Television has always been the pulse of popular culture—a mirror that flickers, distorts, and occasionally tells the truth. In this section, we explore both the present and the past of the medium: the streaming epics redefining narrative form, the limited series that blur the line between cinema and television, and the classic shows whose shadows still linger across the dial. Each review or essay looks beyond the screen toward what these stories reveal about who we are and what we watch for. From the glow of the cathode ray to the glow of the tablet, Television considers how the small screen continues to tell our biggest stories.

STREAMING: The Crash: Tragedy, Obsession, and a Netflix Documentary That Refuses to Look Away

Some true-crime documentaries fascinate viewers, while others leave them unsettled. Netflix's The Crash is definitely in the latter group. Directed by Gareth Johnson, this 94-minute film looks back at one of the most shocking criminal cases in recent years: the 2022 deaths of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan. Both were killed when seventeen-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla crashed her Toyota Camry into a brick building in Strongsville, Ohio, at almost 100 miles per hour. At first, it seemed like a tragic accident, but investigators soon found something more disturbing. There was no sign that Shirilla tried to brake before the crash. She was later convicted of murder and aggravated vehicular homicide, receiving two concurrent prison sentences of fifteen years to life.

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STREAMING: The Smile Behind the Sadness: Marty, Life Is Short Finds the Heart of Martin Short

Some performers become so familiar that we forget how unique they actually are. Martin Short is a perfect example. For almost fifty years, he has bounced between television, film, Broadway, sketch comedy, talk shows, and awards ceremonies with nonstop energy. His characters are often over-the-top, theatrical, and intentionally silly. Yet, underneath all the comedy, there is always something surprisingly moving. That mix is at the heart of Marty, Life Is Short, Netflix’s warm new documentary directed by Lawrence Kasdan.

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Laughing Through a Century: Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man

For only a handful of entertainers can their biography feel so synonymous with the century that gave rise to them. Mel Brooks may be one of those entertainers. Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man, the wide-ranging two-part documentary from directors Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio exists not only as a career-spanning retrospective but as a time capsule of sorts; one fortunate to catch its subject with the quickness still in his step and his comedic wit fully intact, anxiously aware of his fortune at having lived this long. Streaming on HBO Max, the film chronicles Brooks’s life from his Brooklyn childhood in 1926 to the edge of his hundredth birthday, which he reaches at the end of June, and does so with a mix of reverence, invention, and affectionate chaos that feels wholly appropriate.

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A Deeper Dive: “Sora Not Sorry” Proves That Even South Park Is Not Safe from the AI Era

When the creators of South Park—Trey Parker and Matt Stone—announce they’re tackling generative AI and deepfakes, you already know things are going to get messy. In Season 28’s Episode 3, titled “Sora Not Sorry”, the show delivers its most unhinged, up-to-the-minute commentary yet, weaving together revenge porn, political sex scandals, and the collapse of trust in digital media. The result is equal parts hilarious, gross, and strangely urgent. 

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Ozzy: No Escape from Now

The Prince of Darkness shuffles into the final chapter of Ozzy: No Escape from Now. He’s sporting one of the many black hats the camera never tires of capturing, and the exit tunnel is too long to care about a closer shot. There are no fireworks on which to close this surprisingly intimate doc, just the slow-motion, death-defying plummet of the legend we thought would live forever.

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Monster: The Ed Gein Story

Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series Monster: The Ed Gein Story, a show that attempts to “look into the disturbed mind of one of America’s most vicious killers,” often does the opposite and get lost in its own mythology. 

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