Revisiting Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.” after 40 years…

40 Years Ago. When I was not-quite 11 years old, one of the most awe-inspiring movies I’d ever seen was Steven Spielberg’s brilliant “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”(1977). “Close Encounters” was life-changing, and propelled my current never-ending curiosity about the universe. Five years later, in 1982, I was a somewhat more cynical 15 years…

AppleTV’s “For All Mankind” kicks off Season 3 with “Polaris,” a high-octane disaster movie in space…

*****SPACE STATION-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** Right upfront; “For All Mankind,” co-created and produced by Ronald D. Moore (“Deep Space Nine” the “Battlestar Galactica” reboot) is my favorite science fiction series going on right now. Yes, it has strong competition (“Severance,” “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”)–this is a great time to be a sci-fi TV fan–but for overall…

AppleTV’s “Severance” hits you where you live…and where you work.

******SPOILERS!****** When I first heard of AppleTV’s new workplace series “Severance,” my TV tastebuds were more prepared for a comedy sci-fi twist on Mike Judge’s “Office Space,” or “The Office.” I knew the premise involved a company that incorporated technology and brain surgery to bifurcate the brains of its employees into separate beings; one who…

The Orville: New Horizons, S3.1; “Electric Sheep” eschews humor for heavy…

*****SPOILERS AND WARNINGS FOR POSSIBLE SUICIDE TRIGGERS***** The Orville: New Horizons. It’s been three years since we last saw “The Orville” on Hulu. During the interim, there was (and is) the ongoing COVID pandemic, which halted production on producer/writer/star Seth MacFarlane‘s sci-fi space opera series, which was first introduced in 2017 as a lighter, more…