What do you want to watch tonight?
Each title says who it's good for, and who it isn't. Tap what you want tonight, or say no to one and why.
Closest to Dark first
Severance 2022
Series
Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs.
The sides of Severance
- Office workers with their memories split in two
- The endless white corridors of Lumon Industries
- A team sorting numbers they don't understand
Good for you if
- you like piecing together what Lumon really does.
- you like goats in an office basement and a waffle party as a reward.
- you like Mark slowly realising what his other self lives through.
Bad for you if
- you need things to move fast from the first episode.
- you want answers at the end of every season.
About: work · identity · grief · control
Prisoners 2013
Film
When his young daughter and her friend disappear on Thanksgiving, a father takes the law into his own hands while a detective works the case.
The sides of Prisoners
- A detective who won't let go
- How far a father will go
- A case built like a maze
- Rain, cold, and grey light
Good for you if
- you like being tense for two and a half hours straight.
- you like collecting clues and trying to get ahead of the detective.
- you like watching an actor go somewhere raw. Hugh Jackman does.
Bad for you if
- a child in danger is too much for you.
- two and a half hours is too long for your evening.
About: faith · revenge · guilt · fatherhood
Twin Peaks 1990
Series
The body of Laura Palmer is washed up on a beach near the small Washington state town of Twin Peaks. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate her strange demise only to uncover a web of mystery that ultimately leads him deep into the heart of the surrounding woodland and his very own soul.
The sides of Twin Peaks
- A murdered homecoming queen wrapped in plastic
- An FBI agent who loves coffee and cherry pie
- A red room with curtains and a dancing man
Good for you if
- you like David Lynch's dreams, giants and backward talk.
- you want to know who killed Laura Palmer.
- you like a story that leaves its secrets in the woods.
Bad for you if
- you need an investigation that follows clues and logic.
- you find early-90s TV dated.
- you can't take a teenager's murder, drugs and domestic violence in one small town.
About: secrets · small towns · good and evil
Arrival 2016
Film
Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.
The sides of Arrival
- The grief underneath the sci-fi
- Aliens that are truly alien
- Understanding as the plot
- Time that doesn't run straight
Good for you if
- you like a film that quietly breaks you at the end.
- you like patient scenes where people try to understand each other.
- you like aliens treated as a real problem of language and science.
Bad for you if
- you want an alien invasion with battles. There are none.
- you'd rather not work to follow a story. Louise's memories only fall into place in the last act.
About: language · grief · time · choice
Twelve Monkeys 1995
Film
In the year 2035, convict James Cole reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to discover the origin of a deadly virus that wiped out nearly all of the earth's population and forced the survivors into underground communities. But when Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990 instead of 1996, he's arrested and locked up in a mental hospital. There he meets psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly and the son of a famous virus expert who may hold the key to the Army of the 12 Monkeys; thought to be responsible for unleashing the killer disease.
The sides of Twelve Monkeys
- A prisoner sent back in time to stop a virus
- An asylum and a raving patient
- An airport memory
Good for you if
- you like a time loop you piece together.
- you like a feverish, strange atmosphere.
- you like a wild, twitchy supporting role.
Bad for you if
- you want clear answers about what's real.
- you need some hope. A plague has already wiped out most of humanity before the story starts.
About: fate · madness · memory
Donnie Darko 2001
Film
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
The sides of Donnie Darko
- A troubled teen and a giant rabbit
- A jet engine falling on a house
- Twenty-eight days until the end
Good for you if
- you like strange, dreamy films with a dark edge.
- you like piecing together a story that won't explain itself.
- you like arguing about the ending afterwards.
Bad for you if
- you need some hope. Donnie's world counts down to the end from the first minutes.
- you want something soft and safe. A jet engine crashes into Donnie's bedroom early on.
About: fate · time · adolescence
The Prestige 2006
Film
A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences.
The sides of The Prestige
- Two rival magicians
- A trick nobody can explain
- Obsession that costs everything
Good for you if
- you love a film that shows you its secret only at the end.
- you like going back to see how the trick was done.
- you like a rivalry that gets more dangerous every round.
Bad for you if
- you need a hopeful ending.
- you'd rather follow a story in order. The Prestige jumps between two diaries and several timelines.
About: obsession · sacrifice · rivalry
The Haunting of Hill House 2018
Series
Flashing between past and present, a fractured family confronts haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.
The sides of The Haunting of Hill House
- Five siblings and the house they fled
- A night their father never explained
- Ghosts hiding in the background of shots
Good for you if
- you want ghosts you only spot in the corner of the frame.
- you like a horror story that is really about brothers and sisters.
- you like a reveal that makes you rethink the first episode.
Bad for you if
- you can't take grief, addiction and suicide on screen.
- you need horror that moves fast. This one lingers on memories.
About: grief · family · memory
Westworld 2016
Series
A dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.
The sides of Westworld
- A Wild West theme park run by robots
- Hosts who start to remember
- Guests who pay to do anything
Good for you if
- you like a plot you have to piece together across timelines.
- you like a story that keeps changing what you think you know about the park.
- you like a show where the first season hides clues for the second viewing.
Bad for you if
- you can't stand graphic shootouts and violence against the hosts.
- you'd rather skip the nudity and sex scenes, or you watch with others.
About: consciousness · free will · memory · control
Shutter Island 2010
Film
In 1954, a U.S. Marshal and his new partner go to a psychiatric hospital on an island to find a patient who escaped from a locked room.
The sides of Shutter Island
- A mystery that turns on you
- Gothic dread on an island
- A man haunted by loss
Good for you if
- you love a story that makes you question everything you just saw.
- you like a film you want to restart as soon as it ends.
- you like a mood that gets under your skin: storms, cells, a lighthouse.
Bad for you if
- grief and mental illness hit too close for you.
- you want to be sure what happened when the credits roll.
About: grief · guilt · madness · the truth
Inception 2010
Film
Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.
The sides of Inception
- Dreams inside dreams
- The heist crew
- A man who can't let go
- Folding cities and that music
Good for you if
- you like a plot you have to hold in your head, layer by layer.
- you want images you've never seen, like a city folding over itself.
- you like catching on the second watch what you missed on the first.
Bad for you if
- you need every question answered before the credits.
- nearly two and a half hours is too much for your evening.
About: dreams · grief · guilt · ideas
Memento 2000
Film
Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of short-term memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why.
The sides of Memento
- A man who can't make new memories
- Notes, photos and tattoos
- A story told backwards
Good for you if
- you like assembling a story in reverse.
- you like a man investigating his wife's murder with Polaroids and tattoos.
- you like a film you need to see twice.
Bad for you if
- you want to know for sure who is lying. Even the ending won't tell you.
- you need some hope. Leonard's hunt for his wife's killer can never end.
About: memory · revenge · self-deception
Source Code 2011
Film
When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.
The sides of Source Code
- A soldier waking up in a stranger's body
- Eight minutes before a train explodes
- Again and again
Good for you if
- you like solving a mystery in a time loop.
- you like a short, tight thriller.
- you like a love story in eight minutes.
Bad for you if
- you want a big-scale blockbuster. Almost all of it plays out in one train carriage and a capsule.
- you want a clear ending. The last minutes leave the rules of the loop open.
About: identity · second chances · duty
Mare of Easttown 2021
Series
A detective in a small Pennsylvania town investigates a local murder while trying to keep her life from falling apart.
The sides of Mare of Easttown
- A detective in a small Pennsylvania town
- A teenage mother found dead
- A grandmother raising her late son's child
Good for you if
- you like a small-town murder where every neighbour could be hiding something.
- you like Kate Winslet as a tired, stubborn local cop.
- you like a crime story that cares as much about Mare's family as the case.
Bad for you if
- you can't take grief, addiction and a son's suicide on screen.
- you need chases and shootouts more than slow detective work.
About: grief · small towns · motherhood · guilt
Fringe 2008
Series
FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham, brilliant but formerly institutionalized scientist Walter Bishop and his scheming, reluctant son Peter uncover a deadly mystery involving a series of unbelievable events and realize they may be a part of a larger, more disturbing pattern that blurs the line between science fiction and technology.
The sides of Fringe
- An FBI agent investigating impossible cases
- A brilliant scientist just out of a mental institution
- A parallel universe with doubles of everyone
Good for you if
- you like cases that bend the laws of science.
- you like a larger pattern hidden behind each strange event.
- you like Walter and Peter Bishop rebuilding a father and son bond.
Bad for you if
- you need the science to stay believable.
- five seasons is too much for you.
About: fathers and sons · loss · other worlds
Tenet 2020
Film
Armed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.
The sides of Tenet
- A spy learning to move backwards in time
- A plane crashing into a building
- A fight going both ways at once
Good for you if
- you like a film you'll need to think about for days.
- you like fights played forwards and backwards.
- you want huge practical stunts.
Bad for you if
- two and a half hours of it is too much for one evening.
- you need to care about the people. The hero is only ever called the Protagonist.
About: time · fate · friendship
Lost 2004
Series
Stripped of everything, the survivors of a horrific plane crash must work together to stay alive. But the island holds many secrets.
The sides of Lost
- Plane crash survivors on an island
- A hatch in the ground
- Flashbacks to each survivor's past
Good for you if
- you like an island where every answer opens two questions.
- you like dozens of survivors, each with their own past.
- you like theories to build between episodes.
Bad for you if
- you need every mystery explained by the end.
- six seasons is too much for you.
About: fate · redemption · faith · community
Neon Genesis Evangelion 1995
Anime
At the turn of the century, the Angels returned to Earth, seeking to wipe out humanity in an apocalyptic fury. Devastated, mankind's last remnants moved underground to wait for the day when the Angels would come back to finish the job. Fifteen years later, that day has come... but this time, humanity is ready to fight back with terrifying bio-mechanical weapons known as the Evangelions. Watch as Shinji, Rei, Asuka and the rest of the mysterious shadow agency Nerv battle to save earth from total annihilation.
The sides of Neon Genesis Evangelion
- A boy ordered by his father to pilot a giant robot
- Angels attacking Tokyo-3
- A final two episodes inside his head
Good for you if
- you like a series that leaves you with more questions than answers.
- you care more about the pilots' minds than the robot fights.
- you like an ending that goes somewhere no one expected.
Bad for you if
- you can't take depression and self-loathing on screen.
- you don't watch anime.
About: depression · fathers and sons · loneliness
Oldboy 2003
Film
With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.
The sides of Oldboy
- A man locked up for fifteen years with no reason
- A corridor fight with a hammer
- A live octopus
Good for you if
- you like an ending that floors you.
- you like a one-take hallway fight.
- you like revenge with no clean way out.
Bad for you if
- brutal violence ruins it for you.
- you won't read subtitles. It's in Korean (a dub exists).
- you can't take despair on screen. A man locked up for fifteen years comes out close to breaking.
About: revenge · guilt · imprisonment
Mr. Robot 2015
Series
A young programmer, Elliot, suffers from a debilitating anti-social disorder and decides that he can only connect to people by hacking them. He wields his skills as a weapon to protect the people that he cares about. Elliot finds himself in the intersection between a cybersecurity firm he works for and the underworld organizations that are recruiting him to bring down corporate America.
The sides of Mr. Robot
- A lonely hacker at a security firm
- A group of hackers named fsociety
- A plan to erase all debt
Good for you if
- you like piecing together a hacking plot against the giant E Corp.
- you like the floor dropping out from under Elliot.
- you like living inside one troubled man's head.
Bad for you if
- you can't stand drug use, trauma and depression on screen.
- you need momentum, and some episodes sit inside Elliot's silence.
About: loneliness · reality · revolution · trauma