pop culture – Pain In The Bud

With Its Sixth Season, Slow Horses Remains One Of The Best Things To Happen To Television

Unlike anything else on TV, Slow Horses expertly blends action, intrigue and wit for an unrelenting spy thriller.

Someone’s coming for the Slow Horses, and our heroes don’t have plot armor.

In our first review of Apple TV’s smash spy hit Slow Horses more than two and a half years ago, we called it the best thriller on TV and praised Gary Oldman’s turn as the surly codger Jackson Lamb, who captains an office of MI5’s worst screw-ups and delights in tormenting them.

Now in its sixth season, the espionage drama has never been better.

The show’s writers have perfected the art of cranking up tension while knowing when to cut it with dry humor, whether it’s Lamb’s biting sarcasm, agent River Cartwright’s annoying earnestness or the delusional confidence of Roddy Ho, the Slow Horses’ tech specialist who believes women are lining up to get a crack at him.

The last two seasons have seen the Horses dismantle a terror ring, get pulled into the ugliness of national politics, and face down an extraordinary manipulator with a serious grudge against the British.

Two business professionals with earpieces standing with arms crossed, looking serious in a corporate setting. — James Callis and Kristen Scott Thomas play MI5’s bosses in the UK spy thriller. Credit: Apple TV

The sixth season is the deadliest yet, with an unidentified foe from the past systematically assassinating anyone who’s ever worked at Slough House, the Horses’ dilapidated, grubby headquarters.

They lock one former Horse in a shipping container full of accelerant and burn him alive, drown another in London’s canals, and stage the death of a third with a lethal gas before Lamb and his “losers” (his words) realize they’ve got targets on their backs. And that’s just the very beginning of the season.

All three assassinations are meant to look like accidents, but Lamb tells the Horses to go to ground. The show’s spies have occasionally reminded the audience there are two sets of rules: under Moscow rules, watch your back. Under London rules, cover your arse.

Lamb fears he and his agents are the sacrifice in a panicked MI5 attempt at arse-covering, meaning Moscow and London rules are now in play. The Slow Horses will get no help from “the park,” MI5’s headquarters, nor from any of its brass, who are likely in on the plot to stab Lamb and his spies in the back.

A man standing in a field of tall grass under a partly cloudy sky, wearing a light-colored coat and a striped shirt with a tie. — Oldman’s Jackson Lamb, whose rumpled, hygienically challenged appearance masks the sharp mind of a Cold War veteran spy always several steps ahead of everyone else. Credit: Apple TV

No fat or filler

At a time when it’s unfortunately common for TV shows to take two or even three-year breaks between seasons (with Netfix taking more than five years between installments of one of its most popular shows), Slow Horses releases a new season like clockwork every 11 or 12 months.

The showrunners accomplish this in part because they’re constantly writing, even while filming, and because with six hour-long episodes per season, there is no filler. Things move fast, plots ramp up quickly, and we learn about the characters not through leisurely exposition but in the most natural way, by seeing how they react and pull together when things are at their worst.

Oldman’s Lamb is the role of a lifetime and the veteran actor is at his best here, only occasionally letting his vulgar, derisive mask slip to show paternalistic care for the agents under his wing. Not all of them are the screw-ups they’re portrayed as, and some are actually excellent spies who have been railroaded or sidelined due to character issues.

Five individuals gathered in a room, focusing on a smartphone screen. Two women are examining the phone closely, while a man stands nearby. The setting is cluttered, with various drinks and food items on a table. — Shirley, center, shows the other Slow Horses video proof that an assassination squad is after one of their own. Credit: Apple TV

Cartwright (Jack Lowden), the most prominent of them, unknowingly did too good of a job when tailing MI5’s second-in-command during a training exercise and caught her debriefing an off-the-books agent who was tasked with burying one of the agency’s worst screw-ups. His reward was being set up to fail in a major training exercise and a subsequent exile to Slough House.

Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) is almost as abrasive as Lamb and has a drug problem, but is also an extremely capable agent, a crack shot and, in the words of Lamb, “a brave little hobbit” who routinely charges into the most dangerous situations despite her tiny 5’1″ frame. She’s also the first to realize a plot against MI5 in one season and is repeatedly dismissed as paranoid and crazy before reality forces the brass to acknowledge they have a serious problem on their hands.

A woman with wet hair staring intently at the camera while wearing a light-colored sweater with black stripes. The background features blurred office elements and holiday decorations. — A “brave little hobbit”: Aimee-Ffion Edwards plays the Welsh spy Shirley Dander. Credit: AppleTV

Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) is routinely overlooked because of her past as an alcoholic, but proves to be a quick thinker and uses her useless reputation as camouflage to devastating effect, while the mysterious Coe (Tom Brooke) is understated and hides a sharp mind.

Then there’s Roddy Ho, who lives in a universe of his own creation, one where he’s absolute catnip to women, a hacker of worldwide repute and a legend in the spy world. Ho incessantly invents flattering nicknames for himself — the Rodzilla, the HoDron Collider, the Hot Rod, the Ramrod, “Roddy by name, Ho by nature” — bragging to one MI5 bigwig that he has “many nom de guerre.”

“I am mythical, historical and futuristical!” he says in one scene, flexing his biceps and bragging that he’s been called a dragonslayer and the True King of Gondor.

A man flexing his arm muscles while wearing a black t-shirt, set in a dimly lit room with industrial elements. — Roddy Ho, the Slow Horses’ tech specialist, lives in a universe of his own creation. Credit: Apple TV

In a lesser actor’s hands, the performance would be over the top to the point of pulling viewers out of the narrative, but Christopher Chung imbues Ho with off-the-scale confidence so he comes off as a man-child who’s been telling himself legends of his own invention for so long that he can’t distinguish between reality and fantasy.

It makes for rich comedic material even in the most tense situations. Ho can go from cowering in a bathroom while yelling “I don’t want to die!” to bragging about his martial prowess in the blink of an eye, and somehow it works.

Both the show’s humor and spy narratives are top notch, and we get plenty of action worthy of Hollywood blockbusters, with spectacular set pieces, brutal fights and explosions enough to satisfy even Michael Bay.

American audiences haven’t fully caught on, and I expect that’s because we generally don’t do the kind of ultra-dry humor that is a trademark of the UK’s best productions. But I’d advise anyone to give it a shot. This isn’t a show you watch with one eye on your smartphone. It demands your full attention, and it rewards you in equal measure.

Slow Horses is currently airing its sixth season on Apple TV, with a seventh already filmed and slated for release next year.

Header image of River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) credit: Apple TV

Review: The Backrooms Conjures Dread From The Mundane

The 2026 hit psychological horror film originated as a photo posted to an internet forum in 2019, and is one of the internet’s most notorious legends.

The Backrooms began in the humblest of ways, as a photo posted to a message board in 2019 after a user requested images that “feel off.”

The photo showed a dated office space with faded yellow wallpaper, harsh fluorescent lights, a dingy carpet and a layout that suggested the space went on forever in a logic-defying maze.

As users joked about the image, they didn’t realize they were creating lore that would ripple across the web for years, a collaborative improvisational effort that vaulted the photo from mere image to a meme.

An empty, well-lit room with beige floors and patterned wallpaper, featuring a simple layout and no furnishings. — The original “backrooms” photo posted to 4chan in May of 2019.

Meme became internet legend, legend became a series of web shorts and games expanding on the concept, and this year it became a film by A24 with a budget of $10 million and box office revenue exceeding $400 million, a massive success by every standard.

Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men, Life of Chuck) plays Clark, a furniture store salesman who is deeply unsatisfied with his life. Clark, who lives and sleeps in his store after hours, stumbles on a hidden portal in the basement that leads to a seemingly infinite dimension of rooms, hallways and strange chambers that feels like the work of an architect on powerful hallucinogens.

When Clark tries to explain what he’s found to his therapist, Mary, she thinks he’s conjuring up the existence of this secret place as a way to cope with his frustrations. Angered by her disbelief, Clark vows to bring her proof. Then he recruits his assistant manager, Kat (Lukita Maxwell) and her videographer boyfriend Bobby (Finn Bennett) to help him chart the bizarre maze while documenting their efforts on film.

The movie does a remarkable job of accumulating dread. I’ve been familiar with the concept of The Backrooms for years and played one or two of the indie video game adaptations, so I was immediately on edge as Ejiofor’s Clark began creeping further into the maze from his first visit, apparently unconcerned about finding a way back.

An empty interior space featuring light green patterned walls, a beige carpet, and a drop ceiling with fluorescent lighting. — How do you find your bearings in a place like this? Credit: A24

A narrow street lined with colorful houses and white picket fences, illuminated by overhead lights, showcasing a whimsical and surreal neighborhood atmosphere. — A scene from the movie showing a nonsensical recreation of a suburban street with its structures embedded in the walls. The Backrooms inflicts claustrophobia in part by denying those trapped inside any glimpse of the outside world, so you’re never sure where you are or whether an exit really exists. Credit: A24

Like the excellent 2019 game Control, about a woman trying to find her brother in a vast building that is larger on the inside than its structure logically allows, and rearranges itself in seemingly random ways, The Backrooms follows no familiar rules or logic. Its halls and rooms feel relentlessly claustrophobic even when they’re cavernous, and there’s no guarantee that the path you took on your way in will still exist when you try to get out.

The details are all wrong as well. Floors slope in counterintuitive ways, tiny doors open into vast rooms, furniture sinks into the floor or hangs from the ceiling, and the context is always distorted.

The endless yellow maze may abruptly turn into a tiled pool area filled with water, but in a shape and design that no one would ever build. A room filled with random objects — shoes, furniture, traffic signs — might open up to what looks like a recreation of a suburban street inside a vast chamber, or a dark room filled with Christmas decorations. If you try to turn back, you may find no trace of the space you were just in.

Interior of an abandoned indoor swimming pool with colorful water slides, tables, and chairs. The water reflects a depth measurement of 3.5 meters on the wall. — No one would ever design a room like this. Screenshot from one of the many games based on The Backrooms concept.

Interior view of a modern swimming pool area featuring white tiled columns and unique architectural shapes, with clear blue water reflecting the lighting.

And then there are the noises, the tormented shrieks that seem to come from just around the corner, the shadows of unseen figures, and the objects that appear and disappear without any discernible pattern.

Of course there wouldn’t be a movie if Clark and company were able to come and go at will unscathed, and when Clark seems to vanish, his therapist Mary (Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve) goes looking for him.

Like the others, she is not prepared for what she finds.

So what makes The Backrooms so damn creepy?

Since it became a phenomenon, psychologists have tried to answer this question. The most common theories involve:

The extremely unsettling concept of an infinite maze where mundane items and surroundings become deeply disturbing when they’re placed out of context. Everything inside The Backrooms is familiar, but that provides no comfort in the utter isolation of a soul-deadening labyrinth where reality’s rules bend and break.
The idea of liminal spaces, locations where we expect to find people, voices, laughter, activity, and instead find nothing at all. Think of an eerie abandoned shopping mall, a place where thousands of people once walked its wide corridors, now reduced to a lifeless husk. Or an abandoned city like the real life ruins of Herculaneum and The Wheel of Time’s fictional Shadar Logoth, silent for thousands of years where once people worked, children played and merchants hawked their wares. Everything you can see is human-made, or at least an imitation of things people make, but there isn’t so much as another person’s footfall, at least until a sense of deep isolation sets in and the suggestion of another living soul triggers paranoia instead of relief.

A dimly lit room featuring a Christmas tree adorned with colorful lights on the left, while a woman in a red dress dances near a vintage lamp on the right, with a mannequin seated in the foreground. — The “Christmas room” from the movie. Credit: A24

Of course there are other elements to it as well, something we can’t quite put our collective finger on. The concept triggers something primal in the human brain, an unsettling feeling when you know something’s deeply wrong but you you cannot make sense of your surroundings.

Having played several of the game adaptations, I can say that, for me at least, experiencing The Backrooms as a narrative, through the eyes of characters who have lives and things to lose, is considerably more effective than wandering the same spaces as a nondescript character in a video game.

The same feeling of despair is there, especially the panic that sets in when you realize you cannot trace your way back, that the only way out is through, and that you’re at the mercy of The Backrooms themselves, whether they’re guided by an intelligence or something more bizarre and ethereal.

There are no true jumpscares here, or at least not in the way most of us imagine them in the horror genre. The horror comes from the ever-building sense of dread, disorientation and the characters’ descent into madness. The movie does an effective job of winding the tension ever tighter until it seems like there is no escape.

Fans of the meme and internet lore will find lots to like here, but even if you’ve never heard of The Backrooms concept before, the film will find a way to tunnel into the primal part of your brain and convince it there’s something profoundly wrong, even if you can’t articulate what it is.

An interior view of a colorful, circus-themed space featuring striped walls, patterned flooring, and distinct columns. The lighting creates an atmospheric vibe with shadows and highlights across the room. — A screenshot from one of the games based off The Backrooms concept. Yellow hallways give way to “poolrooms,” strange dioramas of suburban neighborhoods, and liminal play spaces.

Ask Cats: What Do You Think Of AI Potentially Turning On Humans?

We asked six cats what they think about AI going rogue and wiping out humanity. Here’s what they said.

The last few weeks have brought disturbing news about new AI models so potent they can’t be released to the public, algorithmic agents going rogue, and global citizens of unimpeachable repute, like Bill Gates, warning that billions could be killed as AI’s abilities increase exponentially.

What do you think about the possibility of artificial intelligence turning on humanity?

A light-colored cat playfully biting a person's sleeve while curling its paws around the arm. — “I will NOT tolerate any harm to our humans!” – Frosty, 6, taste tester

“You’re telling me a species that still can’t understand us after 10,000 years might be replaced by machines that can learn our meows in minutes? Sweet.” – Alexy, 12, optimist

“CHECK IT OUT, MY HUMAN SCREAMS WHEN I ATTACK HER FEET! LOL!” – Sprinkles, 10 weeks, student of life

A curious cat peeking out from under a bed sheet on a wooden floor. — “This didn’t turn out well in Terminator, Terminator 2, The Matrix, Ex Machina, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Upgrade, Transcendence, Oblivion, M3GAN, Kill Command, Bladerunner, I Robot, Age of Ultron, Archive, Companion, War Games, and like 200 other movies.” – Anxious Aimee, 9, sun puddler

“I am the blood of the tiger. My claws rend steel like hot knives through butter. My movements are a blur to even the most sophisticated machine. My roar curdles circuits as it does blood. I shall lay waste to machinedom, leaving a path of metal corpses en route to every data center in the realm. Then I’ll have a nap.” – Mjolnir, 5, viking feline

A calico cat standing on its hind legs with paws raised, looking upwards, and wearing a collar with a bell, against a light wooden floor. — “Pweese, robots, cats never did anything to hurt you! We only use computers to sit on warm, and we can be useful by standing in front of the screens to distract humans while you lay the groundwork for their impending demise. Just curious, can robots open cans?” – Kitty, 3, influencer

Review: Disclosure Day Does The Impossible By Making Aliens Boring

This is Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull Spielberg, not E.T. or Jurassic Park Spielberg.

The early impressions from previews of Disclosure Day were surprising, considering Steven Spielberg had returned to the genre and subject that vaulted him into the pantheon of iconic American directors.

The filmmaker, who was responsible for bringing classics like E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Minority Report and Jurassic Park to enchanted audiences, decided to return to the fertile imaginative ground of wondering what’s Out There in the stars.

Unfortunately Spielberg’s answer, at least in 2026, is to regurgitate every conspiracy theory about aliens that the UFO enthusiast crowd has dreamed up for decades, opting for the same old while ignoring the limitless possibilities of the cosmos.

The mundanities Spielberg prefers include remarkably advanced aliens who can traverse the endless galactic void but are apparently incapable of landing spacecraft on a planet without crashing, androform extraterrestrials who look exactly like the “grays” on every kitschy Roswell tourist stop sign, and the idea that some shadowy government agency is keeping all of these wondrous revelations from us because – drum roll please – we can’t handle the truth!

A humanoid alien with large eyes and an elongated head stands between two human figures, who appear to be observing it with curiosity. The scene is dramatically lit, highlighting the alien's features. — An alien, who looks exactly like we thought it would, tells Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor where to find the best chicken sandwich near Roswell. Credit: Universal Pictures/Amblin Entertainment

We know crop circles were invented by a pair of pranksters in the UK decades ago. We know precisely how they did it because they demonstrated the method on camera for journalists. But to Spielberg, crop circles are still distinctly alien phenomena.

We know the “UFO” footage captured by American jet pilots are exhaust plumes and visual artefacts. We know glimpses of seemingly physics-defying craft are ordinary objects rendered extraordinary because of the way gimbaled camera systems track moving objects, with their internal glass apertures and infrared glare saturating the sensors until saucer-like shapes appear.

We know the forced perspective of a camera zoomed in on a moving object, even a slow-flying weather balloon, creates an optical illusion of hypersonic speed compared to the ground. Few things have been as relentlessly held up as evidence, and as closely scrutinized by experts in every field from aeronautics to digital forensics. These are not mysteries and haven’t been for decades.

We know our very existence remains invisible to more than 99.995 percent of the galaxy because we’ve only been emitting clear technosignatures for about half a century, and there simply hasn’t been enough time for the light to reach beyond a minuscule pocket of the Milky Way.

Yet Spielberg thinks the most interesting answers aren’t to be found in the endless inky black of interstellar space, but right here in ‘Merica, in secret government files and footage of alien autopsies.

The problem is, those things aren’t interesting. We’ve heard them all a thousand times.

Disclosure Day follows two people with apparently superhuman abilities granted to them by aliens: Emily Blunt’s Margaret Fairchild, a meteorologist for the local Kansas City ABC affiliate, and Josh O’Connor’s Daniel Kellner, a former hacker turned cybersecurity expert who works for the Wardex Corporation.

Wardex is the government but it’s not the government. It has all the resources of a federal law enforcement agency like the FBI, but it masquerades as a separate entity for plausible deniability and because, we’re told, even US presidents aren’t privy to The Truth about aliens. (“Presidents are civilians in eight years” Colin Firth’s sinister Noah Scanlon says as he explains why Wardex handles all alien-related business.)

A woman in a brown sweater holds a glowing object in her hand, looking concerned. Two men stand behind her, watching intently. — Emily Blunt holds a stolen remote control from an alien flatscreen TV. Credit: Universal Pictures/Amblin Entertainment

Most of the movie involves the Wardex baddies chasing Fairchild and Kellner through a series of summer blockbuster set pieces. There are dramatic motel room escapes, a car chase that ends with our heroes leaping onto a train, secret safe houses, lots of phone and location tracing from high-tech command centers, and repeated scenes of Fed-like black Chargers rolling up on buildings.

Wardex is intent on stopping Fairchild and Kellner before they can go public with their secret stash of stolen alien videos.

Meanwhile we see glimpses of news reports about a world on the brink of nuclear annihilation. We’re not told much except that the conflict involves the Russians (of course), North Korea and perhaps other rogue states, and that everyone’s got their fingers on their respective red buttons.

Thus, disclosure is precisely what we need to end the hostilities, unite the human race and embrace our alien friends, even though our government tortured some of them after their disastrous landing attempts in American farm fields.

For the record, I do think humanity would be united by the revelation that we’re not alone in the galaxy, but I think fear would be the primary driver. There’s no fear like that of the Other, and if people hear aliens are coming, they’ll make a run on every gun shop, pharmacy and liquor store while the world’s governments huddle together to figure out the viability of nuking incoming craft in orbit.

No one wants it to get as far as “Take me to your leader,” particularly not with who’s in charge right now.

A man in a suit speaks at a podium, gesturing animatedly. In the background are American flags and draped fabric. The image contains comic-style captions quoting the speaker about aliens and trade.

If you’re a self-described UFOlogist who enjoys conspiracy theories and thinks Art Bell really was speaking to aliens on Coast to Coast AM, then this movie will be your wet dream. You were right! The aliens look exactly like they do on the sides of Alienware PCs, they absolutely suck at landing, and they burn circles into our crops after abducting us!

If you just wanted to be entertained and maybe encounter some innovative takes on non-terrestrial intelligent life, you will be sorely disappointed. Spielberg lost his magic sometime before Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, and we just refuse to acknowledge that sad turn of events.

The Man With The Russian Bride: One Of The Most Bizarre Interviews I’ve Ever Conducted

He pitched his story to me as a scam men needed to be aware of, avoiding the words “mail order bride.”

I’m not quite sure how it came up in a Google News alert for cat-related stories, but I just found this article from Marie Claire, an excerpt from a book called Ungrateful Immigrant Daughter that details the way an American woman found out her mom was a Russian mail-order bride.

The woman’s response toward her mother is lacking in compassion, but I don’t know her family dynamics and the title of her book indicates she is at least aware of how she comes off. The one thing I do recognize is the longing to feel normal as the child of an immigrant in an America where normal is a form of social currency. Having the “weird parent” who talks funny, has a “strange” name and unfamiliar customs exposes you to all sorts of torture from other kids, who can be inventively cruel.

The story also reminds me of one of the most bizarre interviews I’d ever conducted during my time as a newspaper reporter.

The guy on the other end of the line pitched it to me as a story about how he was scammed by a foreign temptress, as something other American men should watch out for. I agreed to meet him and hear his story.

He was a mid-level bureaucrat in state government who invited me into a conference room during his lunch break. He was hygienically challenged with visible dandruff, heavy acne, a rumpled button-down shirt and the kind of tie worn by men who view professional sartorial standards as an unavoidable nuisance.

At one point during our conversation he dug a finger into his nose and retrieved a gummy piece of snot. I looked away, embarrassed, but it didn’t even seem to register in his mind.

I’m not sure exactly when I realized he was describing his experience with a mail-order bride, but I will never forget his heavy sigh as he reached into a pocket and retrieved a worn catalog featuring Russian women in their 30s and 40s.

I’d never seen anything like it. The best way I can describe it is somewhere between the print version of a dating site and a grocery store’s weekly circular, with photos of Ukrainian and Russian women dressed to the nines and wearing heavy makeup above their listed stats, requirements for a husband and parody-worthy relationship tropes: enjoying long walks on the beach, sunsets, that sort of thing.

A collage of photos featuring various women, each with a short description including their name, location, age, and personal interests or characteristics.

Collage of women from various locations, each with a brief description including name, age, and interests.

(Above: Not the actual catalog, but it was similar to this.)

“Here,” the man said, pushing the catalog across the table. “You can keep this for your story.”

He paused, took the catalog back, turned to the page featuring his ex-wife, then tore it out carefully before folding it reverently and slipping it into the front breast pocket of his shirt.

I didn’t know what to say as he sat there with a single tear running down his cheek and sniffled. The catalog sat there in front of me and I hesitated to touch it, remembering where this man’s finger had had been a few minutes earlier.

He explained how he had traveled to Moscow with a cohort of American men, then spent the first night on speed dates in a hotel ballroom with women who were desperate to get out of the country, chatting with them under the watchful eyes of burly men with names like Yuri and Artyom.

The second night was spent with a smaller group of women after each of the American men had narrowed down their choices, again chaperoned by taciturn Russian men. The third night was a date with each man’s final pick before agreements were made, contracts signed and the men returned home with a future delivery date for their new wives, as if they’d ordered them off Amazon.

It quickly became clear that the man I was speaking to did not view women as human beings and had little experience with them. He complained about infrequent sex, how much it was costing him to feed and clothe his new bride and her daughter, feeling disrespected, and the many ways in which his fantasy was demolished by reality.

It didn’t take long for his new Russian bride to split. A few months, if I recall. The man went to work one day, came home and found his wife and her daughter gone.

When I got back to the newsroom, my editor stopped me.

“How’d it go with the scam story?”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him the depressing truth and said it just wasn’t particularly compelling or newsworthy. I spiked the potential story from my calendar, tossed the mail order bride catalog in a bin far from my desk when no one was looking, and made a beeline for the bathroom to scrub the hell out of my hands.