mailbag
December mailbag!
This month: Rob Reiner favorites, new Oscar categories, and holiday stories crying out for the Rankin-Bass treatment.
Lily Osler
Writer, Trekkie, incompetent knitter. Managing Editor at Episodes.
winter
Always winter, never Christmas: 21 snowy entertainments without a Santa in sight
Celebrate winter - and NOTHING ELSE - with our list of recommendations.
rundown
Episodes Monday Rundown December 8–14 2025
This week: Pluribus and the trauma plot, Disney and the YA-ification of everything, and 1985's strangest Christmas movie.
mailbag
Submit your December mailbag questions!
It's that time again!
rundown
Episodes Monday Rundown December 1–7 2025
This week: a somewhat lopsided Joachim Trier fan club meeting, a messy and interesting novel, and a nice helping of Christmas melancholy.
stranger things
Will Byers, queer power fantasies, and me
If it really wants to pull off its latest twist, Stranger Things needs to remember what keeps its characters grounded, writes Lily Osler.
rundown
Episodes Monday Rundown November 24–30 2025
This week: holiday classics, webs of lies, and a game designed to irritate your friends and loved ones.
open thread
What's the best movie from the year you were born?
Discuss amongst yourselves! (And/or, read our answers below.)
rundown
Episodes Monday Rundown November 17–23 2025
In this week's Monday Rundown: summer blockbusters, feel-bad Bible cinema, and a cake.
mailbag
November mailbag!
This month: Food! So many questions about food! Also, the Criterion Closet, stage plays, and Pluribus.
rundown
Episodes Monday Rundown November 10–16 2025
This week: a better-late-than-never binge watch, Emily's favorite romance author, and two plays of wildly varying quality.
frankenstein
On Gothic sincerity and del Toro's Frankenstein
Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein wears its themes on its sleeve. Lily Osler writes on how that works – and how it doesn't.