Entertainment
Netflix's Tense And Tragic 2000s Thriller Is A Manipulative Family Fraud
By Robert Scucci
| Published
Sometimes a thriller is just a little too on the nose, and it loses its ability to generate suspense because you already know all of the beats going into it. 2001’s The Glass House is a masterclass in setting you up for what you already know is going to happen, which is a shame because it’s acted and shot well, but its screenplay never allows the viewer to read between the lines. It’s your classic story about two teenagers getting adopted by their wealthy godparents and given a living situation that seems too good to be true.
As you would expect, everything seems too good to be true because it is. The Glass House makes the fatal mistake of laying all of its cards on the table far too early to allow for a satisfying payoff, and since things escalate quickly, its entire premise gets pushed into absurd territory before you even realize that the antagonists have the last name Glass and live inside of a literal glass house. If you find yourself wondering, “What could possibly go wrong here?” you’ll figure it out quickly.
Those Who Live In Glass Houses …
Showing its namesake in both a figurative and painfully literal sense, The Glass House wastes no time setting up its conflict. Sixteen-year-old Ruby (Leelee Sobieski) and her 11-year-old brother Rhett Baker are orphaned when their parents, David (Michael O’Keefe) and Grace (Rita Wilson), are tragically killed in a car wreck after celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. After the funeral, Ruby and Rhett learn that they’re going to live with Terry (Stellan Skarsgard) and Erin (Diane Lane) Glass, an exceedingly wealthy couple who go way back with the Baker family.
Before transitioning to their new living situation, Ruby is informed by her parents’ trust fund lawyer, Alvin Begleiter (Bruce Dern), that she and her brother will never have to worry about money as adults, thanks to their parents’ smart financial decisions before their deaths.
Almost immediately, you can tell something is off. Terry makes sexual passes at Ruby, while Rhett is bought off with the newest video game systems to keep him distracted from the familial and financial malfeasance that’s about to take place. Terry owns a luxury car dealership, and Ruby witnesses him being threatened by loan sharks after he talks about his new “personal piggy bank.” Erin, a prominent physician in the area, is seen on more than one occasion shooting up drugs and blacking out in the living room, which she always explains away as her daily insulin needed to treat her diabetes.
Though the authorities eventually get involved in The Glass House, there’s not much that Alvin can do when Ruby voices her concerns to him. Ruby’s private conversations with Alvin, the social workers, as well as her personal emails, are seemingly reviewed by Terry ahead of time, resulting in him always having the perfect answer when questioned about the family dynamic by a third party. We know the Glass family is up to no good, and we know Ruby and Rhett are in danger, so there isn’t much tension baked into the movie. The setup makes no other outcome possible, which leaves you hoping there’s something you’re missing that could actually generate suspense.
When In Doubt, Listen To The Film Score
The biggest issue I take with The Glass House is its patronizing sound design and film score. The music itself is fine and exactly what you’d expect from a thriller, but it also serves as a blunt cue for every sinister thing happening inside the Glass residence. Ruby snoops around while Terry watches her every move, waiting to confront her, so of course the string section is brooding and plucky, with the occasional dissonant piano notes stabbing through the mix. Every single crescendo exists to tell you that a jump scare or reveal is coming.
Terry and Erin are picture-perfect during the day, but the second the sun sets, they’re arguing behind closed doors, and Terry starts doing his dirty work. Ruby begins the film as a troubled, directionless student going through a rebellious phase, and then she’s suddenly the most perceptive teenager you’ve ever seen, clocking all of Terry’s problematic behavior and skillfully manipulating her way out of a horrifying home life.
The Glass House, which is supposed to function as a thriller, has zero thrills because every trope is used to its fullest, and all of them lead to their most obvious conclusion. If you’ve never seen a thriller, it works as a solid primer for newcomers or younger audiences because it wears all of its conventions on its sleeve, which isn’t inherently a bad thing if you’re just trying to familiarize yourself with the beats before moving on to something more refined. If you’re already deep into the genre, though, this one probably won’t offer much beyond frustration.
As of this writing, The Glass House is streaming on Netflix.
Entertainment
A Fully Loaded Potato Salad for Dinner
I love potato salad. I love the creamy kind, the vinegar-y kind; I’ll take a warm one with dill, whatever you’ve got. And yet, I’m about to make a bold claim: this potato salad might be my favorite. Why? Because it’s decidedly not a side dish. It’s the whole damn meal.
This recipe comes to us from Melina Hammer, who calls it a “Niçoise-ish” potato salad, because it’s souped up with tuna, eggs, and other classic Niçoise elements. “You get those bright, bold flavors,” says Melina. It adapts easily for the season, she adds, suggesting winter radishes — like purple daikons or watermelon radishes — if you make it this month. “You can also swap the green beans for two cups of chopped escarole or Napa cabbage, and I’m always a fan of thawed frozen peas. No need to cook them any further — just toss ’em in!”
Here’s the full recipe, plus some pointers from Melina:
Niçoise-ish Potato Salad
by Melina Hammer
Serves 4
3 eggs
salt
1 dry quart small red potatoes (approximately 2 lbs), any larger ones sliced in half
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp (or more) freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp capers, strained
2 1/2 oz thin green beans, stem ends trimmed and sliced into 1 1/2-2 inch segments on a diagonal (or swap for peas, cabbage, etc)
1 5-ounce can albacore tuna
3 radishes, ends trimmed and sliced in halves, then thinly sliced
2 tbsp finely sliced chives
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Bring a medium saucepan with enough water to cover the eggs by an inch to a boil. Lower refrigerator-cold eggs into the water and cook them on a simmer for 8 minutes, then plunge the eggs into an ice bath until they are cool enough to handle. Peel and then slice the eggs into six wedges apiece and set aside.
Bring the potatoes to a simmer in well-salted water. Cook for 8 minutes or until they yield easily when pierced with a sharp knife. Strain them into a colander with a slotted spoon, reserving the cooking liquid. Transfer the potatoes to a mixing bowl and add the oil, mustard, black pepper, and capers. Gently toss to fully coat.
Blanch the green beans in the potato water for 30 seconds to 1 minute — just long enough for them to turn bright green. Strain, and add to the potatoes. Add the tuna, flaking the fish into the bowl, followed by the radishes and chives. Toss to incorporate, then add the eggs and lemon juice. (Note: “If you’re making this a day or more in advance, hold the lemon juice and add it just before serving,” says Melina. “Otherwise, it will dull the color of the green beans.”) Gently toss once more. “I like to use a silicone spatula and work up from the bottom of the bowl, folding the ingredients together with a light hand so the yolks remain mostly intact.”
As you serve the potato salad, make sure to scoop up all the last bits of custardy egg, straggler chives, and mustardy goodness clinging to the sides of the bowl. Enjoy.
Melina Hammer is a chef, food stylist, recipe developer, and the award-winning author of A Year at Catbird Cottage. Her recipes have appeared on Bon Appétit, Food52, and Edible. You can follow her newsletter, Stories from Catbird Cottage.
What other dinner salads do you love? And do you have a house salad?
P.S. Five ways to upgrade a regular green salad, and white bean soup, because it’s February.
(Photos courtesy of Melina Hammer.)
Entertainment
Streaming deal alert: Get 3 months of MUBI for only $1
SAVE $43.97: Through Feb. 9, new and returning subscribers can get three months of streaming on MUBI for only $1. Usually $14.99 per month, that’s nearly $44 in savings.
If you’re looking to venture away from Netflix and its extravagant costs, MUBI is an excellent choice — especially if you’re a movie lover. There are never any ads, it’s brimming with hand-picked quality cinema, and for a limited time, it’s just a buck.
Through Feb. 9, new and returning subscribers can get three months of streaming on MUBI for just $1. It typically costs $14.99 per month (or $9.99 per month with an annual membership), which means you’ll save nearly $44 total across 90 days. After the promotional period, of course, the price will jump back up to $14.99 unless you cancel first.
MUBI is made for cinephiles, as it prides itself as a place to “discover ambitious films and series by visionary filmmakers — from iconic directors to emerging auteurs.” You’ll find mainstream and independent films, classics and new releases, award winners, and even Mubi originals. That includes one of our favorite movies from 2025, Die My Love, and one of our favorites from 2024, The Substance. It’s also where you can watch Lili Reinhart‘s new show Hal & Harper, as well as Twin Peaks in its entirety.
Mashable Deals
Streaming deals this good don’t stick around long — be sure to secure your $1 subscription by Feb. 9.
Entertainment
The Series That Scarred 80s Kids Forever
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Every child of the ’80s carries with them scars to this day. We watched Artax lose the will to live in the Swamp of Sorrow, half the Autobots blown up in the first 10 minutes of Transformers: The Movie, and Punky Brewster turning refrigerators into the scariest household appliance. Even the original 1983 G.I. Joe got in on the action with surprisingly dark episodes, including one in which a traitor is consumed by piranhas, but none hit as hard as “There’s No Place Like Springfield,” a two-part psychological horror focused on breaking Shipwreck, a fan favorite character, so that he’d give up the secret formula that turns water into an explosive. Cobra never did anything the way, so the master plan was to pay homage to the mind-bending sci-fi series The Prisoner.
G.I. Joe’s Psychological Horror Season Finale
After the required bumper saying “G.I. Joe will return after these messages,” Shipwreck wakes up in a hospital and learns that his family was concerned about him. Not Uncle Al, but his wife (Mara, the Cobra operative spliced with fish DNA who previously fell in love with Shipwreck) and daughter, which is news to the career soldier who had given up on ever having a normal life. Haunted by nightmares, Shipwreck nonetheless falls into a routine with the family he always wanted in the idyllic town of Springfield.
The two-part episode is the equivalent of a slow-burning episode for G.I. Joe, which normally wrapped up the entire story in 22-minutes with a massive gun battle. “There’s No Place Like Springfield” slowly peels back the curtain as Shipwreck realizes there’s something wrong with the town, and he uncovers the Cobra conspiracy behind it all. With the town burning down around him when the Joes arrive on a rescue mission, Shipwreck is confronted by Mara, the woman he loves, who’s still fighting for Cobra, and his daughter, armed with a rocket launcher.. Until they melt into goo.
G.I. Joe was a very light-hearted children’s show designed to sell toys, which is why the sheer anguish in Shipwreck’s voice when he realizes that his family were synthoids is so haunting. He knows he’s been lied to by Cobra, he knows everything is fake, but in those final moments, he’s still hoping that it could be real. A glorified commercial wasn’t supposed to include deep themes about life, love, and trauma. All it needed was for the loved ones of a fan favorite character to start melting as he helplessly looked on.
G.I. Joe’s Best Episode
“There’s No Place Like Springfield” clearly took cues from Patrick McGoohan’s psychological sci-fi drama by dropping the hero in the middle of a perfect town, where other residents use various methods, both overt and covert, to get information from him. Shipwreck’s house is also located at 6 Village Drive, an obvious homage to Number Six and The Village from The Prisoner. As a kid, it’s easy to miss references to a show from the 60s, even the large, white, gelatinous mass that attacks Shipwreck is a direct reference to The Village’s bouncy, balloon security device, Rover. All the kids cared about was that Shipwreck made it out alive.
G.I. Joe ended Season 1 with the two-part psychological horror, but when Season 2 came around a year later, Shipwreck wasn’t shown dealing with the trauma; instead, he was reduced to comic relief. The addition of Sgt. Slaughter in Season 2 forced Season 1’s fan favorites to get less of the spotlight, but of all of them, Shipwreck deserved to remain a featured player, and he deserved to eventually settle down with the real Mara.
Melting loved ones turned “There’s No Place Like Springfield” into a memorable G.I. Joe episode that’s remained at the top of fan favorite lists for decades. 80s kids were used to horrible, horrible things happening to their heroes ever since we watched E.T. get sick. There had to be a better way to introduce new toys than to kill off the old favorites.
If you want to relive the 80s or check it out for the first time, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is currently streaming for free on Pluto TV.
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