Category Archives: Blog

There’s nothing like a good Saturday Night Live earworm, especially when it’s Pete Davidson (and his uncanny lookalike Rami Malek) doing the singing.

This absolute winner of a musical comedy sketch finds Davidson and Malek crooning a heartfelt country number about loss, desperation, and a homicidal game show popularized by Netflix. Yup, it’s time for the inevitable marriage of classic country music tropes and… Squid Game?

It works. It works so well! You’ll be humming this tune in your head long after the sketch is over. And probably firing up the old Netflix app to find out just how much of the over-the-top bloodletting seen here is a reflection of the actual series. (All of it. This is Squid Game.)

Grab your magnifying glass and get ready to investigate as Mashable uncovers Big/Little Mysteries.

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Who doesn’t like a good fictional detective? The genre, which sprang out of nowhere in the 19th century, has become arguably our most enduringly popular over the last 120 years. Sherlock Holmes spawned armies of imitators, many with quirks as curious as his coke habit. The amateur sleuth begat the PI, the superhero detective, and more police inspectors, pathologists and lieutenants than you can shake a rumpled trenchcoat at.

Personally, my tolerance for detective fiction is limited. I can take a story or an episode at a time — but in a binge watch or binge read, the unreality of endless mysteries leaves me cold. How many murders are taking place in this sleepy town? What grim dystopia is this, with crime rates far higher than our real-world average? Why we love paranoia-inducing stories about nice people turning out to be stone-cold killers: this itself is a mystery.

But hey, since we’re apparently never going to lose the cultural obsession, why not lean in and celebrate the bload-soaked ridiculousness of it all? What follows is a kind of fictional detective Olympics. Here we award medals to the meddling kids and other gumshoes who achieved the most unrealistic superlatives: worked for the most decades, solved the most cases, found themselves dealing with the most inexplicably large body count over their inexplicably long careers.

Using the little grey cells

We examined dozens of beloved and historically important detectives from TV, movies, books and comics over the last 180 years. Our definition of detective: a main character who investigates crimes. Yes, Batman fans, this includes the superhero who got his start in Detective Comics and styles himself the “world’s greatest detective;” whether his Olympic performance lives up to the hype remains to be seen.

Where a detective is popular in multiple media, which is pretty much all of the heavy hitters, we’ve entered the version with the most stories or episodes into consideration. (For example, Agatha Christie wrote 88 novels, plays and short stories featuring Hercules Poirot, which beats the 77 episodes of the Poirot TV show.)

But let’s begin at the beginning, with a winner you’ve probably never heard about.

The first detectives

Gold medal: C. Auguste Dupin (1841). Silver: Sherlock Holmes (1880). Bronze: Father Brown (1910).

Sorry, Sherlockians. Arthur Conan Doyle may have created the best-known detective in history (with 60 stories and novels to his name, plus dozens of TV adaptations and movies), but an American author got there first.

Edgar Allan Poe wrote his short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” in 1841, in which a Frenchman named C. Auguste Dupin methodically solves the grisly killings of a mother and daughter in a room that was locked from the inside. That plot isn’t the only element that sounds like it was ripped from today’s crime dramas: there are also clueless police officers, a wrongful arrest, and a twist ending. (Spoiler alert: An orangutan did it.)

These days, Poe’s pilot would have networks scrambling to pick it up for a full season. As it was, he penned just two more Dupin tales before he died. But the stories influenced Conan Doyle, as well as fellow Victorian author G.K. Chesterton, who created the crime-solving Catholic priest Father Brown (53 stories, expanded to 80 by a BBC adaptation in 2012).

Honorable mention: Shout-out to Cadfael, a murder-solving monk from the 12th century. He’s far from the first in our world (Historian Edith Pargeter, writing as Ellis Peters, created him in 1977). But he is first in the fictional timeline of detectives, beating Friar William of Baskerville (played by Sean Connery in The Name of the Rose) by all of two centuries.

Longest detective careers, immortal character category

Gold medal: Frank & Joe Hardy (94 years). Silver: Nancy Drew (91 years). Bronze: Dick Tracy (90 years).

Here’s the first event where you might expect Batman, created 82 years ago and still not looking a day over 30, to romp to victory. Bad news, Bats: There are four detectives as ageless as you, who started life before you did, and have also been solving crimes constantly ever since. Some small consolation for Bruce Wayne: he comes in fourth rather than fifth, because two of the characters ahead of him are effectively joined at the hip.

We speak of course of the Hardy Boys, those forever adolescent sleuths from the fictional town of Bayport. Their multiple book series’ began in 1927, and haven’t slowed down since; even in the 21st century, Hardy Boys adventures sell more than a million copies a year. Nancy Drew was created by the same publisher in 1930, and has also starred in endless books, some of them co-starring her elder crime-fighting brethren. But Nancy was no mere knock-off. She went on to appear in more TV and movie adaptations than the relatively bland brothers, and became far more of a cultural icon.

And then there’s Dick Tracy, the daily comic strip character created by Chester Gould in 1931. One of the earliest fictional police detectives, Tracy was created as an homage to real-life Chicago investigator Eliot Ness. But he soon became known for his array of crime-fighting technology, years before Batman arrived on the scene. And as if to rub it in the Caped Crusader’s face, Tracy’s most famous gadget actually anticipated the future. That two-way wristwatch radio is very Apple Watch.

Longest detective careers, mortal category

Gold medal: Hercules Poirot (59 years). Silver: Sherlock Holmes (34 years). Tied for bronze: Philip Marlowe and Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins (29 years).

Sometimes, fictional detectives actually grow old and die — even when their age stretches beyond the bounds of reason.

Case in point: Hercules Poirot. Agatha Christie’s fastidious Belgian investigator first appeared in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, published in 1920 but set in 1916. A World War I refugee, Poirot was already supposed to be retired at this point. But he went on to assist the British police (and to solve murders whenever he went on vacation, on the Orient Express, on the Nile) for decades in real time until the publication of Curtain in 1975, where Christie finally killed off the detective she’d come to loath. “What a mistake I made there,” the author said of Poirot’s first retirement, admitting that it made him well over 100 years old at his death.

At least Christie wasn’t forced to bring her creation back. That was famously the fate of Conan Doyle, who bowed to public pressure and brought Sherlock Holmes back after sending him to his apparent death at Reichenbach Falls in 1893. Holmes would go on to investigate cases through His Last Bow, a series of stories set during his retirement. Though we never see Holmes’ actual death, His Last Bow ends in 1914.

We also never saw the ends of our bronze medalist book detectives, Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe and Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins. Mosley, at least, is still alive, and once suggested he’d bring Rawlins’ story (which so far covers 1939 through 1968) closer to the present day. If he does, Rawlins — America’s most famous African American detective — could slide past Marlowe in the longevity stakes, moving up to challenge the most famous detective of all.

Honorable mentions: On the television side of detective life, we must give shout-outs to Olivia Benson and John Munch. The two stars of the Law & Order franchise have recently become the longest-lasting prime-time TV characters of all time. Benson wins, with an astonishing 505 episodes to her credit since she first hit our screens in 1999.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore-based Munch (370 episodes) has the distinction of appearing in more series than any other detective ever. He began in Homicide in 1993, and now you can catch him in shows as varied as The Wire, X-Files and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Most murders, big city category

Gold medal: Dexter Morgan (138). Silver: Lt. Frank Columbo (92). Bronze: Adrian Monk (82).

Again, Batman should romp to victory in this category. He’s been around for roughly 2,500 issues in various comic book titles; even if the average is way less than one murder per issue, there must have been many hundreds of killings coming to the Dark Knight’s attention in Gotham during all that time.

But any judge of a fictional detective Olympics will run into a couple of problems here. The first is that Batman has been rebooted enough times in the comics (in 1956, 1986 and 2011, we literally started following alternate universe Bruce Waynes) that you’re not sure which Batman we’re dealing with. The second is that no reader, to our knowledge, has ever take on the daunting task of reading every Batman comic and counting the number of murders.

The same holds true for Batman rival Dick Tracy and his decades of appearances. So until a comics nerd can come forward and give us definitive body counts, we are reluctantly forced to disqualify them both.

In their absence, the gold medal goes to a vigilante detective who’s actually creating the body count himself: Dexter. (The character is about to return to Showtime, so expect this number to climb.) Columbo racked up an impressive 92 murders solved in his decade on screen, and Monk comes in third with 82. Though given that Monk had less time on TV (7 years) and lived in San Francisco, which is smaller than Columbo’s LA or Dexter’s Miami, you could say Monk has solved the most city murders per capita.

But, uh, just one more thing. Neither of them hold a candle to the most blood-soaked TV detective of all time, a resident of the tiny fictional Maine town of Cabot Cove.

Most murders, small town category

Gold medal: Jessica Fletcher (274). Silver: Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby (210). Bronze: Father Brown (71).

Step forward to receive your medal, Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), star of Murder She Wrote. In fact, we could easily give her two gold medals. The 274 slayings she solved over 268 episodes isn’t just a TV record. It’s also a per capita record. Cabot Cove has a mere 3,500 residents, which according to one calculation, gives it a murder rate more than twice that of the most murderous countries in the world.

Solving this many murders in a small town likely puts Fletcher ahead of any other detective in the world, living or dead, real or fictional. She has a good claim to be the world’s greatest murder detective. Which begs an unsolved mystery that was occasionally, briefly referenced in the show: how come all these murderers tend to congregate around Fletcher, anyway?

As for the unknown Batman and Dick Tracy murder numbers: Gotham is said to have 10 million residents, and Chicago has nearly 3 million, so even thousands of deaths over those series’ would not make their locations as deadly per year as Cabot Cove, 1984-2003.

The silver medal goes to the star of Midsomer Murders, a UK show little known in the U.S. outside of hardcore PBS viewers. Technically, it has starred two consecutive detectives — but since Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby’s successor was Detective Chief Inspector John Barnaby, his cousin, we’re going to give them a Hardy Boys-style pass. Midsomer has been on TV for 24 years and still going strong, which should give the Barnaby boys time to catch up to Fletcher’s total body count.

Midsomer is a fictional county roughly the size of Oxfordshire. Which, as we saw in the multiple Inspector Morse series, was pretty murdery in itself. Again, Morse is mostly known to the PBS crowd — but as a student in Oxford during the years he was most active on British TV, I can confirm that there are not that many Oxford professors mysteriously falling from bell towers. Midsomer was clocked at murder rates three times higher than the Oxfordshire average.

Ultimately, the case of Cabot Cove and Midsomer‘s 2.6 murders per episode are prime examples of the strange inversion of detective fiction: the more charmingly rural a location, the more likely it is to kill you. This is why, if you ever enter the alternate universe of murder mysteries and get invited to a country estate for the weekend, you should run as far away as possible.

Team event

Gold medal: Los Angeles. Silver: New York City. Tied for bronze: London, San Francisco and Miami.

It wouldn’t be an Olympics without the opportunity for team sports. When applied to detective fiction, this raises the question: Which city has the largest number of famous fictional detectives?

There’s no question about the answer: It’s Los Angeles, home of the hardboiled. Columbo, Marlowe and Rawlins all ply their trade in the city of angels, as do Perry Mason, Jim Rockford (The Rockford Files) and Alex Delaware (hero of the Jonathan Kellerman novels). New York City can be proud of its strong showing too, with Olivia Benson and fellow Law & Order franchise star Robert Goren leading the charge alongside other famous fictional detectives like Jessica Jones.

London (Holmes, Poirot), Miami (Dexter, Crockett & Tubbs) and San Francisco (Sam Spade, Adrian Monk) had two famous fictional detectives each in our list, so we’re giving them all bronze medals. Each location could make the argument that they deserve more detectives included, but let’s leave that debate to the next fictional detective Olympics.

In the meantime, let’s give a special global Olympics commendation to Mma Precious Ramotswe of Botswana, star of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series over the last 23 years. She’s the hardest-working detective who doesn’t work the mean streets of the U.S. or Europe. And sure, let’s give a shout-out to that one lonely contender waving the flag for somewhere called Gotham City. He really did try his hardest.

Another week, another case of the National Football League stumbling over attempts to explain and address the deep-rooted bigotry of one of its top names.

By now, most of us know that former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden is out of a job because he couldn’t keep his hateful opinions on women referees, gay players, and racial justice protests to himself. It’s been headline news all week. That’s what led Saturday Night Live to ditch some rather obvious political targets in favor of a cutting takedown of the NFL for its latest cold open.

While the chaos of this mock press conference is littered with reminders of the NFL’s “we’ll deal with it when it’s news” strategy for addressing the toxic leadership issues of individual teams, the inevitable appearance of Colin Kaepernick (Chris Redd) is the sharpest because of the brutal contrast it draws.

Here was a talented young quarterback who got pushed out of a career in sports when he used his very public platform to say something meaningful about racial injustice in the United States. All while management dipshits like Gruden — don’t fool yourself into thinking he’s alone here — snickered behind Kaepernick’s back as the NFL held a torch to his career in pro football.

Like shopping for any used car, you’ll want to check an electric vehicle’s crash and repair history, along with the odometer. But the most important thing to know before buying an EV: the state of its battery.

“The main problem is not knowing battery health,” said Recurrent CEO Scott Case. The company provides battery reports, kind of like a Carfax for electric vehicles.

Used car sales hit record highs this year, propelling the average cost of a used car to over $25,000. That’s almost 30 percent higher than the 2020 average.

Looking at zero-emission options, used car platform Vroom found the most popular makes and models based on its buying data. The Nissan Leaf, BMW i3, and Tesla Model S are at the top of the list. Here’s the top 10 with the average selling price:

1. Nissan Leaf ($13,541)

2. BMW i3 ($21,000)

3. Tesla Model S ($48,000)

4. Chevrolet Bolt EV ($22,500)

5. Tesla Model 3 ($42,000)

6. Fiat 500e ($9,200)

7. Volkswagen e-Golf ($15,000)

8. Tesla Model X ($71,000)

9. Chevrolet Spark EV ($10,100)

10. Kia Soul EV ($14,000)

This list also shows how young the used EV market is. The Leaf first came out in 2010 with under 75 miles of range. The BMW i3, the company’s first EV, came out in 2013. Tesla released its first car in 2008.

But it can feel like “you have to have a Ph.D. in statistics” to understand if you’re getting a good deal or buying a car about to plummet in range, Case said.

Here are some tips so you won’t regret buying a used electric vehicle.

1. Do a battery and range check

When buying a gas-powered used car, you probably first check the odometer. But when it comes to EVs, the battery is most important. And a battery’s health isn’t always reflected in the number of miles driven. An EV with high range could have been overcharged or kept in a cold climate. So even a car with a low odometer reading could have dismal range.

Recurrent, the battery analysis tool, helps uncover the mysteries hidden within the power train. The company provides free reports for the following cars as of mid October:

• Tesla Model 3

• Tesla Model Y

• Tesla Model S

• Tesla Model X

• BMW i3

• VW e-Golf

• Nissan LEAF

Head to the “Shoppers” tab on the Recurrent website. Once you’ve set up a free account, you can plug in the VIN or license plate info of the car you’re looking into buying.

The website will ask you to use your phone to take photos of the dashboard while the car is in eco-mode with all the heaters and AC options off. You’ll send in photos of the battery percent listed, range estimate, and odometer reading from the dash. Then Recurrent puts together and sends you a report.

2. Consider where you’ll be driving

Weather and climate can affect your battery performance. If your car is going to be in a super cold or hot place, that’s going to shorten its battery life.

If you need a certain amount of range and you live in Minnesota, you need to make sure the EV’s range won’t drop too low when the mercury drops.

3. Think ahead

With Recurrent’s tool, you get a projection of how your battery will fare for the next three years. If it looks like the range will drop too low for your commute, it’s probably not a good fit.

If you’re considering an older EV for the immediate savings, think about what it’ll be like to constantly charge when the range plummets in the coming years.

If you’re inheriting an old battery, you’ll likely need a new one when the car hits the 10-year mark. It’ll cost at least $10,000 for the battery itself, but you’ll need to pay for service and labor. You can set up a battery replacement through the manufacturer (like Tesla or Nissan) or work with a repair shop that does battery swaps. Ideally, to make things easier, the service center would also be able to sell you a new battery.

4. Consider resale value

Look through buying guides.

Recurrent compiles data from almost 6,000 EVs across the country, with information on how much most models usually sell for. Its guides could give you a good sense of how much that Chevy Bolt will be worth after a few years.

5. Shop at specialty dealers

Throughout the country (well, more so in EV-friendly states like California and New York) there are dealerships that specialize in EVs. You’ll get more information about battery stats, charging recommendations, and general EV expertise compared to traditional dealerships.

The most popular states this year (so far) for EV purchases are Texas, California, Illinois, Florida, and New York, according data from automotive marketplace ACV.

Recurrent works with 25 EV dealers, such as Green Eyed Motors in Colorado, that provide a battery report for free. (The dealership pays for a Recurrent subscription, not the shopper.)

Veloz has a search tool to find an EV dealer near you as part of its “Electric for All” campaign.

6. Dig up everything

If you’re buying an EV through a friend or individual sale, try to get as much info about the car’s life as possible. Was it charged daily, putting a strain on the battery? Or was it only charged weekly?

Did it spend winters in upstate New York or summers in Phoenix, where the battery was exposed to extreme temperatures? Was it part of a recall, like the Chevy Bolt?

You’ll want to know it all, so ask questions even if it seems mundane. It’ll help you paint a picture of the car’s battery health.

7. Compare to other EVs

Tesla’s used car site doesn’t provide a lot of details on the car you’re about to buy. You can see how many miles are on the odometer, if it had previous repairs, and what model year it is.

But for this 2016 Model S, which is selling for $76,000, the estimated range is still 315 miles. That’s the range listed when it was new. Five years later, the battery has at least somewhat degraded — but that’s not noted on the listing.

“Transparency reduces that uncertainty,” Case said.

So you’ll want to compare it to similar Teslas in similar conditions to get a sense of how its battery has aged.

8. Check the warranty

Most EVs offer a battery warranty that covers at minimum eight years or 100,000 miles. If you find a “younger” EV still under warranty, you could potentially get a replacement battery in your pre-owned ride.

But the battery would have to be degraded enough to qualify for a replacement — in most cases, down to around 70 percent of its original range. Let’s say you start with 300 miles of range, but it drops to 200 miles within the first eight years. In that case, you could get a new battery for free. California is considering a measure to raise that threshold to 80 percent, which could increase the number of people eligible for new batteries.

In a year of regular EV use, you should only lose about 1 to 2 percent of the original charge levels.

9. Wait it out

Each year, more EVs are entering the market. Already there are 70 models available in California, the most EV-friendly state. In 2022, another batch of EVs will be available. While you might not want to throw down more than $60,000 for the new Cadillac Lyriq, within a year or two, those new cars will make it onto used car lots and e-marketplaces.

That’s partly why Recurrent’s Case said he created the free battery reports last year. “The new prices on some of these cars are crazy,” he said. “Now middle- and lower-income [drivers] can actually buy something and take advantage of the fuel cost and environmental benefits.”

To the average web surfer, all the technical jargon around VPNs can get pretty overwhelming. Thankfully, understanding how you connect to the internet and how VPNs work is easier than you might think. Read on to learn what your IP address is and how you can hide it using a VPN.

IP addresses explained

You could go your entire internet life without ever thinking or even knowing about your Internet Protocol (IP) address. That’s because it hangs out in the background with layers of technology on top of it to make the whole web browsing experience more user-friendly.

At any given time you aren’t actually connected directly to the internet. You connect to a network — often a home or office, or sometimes a public network like in a coffee shop — that’s connected to the internet via an internet service provider (ISP).

Most of the time, you connect to the network through a router, which is responsible for assigning private IP addresses to every device on the network.

This helps it route data between devices so the right content is delivered to the right place. The IP address that websites “see” is the public IP address, which is assigned by your ISP and acts as a unique identifier for your entire network. That public IP address contains information such as the ISP it belongs to and the general location of the server you’re connected to, which could be a city or zip code.

What all this means is that when you talk about hiding your IP address, you’re effectively trying to hide the network you’re connected to and all the information attached to it.

So how do I hide my IP address?

Hiding your IP address is shockingly simple: Use a VPN, or virtual private network.

When you connect to a VPN, you send encrypted requests that your ISP forwards to one of your VPN’s servers that will deliver them to their final destination. During this process, the VPN masks your public IP address behind its own so that when your requests arrive, they look like they’re coming from that server instead of from your network.

See Also: We tested popular VPNs to see which was fastest. Here’s what we found.

This is good news if you’re looking to access geo-restricted content; just connect to a server in the region you need to be in, and you’re good to go.

What about hiding my VPN IP address?

Some websites try to block access through VPNs by logging IP addresses known to belong to VPN servers.

If you’ve ever gotten a message like this, you know what I’m talking about.

This might lead you to think you should hide your VPN’s IP address as well, but that isn’t really the answer. Web traffic has to have an IP address connected to it, and traffic that flows through a VPN is no exception.

If you find that the IP address of a particular server is blocked by a website you’re trying to reach, your best options are to choose a different server or try a different VPN service.

It happens. You dump a load of laundry in the washer, and your AirPods are tucked into the pocket of your favorite pants. Or you’re sitting on the toilet, and you know what happens next.

Electronics meet water, triggering a frantic search for a way to dry them off. Can they be saved? Maybe. Here’s what you can do if your AirPods get wet.

But wait…there are a few important things to clarify first.

Are AirPods actually waterproof?

In a word, no. No version of AirPods — standard AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max — are waterproof. Charging cases and Smart Cases are not waterproof, either.

Are AirPods water resistant?

It’s a no for the standard AirPods, the AirPods Max, charging cases, and the Smart Case. But there’s a bit of good news for AirPods Pro owners: They are sweat and water resistant, boasting an IPX4 water-resistant rating. That means that AirPods Pro hold up if they get splashed with water from any direction or wet from sweat. But you should know that their water resistance wanes over time. Normal wear can decrease the water resistance of the AirPods Pros.

See Also: The best smart speakers: See where the Amazon Echo Dot, others rank

OK, so, how do you dry off AirPods?

If your AirPods do get wet, it may be possible to salvage them. As soon as you can, use a soft, dry, lint-free cloth, such as a microfiber cloth, to dry them off. Then, place them in a safe spot to dry. Depending on how wet they were, it might take a day or longer for them to fully dry out. Cases dry best when the lid is open and they are stored upside down.

Before using your AirPods again or storing them away in their charging case, they must be completely dry, Apple warns. Putting wet AirPods into a charging case could cause further damage to the case itself.

Can I dry my AirPods with a hair dryer?

Don’t try to speed up the process with a hair dryer or other heat source; the heat could cause more harm to your AirPods.

What can I do if my AirPods don’t work after drying them off?

Some AirPods users claim success using rice or desiccant, in the form of silica gel packets, to suck out any moisture. Silica gel packets are those little packets that say, “Do Not Eat” and are typically found in shoe boxes, vitamin containers, and packaged with electronics to ward off moisture build up. To try to dry your AirPods off in this way, place them in a container with the packets. If you use rice as an alternative, wrap the AirPods in paper towels so an individual grain doesn’t get stuck in the device. Again, it may take a day or more for them to dry out completely.

When should I give up trying to dry my AirPods off?

If they no longer connect to your device or sound off after a couple of days, it’s probably time to call it quits and get a new pair.

Sometimes you need a chill down your spine to shake off the doldrums and know you’re alive.

Thrillers are a perfect pairing for this craving. Such suspense-rich movies give us a first-class ticket to journeys wild, winding, and exciting. They allow us to live vicariously through reckless thieves, smirking vigilantes, and brave tough guys who never shrink from a fray. If you’re on the search for cinema that will rattle your nerves and leave you breathless, we’ve got just the thing. Whether you want some new or old, fun or frightening, mind-bending or heart-warming, there’s a perfect pick just for you.

Here are the 10 best thrillers now available on HBO Max.

1. M

“M” is the mark of a murderer in this unnerving Fritz Lang classic, which boasts layers of sinister thrills. Released in 1931, this German gem explored the terrors of “stranger danger” way ahead of its time by tracking the crimes of a sneaky child killer. Rather than show kids slaughtered onscreen, Lang employed German Expressionism to imply carnage, thus turning an abandoned balloon into a horrific image. Suspense is wrought not only from the threat that this merciless murderer will strike again, but also from a raging mob’s mounting quest for vigilante justice. With wide eyes and an unsettling screen presence, Peter Lorre made his mark with this role of a revolting fiend.

How to watch: M is now streaming on HBO Max.

2. Twelve Monkeys

Like some sci-fi with your thrills? Then, dive into director Terry Gilliam’s 1995 tale of madness, plague, and love. Bruce Willis stars as a prisoner who time-travels from a dystopian future to a doomed past, searching for the source of a virus that wiped out much of humanity. Nothing goes right on these ramshackle missions. So, our befuddled hero desperately seeks help from a bombastic mental patient (an Academy Award-nominated Brad Pitt) and a skeptical yet alluring psychiatrist (Madeleine Stowe). Combatting confounding clues, a shattered psyche, and a yearning to stay in this sun-dappled past, can he save the future before time runs out?

How to watch: Twelve Monkeys is now streaming on HBO Max.

3. North by Northwest

Among Alfred Hitchcock’s most successful and iconic films, this 1959 thriller stars Cary Grant as a Madison Ave ad exec (yep, he’s a Mad Men), whose life is derailed when he’s mistaken for a secret agent. You might recognize the scene where the dapper Grant is chased down in a field by a cropduster airplane. But there’s much, much more to this chilling mistaken identity story, including a spine-tingling climax at a national landmark. The plot’s treacherous turns earned screenwriter Ernest Lehman an Oscar nod for Best Original Screenplay. The swaggering charm of Grant and his enchanting co-star Eva Marie Saint helped make this film a big hit. All these decades later, it’s still a stunner.

How to watch: North by Northwest is now streaming on HBO Max.

4. Stoker

South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook earned global acclaim for his jaw-dropping Vengence Trilogy, made up of three sensational thrillers: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Lady Vengeance (2005). In his English-language debut in 2013, he brought together an all-star cast for another deliciously devilish tale of twisted love and violence. Following the death of her father, introverted India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) becomes fascinated with her long-estranged uncle (Matthew Goode), which rankles her jealous mother (Nicole Kidman). As their taboo bond grows, terrible family secrets are unearthed, leading to a shocking climax. Wentworth Miller’s sharp screenplay has a diabolical wit that urges dark laughs amid the horror, while Chan-Wook’s gothic aesthetic transforms a brutal world into something hauntingly beautiful.

How to watch: Stoker is now streaming on HBO Max.

5. Dog Day Afternoon

No bank robbery movie can compare to Sidney Lumet’s 1975 classic. Based on outrageous real events, Dog Day Afternoon stars Al Pacino as Sonny Wortzik, a neurotic thief who gets in way over his head when he takes a bunch of hostages in a Brooklyn stick-up. The Academy Award-winning screenplay by Frank Pierson ushers audiences into the vault, behind the police barricades, and into the cramped apartments of Sonny’s family, unfurling a complicated but compelling portrait of a contemporary American folk hero. Pacino’s frantic energy and chaotic charisma have us rooting for Sonny, whether he’s mocking the cops, playing to the gawking crowd, or bickering with his distraught mother. The tension is nail-biting. But what makes this film spectacular is the deeply engrained comedy that’s born from the quirky characters, who cuss, clamor, and crack-wise like born-and-raised New Yorkers do.

How to watch: Dog Day Afternoon is now streaming on HBO Max.

6. Promising Young Woman

With this 2020 release, writer/director Emerald Fennell flips the script on vigilante-centered thrillers, giving audiences a freshly exhilarating and deeply unnerving tale of vengeance. Academy Award-nominee Carey Mulligan stars as the titular anti-heroine, who stalks bars and nightclubs in search of self-proclaimed “nice guys” who are up to no good. Far from a straightforward narrative of eye-for-an-eye, Fennell’s Oscar-winning screenplay delves into a murky moral grey area, exploring complicity in rape culture with a series of harrowing turns. Candy-colored and spiced up with a badass soundtrack, this celebrated yet controversial movie gives a difficult subject a glossy coating that’s meant to entrance, then crumble and crush you.

How to watch: Promising Young Woman is now streaming on HBO Max.

7. The Bodyguard

It was the 1992 smash hit heard ‘round the world. Whitney Houston starred as an ultra-famous singer/actress, whose life is being threatened by an anonymous stalker. Kevin Costner co-stars as the titular bodyguard, who has a history in the Secret Service and a hard rule about not getting too close to his clients. However, once he protectively sweeps her away from danger and up in his big strong arms, romance is inevitable and — thanks to the chemistry of its stars — absolutely intoxicating. Mick Jackson directs this romance-laced thriller, which was not only a box office smash but also boasted Houston’s iconic rendition of “I Will Always Love You.”

How to watch: The Bodyguard is now streaming on HBO Max.

8. Argo

Ben Affleck pulls double-duty, serving as director and leading man of this heralded historical thriller from 2012. Inspired by a stranger-than-fiction CIA scheme, Argo follows an imaginative agent (Affleck), who goes undercover as a sci-fi movie producer, so he might rescue Americans from the Iran hostage crisis of 1979. To make the ruse work, he must collaborate with some real Hollywood types, including a snarky make-up artist (John Goodman) and a surly producer (Alan Arkin), both of whom bring spunk and levity to an otherwise pulse-poundingly tense scenario. Critics cheered Affleck’s riveting balance of drama, suspense, and cheeky Hollywood ribbing, and the Academy followed suit, awarding Argo three Oscars, including Best Picture.

How to watch: Argo is now streaming on HBO Max.

9. The Maltese Falcon

Like many a great film noir, this 1941 thriller begins with a hardnosed detective (Humphrey Bogart) and a gorgeous dame in distress (Mary Astor). Based on Dashiell Hammett’s novel, The Maltese Falcon follows private investigator Sam Spade as he seeks not only to solve the mystery of who murdered his business partner, but also the whereabouts of the titular — and hotly sought — statuette. Along the way, he’ll meet suspicious characters, uncover horrid clues, and tango with a femme fatale as dazzling as she is deceitful. Crackling with biting banter, shocking reveals, and old-fashioned star power, John Huston’s directorial debut still hits harder than a shot of whiskey.

How to watch: The Maltese Falcon is now streaming on HBO Max.

10. Fear

Plenty of thrillers center on the male fear of female sexuality, featuring a femme fatale and her deadly allure that can drive men to ruin. Director James Foley turned the tables on this trope with his 1996 offering. Mark Walhberg stars as a sexy but volatile hunk, who falls hard for a teen girl (Reese Witherspoon) and won’t let her go. The fear of the film comes from her father (William Peterson), who worries this guy is up to no good. Yet dear old dad is impotent in his attempts to keep the young lovers apart. While the fear of female sexuality lurks in a father’s anxieties about losing his daughter to finding a romantic partner, Foley invites audiences into the girl’s perspective by harnessing the Female Gaze on Walhberg and providing a sometimes swooning soundtrack (cue “Wild Horses”). The allure of this bad boy is so profound that many a fan still recalls a certain rollercoaster scene with a shudder of excitement.

How to watch: Fear is now streaming on HBO Max.

It’s been just over a year since we last saw The Batman, at Warner Bros. 2020 edition of DC FanDome. Now it’s time for a new FanDome and a new trailer, and honestly, not a lot has changed.

It’s still a dark and moody two-and-a-half minutes set to an appropriately dark and moody remix of Nirvana’s classic Nevermind cut, “Something in the Way She Moves.” And it’s still largely focused on showing us how star Robert Pattinson brings this rough-and-tumble take on the DC Comics crimefighter to life.

So what’s the 2021 difference? More villains. You won’t actually see Paul Dano’s face here, but you’ll get a clearer sense of how his menacing Riddler factors into the story (especially if you watch both trailers back-to-back). You also probably won’t recognize Colin Farrell — he really transformed for this role! — but that’s him playing Penguin. We see more of him here, as well.

The biggest beneficiary of the new trailer is Zoë Kravitz. We don’t see her full Catwoman get-up in action, but there’s plenty of Selina Kyle kicking butt, looking mischievous, and trying to seduce the Bat. The most important thing this trailer does, however, is put all the major pieces in place ahead of the sooner-than-you-think release.

How soon? The Batman arrives in theaters on March 4, 2022.

If you haven’t yet seen The Suicide Squad then you might not be familiar with John Cena’s Peacemaker.

Well he’s got a spin-off series coming to HBO Max and this first teaser does a great job of selling the idea of a “douche-y, bro-y Captain America.” That’s how The Suicide Squad director James Gunn told Cena to approach the character from the start.

The teaser goes beyond the recently released clip by also introducing more of the team that assembles around Peacemaker in the series. But what you’re likely to remember best is Peacemaker sitting with his crew, explaining his theory on “butt babies.” It’s… definitely a bunch of words that aren’t biologically accurate in the slightest, but nonetheless make sense given the character doing the talking. It’s quite a moment.

We love a good photo hunt, and we love it even more when such a hunt can actually be helpful for scientific research.

That’s the premise of the “Walrus from Space” project. This partnership between the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and British Antarctic Survey (BAS) turns to internet people like you and me for help spotting groups of walrus that pop up in satellite photos.

The project, revealed on Thursday, aims to take “a census of Atlantic walrus and walrus from the Laptev Sea” populations by having an army of citizen scientists pore over satellite imagery in search of the marine mammals. Spotting them in satellite imagery isn’t the easiest task since most walrus aren’t looking up and saying “cheese,” but participating actually does serve a helpful purpose.

“Walrus are facing the reality of the climate crisis: their Arctic home is warming almost three times faster than the rest of the world and roughly 13% of summer sea ice is disappearing per decade,” the WWF announcement reads.

“The data collected in this census of Atlantic and Laptev walrus will give scientists a clearer picture of how each population is doing—without disturbing the animals. The data will also help inform management decisions aimed at conservation efforts for the species.”

Getting involved isn’t difficult. First, you’ll need to head over to the Walrus from Space project website and create an account. (Minimal personal info is required, mainly just an email and password.) Once that’s done, you’ll need to activate your account by signing in via email. That takes you to a training area where the website demonstrates how the very simple image viewing and editing tools work.

Each satellite image covers a square region measuring 200 meters (roughly 656 feet). Participants have the ability to zoom in several times as well as tweak the brightness, contrast, and sharpness of each image. There’s a test after that where you’re asked to spot any walrus (or lack thereof) in a series of 20 images.

It’s a simple interface where you’re just flagging each image by one of three criteria: “Walrus present” when you can see one or more of the marine mammals; “No walrus present” when there are none; and “Poor image” when it’s just not possible to see, perhaps because of too much cloud cover or shade that even the image editing tools can’t defeat.

There’s also a help panel that you can call up at anytime for tips if you’ve having trouble differentiating walrus from other features of the environment. The panel also answers some basic question, including an explanation of just how helpful it is to have an army of citizen scientists helping with a project like this.

The first phase of the project involves whittling down the mountain of images — roughly 600,000 annually — to only include those where walrus appear. Once that’s done, the project will move to “phrase 2,” when the number of walrus in each image will actually get counted. It sounds like this will be an ongoing process, with the two phases overlapping as more images are collected each year.

This seems like the kind of internet activity that’s great for kids and families especially. Poring over satellite imagery in search of walrus can be a fun game that, alongside the necessary context, could help expose younger minds to the importance of science and scientific investigation as a team effort.

Whether it’s saving the walrus or anything else, humanity’s ongoing battle to stem off the worst impacts of climate change is going to have to be a team effort.