unbreakable bond despite what their multiple affairs would have you believe.

The Beach Bum is a 95-minute fugue state of debauchery, poetry, loss, grief, and never forgetting what life is all about: doing whatever you want, all the time, without any regard for the consequences. It’s a surprisingly disarming film, but it never loses its sense of humor thanks to McConaughey’s commitment to the role.

Moondog Abides

Moondog (Matthew McConaughey) is one of the most fascinating characters I’ve seen in a minute because he’s incredibly selfish and seemingly willing to sacrifice his family’s happiness for his own pleasure without giving it much thought. After you spend some time with him, however, you realize why everybody loves him. His personality is infectious, and even though he’s pretty much half in the bag whenever he’s awake, he brings out the best in people.

His wife Minnie loves him to death, but they don’t really live together, which is probably for the better because she’s having an affair with his best friend, R&B singer Lingerie (Snoop Dogg). Moondog spends most of his time wandering around the Florida Keys, hooking up with women, drinking himself into oblivion, and smoking whatever he can get his hands on, only returning to his wife’s McMansion for special occasions like his daughter Heather’s (Stefania LaVie Owen) wedding.

Here’s the kicker: Moondog’s agent Lewis (Jonah Hill) is fed up that the most brilliant writer on his payroll is squandering his gift instead of sharing it with the world, and Minnie and Heather feel the same way. After Minnie dies in a car accident while partying with Moondog after karaoke one night, he learns that half of her sprawling estate has been left to Heather. He can only access the second half, along with the house, cars, and everything else, if he finishes his next book.

Deep down, Moondog knows she’s right and that he needs to buckle down and finish his masterpiece, but being the free spirit that he is, he has to do it his own way. He does so by trashing the house, getting arrested, being sentenced to rehab, escaping from rehab, going on a crime spree with a pyromaniac named Flicker (Zac Efron), fighting off shark attacks alongside a mysterious, perpetually drunk Vietnam veteran named Captain Wack (Martin Lawrence), and it goes on like this while Moondog lugs his typewriter around as the days blend into weeks.

A Fascinating Fugue State

The one thing I found truly enthralling about The Beach Bum is how strong Moondog’s constitution is despite being an absolute mess. He doesn’t live like anybody else he knows, and he refuses to compromise for anybody. He’ll give you the shirt off his back, but if he’s not having fun while doing it, he’ll push you into the marina and laugh like a maniac. His entire persona is dripping with charisma, and even when he’s robbing an old man in a wheelchair because he needs beer money while on the run, he somehow comes off as likable.

Even better, everybody he encounters just seems on board with his madness because they want to spend time with him. And when the good times are over, Moondog doesn’t cry or get angry. He just moves on to the next thing because that’s how he’s wired.

The Beach Bum is a total fugue state, following one eccentric yet brilliant maniac as he expresses his love for the world in ways that will baffle you, but it all leads somewhere, and it’s one of the most satisfying endings I’ve seen in a hot minute. I found myself letting out deep laughs during the final sequences because it was all so surreal. But after living with these characters for a while, it felt right, and this is one of those feel-good movies I wasn’t expecting to like so much, but will absolutely revisit.

As of this writing, The Beach Bum is streaming for free on Tubi.