Phaedra Parks made her red carpet debut with new beau Chris ‘CT’ Tamburello one day after confirming that they are dating.

Parks, 54, was practically sparkling in a black open-back gown with silver trim as she entered the Peacock Theater in Downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, September 5, for the first night of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The veteran Challenge contestant, 46, looked dashing in a traditional black-and-white tuxedo as he joined Parks on the red carpet.

The Real Housewives of Atlanta star revealed during an appearance on Jeff Lewis Live on Friday, September 4, that she had “been out” with Tamburello. Chatting with host Jeff Lewis, Parks declined to reveal how many dates she’d had with Tamburello or whether they’d had any “sleepovers” recently.

“I can’t give this [information] to you,” she told Lewis, 56. “I’ve got to save it for the world!”

Parks did hint at plans to take Tamburello as her date to this weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys.

The two met while they were filming The Traitors season 2 — where viewers and costars noticed potential for a romantic pairing. At the time, their costar Peter Weber told Us that he was fully supportive of the two dating.

“I ship it,” Weber, 35, said. “I think they’re really cute together. They had some good chemistry. Who knows what the future holds with them?”

However, Tamburello later shut down speculation that he may have hooked up with Parks during filming of the Peacock reality competition show.

“Nothing real happened, I’ll be honest with you,” CT told Entertainment Weekly in March 2024. “It was fun. I loved her because she’s a cornball. She was great. I would say there was a sense of sincerity, for sure. But it was also playing a game, you know?”

He went on to say, “Honestly I have too much respect for her to try to turn it into something it’s not, just to try to be a flash in the pan. I don’t think that would be fair, I don’t think that’s the right thing to do. I mean, what would I do, move to Atlanta? I can’t do that.”

Related: Phaedra Parks Says ‘RHOA’ Finally Has a ‘Highly Acclaimed Singer’

This week on Getting Real With the Housewives, Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks gets candid on season 17 newcomer K. Michelle. “K. Michelle is absolutely hilarious. You know, after we’ve seen all of these singers, everyone wants to sing. Now, we got one that’s really a highly acclaimed singer with Grammys and real […]

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Now that it appears the Traitors costars really are dating, Tamburello’s estranged wife, Catalina White, weighed in on the new romance. On Saturday, the model responded to a news report about the couple by replying, “Sign the papers 👏👏👏”

White, 40, was seemingly urging Tamburello to sign their divorce papers as they’ve been hashing out a settlement for months. The model filed for divorce in Florida in January, stressing in court documents obtained by Us that her marriage was “irretrievably broken.”

The couple were supposed to file a financial affidavit for a potential divorce settlement by March 13, 2026, but their lawyers jointly asked a judge to delay the deadline because Tamburello was away filming a TV show.

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Related: Phaedra Parks Reacts to ‘Sexy’ Derek Hough Getting Flirty During ‘DWTS’

Disney (2) Phaedra Parks is living for Dancing With the Stars judge Derek Hough’s flirtatious feedback on her debut routine. “Oh, he is so hot,” Phaedra, 50, exclusively told Us Weekly after the Tuesday, September 17, live premiere of DWTS season 33. “Derek, hot ho. That sounds a little weird, [but] he is so sexy […]

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In August, White told Where Is the Buzz that she “genuinely wish[es] Chris nothing but the best” following their split.

Tamburello was married to White for two years and was previously with first wife Lilianet Solares from 2018 to 2023. (Solares, 34, and Tamburello share 10-year-old son CJ.)

Parks and ex-husband Apollo Nida were together from 2009 to 2017. They share sons Ayden, 16, and Dylan, 13.

Long before science fiction became the mainstream genre we know today, women writers imagined worlds that challenged their own. They didn’t craft stories around adventure and exploration for the sake of escapism, but to confront the dynamics of power, ethics, and identity, tackling the big questions about societal norms and control, unchecked ambition and progress, and the meaning of normalcy and humanity. The futures they built were fictional, but the issues they exposed were, and in many cases still are, very real.

From Frankenstein to The Handmaid’s Tale, female authors who refused to blindly accept present reality as immutable fact shaped modern sci-fi, inventing wildly imaginative worlds that ask, “What if?” From time travel to space diplomacy to speculative dystopian futures, each of these classic novels has a story that makes it a masterpiece in its own right. But decades and even centuries later, the underlying issues they tackle have never felt more pressing and timely, which puts them in a singular category of must-read all of their own.

1

‘A Wrinkle in Time’

By Madeleine L’Engle

Image via Ariel Books

A Wrinkle in Time follows 13-year-old Meg Murry as she embarks on an extraordinary journey through space and time to rescue her missing father from a dark force in a distant world. Guided by three supernatural beings and accompanied by her younger brother and their friend, she travels to the planet Camazotz, where a powerful entity called IT forces everyone to think and act the same. But once her brother is captured by the entity while attempting to outsmart its hive mind, Meg must channel her deep love, raw emotions, and quirky idiosyncrasies to defeat IT and reunite her family, using what it can’t understand or control to fight back.

Madeleine L’Engle published A Wrinkle in Time in 1962, openly framing it as a cautionary tale about the dangers of totalitarianism and social conformity; the citizens of Camazotz are forced into submission under threat of brutal punishment, but IT frames it as an opportunity for true happiness only achievable by the complete surrender of free will to a collective hive mind. More than 60 years later, it’s a prophetic metaphor for algorithmic conformity, an incredible reminder of the importance of real connections and agency in the digital echo chamber that rewards uniform behavior and flattens the imperfections that make us who we are.

2

‘Frankenstein’

By Mary Shelley

Image via Halcyon House
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Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus centers on a young scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who becomes so wholly obsessed with the secret of life that he begins robbing graves to assemble a humanoid figure out of body parts stolen from corpses. But once the experiment proves successful, Victor is horrified and flees, leaving his creation to fend for himself in a hostile world where he’s treated as a monster. After being rejected by humanity, the creation seeks revenge against his creator and kills the people he loves most, leading Victor to seek his own vengeance in a quest that proves fatal.

Mary Shelley published what’s widely considered the first science fiction novel in 1818, with Frankenstein‘s prescient warnings about technological overreach and the moral obligation of rapid innovation serving as a backdrop against more than two centuries of progress. The Modern Prometheus is a nod to the Greek Titan who, much like Victor, enlightened humanity without accepting responsibility for the long-term consequences of his hubris. It provides a chilling allegory for AI advancement without oversight; the tech itself doesn’t pose a danger, but creating it in a void with no ethical accountability is a recipe for disaster.

3

‘Parable of the Sower’

By Octavia E. Butler

Image via The Broken Binding

Parable of the Sower centers on Lauren Oya Olamina, a teenager with hyperempathy – she feels the pain and pleasure of those around her as if it were her own – who recounts the dystopian collapse of the world in a series of dated journal entries. Lauren refuses to ignore the feelings she inherits from the escalating crises around her, instead channeling them into a belief system to help humanity change and survive. But once the walls of her gated community are breached and her family killed, she finds herself on a journey north that sees those beliefs evolve into a movement and then a community, providing a glimmer of sustainable hope in an otherwise rock-bottom world.

Octavia E. Butler published Parable of the Sower in 1993, but one of the greatest sci-fi novels ever written also turned out to be one of the most prescient. Set in 2024, it dead-on anticipated the real-world climate change, extremism, and economic strife of the 2020s, and its plausible realism makes it feel eerily close to what actually transpired. The enduring message it carries has never felt more urgent: instead of fighting or waiting to be saved, accept change and choose to shape the future by taking an active role in your own life. Chase hope amid the darkness, and avoid wallowing in nihilism, as the communities you create are your best chance at survival.

4

‘The Left Hand of Darkness’

By Ursula K. Le Guin

Image via Walker & Company

The Left Hand of Darkness ​​​​​​centers on Genly Ai, a human envoy sent to the planet Gethen to persuade its nations to join an interstellar alliance. The people of Gethen are ambisexual and operate under a code of etiquette that can’t be translated, which proves challenging for Genly as he can’t comprehend the cues, nuances, and subtleties of a genderless society. But after mistaking the political exile of his sole ally, Estraven, for a betrayal on the eve of what proves to be a disastrous meeting with the king, Genly sets off on a mission to rescue him, ultimately forming a bond that transcends all the differences that once set them apart.

Ursula K. Le Guin published The Left Hand of Darkness in 1969, and its popularity was the first indication she would become the master of the genre she’s considered today. A response to the 60s gender zeitgeist, the goal was to establish what humanity would look and feel like if gender were eliminated; what resulted was a call for radical collaboration with deep anti-xenophobic messaging. Today, it serves as an early exploration of gender fluidity, the detrimental inward turn of isolationism, and the importance of overcoming cultural divides in pursuit of better understanding not only of others, but of ourselves.

5

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

By Margaret Atwood

Image via Houghton Mifflin

The Handmaid’s Tale presents the story of Offred, a woman forced into reproductive servitude to the elites during a fertility crisis in a dystopian future after a totalitarian regime overthrows the U.S. government. Stripped of her identity, family, and all fundamental human rights, Offred survives a terrifying existence under systemic oppression and surveillance through mental resistance, holding tight to her memories of a life before the here and now. Instead of rebellion, Offred engages in small acts of defiance against the regime, seeking human connection, intellectual pursuits, and to tell her story to reclaim her identity as best she can.

Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale in West Berlin five years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Iron Curtain’s existence is palpable in her 1985 novel, which resonated deeply with the political and social anxieties of the time. A treatise on the fragility of freedom, the threat of weaponized religion, and the terror of a panoptic state, even Atwood didn’t anticipate how prescient her novel would prove to be. Each decade, more parallels are drawn between the story and the current state of society; that’s why it remains one of the most important books of the last century, one that was truly, and terrifyingly, ahead of its time.

Quentin Tarantino has never been accused of writing lots of morally upright characters with hearts of gold. More often than not, the opposite is true. We go to his movies because his characters are usually morally ambiguous; it makes them more fun to follow along for the ride, because it’s unclear how they’ll resolve whatever conflict they come across. Will it end with them killing people? (Probably. Otherwise, it’d be a waste to have all these blood squibs just lying around.) They’re consistently charismatic and cool, but very few enter a story without baggage, or get to the credits without doing something heinous. At worst, his characters are bad people—the title of The Hateful Eight reflects that—and at best, they’re anti-heroes who we like because they take part in engaging small talk about fast food in different countries and ethical debates about tipping at restaurants. To paraphrase Bill’s Superman speech, it is in that characteristic that Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) stands alone.

Appearing in Django Unchained, also known as the first entry in Tarantino’s unofficial Bounty Law Trilogy (title coined here and don’t you forget it), Waltz starred as the dentist-turned-bounty hunter, Dr. Schultz, which would earn him his second Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. It was a role that he initially turned down when Tarantino pitched it to him, out of fear that he would become typecast as villainous characters for the rest of his career. However, after Tarantino needled long enough, Waltz agreed under the condition that Schultz would be a pure and non-malicious character, which Tarantino agreed to. Having that context is important, because upon rewatch, Dr. Schultz is easily the most well-rounded and heroic character the filmmaker has ever created, and actually works in contrast to the style of the rest of the film.

His Name Was King

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

Tarantino has a well-documented love for spaghetti Westerns and, more specifically, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. That influence is present throughout most of his movies, even the ones that aren’t exclusively Westerns, and Django Unchained is no exception. Ironically, while spaghetti Westerns often have anti-hero leads, Schultz fits more in line with heroes with a white hat from traditional Westerns. He isn’t just noble but also…like, just a good man. One of his defining characteristics (besides an exceptional beard) is his politeness and courteousness to others, even his enemies. It’s a small detail, but he separates himself from the other characters by how well-spoken and jovial he is at all times, without ever giving off the impression that it’s a ruse to disarm people, akin to someone like Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) in Better Call Saul. It’s not a performance, he’s just inherently effusive and personable. This is also reflective of his position on murder.

One of the unspoken rules among Tarantino’s characters is that killing is just something that happens from time to time, especially on the clock. His characters are very rarely affected by someone dying in front of them, or by their own hand. There have been three characters in his movies named Marvin, two of them died by gunshot, and one of their deaths was one of the funniest moments in movie history — and all Jules and Vincent care about after it happens is not getting in trouble, rather than the fact that they just accidentally murdered a coworker. When it comes to Pulp Fiction‘s Jules and Vincent having consonants to hand out, the letter F is not one of them. But by comparison, Dr. Schultz has plenty to give, and actively avoids killing.

Throughout most of Django Unchained, Dr. Schultz only engages in violent altercations out of self-defense (like with the Speck Brothers in the film’s opening) or to eliminate his targets and collect his bounties, which he does dispassionately and without malice. In all other cases, when in sticky situations, like confronting the U.S. Marshall and deputies of Daughtry, or dealing with Big Daddy (Don Johnson) and his staff, he gets out of his predicaments by explaining his profession and the reasoning behind his actions. If he can avoid killing, that’s the option he goes with.

Schultz’s Execution of Calvin Candie

The only time in the entire movie Schultz kills for the pleasure of it is when he executes Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) — and that was after he tried to be the bigger person and just leave, even after Candie (but really, Stephen) bested him. The only reason he kills Candie is that he kept nagging at him to shake his hand, and Schultz couldn’t control his disdain anymore. But even after that, when Butch is clearly going to kill him and Schultz has a second round in his gun to defend himself, he doesn’t take it. He accepts responsibility for his actions and takes the punishment (in the form of death), and uses his last words to apologize to Django for making things worse by simply saying, “I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist.”

Of course, the thing that spurred Schultz’s resentment towards Candie the most was the brutal murder of D’Artagnan via rabid dogs. It’s an important moment not just because Schultz made an effort to avoid it by trying to save D’Artagnan’s life (which Django was weirdly complicit about, and yet he uses D’Artagnan’s name as a battle cry later); the trauma of witnessing it actually affects Schultz for the rest of the film, and it’s what sets the third act in motion. Very rarely does witnessing murder in a Tarantino movie have lingering effects on characters, short of Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) in Inglourious Basterds or The Bride (Uma Thurman) in Kill Bill, but those characters witnessed the deaths of loved ones and friends, which gives the violence personal stakes. But in Schultz’s case, it’s purely the lasting effects of witnessing the murder of another human being.

For a filmmaker known for creating layered and complicated lead characters, it’s ironic that possibly Tarantino’s best character is the one that is the most well-meaning and with the most streamlined moral compass. Considering how Tarantino’s historical films play on the brutality of the world, it makes Dr. King Schultz stand out all the more because he’s not ambivalent to the landscape he lives in. He just chooses to be positive and self-assured in the face of it. Just because his job requires him to shoot outlaws for money, that doesn’t mean he has to be mean about it.

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Release Date

December 25, 2012

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Runtime

165 minutes

Producers

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Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, James W. Skotchdopole, Michael Shamberg, Pilar Savone, Reginald Hudlin, Shannon McIntosh

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What makes some mystery films more intelligent than others? It’s not just about how twisted the crime is or how unexpected the solution is; rather, it’s the journey between them that makes a truly genius mystery. While a convoluted investigation surely amplifies the intensity of the narrative, for a mystery film to truly rise above the rest, it must treat the audience as a partner in the puzzle-solving and not a mere witness.

A mystery film that truly respects the audience’s intelligence is a genius film in itself. By inviting the viewer to think like the characters and work along with the investigator, it builds more depth in the story and enhances the tension. In every era of cinema, filmmakers have found new ways to explore and solve mysteries, but only some of them exhibit true storytelling genius. Now, without further ado, here’s our ranked selection of the most genius mystery movies of all time.

8

‘Seven’ (1995)

Image via New Line Cinema

David Fincher’s critically acclaimed thriller classic Seven follows two detectives with very different personalities and investigative approaches as they try to solve a series of murders inspired by the seven biblical sins. The near-retired senior cop, William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), and newly transferred young detective, David Mills (Brad Pitt), must come to an agreement on their methods and perspectives while hunting down the killer before he strikes again. Gwyneth Paltrow, Richard Roundtree, John C. McGinley, R. Lee Ermey, and Kevin Spacey round out the main cast.

When Seven was released, it became an instant success, with critics raving about its dark and grim atmosphere, gritty characters, and cinematography, which redefined how murder mysteries were seen at the time. The relentless cat-and-mouse chase between the detectives and the unknown killer constantly prompts the audience to solve the psycho-philosophical puzzle. Since then, Seven has also come to be widely praised for its performances, memorable one-liners, and for featuring one of the most shocking endings ever seen in psychological thrillers.

7

‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ (2025)

Image via Netflix

In the third installment of the Knives Out film series, Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man, aka Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, sees super detective Benoit Blanc returning to solve another seemingly improbable crime. Set in a small Catholic parish in upstate New York, the story follows the sudden murder of the monsignor, leaving a long list of suspects for Blanc to investigate while dealing with the community’s cultish culture and corrupt characters. The stellar ensemble stars Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, and Daryl McCormack in key roles, with Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc.

Wake Up Dead Man combines the locked-room murder trope with fanaticism of faith and gritty character drama to craft a deliciously dark and twisted murder mystery. One of the most well-rounded mysteries of recent years, Wake Up Dead Man has been highly praised for its storytelling, production, and scene-stealing performances by O’Connor and Craig, and ranks among the best crime films of 2025. A brilliant and unique whodunnit that anchors the mystery around an intricate, multi-layered puzzle and a shifting narrative, Wake Up Dead Man is unarguably the best entry in the series so far.

6

‘Mulholland Drive’ (2001)

Image via Universal Pictures

One of the most critically acclaimed films by David Lynch and one of the greatest thrillers of the 21st century, Mulholland Drive is a thrilling mystery about an aspiring actress named Betty who arrives in Hollywood to be a star. There, she befriends Rita, an accident victim with no memory of her past, and tries to help her recover her memories, which ends up costing her own career, life, and sanity. At least, that’s the simple version. Naomi Watts and Laura Harring play Betty and Rita, respectively, with Justin Theroux, Ann Miller, Mark Pellegrino, and Robert Forster in other key roles.

Combining neo-noir mystery with dream-logic, Lynch creates a chaotic and challenging thriller that cemented what would later be known as the Lynchian aesthetic. Suspenseful and bizarre, the film is considered a pinnacle of modern surrealism in cinema. By constantly breaking expectations, Mulholland Drive keeps the story’s mystery fresh at all times, even if it often leaves the audience questioning the logic of it all.

5

‘The Usual Suspects’ (1995)

Image via MGM

Directed by Bryan Singer, The Usual Suspects is a ’90s crime classic that follows the interrogation of a small-time criminal, Roger “Verbal” Kint, one of the only two survivors of a massacre and fire on a docked ship at the Los Angeles port. In his testimony, Kint narrates an elaborate tale about how he and the others who died at the dock ended up there through coercion by a mysterious crime boss named Keyser Söze. Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, and Chazz Palminteri play the main characters.

Centered on an unreliable narrator, The Usual Suspects maintains its mystery of “who is Keyser Söze?” until the very end, making it a highly intriguing and engaging thriller. Often considered a masterpiece of modern crime mysteries, it treats the entire story as a trick, where the central protagonist manipulates the audience’s mind in the same way he cons the police. Suspenseful and packed with shocking twists, The Usual Suspects remains iconic in its genre with its perfectly written story, tight narration, and compelling performances.

4

‘Murder on the Orient Express’ (1974)

Image via Anglo-EMI Film Distributors

Directed by Sidney Lumet, 1974’s Murder on the Orient Express is the first film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1934 novel, starring Albert Finney as the fan-favorite Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. In the film, while traveling from Istanbul to London on the titular train, Poirot is asked by the railway’s director to investigate the brutal murder of an American business tycoon, who earlier attempted to hire Poirot as his bodyguard. The film’s all-star cast also includes Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Martin Balsam, Jacqueline Bisset, and Anthony Perkins.

One of Lumet’s most recognized films, even if it is not one of his most artistic, Murder on the Orient Express stays faithful to the original mystery classic by Agatha Christie. A closed-setting murder, a razor-sharp sleuth who sees through the most easily missed clues, and a shocking final twist — the film has all the right ingredients that make it an intriguing, gripping murder mystery. On its release, Murder on the Orient Express was a huge critical and commercial success, earning several accolades, including six Academy Award nominations and a win for Bergman.

3

‘Vertigo’ (1958)

Image via Paramount Pictures

A timeless thriller classic by Alfred Hitchcock, adapted from the 1954 French novel D’entre les morts by Boileau-Narcejac, Vertigo centers on a former police detective, John “Scottie” Ferguson, who suffers from a chronic fear of heights following an unfortunate incident. When an old friend hires him to spy on his wife, Scottie gets entangled in a web of secrecy, mystery, and emotional turmoil, combined with his phobia, that pushes his sanity to the edge. James Stewart stars as Scottie, with Tom Helmore, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes as other key characters.

Vertigo is a deep, psychological mystery that set new standards for the subgenre and is widely regarded as Hitchcock’s magnum opus. Headlined by the haunting performances of Stewart and Novak, the film transforms a regular whodunnit/howcatchem into a hypnotic study of obsession and guilt, making the mystery tighter and twistier than most others of its time. While Vertigo did not achieve a lot of critical acclaim in its day, the film has been reassessed as a Hollywood classic and a masterpiece of the genre.

2

‘Witness for the Prosecution’ (1957)

Image via United Artists

Directed by Billy Wilder and based on Agatha Christie’s 1935 play of the same name, Witness for the Prosecution follows senior lawyer Sir Wilfrid Robarts (Charles Laughton), who represents Leonard Vole, a man charged with the murder of a wealthy widow and his benefactor. When Leonard’s wife decides to testify against her husband, the case becomes even more complicated, with puzzling information and shocking revelations. Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Elsa Lanchester, and John Williams play other notable characters.

Witness for the Prosecution amplifies the intrigue and tension of the original story through the fantastic staging, shades of film noir, and masterful performances. A masterclass in courtroom mysteries, the film makes the audience confident about their assumptions of the truth and completely subverts it. Witness for the Prosecution is one of the only two film adaptations of Christie’s work that the author herself has praised, and it often surpasses the acclaim of the original West End play.

1

‘And Then There Were None’ (1945)

Image via 20th Century Fox

The first screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel of the same name, And Then There Were None follows eight strangers who are invited to a small, isolated island off the English Coast by a mysterious couple. The guests arrive, but the hosts remain absent, and the butler plays a record where a strange man’s voice accuses every guest of crimes that they have covered up. Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, Roland Young, June Duprez, C. Aubrey Smith, and Judith Anderson play the eight guests.

And Then There Were None is Christie’s most adapted novel across all media, but the 1945 film by French filmmaker René Clair remains the most prominent and widely acclaimed one. Suspenseful, macabre, and exciting all at once, And Then There Were None adapts a grim, slasher-style plot into a witty and deeply suspenseful mystery that plays like an intense game of chess. At the time, the film was highly praised for its script, musical score, and visuals, and it has since become widely accepted as the gold standard of locked-room mysteries.

Harlan Coben‘s shows have a formula. They are deeply rooted in family while enshrouded in mystery. This formula has been a winning one for the author, and the proof is in the 13-and-counting miniseries he has on Netflix and several shows on other streaming services. Known for their twists that keep viewers guessing, Coben’s thrillers are a perfect binge, and the latest thriller is officially one of Netflix’s biggest hits. Meanwhile, Apple TV has also been releasing thrillers, but they lean more into action than twists. But one upcoming Apple TV thriller is set to combine Coben’s signature style with Apple TV’s polished execution.

This series is similar to Coben’s two popular thrillers: I Will Find You and Run Away. The story focuses on a father whose young daughter went missing without a trace a little over a decade ago. Police detective Ian Ridley (Patrick Brammall) changed careers and now works as a police dispatcher. The only thing that keeps him going is the hope and refusal to accept that his daughter, Maggie, will never come back. Here’s the twist: a distress call from a teenage girl kindles his hopes, and he thinks it’s Maggie. Ridley will stop at nothing to find her and reunite his family.

Titled Last Seen, the series is based on Ryan David Jahn‘s 2011 book The Dispatcher. Kris Mrksa adapted the story for television while Christian Schwochow directed. The series is set in Victoria, Australia, where it was also filmed. Cast members include Maxine Peake (Black Mirror), Brendan Cowell (Dune: Prophecy), Daniel Henshall (Mickey 17), Zahra Newman (Thirteen Lives), Jessica Wren (Mr. Inbetween), Tobias Muhafidin (Bali 2002), and Chloe Jean Lourdes. Last Seen will make its global debut on Wednesday, September 9, with two episodes, followed by a new episode every Wednesday until October 7, 2026.

What Else Is Coming to Apple TV?

The streamer has several new and returning shows to look forward to. Gary Oldman‘s hit espionage thriller Slow Horses (September 16) is back for an historic sixth season, while True Detective icons Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey are back onscreen together in Brothers (September 23). October 7 brings a comedy series, Small Prophets, while on October 30, Stephen Graham and Liev Schreiber face off in Nocturne. The German-language dark comedy Where’s Wanda returns for Season 2 on October 21. Apple TV’s film slate includes The Last First: Winter K2 (October 2), a documentary about extreme mountain climbing. Continuing the mountain-climbing theme, Tenzing (October 9 theatrical; October 16 on streaming) explores the story of the first person known to have climbed Mt. Everest, Tenzing Norgay.

Watch Last Seen when the series debuts on September 9 and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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Release Date

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September 9, 2026

Network

Apple TV

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Directors

Christian Schwochow

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Cast

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• 

  Patrick Brammall

  Ian Ridley

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  Brendan Cowell

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  Henry Reid

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  Jessica Wren

  Debbie McGuire

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Chris ‘CT’ Tamburello’s estranged wife, Catalina White, is sounding off on news that the Challenge star is dating Phaedra Parks.

On Saturday, September 5, White, 40, replied in the comment section of a news report about Parks, 54, going public with her romance with Tamburello, 46, two years after they openly flirted as competitors on The Traitors season 2.

“Sign the papers 👏👏👏,” White wrote.

Her comment was likely meant to encourage Tamburello to sign their divorce papers since settlement negotiations between the two have been taking place all year.

Related: Inside The Challenge’s CT Tamburello and Ex Lilianet Solares’ Divorce

An amicable separation? The Challenge’s CT Tamburello and his estranged wife, Lilianet “Lili” Solares, appear to be coming to an agreement on several matters in their divorce filing. In new court documents obtained by Us Weekly on Tuesday, March 7, the twosome agreed to temporary financial and custody arrangements following their split. Solares, 30, has […]

Us confirmed that White filed for divorce in Miami-Dade County, Florida, in January, stating in court documents that her marriage was “irretrievably broken.” She initially asked the court to divide her and Tamburello’s assets “equitably” and requested that neither party pay alimony.

Tamburello responded in a court petition by asking to keep his “pre-marital and non-marital assets” and encouraged a judge to award “any such relief as the Court deems just and proper.”

The former couple were required to file a financial affidavit by March 13, 2026, though they ultimately asked for a 30-day extension. Tamburello could not sign off on any settlement immediately as he was away filming a TV show.

“The parties are currently negotiating a marital settlement agreement that contains an agreed waiver of exchanging and filing Financial Affidavits,” their lawyers explained in a joint petition. “The settlement agreement is on its final stages, however, the Respondent/Husband is out of town filming a reality show in which he has very limited contact with his counsel.”

The joint petition continued, “The parties expect settlement to be imminent and will be concluded as soon as counsel for Respondent/Husband can connect with her client.”

In August, White told Where Is the Buzz that she wanted to “genuinely wish Chris nothing but the best” despite their marriage coming to an end.

“Out of respect for the legal process and for everyone involved, I’m not going to discuss the details of our relationship or the divorce,” she stressed.

However, White did say that the complex process of getting divorced made her feel “grateful to have built my own career and to be able to support myself independently.”

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“I’ve worked incredibly hard for what I have, and I’m proud of that,” the model said. “This has never been about money for me. My focus is simply on moving forward, continuing to build my business, being there for my family, and embracing the next chapter of my life with positivity.”

Related: Phaedra Parks Says ‘RHOA’ Finally Has a ‘Highly Acclaimed Singer’

This week on Getting Real With the Housewives, Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks gets candid on season 17 newcomer K. Michelle. “K. Michelle is absolutely hilarious. You know, after we’ve seen all of these singers, everyone wants to sing. Now, we got one that’s really a highly acclaimed singer with Grammys and real […]

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Parks went public with her new romance with Tamburello on Sirius XM’s Jeff Lewis Live on Friday, September 4, revealing that she planned to take him as her date to the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The RHOA star confirmed to host Jeff Lewis that she’d “been out” with Tamburello a few times but declined to share exactly how many dates they’ve had.

Prior to his two-year marriage to White, Tamburello was with first wife Lilianet Solares, with whom he shares 10-year-old son CJ, from 2018 to 2023. Parks and ex-husband Apollo Nida were married from 2009 to 2017 and they share sons Ayden, 16, and Dylan, 13.

Plenty of TV shows are good enough to recommend, but essential should mean something more. It needs to make the audience feel something long after the credits roll. This is where Apple TV has really proven itself. The streamer’s best originals are unlike anything else on TV, with unique storylines and ambitions. Many of these shows feel like they are redefining modern television in real time.

They are pushing familiar genres in unexpected directions. Apple TV’s confident approach to storytelling makes it easy for viewers to get hooked on the streamer’s offerings. That consistency is exactly what makes choosing just a handful so difficult, but these are the Apple TV shows that feel the most essential to experience at least once.

10

‘Slow Horses’ (2022–Present)

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Slow Horses has practically reinvented the spy genre with a much more grounded approach. The Apple TV series is set in Slough House, where MI5 sends agents who have messed up badly enough to derail their careers but not quite badly enough to be fired. River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) ends up there after a disastrous training exercise and quickly realizes that his new workplace is practically a professional graveyard. The man in charge, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), is a brilliant former field agent who cares more about drinking than anything else, most of all work. Slow Horses dares to strip espionage of all glamour and show just how badly agents can screw up in the face of impossible stakes.

However, even then, the Slough House crew keeps getting entangled in kidnappings, assassination plots, and intelligence conspiracy theories that only they seem to care about solving. The agents are always caught between actual threats and senior intelligence officials trying to protect their own careers, especially Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), whose relationship with Lamb turns almost every investigation into a tense battle happening behind the scenes. This constant friction is where the series really shines. Not to mention that the show never suddenly turns its rejects into capable heroes. The crew constantly makes mistakes, but the fact that they always come together to get to the bottom of things is what makes up the heart of this messy and surprisingly emotional show.

9

‘Ted Lasso’ (2020–Present)

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Ted Lasso became one of Apple TV’s defining shows by turning the idea of a sports drama on its head. The series follows aggressively optimistic American football coach Ted (Jason Sudeikis), who is hired to manage AFC Richmond despite knowing practically nothing about English soccer. That’s not all, though, because he also does not realize that club owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) hired him specifically to fail because destroying Richmond is her way of getting revenge on her ex-husband. Ted responds to all of this in the most Ted Lasso way possible. He wins everyone over with his relentless positivity and an inherent ability to make people care about each other.

All this wholesomeness in the show could have become exhausting very quickly, but Ted Lasso never treats that as a magic fix. Rebecca has to confront what revenge is doing to her, Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) has to grow beyond being an incredibly talented nightmare of a teammate, and Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) has to figure out who he is when football stops being the center of his identity. Even Ted’s endless optimism eventually starts cracking under the weight of his divorce, loneliness, and panic attacks. The show understands that being positive is easy when life is going well. However, doing it when everything hurts is the real challenge. Football is still an important part of the show, but the emotional payoff usually comes from what happens off the pitch. The show strikes the perfect balance between all these elements and is on its way to becoming a modern classic.

8

‘Bad Sisters’ (2022–Present)

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Bad Sisters is one of Apple TV’s most unique offerings. The series revolves around the five Garvey sisters, who have remained extremely close since losing their parents at a young age. That bond is tested when Grace (Anne-Marie Duff) marries John Paul (Claes Bang), an emotionally abusive man who slowly isolates her from the rest of the family. Eva (Sharon Horgan), Ursula (Eva Birthistle), Bibi (Sarah Greene), and Becka (Eve Hewson) all despise him for different reasons, and eventually decide that Grace’s life would be considerably better if John Paul simply stopped being part of it. The interesting part, though, is that the series begins with John Paul already being dead. The real mystery is how it happened. From there, Bad Sisters constantly jumps between the sisters’ increasingly disastrous attempts to get rid of him and the present-day investigation by insurance brothers Thomas (Brian Gleeson) and Matthew Claffin (Daryl McCormack), who desperately need to prove his death was not accidental.

Every failed plan makes things worse, and John Paul somehow finds a new way to become even more unbearable just when it seems impossible to hate him any more. What makes Bad Sisters essential viewing, though, is how perfectly it walks the line between comedy and drama. The show can make the audience laugh at the sisters’ wacky schemes and then, minutes later, remind them why they became desperate enough to consider it in the first place. The Garvey sisters argue and lie to each other, but their connection never feels scripted. That chemistry gives Bad Sisters a personality and purpose that most murder mysteries just ignore. Eventually, the show becomes so much more than just its central mystery, and that’s what keeps the audience hooked.

7

‘Silo’ (2023–Present)

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Silo takes place in a world where most of humanity is dead, the entire world is toxic, and the last survivors live underground in a massive silo with 144 levels. The audience does not know who built this structure or what happened to the world outside because all records from before the uprising were destroyed. The only rule here is that if someone asks to go outside, they may leave, but they can never come back. That mystery only becomes more intriguing when engineer Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) starts investigating a series of deaths and realizes that the official version of life inside the silo might not add up.

The brilliance of Silo is how much tension it creates without constantly showing the audience what is outside. Most of the danger comes from people asking the wrong questions. The viewers experience all this through Juliette’s eyes as she moves through different levels of the silo, uncovers secrets about its history, surveillance systems, and the people responsible for keeping everyone obedient. The deeper she digs, the more this place starts feeling like an incredibly elaborate prison. The show’s incredible production design is also a huge part of why Silo is impossible to stop watching. The spectacle of this isolated world creates intrigue, but the constant sense of paranoia is what drives the story forward.

6

‘For All Mankind’ (2019–2027)

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For All Mankind is essential Apple TV viewing because very few shows have been this ambitious in a long time. The series begins with an alternate-history twist where the Soviet Union beats the United States to the Moon. That single defeat completely rewrites the future as NASA becomes even more aggressive, female astronauts enter the program earlier, lunar bases become permanent, and humanity keeps pushing toward milestones that took much longer in reality. The series follows astronauts including Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) and Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall), whose careers stretch across decades while space exploration evolves around them.

Now, the smartest thing For All Mankind does is jump forward roughly a decade between seasons. The audience does not just watch people reach space, because the narrative goes above and beyond that. New generations enter the picture, technology evolves, political powers shift, and by For All Mankind Season 5, Mars has its own thriving colony with thousands of residents. The scale of For All Mankind feels unlike almost anything else on TV. The series explores human ambition through massive historical turning points in a way that feels too real.

5

‘Shrinking’ (2023)

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Shrinking is based on a concept that could have gone totally wrong, but somehow, it just keeps getting better. The series follows therapist Jimmy Laird (Jason Segel), who is still grieving the death of his wife. He drinks too much, barely connects with his teenage daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell), and becomes increasingly frustrated with sitting across from patients who keep making the same mistakes. Eventually, Jimmy decides to throw professional boundaries out the window and starts telling his clients exactly what he thinks. He interferes in their relationships, pushes them into uncomfortable decisions, and even brings some of their problems directly into his own life.

His colleague Paul (Harrison Ford) thinks this is an absolutely terrible idea, but Jimmy isn’t one to listen. Of course, that premise means there is room for humor in Shrinking, but the show is just as sentimental as it is unhinged. Paul’s strained relationship with Alive and his dynamic with fellow therapist Gaby (Jessica Williams) gradually turn the show into an ensemble about people who are all trying to move forward while carrying burdens from their past. The series is extremely comfortable in being messy, like most human emotions are. Shrinking is not reinventing television with its premise, but it does make the viewers connect with its characters in a way that feels strangely personal.

4

‘Trying’ (2020)

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Trying is another Apple TV show that doesn’t need a high-stakes hook to be entertaining. The British comedy follows Nikki (Esther Smith) and Jason (Rafe Spall), a couple who desperately want a child but cannot have one biologically. After exhausting their options, they decide to adopt a child, which sends them through interviews, training sessions, evaluations, awkward family conversations, and the constant fear of someone else deciding whether they are good enough to become parents. Trying takes a complex subject and portrays it in a light-hearted tone without ever undermining its emotional, more difficult aspects. Nikki and Jason are chaotic, and maybe even immature.

However, their relationship has an effortless warmth that instantly makes the audience root for them. The adoption process is grueling and frustrating, but the couple is in for a whole new challenge when Trying Season 3 throws them directly into raising Princess and Tyler. Plenty of sitcoms stretch their original premise to the point of exhaustion, but Trying actually evolves and lets its characters move forward. Their family changes, the children grow up, and new problems replace the old ones instead of repeating them. The show is funny, sad, heartwarming, and sentimental in the best of ways. It understands every bit of the effort that goes into building and maintaining a family. That alone makes it worth the watch.

3

‘Mythic Quest’ (2020–2025)

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Mythic Quest is one of the few shows that actually gets video game culture right. The workplace comedy revolves around the team behind Mythic Quest, a successful online role-playing game led by creative director Ian Grimm (Rob McElhenney) and lead engineer Poppy Li (Charlotte Nicdao). The two work with executive producer David Brittlesbee (David Hornsby), ruthless monetization head Brad Bakshi (Danny Pudi), and an office full of developers, testers, and writers whose careers depend on keeping this increasingly chaotic game alive.

This setup gives Mythic Quest an endless supply of material. The show satirizes expansion packs, streaming, monetization, online communities, creative burnout, and massive egos; all become part of the joke, but never does it to appeal to a certain demographic. The real story of Mythic Quest is about creative ownership as Ian and Poppy’s friendship becomes increasingly complicated in the face of success. The audience doesn’t need to know anything about game development to appreciate that, but anyone who does will immediately relate to the show’s themes of artistic ambition, commercial success, and absolute corporate nonsense.

2

‘Pachinko’ (2022–2024)

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Pachinko explores history through an intimate lens. The series, based on Min Jin Lee’s novel, follows multiple generations of a Korean family, with Sunja (Minha Kim and Youn Yuh-jung) at the center of it all. Sunja grows up in Korea under Japanese occupation and eventually falls for wealthy fish broker Koh Hansu (Lee Min-ho). When she discovers that he is already married, she refuses to become his mistress and instead builds a completely different life with minister Isak (Steve Sanghyun Noh) in Osaka. Decades later, the audience follows older Sunja (Youn Yuh-jung), who watches her grandson Solomon (Jin Ha) chase success in Japan while carrying the weight of a family history he doesn’t fully understand.

What makes Pachinko special is the way it moves across time without ever losing its emotional center. The series constantly places one generation beside another. A sacrifice made by Sunja decades earlier suddenly gives new meaning to the choices Solomon gets to make in the present. That structure turns the family history, poverty, discrimination, and identity into something the audience can actually feel through all these characters. The show’s visual style and its use of Korean, Japanese, and English languages perfectly complement the sweeping scale of its story.

1

‘Severance’ (2022–Present)

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Severance is unlike any other show on air right now, and it has only gotten better with each episode. The sci-fi psychological thriller follows Mark Scout (Adam Scott), an employee at Lumon Industries who has undergone a procedure that completely separates his work memories from his personal life. The version of Mark who enters the office, the innie, has no idea what happens outside, while the version who leaves, the outie, has no memory of the eight hours he just spent working. That arrangement initially feels like the answer to work-life balance, until the audience realizes that for the innie, it means existing inside Lumon forever. That becomes impossible to ignore once Helly R. (Britt Lower) joins Mark, Irving (John Turturro), and Dylan (Zach Cherry) in the Macrodata Refinement department.

Their job involves sorting numbers they do not understand, and incentives include bizarre things like melon bars and finger traps. However, Helly begins questioning what Lumon actually does, and that’s when Lumon’s sterile hallways and strange rules start to feel almost sinister. Severance takes its time to reveal the secrets hiding within Lumon. The show develops its seemingly absurd concept with a confidence that pays off when the puzzle pieces start coming together. The Apple TV original is already one of the defining sci-fi shows of its era with just two seasons, which goes to show how well-received its strange premise and slow-burn mystery have been with audiences.

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Severance

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Release Date

February 17, 2022

Network

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Apple TV

Showrunner

Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman

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An icon with a heart of gold, Dolly Parton will be sadly missed. It was announced late last month that the Queen of Country had passed away aged 80 after a “brief battle with cancer,” and the world was in shock. Tributes to the legendary songstress, movie star, and philanthropist came pouring in from around the world. “I will always love her and want to make her proud,” wrote Parton’s goddaughter, Miley Cyrus, while Taylor Swift paid tribute to Parton’s “true grace and true grit, all in one dazzling person.”

In a narrative on-screen role, Parton’s last performance came back in 2022, when she appeared in the series finale of the brilliant Grace and Frankie. Parton’s working-class angel, Agnes, stole the show in her last performance as she poignantly interacted at the gates of heaven with two of her longest friends. Those friends were Grace and Frankie themselves, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, who Parton famously starred alongside in her breakout film role in 9 to 5.

As Doralee Rhodes, Parton blew away audiences with her acting prowess and comedy chops, setting in motion the next step in her all-conquering career. Directed by Colin Higgins, who wrote the screenplay with Patricia Resnick, 9 to 5 was a big hit with both critics and audiences. Roger Ebert awarded it a 3/4 rating, writing that the film is “a good-hearted, simple-minded comedy that will win a place in film history, I suspect, primarily because it contains the movie debut of Dolly Parton.” Following Parton’s passing, fans have been paying their respects by returning to her beloved debut. At the time of writing, 9 to 5 is the fourth most-watched movie on Disney+ in the U.S.

‘9 to 5’ Was a Box Office Smash

Not only was 9 to 5 a big hit with critics and sparked the on-screen career of Parton, but it also was a major success at the box office. Against a reported budget of roughly $10 million, the movie made over $100 million worldwide, with almost all of this coming from domestic ticket sales. This placed 9 to 5 as the second-highest-grossing film of 1980 in the world, losing out on the top spot to the box office juggernaut Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back.

Stay tuned to Collider for all the latest streaming stories.

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Release Date

December 19, 1980

Runtime

109 Minutes

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Director

Colin Higgins

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Writers

Patricia Resnick, Colin Higgins

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As part of Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO Max primarily hosts and streams the company’s shows and movies to subscribers. Viewers can stream new episodes of House of the Dragon or The White Lotus on HBO Max after their linear premiere. The streaming platform also regularly adds new and older movies and TV shows to keep the library diverse. However, HBO Max also has exclusive TV shows and movies made specifically for the platform. It has seen success with shows like Peacemaker, The Sex Lives of College Girls, and Hacks. However, the streamer’s true hit is a 2-season procedural that is gearing up for another season at the beginning of next year.

This series was a hit right out of the gate with critics and viewers alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season scored an impressive 94%, and the second was rated even higher at 99%. Warner Bros. Discovery reported that each episode was averaging 10 million viewers, and that number rose by over 50% when delayed viewing was factored in. The series benefited from word of mouth, recording episode-by-episode growth throughout Season 1. The second season saw even more viewership, racking up billions of streamed minutes. Nielsen reports that the series, titled The Pitt, has over 15 billion minutes (250 million hours) viewed to date.

Now the Noah Wyle-led series is gearing up for its third season, which is not expected until sometime in January 2027. HBO Max has not set the precise date yet. Cast members expected to return for the new season include Wyle (Dr. Robby), Patrick Ball (Dr. Langdon), Katherine LaNasa (Dana Evans), Fiona Dourif (Dr. McKay), Taylor Dearden (Dr. King), Isa Briones (Dr. Santos), Gerran Howell (Dr. Whitaker), Shabana Azeez (Javadi), Sepideh Moafi (Dr. Al-Hashimi), and Shawn Hatosy (Dr. Abbot). Supriya Ganesh will not return for Season 3, as her character’s natural arc comes to an end, while Ayesha Harris (Dr. Ellis) is being upgraded to series regular.

What Is ‘The Pitt’ Season 3 About?

The show is not departing from its formula in the new season. It’s a new shift, and chaos is on the horizon. Robby has been on a three-month sabbatical that many did not think he would return from. But he’s back, and it’s Thursday, November 12, 2026, the day after Veterans Day. The timeline deviates slightly as the show explores the past while looking at what the future holds as a result of the Big Beautiful Bill kicking into the healthcare system. But above all, The Pitt is a medical drama, so viewers can expect weekly cases that might break your heart and gross you out in the same episode.

The Pitt returns in January 2027. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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Release Date

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January 9, 2025

Network

Max

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Showrunner

R. Scott Gemmill

Directors

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Amanda Marsalis

Writers

Joe Sachs, Cynthia Adarkwa

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• 

  Noah Wyle

  Dr. Michael ‘Robby’ Robinavitch

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  Tracy Ifeachor

  Dr. Heather Collins

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