Chile, somebody allegedly had a whole story ready to go before driving off in a luxury whip! Savannah police are asking for the public’s help identifying a man connected to a reported luxury vehicle theft. Investigators say he claimed to be a professional basketball player before allegedly driving away in a $90,000 BMW. The incident is now part of a larger investigation into vehicle thefts involving valet operations at downtown hotels.

RELATED: Romanian Prosecutors Indict Influencer Andrew Tate On Trafficking Minors & Money Laundering

Not Another Alleged Fake Athlete Scammin’ Folks

Savannah Police Department records show the BMW was reported stolen on Aug. 14 from the Hyatt Regency Savannah at 2 W. Bay St. Police said the man entered the hotel lobby, returned to a white Audi to grab his belongings, and then came back with a valet ticket for a gray 2026 BMW X5. The police report states that he told valet employees he played professional basketball and had several vehicles at the hotel. Valet workers explained that each ticket was assigned to a specific vehicle, and surveillance footage showed the man presenting the BMW ticket before driving away around 12:30 a.m.

Police said the BMW was a dealership loaner being used by a hotel guest. Investigators later tracked the SUV to the 2100 block of North Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Savannah police notified Myrtle Beach authorities and requested that the BMW be entered as stolen in state and national databases.

Savannah Police Uncovered Another Stolen Ride In The Mix

A white Audi tied to the incident raised another concern. Earlier that day, Savannah officers found an unlocked 2025 Audi A5 in the Hyatt’s parking garage and learned that another law enforcement agency had reported it stolen on Aug. 13. Police notified that agency and had the approximately $30,000 vehicle towed. The records do not indicate where or how the Audi was originally stolen.

The BMW incident was also among several vehicle-related cases reported at hotels in downtown Savannah in August. Police records detail a separate Aug. 6 report involving a black 2019 Toyota C-HR that a guest had left with valet service at the Fairfield Inn on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The guest later tried to retrieve the vehicle using a code, but hotel staff could not locate either the Toyota or its key.

Police Are Still Searching For The Suspect

Valet records showed that someone had used the retrieval code at 12:06 a.m., more than nine hours before the guest said she first sent it. The system did not display the originating phone number, while the key remained listed as checked in but was missing from the valet lockbox. Officers searched the garage but could not find the approximately $18,000 Toyota. Attempts to review surveillance footage were reportedly hindered by malfunctioning garage cameras and limited access to other camera systems.

Savannah police described the BMW suspect as a Black man between 20 and 30 years old and shared images on Facebook on Thursday in hopes that someone would recognize him. No arrest was noted in the records, and it remains unclear whether the BMW or the Toyota was ultimately recovered. The investigation remains ongoing.

RELATED: Yikes! Man Arrested After Posing As San Francisco 49ers Player To Scam At Least 26 Women Out Of $1.3 Million

Some movies create suspense around a question. These six movies? I chose them because they create it inside your nervous system. You notice your shoulders tightening. A conversation suddenly feels dangerous. Somebody makes one bad decision and you immediately understand that the next hour is going to punish everyone for it. And you love it.

Intensity, however, can come from completely different places. The point is that these six films are super immersive. And that’s exactly why you stay hooked. Let’s dig in.

6

‘Prisoners’ (2013)

Image via Warner Bros.

Two young girls disappear during Thanksgiving, and Prisoners immediately creates the kind of fear that makes reasonable behavior feel almost impossible. Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) becomes convinced that Alex Jones (Paul Dano) knows where the children are, while Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) keeps pursuing evidence through abandoned buildings, suspicious histories, and the maze imagery that starts appearing around the case. Keller eventually decides the police are moving too slowly. That is where the movie becomes genuinely difficult to shake.

The interrogation and torture of Alex inside an abandoned building turns parental desperation into something ugly enough that the audience has to keep reassessing its sympathy. Meanwhile, Loki’s investigation operates with a completely different tension, built from tiny clues and the possibility that every wasted hour counts. Even the weather seems hostile. Rain, gray skies, cramped rooms, and Roger Deakins’ severe images make Pennsylvania feel spiritually waterlogged. Prisoners keeps tightening because certainty becomes dangerous long before anybody actually has it.

5

‘Green Room’ (2015)

Image via A24

The Ain’t Rights are broke, exhausted, and desperate enough to accept a gig at a neo-Nazi club in rural Oregon. They even open with a cover of “Nazi Punks Fuck Off”, which tells you roughly how good their survival instincts are. Then someone in the band walks into the green room, sees a dead woman on the floor, and Green Room closes the door behind them.

From there, nearly everything feels physical. The walls are thin. The exits are controlled. The people outside know exactly what they are doing. A gun does not magically make anyone competent, and injuries behave like injuries instead of temporary action-movie inconveniences. The infamous arm sequence still produces the kind of audience reaction where half the room recoils at once. Even the attack dogs feel horribly practical because the film understands how little space these characters have to improvise. Green Room is lean, vicious, and terrifyingly good at making one locked room feel smaller every minute.

4

‘Sicario’ (2015)

Image via Lionsgate

The most frightening stretch of Sicario happens in broad daylight. FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) joins Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro) on a convoy into Juárez, crossing past mutilated bodies, crowded streets, and armed escorts before reaching the border back into the United States. Then traffic stops. Cars surround the convoy. Everyone starts watching hands.

That border sequence captures the entire movie’s method. Information is distributed unevenly, which means Kate is always entering situations where other people understand the rules better than she does. Alejandro’s calm becomes unsettling precisely because very little seems capable of surprising him. The tunnel operation pushes that imbalance even further, placing trained teams inside darkness where night-vision images reduce people to shapes and movement. Jóhann Jóhannsson’s pounding score sounds less like music than machinery approaching from underground. Sicario understands that dread becomes unbearable when somebody else knows what is about to happen and you do not.

3

‘Whiplash’ (2014)

Image via Sony Pictures Classics

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There are no killers, monsters, or collapsing civilizations in Whiplash. There is a rehearsal room, a drum kit, and Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) asking whether Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) is rushing or dragging. Somehow that becomes enough.

Andrew wants greatness with the desperation of someone who has confused achievement with personal worth. Fletcher recognizes that hunger and attacks it relentlessly, using humiliation, competition, exhaustion, and the constant possibility of replacement. A chair can suddenly become a projectile. A tempo mistake can feel catastrophic. Andrew practices until his hands bleed onto the kit, then keeps going because stopping would mean admitting that somebody else might want it more. The car crash sequence takes that obsession into territory so extreme that the absurdity almost becomes horrifyingly funny. Whiplash turns artistic ambition into a combat sport and leaves one uncomfortable question behind. How much damage can somebody justify if the result really is extraordinary?

2

‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

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Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) discovers that Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) has taken his wives and diverted the War Rig from its route. Within minutes, half the wasteland appears to be chasing her. Mad Max: Fury Road then spends most of its runtime finding increasingly deranged ways to keep that chase alive.

War Boys swing between vehicles on poles. Motorcycles launch over moving trucks. A guitarist strapped to a wall of amplifiers blasts flames from his instrument while an army races through the desert. People spray chrome into their mouths and scream “Witness me” before attempting something catastrophically dangerous. The spectacle is outrageous, yet the geography stays remarkably clear. You understand where Furiosa is trying to go, who is gaining ground, and why every mechanical failure is disastrous. Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) gradually becomes part of her escape rather than automatically taking control of it, while the wives have their own reasons for refusing Joe’s world. Fury Road is two hours of forward momentum executed with such precision that exhaustion becomes part of the thrill.

1

‘Uncut Gems’ (2019)

Imag via A24

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Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) gets hold of a rare black opal and immediately sees salvation. Then Kevin Garnett (Kevin Garnett) sees it. Howard lets him borrow it, pawns Garnett’s championship ring, uses that money for another bet, lies to several people, dodges the men trying to collect what he owes, and continues running his Manhattan jewelry store as though this arrangement is remotely sustainable. Uncut Gems understands Howard perfectly. Every disaster convinces him that one sufficiently brilliant win can erase all the disasters before it.

That belief turns the movie into an anxiety machine. Phones ring over conversations. Customers argue. The security door refuses to open at the worst possible moment. The Weeknd appears during his 2012-era rise and somehow becomes part of another Howard catastrophe. Even a Celtics playoff game becomes unbearable because Howard has constructed a bet elaborate enough to make every rebound feel personal. The Safdie brothers keep noise, movement, debt, family, business, and gambling colliding until Howard’s life feels like twenty browser tabs all playing audio simultaneously. The maddening part is that you begin understanding his excitement. Uncut Gems makes terrible decision-making feel so electrically alive that, for two hours, stress becomes entertainment.

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Uncut Gems

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Release Date

December 25, 2019

Runtime

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136 minutes

Director

Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie

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The family of Celeste Rivas said they are in support of singer D4vd facing the death penalty as he prepares to stand trial accused of her murder.

“If the death penalty were activated, it would be perfect for this kind of human being, devoid of feelings and emptiness inside, and without conscience, who only caused pain to our daughter, our family, and the world that supports our precious daughter,” Rivas’ family said in a Sunday, September 6, statement to The California Post, issued one day before what would have been Rivas’ 16th birthday.

The statement added, “But that’s not in our hands, but rather in God’s, and the California justice system.”

D4vd — real name David Anthony Burke — was arrested in April and charged with one count of murder in connection with Rivas’ death, as well as one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and one count of unlawful mutilation of human remains.

Related: D4vd Charged With Murder Following Celeste Rivas’ Death: Everything We Know

D4vd was accused of murder after a teenage girl’s body was found in the trunk of a Tesla registered to the singer. Us Weekly confirmed that D4vd (born David Burke) was arrested on April 16, 2026, following a months-long investigation. “Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department, Robbery-Homicide Division have arrested David Burke, a 21-year-old […]

The body of 14-year-old Rivas was found in the trunk of a Tesla registered to the singer in September 2025.

During an arraignment hearing on August 31, D4vd pleaded not guilty to murder. At the time, the singer also changed his legal team, replacing high-profile celebrity lawyers Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter with a public defender.

“This morning, the court granted our request to withdraw as counsel and appoint the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, after it was determined David qualified for appointed counsel,” Berk, Bednarski and Peter said in a statement, per Rolling Stone. “We continue to support David and his defense against these serious charges. We are grateful that the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office had taken over the representation and that David has a highly capable and committed team of attorneys and investigators behind him.”

In its case against D4vd, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office alleged that the singer killed Rivas on April 23, 2025, one day after they had a “lengthy argument” over text messages.

The prosecution alleged that D4vd stabbed Rivas to death in the garage of his Hollywood Hills home before using a chainsaw and other objects to dismember her body.

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Prosecutors argued that he “amputated her left ring and pinky fingers because her ring finger contained a tattoo of his name. Her fingers have not been recovered. Defendant then placed her head and torso into the cadaver bag he purchased. He placed her limbs into a garbage bag, which he deposited into his front trunk, laying the cadaver bag on top. For several weeks, or possibly months, defendant left the victim’s body to decompose inside his Tesla.”

At the time of his April arrest, D4vd’s former legal team denied the singer was involved in Rivas’ death.

“Let us be clear — the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death,” the singer’s attorneys told TMZ.

The explosion of anime as a major source of entertainment for mainstream audiences in the 21st century has been one of the most rewarding sensations to take hold in recent decades. The early 2010s in particular saw a significant increase in the Japanese storytelling medium, with series like Attack on Titan, One Piece, Dragon Ball, and One Punch Man reaching the peak of their powers, becoming landmark hits for the genre that enticed millions of new fans.

One of the most exceptional things about the outburst in popularity, though, is how it was harnessed, with animation studios producing more and more great series to keep audiences invested in the genre’s stories and style. While some of the defining classics of anime have now finished, there are many more recent series that have taken up the mantle and enhanced the genre’s legacy in recent years.

13

‘Dandadan’ (2024-present)

Image via Science SARU

Love starts in mysterious ways, and for Dandadan, it begins through a dare to see which is real: aliens or ghosts. As it turns out, both are real, because after Momo awakens her psychic powers and Okarun is possessed by a ghost, the two of them must search for the latter’s golden balls with a weird new supernatural outlook.

The first episode may have weirded people out, but they are missing out on one of the most bizarre love stories out there, which is jam-packed with supernatural goodness and wholesome fun. Dandadan is unconventional, but it is exactly that weirdness which makes it one of the most compelling modern shows with an incredible anime power system. —Lucas Kloberdanz-Dyck

12

‘Dungeon Meshi’ (2024–Present)

Image via Studio Trigger

2024 was one of the best years of modern anime, because right after Solo Leveling and Dandadan is Dungeon Meshi. When a member of the party is eaten by a dragon, the rest of the members rush back down in order to save her. But with no money or supplies, they kill two birds with one stone by eating the monsters they defeat.

Dungeon Meshi boasts one of the most fascinating worlds in anime, using its distinct biology and ecology to create a unique setting that flows into the story. The monster food creations are fun and creative, but the story takes a drastic turn, switching to a darker form of storytelling where the mystery takes over. —Lucas Kloberdanz-Dyck

11

‘The Apothecary Diaries’ (2023–Present)

Image via OLM

Historical anime are getting increasingly popular, especially over the past five years, and one such example is The Apothecary Diaries. After Maomao is kidnapped and sold to the Royal Palace, she serves as an attendant, apothecary, and de facto detective, using her vast knowledge to solve the mysteries and crimes plaguing the Inner Court.

Maomao is one of the best modern anime protagonists, bringing new ways of thinking that evolve the story in fascinating ways. The Apothecary Diaries already has around 50 episodes, with more seasons soon approaching, and this constant supply of episodes proves how much fans love it, with it even having a chance to become one of the best anime series of all time. —Lucas Kloberdanz-Dyck

10

‘Ranking of Kings’ (2021–2022)

Image via Funimation

One of anime’s greatest strengths is its ability to realize and ground fantasy realms while still telling incredible, character-driven stories. Ranking of Kings is a perfect example of this, set in a world where each nation’s king is ranked based on the prosperity of their lands, the strength of their warriors, and the might of the kings themselves. Born deaf and mute, and dubbed “The Useless Prince”, young Bojji suffers jeers even from his own people, but everything changes when he befriends a survivor of an expunged assassin clan who understands him.

Over the course of 23 episodes, the series won over a plethora of fans with its heartwarming yet adventurous and exciting story and its engrossing fantasy setting. While the main series consists of just one season, a spin-off show, Ranking of Kings: The Treasure Chest of Courage, aired in 2023, and an anime film has been announced.

9

’86: Eighty-Six’ (2021–2022)

Image via A-1 Pictures

Launching in 2021 and releasing 24 episodes over two courses, 86: Eighty-Six was a futuristic sci-fi action series depicting a large-scale war between two feuding nations. As stated by the Republic of San Mongolia, they are fighting an ethical war with the Giadian Empire as they use unmanned drones in combat, but their claims are lies, as the robots are piloted by social undesirables known as “Eighty-sixers.”

The story revolves around a compassionate commanding officer tasked with overseeing the operations of the elite Spearhead squadron, forming a complex relationship with the unit’s brilliant leader as he fights on with his own mysterious motive. Based on the light novel series of the same name, it became a revered hit boasting an impressive score on the anime streaming service Crunchyroll.

8

‘Odd Taxi’ (2021)

Image via P.I.C.S.

A playful mixture of crime noir, fantasy, mystery thriller, and comedy, Odd Taxi was an arresting dose of high-value entertainment when it was released in 2021. The must-watch one-season series follows a walrus cab driver in Tokyo who, through conversations with his passengers, begins to unravel a sprawling mystery that leads to him being pursued by the yakuza as well as the police.

It was received by fans as a refreshing anime series that perfectly balanced its penchant for witty comedy and visual style with its poignant meditation on its more harrowing themes. The fact that it also happens to be one of the best depictions of anthropomorphic characters in both style and approach was just an added bonus which made the series that much more compelling.

7

‘Lookism’ (2022)

Image via Netflix

Lookism is a Korean anime based on a webtoon. Hyeong Seok is an average high schooler with one significant problem: he is constantly bullied and picked on for his appearance, which many consider unsightly. Then one day, after spending a day in a new town, he wakes up in the middle of the night in a completely different body.

Now with a fresh face, he learns that he has a second chance to make something of himself with the new advantage of the attractive body he has control over. Lookism focuses on the themes of bias and bullying due to one’s outward appearance; even though Hyeong Seok is unattractive in his real body, people are attracted to the real him in his fake body and give him a chance. Any fan of K-drama adaptations may enjoy this unique entry in the genre.

6

‘Spy x Family’ (2022–Present)

Image via Wit Studio

Already one of the best anime shows of the 2020s, Spy x Family has amassed a huge fanbase and widespread critical acclaim as a stylistic yet compelling series that thrives on every level. Based on the manga of the same name by Tatsuya Endo, it focuses on a master spy who assembles a family for cover as he looks into a political figure. Unbeknownst to him, however, his mock wife is actually an expert assassin and his daughter harbors telepathic abilities.

The series has a deft balance of comedy, action, spy thrills, and intriguing character arcs, making it an immersive and ambitious show that juggles tone and genre with impeccable skill. A third season of the series was recently announced, while an anime feature film based on Spy x Family was released late in 2023, earning high praise and performing admirably at the worldwide box office.

5

‘Cyberpunk Edgerunners’ (2022–Present)

Image via Netflix

David is a young delinquent attending a special academy to climb his way up into the corporate world and out of poverty. However, after getting into an argument with his mother about dropping out, they are caught in the middle of gunfire while driving in the street. The accident leaves David alone and his mother dead. Then he meets the eccentric Lucy, changing his life completely.

Unfolding within the world of Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners speaks heavily on the topics of inequality and the violence that stems from it. It’s a dark series with heavy topics that are not commonly seen in a lot of anime, making this a standout all on its own with its interesting yet complicated tech in a futuristic setting.

4

‘Wonder Egg Priority’ (2021)

Image via CloverWorks

Wonder Egg Priority is an interesting anime from the very start, with a distinct premise that’ll have viewers immediately hooked. It begins with an obscure egg that Ai Ohto receives one day. Upon breaking it in a dream, Ai realizes that she has to save the people who are hatched from the egg, which she hopes will eventually save her best friend, who passed away.

Although often lighthearted, Wonder Egg Priority deals with heavy topics of harassment and suicide, which does not, by any means, make it an easy watch for the average viewer. Still, the obscurity of the anime makes it worth the watch as it engages the viewer almost immediately.

Netflix has a peculiar talent for turning television into objects. A tracksuit becomes a Halloween costume. A haircut becomes a beauty trend. A piece of candy becomes a challenge people attempt on TikTok. By Monday morning, somebody who has never watched the show still recognizes the imagery. That machinery can manufacture attention remarkably fast. Making something people still care about after the homepage has moved on is much harder.

The strongest Netflix shows of this decade have survived that cycle because there is serious craft underneath the iconography. They reward the binge without becoming disposable after it. Their characters withstand memes, discourse, fan edits, rewatches, and the inevitable period when the internet becomes obsessed with something else. These 6 Netflix shows survived it. Some for their cult audiences, some for perhaps their longevity, and one just because it was way too sharp for a miniseries. Let’s dig in.

6

‘Blue Eye Samurai’ (2023–)

Image via Netflix

Blue Eye Samurai is based in seventeenth-century Japan. Mizu (Maya Erskine) has spent her life learning that the blue eyes inherited from a white father make other people see her as monstrous. She disguises herself as a man, masters the sword, and hunts the white men who were illegally present in Japan around the time of her conception. Revenge supplies the engine of Blue Eye Samurai, although Mizu becomes much more interesting once Ringo (Masi Oka)’s loyalty, Taigen (Darren Barnet)’s pride, Akemi (Brenda Song)’s fight for autonomy, and Abijah Fowler (Kenneth Branagh)’s sheer awfulness keep interfering with the clean, solitary mission she imagined for herself.

Then episode five pulls out a Bunraku puppet performance and uses it to echo another piece of Mizu’s life, weaving romance, betrayal, identity, and violence together without slowing the swordplay for a lecture. That kind of visual confidence is everywhere. Fights can be savage enough for a midnight exploitation movie, then the animation suddenly pauses for snow, food, fabric, or the tiny mechanics of forging a blade. The second season will take Mizu’s hunt to London while other characters remain entangled in Edo politics, so this revenge story is still expanding. One season was enough to establish Mizu as somebody you would follow through a blizzard with a sword in her hand.

5

‘Baby Reindeer’ (2024)

Image via Netflix

A free cup of tea is the fuse. Struggling comedian and bartender Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd) offers one to Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning), a lonely customer who quickly begins treating basic kindness as evidence of a relationship between them. Soon come the messages, voice mails, appearances at his workplace, interruptions during his comedy sets, and emails with those famously mangled phone-signature lines that became instantly recognizable online. Baby Reindeer was adapted by Richard Gadd from his one-man show and his own experiences, which helps explain why the series feels so uncomfortable about giving anybody the safe distance of a conventional stalker thriller.

Donny repeatedly makes choices that frustrate the viewer because the story understands that shame, loneliness, trauma, ego, and the desire to be wanted can coexist inside the same person. Martha is frightening without being flattened into a horror-movie creature. Teri (Nava Mau) sees through Donny with painful clarity, while his attempts to become a comedian expose another appetite for attention that the stalking begins warping into something darker. Seven episodes keep changing the emotional equation until the word “victim” feels far less simple than it did at the beginning. Baby Reindeer became a phenomenon because people arrived expecting something lurid. The series had enough nerve to make the messiness harder to consume than the headline.

4

‘Adolescence’ (2025)

Image via Netflix

The police batter through the Miller family’s front door before anyone has properly processed what is happening. Thirteen-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is pulled from bed, arrested over the death of a girl from his school, and taken through an interrogation while his father Eddie Miller (Stephen Graham) watches a child he recognizes enter a world he absolutely does not. Adolescence tells that story across four episodes, each filmed as one continuous shot, which means the camera cannot rescue anybody with a cut when a conversation becomes unbearable.

That technique reaches its fullest force when Jamie sits opposite psychologist Briony Ariston (Erin Doherty). The room barely changes, yet attraction, masculinity, humiliation, anger, and his need for approval keep shifting the power between them. Earlier, a school investigation reveals an online language of emojis and misogynistic codes that adults have been looking at without understanding. The series spreads its concern across digital radicalization, peer cruelty, adolescent insecurity, parental blind spots, and a boy learning poisonous ideas about what women supposedly owe him. Its scariest decision is keeping the Millers recognizable as a loving, ordinary family. There is no cartoonishly evil household to blame. That makes the question hanging over all four hours much harder to shake.

3

‘The Queen’s Gambit’ (2020)

Image via Netflix

The Queen’s Gambit is a chess bombardment on steroids. And you don’t have to know how to play chess to get hooked to it. Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) first learns chess in an orphanage basement from custodian Mr. Shaibel (Bill Camp), then begins visualizing entire boards on the ceiling after taking the green tranquilizers routinely distributed to the children. That image contains almost everything. Chess becomes imagination, refuge, obsession, competition, and another substance Beth can use to disappear into herself. By adulthood she can demolish rooms full of players while dressed like she has already calculated what everybody will be wearing three moves from now. Netflix confirms the seven-episode story remains a limited series.

The great trick is making chess legible without turning matches into tutorials. Eyes move. Clocks slap. Pieces disappear. A player getting up from the board can feel like somebody throwing a punch. Borgov (Marcin Dorociński) acquires the aura of a heavyweight champion, Benny Watts (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) somehow makes a cowboy hat work at a chess tournament, and Beth’s immaculate clothes become progressively sharper even as the rest of her life starts slipping. Addiction keeps the success from becoming wish fulfillment, while Jolene (Moses Ingram) and Mr. Shaibel connect the glamorous international prodigy back to the lonely child in Kentucky. For a few months in 2020, millions of people suddenly wanted to know what a Sicilian Defense was. The show had already done the harder thing by making them care who was sitting across the board.

2

‘Arcane’ (2021–2024)

Image via Netflix

As much as I hate why a Dota 2 story couldn’t become something like Arcane. The League fan-base deserved it. Piltover gets the sunlight, progress, polished architecture, and Hextech dreams. Zaun gets the pollution underneath it. Two sisters are caught inside that inequality long before either understands the scale of it, and the childhood fracture between Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Powder (Mia Sinclair Jenness) eventually becomes the emotional fault line running through Arcane.

Powder grows into Jinx (Ella Purnell). Vi returns to a city that moved on without her. Caitlyn Kiramman (Katie Leung), Jayce Talis (Kevin Alejandro), Viktor (Harry Lloyd), Ekko (Reed Shannon), Silco (Jason Spisak), and eventually Ambessa Medarda (Ellen Thomas) keep pulling personal loyalties into a political conflict where technological progress can liberate one person while putting a weapon in somebody else’s hands. Fortiche’s animation makes psychology visible. Jinx’s fear and instability can scratch themselves across the frame in neon drawings. Ekko and Jinx’s bridge confrontation briefly remembers them as children playing together before snapping back into the people that history produced. Music videos, graffiti, Art Nouveau, steampunk machinery, painterly backgrounds, and explosive action somehow belong to the same visual language. There’s so much more. Video game adaptations spent decades being treated as a punchline. Arcane reached the point where its source material almost became trivia. The second season was deliberately the last for this particular story, although more Runeterra projects are planned.

1

‘Squid Game’ (2021–2025)

Image via Netflix

You could strip away the title and still identify Squid Game from a handful of objects. Green tracksuits. Pink guards. Circle, triangle, square. A giant schoolyard doll turning its head during Red Light, Green Light. A brittle dalgona shape that suddenly makes licking candy feel like a life-or-death strategy. That visual simplicity helped the Korean series travel astonishingly well, but the premise underneath it is brutally specific. Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) and 455 other people crushed by debt are offered 45.6 billion won to survive children’s games whose rules are easy enough for anyone to understand.

Netflix has produced bigger budgets, stranger premises, and plenty of enormous hits. Nothing since 2020 has demonstrated its global power quite like millions of people realizing at roughly the same time that a playground game could make them sick with tension. It’s a brilliant show. It has its cult following. Everybody knows about it. You’re missing out if you haven’t watched it.

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Squid Game

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Release Date

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2021 – 2025

Network

Netflix

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Showrunner

Hwang Dong-hyuk

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Directors

Hwang Dong-hyuk

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• 
• 

  Wi Ha-jun

  Detective Hwang Jun-ho

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In Peacock‘s hit crime thriller The Day of the Jackal, a hitman and a detective engage in a cat-and-mouse game across Europe as the seasoned killer slips through every trap law enforcement has set. Things become personal when the detective figures out how the killer is moving, and it all ends in a devastating showdown. A similar game plays out in the hit Spanish crime thriller Money Heist, when a detective tries to capture a smart heist planner who has everything mapped out. Apple TV is now bringing its own version of this dynamic in a new thriller premiering this fall.

Europe seems attractive for crime thrillers, and this one takes place there, too. Its creative team is taking huge swings with the story, following it across three interwoven timelines. The first follows the planning of a heist to break into a bank vault housed deep beneath the streets of Zurich, Switzerland. The second timeline follows the actual heist, while the final one explores the aftermath. The heist takes a year to plan, while execution takes half a day, and the aftermath unfolds over a dozen days. The series is named 12 12 12 to reflect this split.

Created by Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble, the thriller features two top-tier actors in the lead roles. Fifty Shades star Jamie Dornan plays an American career criminal planning the daring heist. Marvel star Anthony Mackie plays a disgraced FBI agent bent on catching the criminal. The clock is ticking, and if he doesn’t do it within 12 days, the chances of catching him drop to near zero. Other cast members include Jack Kesy (12 Strong), Agathe Rousselle (Titane), Sallie Harmsen (Blade Runner 2049), José Garcia (The Ax), and Kali Reis (True Detective), among others. 12 12 12 will premiere globally on Friday, November 13, 2026, with the first two episodes, followed by one episode every Friday through December 25, 2026.

What Other Thrillers Are Coming to Apple TV?

Apple TV is the home for sci-fi and thrillers, so there is always something new or returning to look forward to. Last Seen (September 9) explores a father’s dedication to finding his missing daughter. Espionage has never looked this thrilling in the sixth season of Slow Horses (September 16). In Nocturne (October 30), a detective leaves the chaos of the city for the quiet of rural Pennsylvania but walks into the hunting ground of a notorious serial killer. Stephen Graham and Liev Schreiber star.

Catch the double-episode season premiere of the eight-episode first season of 12 12 12 on November 13, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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Release Date

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November 13, 2026

Network

Apple TV

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Directors

Kari Skogland

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Sydney Sweeney and Scooter Braun appear to have entered a more complicated phase of their romance as his children become increasingly involved in their time together.

After more than a year of dating, the actress was recently seen spending time with Braun’s children during a casual outing in Los Angeles.

While the development could indicate that their relationship is moving forward, experts believe it also introduces new responsibilities for Sydney Sweeney and Scooter Braun.

5

As Sweeney becomes more involved in Braun’s family life, experts believe keeping his children away from the pressures surrounding their famous parents should remain a priority.

Licensed clinical psychotherapist Robin Hamilton stressed that the children should be treated as individuals who did not choose celebrity life for themselves.

“You want to keep their personal lives personal, and their parents’ celebrity lives theirs,” Hamilton told Fox News Digital. With greater public interest potentially bringing questions and attention their way, she believes the children should be prepared for how people may approach them.

Hamilton also encouraged the couple to intentionally create private family time away from the media and outside online commentary. She warned against placing unnecessary pressure on the children at this stage, especially considering the difficulties that intense public exposure can create for young people.

Scooter Braun’s Kids Involvement Could Pose A Challenge To The Relationship

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Bringing Braun’s children into the picture could change how the couple divides their time.

Relationship expert Nicole Moore explained that spending more time together as a family could strengthen their connection, but it could also leave fewer opportunities for Sweeney and Braun to bond and focus on each other.

She advised them, saying, “It will be important for Scooter and Sweeney to maintain date nights and consistent romantic activities if they want their relationship to survive this new stage.”

Experts Fear Sydney Sweeney Might Not Be Ready To Be A ‘Full-On Parent’ To Scooter Braun’s Kids

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Another possible complication is how much responsibility Sweeney may eventually be expected to assume around Braun’s children.

Moore noted that “Sydney is only 28 years old, so her career rise is likely the biggest focus right now.” This suggests that it is unlikely that she would want professional commitments displaced by parental duties.

Although Sweeney may be happy to spend time with the children, Moore suggested that becoming fully responsible for them could be another challenging situation entirely.

“Sydney is most likely looking to be present and engaged with Scooter’s children when she’s with them, but she might not be ready to be a full-on parent yet,” she said.

The Actress’s Growing Bond With Her Partner’s Kids Signals Their Relationship Is Getting Serious

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Sweeney’s relationship with Braun appears to be moving beyond simply spending time together as a couple. The actress was recently seen joining Braun and his three children for a smoothie outing in Los Angeles, showing that she is becoming more involved in an important part of his personal life.

The outing comes as their romance continues to progress after the pair were first linked last year. With Sweeney now spending time with Braun’s children, relationship expert Nicole Moore believes they may have reached an important point in their relationship.

“Most celebrity romances have a short expiration date, so the fact that Sydney Sweeney and Scooter Braun have reached the stage of Sydney being involved with his kids is significant,” Moore told Fox News Digital.

Moore also explained that parents are often selective about bringing a romantic partner into their children’s lives unless they believe the relationship has the potential to last. Sweeney’s growing involvement with Braun’s family could therefore suggest that their romance is becoming a more serious commitment.

Sydney Sweeney Admits Dating In The Public Eye Has Been Difficult

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While her romance with Braun has become increasingly visible, Sweeney has acknowledged that navigating relationships under constant public attention is not easy.

She previously explained that even an ordinary date can quickly become something entirely different once outsiders begin analyzing it.

“Sometimes I’ll think that I can do a normal thing and have a date in a normal way, and then it gets perceived in a very non-normal way. It’s kind of sad,” Sweeney said in a chat with Cosmopolitan.

The actress also acknowledged that she is still figuring out relationships while dealing with opinions from a huge audience. After devoting much of her 20s to her career, Sweeney said she now wants to experience more of her personal life.

However, she admitted that choosing to explore love while being watched by the public has made the process harder, saying, “I’m just navigating it all.”

Epic books are nothing new, by any means, and epic movies are only slightly newer because cinema, as a medium, is more recent than literature, as a medium/art form. TV shows that satisfy as epics are newer still, with the rise of more cinematic and higher-budgeted television around the start of the 21st century being a big factor in shows getting, you know, bigger.

There were also some TV shows made earlier that feel epic in other ways, even if the production values feel a little slimmer compared to the spectacle more modern shows offer. Also, epic is not being used as a stand-in for the word “good” or “great.” There are amazing shows that aren’t mentioned below, but those here, in one way or another, feel like epics in the conventional sense. They satisfy the traditional definition of the word “epic,” as in the epic genre.

10

‘Boardwalk Empire’ (2010–2014)

Image via HBO

Boardwalk Empire is a show that takes place during the Prohibition era, and has a focus on organized crime in Atlantic City during said era, but it branches out and touches upon some other things, too. It’s a massive show in terms of its production value, which is sort of what HBO has become known for, so yes, there will be other HBO shows featured below. It’s all a bit inevitable, with the topic at hand.

There’s also a huge number of characters in Boardwalk Empire, and it’s the historical setting and the immensity of that ensemble cast that makes it feel like more of an epic than something like The Sopranos, which is also a crime-related show with a fair few characters. The Sopranos is the better show, for the record, but Boardwalk Empire just ticks more boxes if you’re looking for shows that feel like actual epics in the traditional sense.

9

‘Deadwood’ (2004–2006)

Image via HBO

While Deadwood is contained to the one fairly small town (the titular one) for the most part, that town is shown growing and becoming more populated over the seasons, and numerous characters are balanced at once. There’s already a huge ensemble cast in the first season, and though a few people get killed off, characters are introduced at a faster rate than they’re written out.

In season 3, there might well be too many characters and narrative threads to keep track of. It got canceled before season 4 had a chance of bringing things together or concluding it all, but there was thankfully a 2019 movie that felt like a good send-off. Anyway, when Deadwood was at its best, it was great, and the recreation of a time and place – and having so many people living during that time in that place – proved more than enough to make it feel sufficiently epic.

8

‘I, Claudius’ (1976)

Image via BBC

It’s the oldest show here, which means there are some production-related limitations that need to be overlooked, but also, they’re not as hard to overlook when the quality of the writing and the acting is so strong. I, Claudius delivers on those fronts and then some, and then it feels like an epic because of how much time it covers, with the titular character recounting his entire life, from when he was a small child until the very end.

That life was tumultuous, to say the least, since it was during the early Roman Empire, and Claudius does end up Emperor, but not before some other reigns are shown. It does what House of the Dragon did in its first season, being willing to jump forward any number of years between episodes, but it did that much better than House of the Dragon. If done today, with more of a budget, I, Claudius might well have more spectacle, but for its time – and for what it does in terms of how it’s written – it’s nonetheless admirably epic.

7

‘Rome’ (2005–2007)

Image via HBO

Returning to HBO, the first season of Rome came out a year on from the first season of Deadwood, and can quite easily be viewed as an escalation in terms of production and ambition. Setting something in the 1870s and having it feel authentic is one thing, but Rome goes all the way back to the 1st century BC, so it does kind of fulfill that question of “What might I, Claudius have looked like with HBO money?”

It’s not a perfect comparison, because Rome is about the end of the Roman Republic, and the transition to the Roman Empire, while I, Claudius is all about the first few emperors of that latter period. If you want some chronology and to watch both shows, it makes sense to watch Rome first, even if it was made some decades later, because there are a few things that line up and probably feel fitting (though not quite as many as there might’ve been had Rome not suffered the same fate as Deadwood and been canceled earlier than the creators had wanted).

Image via Bones

It is an animated show, unlike the others here, but Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood does feel just as ambitious and grand in scope as the live-action shows it’s being included among. It’s a fantasy series that also tackles various other genres, with the basic premise involving a pair of brothers searching for the Philosopher’s Stone to try to mend the damage done to their bodies after a spell intended to bring their mother back to life goes wrong.

They meet various heroic and villainous characters along the way, which does increase the scope of the show considerably, all the while finding the Philosopher’s Stone remains a consistent endgame. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is almost 70 episodes long, and a lot happens in those 70 episodes, and it’s worth highlighting as one of the best shows of the century so far, animated or otherwise.

5

‘Lonesome Dove’ (1989)

Image via CBS

Perhaps the ultimate Western book of all time got adapted remarkably well into what might well be the ultimate Western miniseries: Lonesome Dove. It’s funny having “mini” play a role in describing a show like this at all, but it is effectively four feature-length episodes that all add up to about six hours, with those episodes/hours being about two Texas Rangers and some other people taking part in a cattle drive to Montana.

The book is part of a series, but Lonesome Dove – whether you’re talking about that original book or this particular miniseries adaptation – does successfully stand alone, and a ton is offered in terms of scope and ambition. Also, Lonesome Dove is one of the most emotional Western stories of all time, and the miniseries version (should you have six hours to spare) is recommendable even to viewers who might not ordinarily like Westerns all that much.

4

‘Andor’ (2022–2025)

Image via Disney+

The way a prequel show centered around one decent but not particularly loved character from a prequel movie became one of the best TV shows in recent memory… who knows? It was strange and surprising in a good way. But that show was Andor, and it was a prequel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which was a 2016 film that itself was a prequel to the first Star Wars movie, ending right where that 1977 film began.

Andor does quite a lot for its titular character, and makes him more interesting for sure, but it’s how the show builds into a whole sci-fi political drama with a scope that manages to exceed the movies that really impresses. It also feels like there are more reasons to care about what’s going on here than in most other Star Wars-related media, and yes, this is all adding to the ridiculous hype around Andor that already exists, but it really does deserve all that hype and acclaim.

3

‘Lost’ (2004–2010)

Image via ABC

It does have to be acknowledged that Lost doesn’t really start out as an epic, even if it does start pretty ambitious… not nearly as ambitious as it later gets, though. There are people stranded on an island after a plane crash, and then they find out all the ways in which that island is incredibly strange, which leads to a good deal of adventuring, some of it through time (flashbacks early on set a precedent for this) and some of it not really just related to the island itself. Kind of.

Elaborating further would sound a bit chaotic, if you’ve only got so many words to work with, and then it would also involve giving away too much. The main thing is that at some point, Lost becomes an unusual kind of epic, and it remains about as big, wild, and ambitious as a network TV drama has ever gotten.

2

‘Game of Thrones’ (2011–2019)

Game of Thrones had an ending. That ending is an elephant and this article is the room. It’s all been addressed. Game of Thrones was also just about the most epic anything of the 2010s, and it did define that decade, to some extent, by being aired throughout it. All the previously mentioned large-scale shows on HBO were something, and felt grander than things before (and most things that weren’t HBO), but Game of Thrones was all next-level.

The main conflict here concerns which house will rule over Westeros, while there’s also an approaching undead army that threatens to wipe out all of civilization, and will likely do so faster if everyone’s still at war. There’s so much going on, an almost overwhelming number of characters to keep track of, and undeniable spectacle throughout, including in the first season, but it just gets bigger and bigger from there (especially as far as battle sequences were concerned).

1

‘The Wire’ (2002–2008)

Image via HBO Max

There isn’t as much variety in setting in The Wire as Game of Thrones, with the former being set almost entirely within one city, and the latter having a whole fictional/fantasy continent (and beyond) to depict. Baltimore is that city in The Wire, though it is explored and covered in-depth, to the point where The Wire ends up feeling more epic, in many ways, than similarly ambitious shows that might have a larger setting.

Also, you get the sense of things becoming bigger as the show goes along. The city doesn’t literally grow, but each new season has a new focus on a different area or aspect of Baltimore, and once introduced, those areas (and the characters relevant to them) will remain important to the show, even with new seasons technically spending more time on new/different things. By the end, it’s pretty staggering to think how much was covered, and how seamlessly and efficiently The Wire covered it all.

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The Wire

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Release Date

2002 – 2008-00-00

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HBO

Directors

Ernest R. Dickerson, Ed Bianchi, Steve Shill, Clark Johnson, Daniel Attias, Agnieszka Holland, Tim Van Patten, Alex Zakrzewski, Anthony Hemingway, Brad Anderson, Clement Virgo, Elodie Keene, Peter Medak, Rob Bailey, Seith Mann, Christine Moore, David Platt, Dominic West, Gloria Muzio, Jim McKay, Leslie Libman, Milcho Manchevski, Robert F. Colesberry, Thomas J. Wright

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Mariska Hargitay delivered an emotional acceptance speech while receiving one of two Creative Arts Emmy Awards for her directorial debut My Mom Jayne, referencing the late Gloria Steinem.

“I’m utterly overwhelmed, as you can imagine. I just wanted to share with you that it took me a while … to realize that this was my story to tell. I didn’t think that I could direct it and so I just want to add something to Gloria’s pointer and that is about telling your own story,” Hargitay, 62, said on Sunday, September 6, inside Los Angeles’ Peacock Theatre.

Steinem, a feminist icon and political activist, died at age 92 in her New York City home on Wednesday, September 2. Her final interview for the Famous Last Words documentary series, filmed in February 2025 and released after her death, urged people to “please tell your own story,” as it’s “the most important thing we can do for each other.”

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Hargitay, who created her 2025 documentary about her late mother, Jayne Mansfield, reiterated Steinem’s stance on Sunday. “I just want that invitation to go out, especially to women. I’m so excited to explore and discover and to innovate new ways of hearing stories from half of the world’s population because we don’t hear from you nearly enough,” she said on stage. “I can’t wait to get to know you. Thank you, this is meaningful.”

The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star lost her mom, a fellow actress and 1960s sex symbol, in a 1967 car crash when Hargitay was 3 years old. Hargitay’s film features personal home videos and interviews with her mom’s five children. (Mansfield welcomed Jayne Marie in 1950 with Paul Mansfield, Miklós in 1958 and Zoltán in 1960 with Mickey Hargitay, Tony in 1965 with Matt Cimber and Mariska in 1964. Mariska was raised by Mickey before learning the identity of her biological father, Nelson Sardelli, who had a brief fling with Jayne during a break in her relationship with Mickey.)

Hargitay said during her June 25 appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that filming the documentary shone a light on the similarities she shared with her late mom. “During the making of this film and on this journey, I’ve had so many moments where I got to see our similarity, or what I came from, and what I admire and revere and respect are the things about her that I’m in awe of and the things about her that are so similar to how I am,” Mariska told host Alex Cooper. “So, in that way, it has been this gift. It’s so magnificent.”