Entertainment
Real Technology Made Sci-Fi’s Scariest Movie A Joke
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
For nerds of a certain age, Logan’s Run (1976) is one of the scariest sci-fi series ever made. The movie features a dystopian future where mankind nonetheless lives in debaucherous harmony, surrounded by automated machinery that takes care of everyone’s needs. But as the opening crawl warns us, there’s a catch: once someone turns 30 (as evidenced by a crystal in their hands), they must kill themselves in a ritual known as “Carousel,” after which they will be allegedly reborn. In reality, there is no rebirth; everyone simply sacrifices themselves in order to forcibly create a society where everyone is young and happy.
Logan’s Run (currently streaming for free on Tubi) is particularly frightening to Millennials because it crystallizes our anxiety about our own mortality. Nothing like a cinematic reminder that death is creeping closer to all of us, day by day. As an added kick to the teeth, the Big Bad of the movie is an evil computer, emphasizing how AI may very well be the ultimate death of humanity. Ironically, though, modern technology has effectively made Logan’s Run a joke. Thanks to social media created by Zoomers and even Generation Alpha, Millennials have long felt shut out of a world driven almost exclusively by the whims and tastes of younger audiences.
Plus, trust me: it doesn’t take an evil AI to make us wish we were already dead!
No Country For Old Men
For longtime sci-fi fans, Logan’s Run will likely feel like a hodgepodge of genre concepts you may be familiar with from other media. The idea of voluntarily turning yourself in for extermination, for example, feels very similar to people flocking to the suicide booths in Soylent Green. This movie also has special agents assigned to hunt and kill those who run, a bit like Deckard hunting down replicants in Blade Runner. Of course, the idea of a computer with possible sinister motives running an entire society is present in multiple episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series. On paper, all of this makes Logan’s Run very accessible, even to newcomers.
With all that being said, I can’t help but feel like modern technology has rendered the message and vibe of Logan’s Run largely redundant. I’m not even talking about AI here, though it is notable that our entire economy is propped up by attempts to make tech bros’ collective attempt to make their own evil computer. No, I’m talking about how social media sites such as Twitter and YouTube have made Millennials and older groups feel a bit like the characters in Logan’s Run: essentially dead to anyone over 30.
Never Trust Anyone Over 30 (Because They’re Dead)
In Logan’s Run, separating (permanently, as it turns out) older people from younger people was handled by an artificial intelligence, and the whole thing was baked into their bizarre culture. In the real world, no evil AIs are forcing people to unalive themselves when they turn 30 (at least, not yet). Nonetheless, older groups like Millennials still perceive a vast gulf between their culture and, say, Zoomer culture. Technology plays a major role in this because it destroyed something that older groups once considered indestructible: the monoculture.
Millennials and older demographics mostly grew up watching the same popular movies and breakout TV shows. They read the same newspapers and magazines that were popular nationwide, and they read the same great works of literature. The effect of this was what is now known as the monoculture: when almost everyone read and watched the same stuff, we all had the same cultural touchstones. If a movie had a funny line or two, they became part of our collective vernacular. We knew all the stars, all the quotes, all the pop culture moments. Like those in Logan’s Run, we had a shared culture that we all knew and understood.
A Shocking New Technology
But the internet, originally intended to unify the world, ended up tearing everything apart. Anyone with a camera could become famous, which led to the rise of influencers and micro-celebrities whose content was available at the press of a button. The monoculture was gone, quietly replaced by a series of niche cultures that are confusing and downright impenetrable to anyone outside of them. This leads, inevitably, to cultural isolation: how the heck is a Millennial raised by a television supposed to understand stuff like the looksmaxxing movement, which advocates hammers to the face as a way of achieving beauty?
One thing the fancy computer in Logan’s Run couldn’t predict was that real-world technology would create a faster, more disposable culture. Young people don’t get funny lines from movies or TV shows anymore; they get them from platforms like TikTok and YouTube, and this ephemeral slang disappears as quickly as it appears, replaced by something from the next viral vid. This is why Millennials and Gen X feel like they’re going insane trying to understand Zoomers: by the time you do figure out goofy words like “rizz” or “delulu,” these youngsters have already moved on, and they will point and laugh when you try to insert “gyatt” into the conversation.
In The Digital Age, You’re Already Dead
Obviously, language is used as a cultural signifier, and shared slang is a way of indicating you are part of the group. Hyper-online youngsters keep up with changing slang by constantly watching new videos from their favorite content creators. By the time someone as old as me tries to use outdated terms, it’s abundantly clear I am not part of the in-group. Without understanding something as foundational as the language being used, it becomes subsequently impossible for Millennials and older groups to understand the layered irony and deliberate brain rot embedded in the most popular Zoomer and Generation Alpha memes.
How does this all tie back to Logan’s Run? In that fictional world, technology simplified things by splitting society into two groups: an in-group of living young people and an out-group of 30-year-old corpses. The film is meant to dramatize anxieties about getting older and feeling out of touch and irrelevant over time. But in the real world, algorithms have split people into countless groups whose passions, humor, and even language are inscrutable to audiences born before the World Wide Web. We don’t have to be hunted and killed like in Logan’s Run; instead, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers just slowly become quietly irrelevant, as if we were never born at all.
Is that bleak and depressing? You bet! But it could be worse: you could be getting actively hunted and murdered because the glowing crystal in your hand told everyone you had entered your dirty thirties. Carousel doesn’t exist in the real world, but you can experience the next best thing by streaming Logan’s Run for free on Tubi. By watching this classic film, you can be reborn as someone who enjoys all of the grace and understanding that comes with age. If that doesn’t work, don’t look to me for a pep talk: as a Millennial and a teacher, I’ve been waiting for young people to rise up and kill me for a long, long time!
Entertainment
House of the Dragon review: Season 3 atones for the sins of Season 2
Let’s face it: Season 2 of House of the Dragon promised fire and blood, but its baffling finale felt more like a puff of smoke.
The season fizzled to an ending with zero catharsis, forced Game of Thrones references, and a highlight reel of what was to come. In some ways, that structure mirrored the season’s core conflict. For all of Season 2, Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) tried everything they could to prevent all-out war. But while their stalling to prevent the inevitable was rooted deeply in the story, the show’s own reluctance to leap into the next phase of George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood felt more like it was spinning its wheels until Season 3.
Now, the third season of House of the Dragon is finally here, and its first four episodes manage to make up for Season 2’s finale and then some, delivering jaw-dropping spectacle and somber truths about the cost of war.
House of the Dragon‘s Battle of the Gullet is spectacular.
Steve Toussaint in “House of the Dragon.”
Credit: Ollie Upton / HBO
Remember how barely an episode of House of the Dragon Season 2 went by without a mention of Corlys Velaryon’s (Steve Toussaint) naval blockade in the Gullet? We finally get the payoff for that blockade at the top of Season 3, as the Triarchy’s fleet bears down on the Sea Snake’s forces. The ensuing clash, known as the Battle of the Gullet, is one of the defining fights of the Dance of the Dragons — the royal succession civil war between Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney).
Given that so much of Season 2 was building to this point — hence the fan frustration that it wasn’t included — the pressure on House of the Dragon to pull off this battle is immense. Thankfully, the series more than delivers, with a sequence that had me yelling and pacing around my living room while also thinking, “We’re so back.”
Mashable Top Stories
A dazzling set piece involving ships, human soldiers, and multiple dragons, the Battle of the Gullet sets a new bar for Westerosi action. Every element is honed for maximum impact, from long takes of sailors boarding enemy ships to sweeping shots of dragons dive bombing the fleet. The battle, directed by Loni Peristere, wrings epic terror and awe from those big moments, but it also strikes gold in quieter moments, like a suspenseful boat chase that quickly becomes a stealth highlight of the episode.
Oh, and did I mention that this all takes place during the day, so you can make out every ounce of action taking place onscreen? For a franchise whose biggest battles have often been marred by darkness (looking at you, Battle of Winterfell), the Battle of the Gullet is a welcome adjustment. And, based on the first four episodes sent to critics for review, it’s only the beginning for House of the Dragon Season 3’s big action sequences.
House of the Dragon Season 3 pushes Rhaenyra to the brink.
Emma D’Arcy in “House of the Dragon.”
Credit: HBO
The Battle of the Gullet isn’t just an emphatic statement to open Season 3. It’s also a major turning point for the Dance of the Dragons, and for Rhaenyra in particular. All throughout House of the Dragon, she has balked at violence, worried at the havoc dragon warfare would wreak on the wider realm. By Season 3, though, Rhaenyra has lost so much to this conflict that she needs to do whatever she can to see it through. Only by taking the Iron Throne can she justify the pain she’s experienced. That means making impossible choices and committing to violence she once would have shunned, sometimes carrying it out with her own hands. As she does, House of the Dragon asks, even after all this, will victory be worth it?
It’s a haunting question, one that House of the Dragon teases out with tinges of psychological horror in the aftermath of the Battle of the Gullet. D’Arcy has always been magnificent as Rhaenyra, but here, they reach new heights with their raw portrayal of the queen’s grief and rage. Their trembling hands and wracking sobs were just as wrenching as some of the Battle of the Gullet’s most devastating moments, proving that House of the Dragon can match its biggest set pieces with pure human drama.
While the first half of House of the Dragon Season 3 manages to atone for Season 2’s ending, it still commits its share of familiar sins. Threats of sexual violence towards women abound unnecessarily in these episodes, a trend that harkens back to Game of Thrones‘ worst moments. (Although thankfully nothing here is nearly as graphic.) Elsewhere, several plot threads feel stagnant, with once major players like Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) getting so little to do they may as well be set dressing. Their decreased roles may wind up paying off down the road, though, just like the many, many changes the show makes from Fire and Blood. While the latter reportedly strained the relationship between Martin and showrunner Ryan Condal, these changes do muddy the Targaryens’ already very complicated relationships in intriguing ways, to the point that I’m more fascinated at how the writers came to these new arcs than mad at not getting a precise adaptation.
Despite the occasional low point and my misgivings following Season 2, House of the Dragon Season 3 flies high. Instead of spinning its wheels, it roars into the Targaryens’ bloody future with action and creeping dread to spare, and that assurance and forward momentum turns out to be exactly what the show needs.
Topics
HBO
House of the Dragon
Entertainment
The Best New Show Of The Year Is A Supernatural Comedy Horror On AppleTV
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
The 2026 television season has been a little lackluster so far when it comes to original, new series. The Boroughs was a fun binge on Netflix, Margo’s Got Money Troubles was a good comedy, but nothing can compare to the surprising success of Widow’s Bay on AppleTV. It’s a horror comedy, which might be the hardest combination of genres to pull off, that plays out like Twin Peaks meets Parks and Recreation. No show will leave you laughing so hard in one episode, before traumatizing you in the next.
Widow’s Bay Is The Most Original Show In Years
That odd mix of shows makes sense since Widow’s Bay was created by Katie Dippold, a writer for Parks and Recreation. The series takes place in the island town of Widow’s Bay in New England when Mayor Tom (Matthew Rhys) decides to boost tourism to the small community. The catch is that the community, primarily Wyck (Stephen Root) believes the island is cursed.
It’s not a spoiler to say that yes, yes it is cursed, and yes, there are real horrors at work on the island. That’s not surprising. What is surprising is the dry humor and Matthew Rhys’ perfect facial expressions, as the town’s residents will deliver the most absurd lines with a perfectly straight face. If you vibed with the humor of Parks and Recreation, you know what you’re getting into with the odd residents of Widow’s Bay, especially Kate O’Flynn as Tom’s assistant, Patricia. There’s a sequence with her involving a shotgun that is destined to be a social media hit for years to come, and one of those moments that you’ll think, “I’d do the same thing.”
Slapstick Comedy, Horror, And Amazing Sight Gags
Before starting your binge of the first season, avoid as many spoilers as you can. Widow’s Bay sets up mysteries early on with the chained church bell, the strange basement room, a rolling fogbank, and, while it’s not a supernatural mystery, how many Diet Cokes can Town Hall employee Dale consume? His desk is filled to the brim with cans. That can’t be healthy.
Keep your eyes peeled while watching Widow’s Bay as the production team was heavily influenced by The Simpsons usage of sight gags. Some are called out with blatant shots, others exist in the background of a conversation, but put together, they make the town of Widow’s Bay an absurdist version of Twin Peaks.
No one had supernatural slapstick down on their 2026 Bingo card, but here we are. While Netflix pulled the plug on The Boroughs, Widow’s Bay has already been confirmed for a second season, which is good considering the stakes-raising season finale ends by revealing a whole new layer to the mystery of the island. We have a long wait until Season 2 premieres, giving you plenty of time to watch the show of the Summer, and you can still convince your friends you were a fan of Widow’s Bay before it was cool. ]
Widow’s Bay Season 1 is now streaming on AppleTV.
Entertainment
Don’t pay $199 for Windows 11 Pro when it’s currently just $13
TL;DR: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro is down to just $12.97, giving users an easy OS upgrade with advanced security, productivity tools, gaming features, and Copilot AI.
Some upgrades just feel right. This is one of them.
If your PC has been running a little sluggish or you’ve been meaning to bring your system up to speed, Windows 11 Pro is just $12.97 (reg. $199) — a rare, time-sensitive offer that rewards quick, savvy decisions.
Mashable Deals
This isn’t about chasing trends; it’s more about giving your computer the modern foundation it deserves. Windows 11 Pro brings a sleeker UI, better multitasking, and enhanced security — all in a one-time lifetime license.
Think of it as the difference between driving a reliable car and suddenly upgrading to one with a smarter dashboard, smoother handling, and built-in security features.
For professionals, creators, and power users, this upgrade also unlocks features like Hyper-V, Windows Sandbox, BitLocker encryption, and seamless Azure AD integration — tools that make a real difference when you’re working across projects or managing sensitive data.
And yes, Windows 11 comes with Copilot, Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant that can summarize pages, change settings, or even help you generate code on the fly. It’s like having a co-pilot (literally) inside your OS.
Mashable Deals
But you don’t need convincing — you already know a smart upgrade when you see one. Get Windows 11 Pro for just $12.97 (reg. $199).
StackSocial prices subject to change.
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