Despite how synonymous he now is with the action genre, Gerard Butler was a far more experimental movie star several years ago. In fact, for a decade, he was just as well-known for his romantic movies. One of them is currently streaming on Paramount+ in the United States, but it won’t stick around for much longer. The movie was released in theaters in 2010, only a few years after Butler became a bona fide movie star thanks to Zack Snyder‘s 300. This was during the time he headlined films such as The Ugly Truth, P.S. I Love You, and Playing for Keeps. The movie we’re talking about, however, is arguably the most popular romance title he starred in.

It also features Jennifer Aniston, and was directed by Andy Tennant, who previously made Hitch and Fool’s Gold. Produced on a reported budget of approximately $45 million, the film grossed more than $135 million worldwide. It wasn’t well-received by critics, though, and now holds a poor 13% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. We’re talking, of course, about The Bounty Hunter. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus for the film reads, “Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston remain as attractive as ever, but The Bounty Hunter‘s formula script doesn’t know what to do with them — or the audience’s attention.”

Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston’s Action Comedy Is Leaving Paramount+

The Bounty Hunter is currently streaming on Paramount+, but only until July 1. Meanwhile, Butler has mostly moved away from romance movies of all kinds. He focuses almost exclusively on the action and sci-fi genres, although he recently experienced major success with the live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon. He also starred in two action sequels, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera and Greenland 2: Migration. While the former did solid box-office business and even better on home video, Greenland 2 was a major commercial misfire. More recently, Butler was part of the eclectic ensemble of Julian Schnabel‘s Netflix film In the Hand of Dante, which also features Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, John Malkovich, Al Pacino, and Martin Scorsese. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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Release Date

March 16, 2010

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Runtime

110 minutes

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Andy Tennant

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Mitchel Musso says he’d do anything for his “sister,” Miley Cyrus.

Days after trashing the “Hannah Montana” 20th anniversary special, the “Hey” singer got candid about his relationship with the 33-year-old and their co-star, Emily Osment.

Exactly one year ago, Mitchel Musso made headlines when he clapped back at Cyrus’ claim that he used to smoke pot on the set of the Disney Channel original series.

On an episode of the “Joe Vulpis Podcast,” Musso, 34, opened up about his relationship with his “Hannah Montana” co-stars, Cyrus and Osment, who played Hannah and Lilly.

“This is our middle school, high school, college — we graduated a class of three,” he said about the trio.

“Hannah Montana” aired on Disney from 2006 to 2011. In addition to the show’s 98 episodes, the cast also filmed a feature film that included the chart-topping hit, “The Climb.”

“It was just me, Miley, and Emily, right?” Musso said. “So, it was everything to us. If we weren’t on set together, we were out snowboarding together. We were hanging out in Tennessee at the house.”

Mitchel Musso Gets Candid About His Relationship With ‘Sister’ Cyrus

According to Musso, the trio “never wanted to be apart” from each other while filming the Disney series, adding that their little group had “so many inside jokes.”

“It was our little, it was our clique, you know, us three,” he added.

And speaking about his clique, Musso said that while he doesn’t speak with Cyrus much today, when they do, it’s like old times, calling the “Flowers” singer one of “the coolest people.”

“One of the most impressive people and watching her career…it’s not like I talk to Miley every single day, but you know the once or twice a year that I do get to speak with her, she’s my sister, you know what I mean? I’d do anything for Miles,” he said.

Mitchel Musso Slammed The ‘Hannah Montana’ 20th Anniversary Special

Musso’s comments about his Disney co-stars come days after he made headlines for trashing the show’s 20th anniversary special, which included a sit-down interview with “Call Her Daddy” podcast host Alex Cooper and new versions of “Best of Both Worlds” and “This Is The Life.”

Although Musso wasn’t part of the special, he said it “wasn’t presented correctly” for him to even want to have a role in it. “It’s too long of a wait to do it in a way that isn’t even close to, in my opinion, correct,” he said.

“The kid in me was banking on it, like ‘I can’t wait for us to all be on set again,’” he added. “And it just didn’t work out that way.”

Osment Wasn’t Included In The 20th Anniversary Special Either

And Musso wasn’t the only “Hannah Montana” alum who missed out on the special. Osment also took a back seat this time, telling her fans online that she had too many conflicts to make it work.

“‘Hannah Montana’ changed my life, it gave me a lifelong respect for this medium of comedy, it taught me discipline, patience, timing and respect working in an adult space so young,” she said of the series.

The “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” actress went on to say that she’s loved interacting with fans of the show over the years and has enjoyed seeing the series’ legacy live on.

“I can’t tell you what your sweet messages mean to me and how lucky I feel to have been [a part] of this once in a generation goliath of a television show,” she said. “Thank you for letting me into your living rooms and I hope to still be there many years from now. Would never be where I am without you guys, working on another beautiful show I love so dearly. With all my heart, THANK YOU!”

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Musso Claps Back At Claims He Used To Smoke Pot On The ‘Hannah Montana’ Set

According to a previous report from The Blast, Cyrus spilled some “Hannah Montana” secrets while preparing for the show’s 20th anniversary. Last year, the singer said that someone used to smoke pot on the show’s set and implied that Musso was the one known to light up.

The “Shout It Out” singer clapped back, though, calling Cyrus a revisionist historian. “That’s not how I remember it,” he said. “I’ve got plenty of stories from those years that might be worth having a conversation about.”

The science fiction genre has seen the birth of numerous science fiction franchises over the years, from Star Wars and Star Trek to cult classics like Babylon 5. One of the most underrated is the Stargate franchise, which officially kicked off with Stargate: SG-1. Showrunners Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner deserve credit not only for launching a series that continues to hold a dedicated fanbase 25 years after its inception but also for having that series serve as a launching pad for a whole franchise. While it’s common for shows like Peacemaker and Loki to spin out of feature films, SG-1 didn’t have the luxury of a streaming service or an era where genre fare was commonplace. Its origin story boils down to unexpected success.

SG-1 sprung into being due to a deal between Showtime and MGM Studios, with the latter owning the rights to the Stargate film. With Stargate proving to be a massive success at the box office, director/co-writer Roland Emmerich and his creative partner Dean Devlin pitched two more Stargate films. Each of the proposed sequels would have delved into the origin of various myths in Earth culture, and revealed that the chyrons on the Stargate were in fact coordinates to other alien worlds. “Whether it was Bigfoot, or the Yeti — we were going to tie everything together into a larger mythology. And it was going to be so much fun. It was going to be so wild,” Devlin said during an interview for the Dial the Gate podcast.

The Stargate TV Series Brought Back Beloved Characters With New Faces

Those films never came to be as MGM saw more value in a television series. The network hired Wright and Glassner, who’d previously worked on the Showtime revival of The Outer Limits. Together, they crafted a story that took place roughly one year after the events of the Stargate films and saw the return of protagonists Jack O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) and Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks). O’Neill and Jackson become part of a specialized “SG” team that also includes tech genius Samantha “Sam” Carter (Amanda Tapping) and the mysterious alien warrior Teal’c (Christopher Judge). Throughout SG-1‘s entire run, the team would utilize the Stargate to travel to other worlds and confront interstellar threats such as the shapeshifting Goa’uld.

Ironically, SG-1 would contain many of the elements that Emmerich and Devilin had pitched for their potential Stargate trilogy. The Goa’uld’s highest-ranking members, the System Lords, were named after gods in various mythologies, including Apophis (Peter Williams) and Ba’al (Cliff Simon). It turns out that Ra, the alien warlord whom O’Neill and Jackson battled in the Stargate film, was also a member of the Goa’uld. Wright and Glassner also explored the possibility of the Stargate connecting to other worlds, allowing the show to put its own spin on mythological figures.

There were takes on Norse, Japanese, and even Babylonian gods, which gave the creators the ability to establish a rich universe and continue with the film’s theme of “ancient astronauts.” This also allowed the series to tackle religious themes, specifically how others do terrible things in the name of faith. Teal’c formerly served Apophis but wound up defecting to SG-1 in order to free his people, the Jaffa.

The New Stargate Cast Developed the Characters, Adding More Depth Over Time

A major draw of the series was the chemistry between the cast, especially Anderson and Shanks. Both step into the roles left by Kurt Russell and David Spader with ease; Shanks even won producers over with his pitch-perfect impression of Spader. But they also made the characters their own. Anderson constantly sought to make O’Neill a more flippant and approachable character than he was in the film, and he frequently had the chance to show how little regard the Colonel had for bureaucracy. Shanks’s performance as Jackson is equally compelling, as his intellect and compassion prove to be a solution to many problems the SG-1 team faces. Their interactions with Tapping’s Carter and Judge’s Teal’C make for some memorable dynamics; both O’Neill and Carter struggle with their feelings for each other, and Teal’C learns more about humanity.

And unlike other sci-fi series, SG-1 knew how to balance its darker scenes with moments of levity. Watching the series, it’s clear that the SG-1 team cares deeply about each other, and, as it turns out, that care extended to the behind-the-scenes matters as the actors collaborated with the crew on shaping their characters. Anderson, for example, asked for O’Neill to be more sarcastic, while Judge felt Teal’c should be more stoic.

Stargate: SG-1 would last for 10 seasons and weather several changes. Shanks and Anderson would have reduced roles in later seasons, and the show shifted from Showtime to the SyFy Channel with Season 6. Despite this, the show received critical acclaim as well as stellar ratings. The feature-length SG-1 pilot “Children of the Gods” was one of Showtime’s biggest series premieres and, combined with Battlestar Galactica, the series helped put SyFy on the map. Naturally, given SG-1‘s success, spin-offs were soon put into production.

Two feature films, Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate Continuum, were developed for a DVD release. The Ark of Truth serves as the grand conclusion to SG-1’s battle with the alien race known as the Ori, and Continuum finds them attempting to fix the past after Ba’al changes history so that the Goa’uld conquered Earth. Both films, despite being direct-to-DVD, take the SG-1 story and escalate it to cinematic heights — the danger feels bigger and the scope more epic.

Stargate Led to Further Spin-Offs and Launched Genres Stars Into the Mainstream

Image via Showtime

There would also be spin-off series in the form of Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe, and the prequel Stargate Origins. Atlantis premiered between the Season 7 finale and the Season 8 premiere of SG-1 and follows a new team led by Lt. Colonel John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) as they discover the lost city of Atlantis and wind up in a battle with the malevolent Wraith. Universe finds a team of scientists forced to board an ancient alien ship called Destiny after their base is attacked, and escape using a Stargate — but wind up in a distant galaxy.

Origins is rather self-explanatory: Catherine Langford (Ellie Gall) aims to save her father after he is sent through a Stargate. All of these series continued to build out the universe of Stargate, but only Atlantis matched SG-1 in terms of fan engagement and character development. The SG-1 crew would also appear in various episodes of Atlantis and Universe, especially Tapping’s Carter, who served as a major character in the former.

The Stargate franchise was home to many genre alums over the course of its run. Farscape alum Ben Browder joined SG-1 in its final two seasons as Cameron Mitchell, Jason Momoa had a recurring role on Atlantis as Ronan Dex, which is rather ironic given his future role in Aquaman, and Ming-Na Wen had a recurring (later regular) role on Universe. Other sci-fi alums who appeared in the franchise include Robert Picardo and Morena Baccarin. Baccarin’s fellow Firefly alums Jewel Staite and Adam Baldwin also had recurring roles in Atlantis.

Though Stargate SG-1 has been off the air for years, its fanbase is still going strong. There’s been a “Gatecon” convention dedicated to the series, and rumors have swirled of a potential new Stargate installment once MGM became a part of Amazon. None of it would be possible without the groundwork that SG-1 laid, as it took the foundation of a cult film and built upon it to make one of the most interesting science fiction universes ever put on the small screen.

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Stargate SG-1

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Release Date

1997 – 2007-00-00

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Showrunner

Brad Wright

Directors

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Martin Wood, Andy Mikita, William Waring, Bill Gereghty, David Warry-Smith, Brad Turner, Mario Philip Azzopardi, William Gereghty, Peter F. Woeste, Dennis Berry, Ken Girotti, Charles Correll, Jonathan Glassner, Robert C. Cooper, Allan Eastman, Bill Corcoran, Jeff Woolnough, Jim Kaufman, Allan Lee, amanda tapping

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  Samantha Carter

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Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and more costars had their fair share of high-profile romances since the sitcom catapulted their careers.

In 1995, one year after the NBC series premiered, Aniston actress began dating Tate Donovan. The pair called it quits three years later, and while they were working through their split, they were given a romantic arc on Friends.

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Though he had his ups and downs with Aniston, Donovan said all six of the main Friends cast “were amazing” to him during his time on the show. “They were fantastic,” he gushed.

Donovan isn’t the only one of the Golden Globe winner’s beaus to have appeared on the legendary comedy. Brad Pitt made a brief appearance on Friends in 2001, playing a former high school classmate of Rachel, Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) and Monica Geller (Cox).

Scroll down for a recap of the Friends cast’s dating histories through the years:

Jenni “JWoww” Farley isn’t letting wedding drama overshadow her newlywed bliss. Days after reports surfaced claiming certain “Jersey Shore” cast members were blindsided by being left off the guest list for her surprise wedding to Zack Carpinello, the reality star is pushing back against the controversy and defending her decision to keep the celebration intimate. While some former co-stars reportedly felt snubbed, JWoww says the reaction only reinforced why certain people weren’t invited in the first place.

Farley recently addressed the growing controversy in a TikTok video, making it clear that she was frustrated by the public discussion surrounding her guest list. “It is infuriating” that she’s “now getting caught up in retweets and tabloids about who was invited and who wasn’t invited,” she said.

“If you were a true friend or family member, none of this would be public right now,” Farley continued. “You would’ve [come] to me. But you can’t come to me, because then you can’t play victim to your own fake ass narrative.”

The reality star explained that she and Carpinello intentionally limited the guest list to around 50 of their closest family members and friends. “These people that are sh-t talking and creating these anonymous threads and tabloids things are the whole reason why they weren’t invited,” she added. “You proved my point.”

JWoww Focuses On Newlywed Life With Zack Carpinello

Despite the headlines surrounding who wasn’t there, Farley and Carpinello are choosing to focus on the people who were.

“We’re still taking it all in,” the couple told Page Six while sharing photos from their wedding celebration. “Every moment [of the wedding] felt intentional and filled with love. It was a beautiful reminder of how fortunate we are to have such incredible people in our lives, and we couldn’t have asked for a better way to begin our marriage.”

The pair tied the knot on Wednesday at Madison Modern Social in Old Bridge, New Jersey, surprising guests who believed they were attending a screening of Farley’s upcoming project, “Nanny Cam.”

Several ‘Jersey Shore’ Stars Attended The Surprise Ceremony

While reports claimed Angelina Pivarnick and Ronnie Ortiz-Magro were left off the guest list, several of Farley’s longtime “Jersey Shore” castmates were in attendance. Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Deena Nicole Cortese, Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola, and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino were among those who celebrated with the newlyweds.

A source previously told Page Six that Pivarnick was “angry” about being excluded from the intimate ceremony because she had been “working with her for years,” though Farley has declined to address any specific names publicly.

Ronnie Ortiz-Magro was also not invited to the wedding, while Paul “Pauly D” DelVecchio and Vinny Guadagnino were invited but did not attend.

JWoww Says The Wedding Was Designed To Be Personal, Not A Production

Farley has also opened up about why she and Carpinello chose to keep their wedding celebration so intimate. “We envisioned a small, meaningful celebration focused on the people who matter most to us,” Farley told PEOPLE. “We weren’t interested in throwing the biggest wedding possible. We wanted an unforgettable moment shared with our closest family and friends. The goal was creating memories, not creating a production.”

According to the reality star, every aspect of the ceremony was intentionally designed to reflect the couple’s relationship rather than meet outside expectations. “More than anything, we wanted the day to feel authentic to us,” she continued. “The surprise element, the family focus, and the intimate guest list all allowed us to create something personal and meaningful.”

JWoww And Zack Carpinello Made Sure Their Children Were Part Of The Celebration

Farley and Carpinello also made it a priority to ensure their wedding day celebrated the family they have built together over the past seven years. The reality star shares daughter Meilani, 11, and son Greyson, 10, with ex-husband Roger Mathews, and the couple wanted both children to play a meaningful role in the special day.

According to PEOPLE, Carpinello gifted his stepdaughter a ruby birthstone ring, while Greyson received a soccer-themed present to commemorate the occasion. “This wedding is about our family, not just the two of us,” the newlyweds shared. “We wanted the day to celebrate not only our love story but also the family we’ve built together over the last seven years.”

By incorporating thoughtful gifts and making the children part of the festivities, Farley and Carpinello said they wanted Meilani and Greyson to feel “celebrated and included every step of the way” as they officially began this new chapter together.

Tia Mowry is living her best life with her new boyfriend by her side.

Years after the “Sister, Sister” actress divorced her ex-husband, Cory Hardrict, she found love again with her partner, Javone Williams, whom she described as super smart and “so wonderful.”

In March 2026, Tia Mowry opened up about how her “boundaries” had changed since separating from her ex.

Tia recently sat down with SiriusXM’s “Today Radio Show” to discuss a range of topics, including her new relationship with Williams, a teacher, artist, and reader.

According to Mowry, their connection is so strong that they do things together that help push them to be better, like going to the “Buddhist temple” every week and reading before bed.

“He’s a wonderful human being,” Tia said. “His emotional intelligence, it’s amazing.”

Tia Mowry Reveals She ‘Manifested’ Her New Relationship With Williams After Speaking With A Friend

Later in the interview, Mowry said that she “manifested” her new relationship with Williams after a friend of hers told her to “listen to music, put some candles on and just write out a list of what you would like in a partner.”

“I’m glad that it came around the time…because I really wouldn’t have known what I wanted three years ago. I really needed to sit in like solitude and like learn who I am first before I even figured out what it was and what it is that I want. So I did do that,” she said.

“And not only did I do that, I’m a huge believer in like neuroscience,” the mother of two added. “So I would literally close my eyes, and I would meditate about my partner, and I would meditate about the feeling that I would want to feel, and the feeling was my nervous system being safe, and that’s exactly what he does, like he’s amazing, like he’s so wonderful.”

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Tia Mowry Filed For Divorce From Ex, Cory Hardrict, In 2022

Tia initially filed for divorce from her ex, Cory Hardrict, in 2022 after 14 years of marriage. The “Game” star cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split.

According to TMZ, she opened up about her separation from Hardrict in an Instagram post, saying she wanted to be honest with her fans about where things stood between them.

“I wanted to share that Cory and I have decided to go our separate ways. These decisions are never easy, and not without sadness. We will maintain a friendship as we co-parent our beautiful children. I am grateful for all the happy times we had together and want to thank my friends, family and fans for your love and support as we start this new chapter moving forward in our lives,” she wrote.

Tia Knew Her Relationship Was Over At This Moment

Tia spoke with “TODAY” about her split and said that she could pinpoint the moment she knew things between her and her ex were over.

“I knew when I really started to focus on my happiness,” she said in 2022. “I feel like women, we tend to focus on everybody else’s happiness, making sure that everybody else is OK — meaning our children, our friends, our family.”

Tia went on to say that life is about more than those things, adding that when women begin focusing on themselves and “self-love,” they’ll recognize their value. “And it’s not easy. It’s a hard journey, but at the end of the day, I feel like it is so, so worth it,” she continued.

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Tia Must Be Feeling ‘Secure’ About Her New Relationship With Williams

According to a previous report from The Blast, Tia told the media that, following her divorce, she was keeping certain aspects of her personal life private. She shared that she would only post about her relationship when she felt “secure” with where things were between them.

“If I am feeling secure about something, then I’m okay sharing, because everybody wants to say what they want to say. When you are secure with yourself, then you’re like, ‘This is just noise,’” she said.

The actress said that she’s normally a bit nervous posting about her love life, and to protect herself, she’s used to creating “a boundary.”

“So yeah, it’s all about what I feel secure about, and also just [what I’m] passionate about, that I’m open to talk about,” she added.

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War dramas will always be popular, with the intensity and truth behind their stories a perfect way to captivate a global audience. Right now, one of the best war films of the year is proving popular on PVOD. The WWII drama-thriller Pressure, which stars Brendan Fraser and Andrew Scott, follows the 72 hours before D-Day, and somehow finds a fresh lens through which to look at one of the most-told war stories in modern media.

The success of Pressure will likely point people in the direction of other war epics, with one such gem about to make its way to a free streamer. Set in 1944 after the Battle of the Bulge, Hart’s War follows Bruce Willis as a senior-ranking Allied officer, Colonel William McNamara, alongside Lieutenant Thomas Hart (Colin Farrell), who is tortured at a German prisoner of war camp and gives up information valuable to the Allied strategy. McNamara then recruits Hart to defend Lieutenant Lincoln Scott (Terrence Howard), a black prisoner of war accused of murdering a white prisoner.

Hart’s War was first released in 2002 and is based on the novel by John Katzenbach. The film is directed by Gregory Hoblit, who is best known for directing 1996’s Primal Fear, and was one of the last movies he made to date. Hart’s War was sadly met with mixed reviews from critics, scoring just 60% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but it did earn a strong 3/4-star review from the great Roger Ebert. If you’re looking for your next gripping war drama, you’re in luck, as Hart’s War will be available to stream for free on Plex, starting July 1.

Did ‘Hart’s War’ Perform Well at the Box Office?

Image via MGM

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Hart’s War didn’t manage to impress critics on the whole, but could it at least find some success at the box office? Sadly, the film was one of the biggest flops of 2002, scoring just $33 million in global revenue against a budget of $70 million. This is an undeniable disaster for a film led by Willis during the height of his Hollywood power, just three years after he starred in M. Night Shyamalan‘s The Sixth Sense. Hart’s War faced tough box office competition upon debut, including Black Hawk Down, A Beautiful Mind, and Peter Pan: Return to Neverland.

Hart’s War is streaming for free on Plex next month. Stay tuned to Collider for the latest streaming stories.

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Release Date

February 15, 2002

Runtime

125 minutes

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Director

Gregory Hoblit

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Producers

Arnold Rifkin, David Foster, David Ladd

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  Colin Farrell

  Lt. Thomas W. Hart

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If you are a TV fan, you’ve no doubt had to deal with the premature loss of a favorite show. Before the streaming era, shows like My So-Called Life, Freaks and Geeks, and Pushing Daisies all ended before their time. Then along came Netflix, the ultimate heartbreaker. Did you enjoy that take on Daredevil? Too bad, it’s gone. Were you a fan of Mike Flanagan’s The Midnight Club? Sorry, it’s over — go read the book. Were you impressed by Dark, so now you’re checking out 1899 because it’s made by the same people? I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’re not getting the answers to all of those questions the series asked. If you get involved with a Netflix series, you pretty much go in knowing the risks. You’re getting involved with a show that could break up with you at any moment, no matter how new it is or how good it’s going.

‘Mindhunter’ Was One of Netflix’s Best Series

Another victim of Netflix’s fear of commitment was Mindhunter, which ran from 2017 to 2019. But it was a show that had everything going for it. David Fincher was one of Hollywood’s elite film directors, creating such masterpieces as Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac, and The Social Network. Then came the news that he was working with Netflix on an adaptation of the 1995 true-crime book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Serial Elite Crime Unit. Written by former FBI agent John E. Douglas, the book looked into the lives of real-life criminal profilers. For Fincher, who built a career on making crime thrillers, pairing him with this book and Netflix was a match made in heaven. It wasn’t his first time working with Netflix either, as he had already been an executive producer and director on House of Cards.

The series turned out as well as anyone could have expected, completely living up to the hype. It wasn’t just Fincher’s dark, slow-burn storytelling that made it work. He was also assisted by a stellar cast, including Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany as FBI agents, and Cameron Britton in a quiet but creepy performance as serial killer Ed Kemper. Britton’s impression of Kemper was so spot on that the actor earned himself an Emmy nomination.

Season 2 ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. An arrest had just been made in the Atlanta child murders, and the frightening scenes of the BTK killer were growing more intense. Season 3 looked to continue the macabre mayhem, except it never came to be. In early 2020, it was announced that the cast had been released from their contracts. Netflix put out a statement to TVLine, saying, “David is focused on directing his first Netflix film Mank, and on producing the second season of Love, Death and Robots. He may revisit Mindhunter again in the future, but in the meantime felt it wasn’t fair to the actors to hold them from seeking other work while he was exploring new work of his own.” That meant Season 3 would eventually come, right? No. In short, the show was unofficially cancelled, but getting fans to accept that would take some time.

David Fincher Has Had To Continously Answer Questions About the Status of ‘Mindhunter’

Image via Netflix/ Denver and Delilah Productions

It was disappointing to hear, but not surprising. It had been a few years since Fincher had made a feature film. Let him go scratch that itch, and he’d be back. He went on to make Mank, which, unsurprisingly, won a few Academy Awards and earned Fincher yet another Best Director nomination. Later in the year, when being interviewed by Vulture, Fincher was asked if Mindhunter was over, and he replied, “I think probably.”

“Listen, for the viewership that it had, it was an expensive show. We talked about ‘Finish Mank and then see how you feel,’ but I honestly don’t think we’re going to be able to do it for less than I did Season 2. And on some level, you have to be realistic about dollars have to equal eyeballs.”

Oof. That hurt. For anyone hoping the show would soon return, that seemed to be the clearest answer that it wasn’t coming back, except then a Netflix rep also had to tell Vulture, “Maybe in five years.” Dang you, Netflix. You make it impossible to let go! A few months later, in an interview with Variety, Fincher was again asked about Mindhunter, and he gave a similar answer: “I don’t know if it makes sense to continue,” he said. “It was an expensive show. It had a very passionate audience, but we never got the numbers that justified the cost.”

It’s Time To Give Up on Any Hope for More ‘Mindhunter’

Image via Netflix

That seemed to seal the series’ fate. Mindhunter cost too much money and not enough people watched, so Netflix pulled it. As much as it sucked, what could you do? Some things just aren’t meant to be, no matter how much you love them. Then, in what had to have been an attempt to one-up that Netflix rep, Fincher added, “At some point, I’d love to revisit it. The hope was to get all the way up to the late 90s, early 2000s, hopefully, get all the way up to people knocking on the door at Dennis Rader’s house.” Once again, fans were fed a bit of hope and then left hanging, like someone who’s been dumped in a relationship, only for the ex to keep popping up and telling you there’s a chance at getting back together. The hope continued to grow when, in 2021, Fincher signed an exclusive four-year deal with Netflix. Maybe, just maybe, that meant the series would return eventually. Spoiler alert: It didn’t.

While we waited, creator Joe Penhall and the cast moved on to other things. Series lead Jonathan Groff had a big role in 2021’s The Matrix Resurrections. While promoting the film in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he was asked about the status of Mindhunter:

“To me, Mindhunter is Fincher. The whole experience for me was the honor and privilege of getting to work with him. So I’m not a sports person really at all, but it’s like the [1997-1998] Chicago Bulls. Do you go for another season with the team? Or do you just do what the general manager says? But if the general manager believes that it should stop, you have to go with the general manager. And this is how I feel with David. The minute he says he wants to do another one, I’ll be there in a second. But I trust his vision and his instincts, and so I leave it always in his hands, as ever.”

At this point, it had been almost two years since Season 2 of Mindhunter. While Groff’s comment about being there to do another season in a second was enticing to hold on to, it also wasn’t feasible. Fincher had moved on, returning to feature films. The cast had moved on, too. Groff was also one of the leads in Knock at the Cabin, and Anna Torv appeared in the first season of The Last of Us. On paper, it seems easy to bring the show back. Well, everyone sounds like they still want to do it, so why not? Netflix surely has enough money. Look at how much money they spend on other shows just to cancel them. On top of that, look how popular true crime is now! Netflix is like a murder documentary assembly line. It’s not that easy, sadly. Resurrecting Mindhunter is not like making a movie. In terms of runtime, it’s like making three or four feature films back-to-back, which is a commitment that’s hard to live up to years later.

‘Mindhunter’ Is Over, It’s Time To Watch Other TV Shows

In an interview with the French outlet Le Journal du Dimanche in 2023, Fincher was, of course, once again asked about the status of Mindhunter. “I’m very proud of the first two seasons,” he said, before repeating:

“But it’s a very expensive show and, in the eyes of Netflix, we didn’t attract enough of an audience to justify such an investment [for Season 3]. They took risks to get the show off the ground, gave me the means to do Mank the way I wanted to do it, and they allowed me to venture down new paths with The Killer. It’s a blessing to be able to work with people who are capable of boldness.”

That sounds like acceptance for Fincher. He did his best, but his relationship with the series is over, and he’s ready to move on. That means you, too, interviewers. Please, for the love of God, quit asking the man about Mindhunter in every interview he does. It’s getting to be absurd and makes it impossible to move on when we’re so often reminded of the one who got away.

That also means fans need to finally move on as well. There are other fish in the sea. For some, however, there’s just no escaping the hold that Mindhunter has on them. While there have been other petitions to bring back the show (along with several other shows), one petition to bring the show back received over 80,000 signatures, with a heartfelt plea from fans begging for a Seson 3, even without the involvement of Fincher. Unfortunately, despite the determination of the fans, it seems that Mindhunter‘s fate is sealed. It’s not coming back, it’s been over five years since that Netflix rep gave us some empty promises. It’s time to move on.

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Release Date

2017 – 2019

Network

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Netflix

Showrunner

Joe Penhall

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Directors

David Fincher, Carl Franklin, Andrew Dominik, Andrew Douglas, Asif Kapadia, Tobias Lindholm

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Writers

Joe Penhall, Jennifer Haley, Joshua Donen, Courtenay Miles, Carly Wray, Pamela Cederquist

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Related: Kate Middleton‘s Classy Summer Dress Is Pure Sunshine — The $28 Look

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We’re all used to a genre like science fiction getting tangled in its own ambition. A show with a fascinating premise becomes a lavish, multi-season story, and though a lot of great shows find their footing and fulfill the promise of a long narrative, others become weighed down by filler and the pressure to keep a story running indefinitely.

There are great sci-fi stories that have been told in a short, well-focused narrative. They build complex worlds, explore mind-bending concepts, and deliver great character development, all without a single wasted moment. Each of these is a complete, self-contained masterpiece proving that sometimes, the most profound journeys are the shortest ones. These are the nine greatest sci-fi shows with eight episodes or fewer.

1

‘Childhood’s End’ (2015)

Image via SYFY

Childhood’s End was based on Arthur C. Clarke‘s classic novel, and the adaptation is a stunning and faithful rendition of the story, told through a miniseries. The production design is gorgeous, and the show’s willingness to embrace the story’s philosophical nature makes it one of the most compelling sci-fi shows you’ll ever see. It’s a haunting, thought-provoking exploration of sacrifice and evolution, with characters you can easily empathize with and an ending that is as satisfying as it is sad.

Childhood’s End shows a seemingly peaceful alien invasion, where a mysterious alien race called “Overlords” arrives on Earth and ushers in an era of utopian peace, eliminating war, disease, and poverty. However, their true purpose turns out to be far more complex and terrifying than a simple conquest. Led by a compelling performance from Charles Dance as the alien leader Karellen, the three-episode miniseries excels in slow-burn dread, leading to an ending that feels inevitable and tragic. Childhood’s End proves that a powerful idea, done with love and precision, doesn’t need any more than a few hours to leave a permanent mark.

2

‘The Lost Room’ (2006)

Image via SYFY

The Lost Room is pretty much a cult classic of the genre, and longtime fans know all about this stunning, lore-heavy miniseries. It’s a brilliantly weird and original piece of sci-fi that feels like an urban legend that’s come to life. This miniseries has three episodes, each with a runtime of around 90 minutes, showing a perfect understanding that the best sci-fi doesn’t need to explain everything — it just needs to make the ordinary and mundane feel a lot more magical. The Lost Room has gained a devoted following over time, with promises of a comic book continuation that never came to life but was welcomed with lots of excitement.

The Lost Room follows detective Joe Miller (Peter Krause), who, while investigating a crime scene at a rundown motel, discovers a key that opens any door — and not just any door at the motel, but any door in the world. He soon learns that the key is just one of a hundred everyday objects from Room 10 of the Sunshine Motel that gained impossible powers after a mysterious event in 1961. Some of those objects include a comb that stops time, a pair of scissors that can spin objects, and a bus ticket that transports you to New Mexico. Beautiful and haunting, The Lost Room is a perfect time capsule that will evoke the 2000s perfectly, but at the same time, it’s a timeless piece of sci-fi that’s still relevant two decades later.

3

‘Bodies’ (2023)

The Netflix miniseries Bodies has a brilliant premise that hooks you instantly — the same dead body investigated across multiple timelines. Based on Si Spencer‘s DC Vertigo graphic novel, Bodies is a beautiful genre-bending series that starts as a gritty police procedural and expands into a dystopian sci-fi thriller. The story includes some intriguing time-travel dynamics, which can be confusing at times, but that’s why Bodies is also a perfect series to rewatch.

As mentioned, Bodies is about a dead body that appears in the same alley in London in four different years: 1890, 1941, 2023, and 2053. Four detectives from four different eras investigate the same murder, and as their cases intertwine, they uncover a conspiracy that involves one sinister man. The performances across the different timelines are uniformly excellent, with each detective bringing a unique perspective to the central mystery; a valuable addition to the roster is Stephen Graham, who portrays the mysterious Elias Mannix. Bodies is a perfectly paced, eight-episode puzzle box that rewards careful attention; it’s a brilliant, twisty ride.

4

‘The Silent Sea’ (2021)

Image via Netflix

The Silent Sea is a South Korean Netflix gem, and it’s a tight, claustrophobic thriller set in a dystopian near-future where Earth’s water supply has almost completely disappeared. The show is an adaptation of director Choi Hang-yong‘s short film The Sea of Tranquility, and he also wrote and created The Silent Sea. If you like sci-fi mysteries and thrillers, this show feels the most similar to Alien but borrows from the genre’s greatest hits and becomes a unique amalgamation of ideas and concepts.

Bae Doona stars as Dr. Song Ji-an, an astrobiologist who joins a hand-picked team on a dangerous mission to the Moon. Their destination is the abandoned Balhae Lunar Research Station, where all the station’s researchers died five years earlier under mysterious circumstances. Gong Yoo co-stars as Captain Han Yun-jae, the mission’s stoic leader. Their retrieval mission starts pretty straightforward, but it quickly unravels into a nightmare of environmental horror, unveiling a disastrous biological secret. The Silent Sea is a tense, cerebral, and visually stunning entry that might help you venture away from a well-known English-speaking landscape.

5

‘The Peripheral’ (2022)

Image via Amazon Prime Video

Based on William Gibson‘s novel, The Peripheral was released on Prime Video, and it’s a slick, mind-bending thriller that perfectly captures Gibson’s signature blend of high-tech paranoia and noir mystery. The show is a visual feast, with executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy and director Vincenzo Natali crafting a world that feels both futuristic and remarkably familiar. The show was canceled after one season, but mostly because the conversation about its renewal was meant to happen at the same time as the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and Writers’ Guild strikes.

The Peripheral stars Chloë Grace Moretz as Flynne Fisher, a young woman in a near-future American rural community who makes ends meet by testing VR games. She stumbles into a simulation that is actually a portal to a future London, where she becomes entangled in a deadly conspiracy involving quantum computing, time manipulation, and powerful corporate factions. Despite its single-season run, The Peripheral delivers a gripping, eight-episode ride that rewards fans of dense, intelligent sci-fi with a rich world that they’ll love to explore and get into.

6

‘Constellation’ (2024)

Image via Apple TV+

Constellation is a fairly unknown Apple TV series, mostly because it was canceled after one season. It’s a haunting and visually stunning psychological thriller that lingers long after the credits roll, doubling as a meditation on grief and identity; it also tackles the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics. Constellation is a favorite for some well-known names and faces, too: Stephen King praised the show, calling it almost perfect and giving it his seal of approval. The cinematography is breathtaking, the atmosphere is tense and palpable, and the central mystery is interesting enough to make you binge-watch the show over a weekend.

Constellation stars Noomi Rapace as Jo, an astronaut who survives a catastrophic disaster on the International Space Station and returns to Earth with no memory of some parts of her life. As she desperately tries to reconnect with her daughter, she learns more about the true nature of her return and existence, getting sinister visions of a life she’s unsure is her own. While the true nature of the show’s cancellation isn’t exactly known, Constellation remains a self-contained miniseries and a must-watch for fans of cerebral and emotionally resonant sci-fi.

7

‘Tales from the Loop’ (2020)

Image via Prime Video

Tales from the Loop was based on the evocative retro-futuristic art book of Simon Stålenhag; it was created and written by Nathaniel Halpern (Legion, Outcast), and it’s a sci-fi show unlike any other on this list. While its sci-fi premise obviously tries to describe the story as a futuristic narrative that uses tech to its advantage, deep down, the show is about human connection and the wonder and melancholy that define our lives. It’s a slow, meditative, and deeply emotional masterpiece that proves sci-fi can be gentle, poetic, and human underneath the layers of polished machinery.

Tales from the Loop is set in the small town of Mercer, Ohio, which sits on top of “The Loop,” a massive underground machine built to unlock the mysteries of the universe; it’s comprised of eight episodes presented as an anthology that follows interconnected stories about the people living in the shadow of The Loop, in particular the couple Loretta (Rebecca Hall) and George (Paul Schneider), and their sons, Cole (Duncan Joiner) and Jakob (Daniel Zolghadri). The sci-fi elements are beautiful and strange, and the human stories are relatable; it’s a stunning series, or as The Verge‘s Joshua Rivera describes it, “so pretty it breaks your heart.”

8

‘Years and Years’ (2019)

Image via HBO

Russell T. Davies‘s prophetic six-part miniseries, Years and Years, is an interesting mirror to the real world that is less about predicting the future and all of its technological advancements than it is about holding a mirror to our present anxieties and how, despite a fairly advanced world, many of our worldviews still linger in a past life. This BBC and HBO collab is an eerily plausible and emotional drama that feels more like a documentary from a parallel timeline than a work of fiction. It’s one of the most underrated but most praised miniseries of the past decade.

Years and Years follows the Lyons family in Manchester throughout the years; it begins in 2019 and ends in 2034, showing the family navigating a world rapidly descending into political chaos, economic collapse, and authoritarianism. Emma Thompson is chilling and fantastic as a populist politician who rises to power on a wave of nationalism and fear (mirroring some familiar faces from real life). Years and Years is a scathing critique, a family saga, and a warning, all wrapped in a tight, six-hour package that will leave you shaken and profoundly moved.

9

‘Devs’ (2020)

Image via FX

There is rarely a more perfectly constructed, intellectually daring, and visually stunning sci-fi miniseries than Alex Garland‘s Devs. Garland employs his signature slow-burn narrative in both writing and directing to create a hypnotic world of cold, brutalist architecture and spiritual seeking; the characters seek God through technological advancement, even playing God to stave off regret and loneliness that creeps up on them every single day. It’s a show that challenges, unsettles, and ultimately offers a strange, beautiful kind of hope.

Devs follows Lily (Sonoya Mizuno), a software engineer at a quantum computing company, Amaya, owned by the reclusive CEO Forest (Nick Offerman). Lily’s boyfriend is hired into the company’s secretive “Devs” division, and one day after clocking in, he apparently dies by suicide; Lily doesn’t believe it, so she begins her own investigation into the event. Devs is a mesmerizing, slow-burning philosophical thriller that explores determinism, free will, and grief through a hard sci-fi lens. Offerman delivers a career-best performance as a man plagued by loss and obsession, while Mizuno proves worthy of taking the lead in such an ambitious show. Devs is probably the greatest short-form sci-fi series ever made, but it will test your patience often.

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Devs

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Release Date

2020 – 2020-00-00

Showrunner

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Alex Garland

Directors

Alex Garland

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