Culture on My Mind
Narrative Diversions
(Summer 2026 Edition)
October 12, 2026
Narrative Diversions is a look at the various pop culture things I’ve been watching, reading, and playing over the last few months. This edition covers July 2026 through September 2026.
Movies
KPop Demon Hunters (2025) – PG [Netflix]
This was originally a Sony Pictures Animation project, but they passed on because they didn’t thing a full Asian cast and a deeply Korean cultural focus mixed with K-pop themed demon hunting would sell to general audiences. Since the COVID-19 pandemic had Hollywood paralyzed by uncertainty, they sold it to Netflix.
In retrospect, big mistake.
This movie was off-the-wall fun but amazing from animation and story to music and impact. I was engaged for the entire 95 minute runtime and loved picking through the themes as it played. The animation is gorgeous (akin to the recent Sony Spider-Man films) and the songs are easy earworms. And this comes from someone who doesn’t gel with anime.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025) – PG-13
Considering this is really “part 2” to the previous film, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, it’s hard to judge this one on its own merits. This one was three hours long, just like its predecessor, making the final impossible mission nearly six hours long.
I’m going to miss this franchise, but I’m glad it’s over. This installment was fun but (like its predecessor) was too long and too complex, and the stakes kept ratcheting up because it seems we always need hyperbolically high risk to the planet/galaxy/universe these days. I’d like the franchise to continue with a new IMF team with more grounded missions similar to the classic television series.
Masters of the Universe (2026) – PG-13
Except for a couple of episodes here and there, I didn’t watch the 1980s animated series. However, I can see that this adaptation was written as a two-and-a-half hour overly-long episode geared towards the Gen-Xers who loved the show.
It was entertaining enough, but the humor and pacing started to wear on me about the 90-minute mark. Still, I get my Cringer/Battle-Cat fix. I have always loved that cat! The 1980s Skeletor was deliberately over-acted, but somehow Jared Leto ramped that up to ludicrous levels. He’s definitely a huge weakness in this movie.
Meanwhile, He-Man/Adam gets a fair share of character here, far more than he had in the original series.
It also reinforces my belief – especially after the recent Netflix animated shows Revelation and Revolution – that Teela is the most interesting Master of the Universe.
I might watch a sequel if they pay off the post-credits stinger, but if they don’t make another one I’ll be okay without it.
The Running Man (1987) – R
The Running Man (2025) – R
Before watching the remake, I decided to finally dive in to the original movie. I had seen parts of this over the years, but not the full thing cover to cover. I understand that it is a very liberal interpretation of the source material, and while it worked for the time, it’s more of a comedy than thriller now. This is primarily due to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s need for cheesy one-liners and the supervillain-esque cameos. It’s a ridiculous cornball film.
The second one takes a more serious approach because of how the “hero” comes to the game show. The motivations are a bit more believable because they’re more personal, but this version also has significant flaws. The ending is anti-climactic and almost incomplete, and the main character doesn’t feel redeeming to me. His major trait is “I’m angry!” and the script feels the need to remind the audience all too often. We get it, you’re pissed.
All said, the first one is cheeseball fun and the second is a mirror on our current condition, but neither is particularly memorable.
The Long Walk (2025) – R
Finishing this Stephen King trifecta, The Long Walk is set in a dystopian 1970s America where 50 boys participate in an annual televised walking contest to motivate the country. The winner receives a large cash prize and a single wish fulfilled. The losers die. Seriously, if these kids walk too slowly or stop, they are shot.
Mark Hamill does his best to bring the Major, the kinda-sorta villain of this piece to life, but the character is one-dimensional. We also don’t get much character development over the short 108 minute run time, so it’s hard to care about any of these kids aside from the revulsion of watching them get brutally massacred.
We’re supposed to care about the ending, but it’s not satisfying because none of the characters have really been fleshed out enough to make an impression. The ending is also implausible because the winner would have been shot dead after what he does with his wish.
The alternate ending wasn’t much better.
I might try reading the novel at some point to see if it’s any better.
Television
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season 4 [Paramount+]
This season was a tough one to consider. It did have a lot of character development underneath the gimmick plot contrivances, but the writing did not feel cohesive across the season. In fact, as others have stated, it came across as a What If? of Star Trek instead of writing a good story first before setting it in a whimsical or odd scenario. The season was uneven with a few bright “This is Star Trek!” moments, but it’s sad to see other things missing the mark so widely.
When I say it had a lot of character development, that was also only done half way. The prime example is Number One, who had mere minutes of screen time over ten episodes. I’m still enjoying the show, but I worry about the final (short) season and how it will cohesively wrap this era of Trek. Especially since this and Starfleet Academy are all we have left of the franchise for the foreseeable future.
Silo – Season 3 [Apple TV]
Season Two of this show was such a mixed bag, so it was great to see various plot lines finally threading together in Season Three. While the intrigue of Silo 18 is fascinating, I’m much more interested in what we learn about the time before the show and the mysterious AI behind the program. I’m eager to see where Season Four takes this story and how it wraps everything up.
X-Men ’97 – Season 2 [Disney+]
This season was brutal. Not in terms of quality or story, but in terms of the characters. No one was safe, and every loss was heartbreaking, but the overall story was pretty well crafted and engaging. There are at least two more seasons to go, and depending on how those go there may be plans for more.
Star Wars: Visions – Season 3 [Disney+]
This was another good crop of anime shorts in the Star Wars universe. I like the fact that these aren’t in the regular continuity so they’re free to go wherever they feel the need. They’re just fun short stories with an anime flair.
The Testaments – Season 1 [Hulu]
The return to the world of The Handmaid’s Tale felt fresh and bright… well, as fresh and bright as this dystopian future can be. But it thrives under the ability to develop a story without the baggage of the original series. It tells you everything you need to know about returning characters and scenarios, so it has room to breathe and chart its own course. The second season is in production now.
Elle – Season 1 [Amazon Prime]
I was skeptical about this prequel to Legally Blonde, but after the first episode it was clear that Lexi Minetree was born to play Elle Woods. This well-crafted story moves Elle away from her footing in California for the drab overcast of Seattle. The bright pinks clash with the 1995 punk scene, but Elle eventually finds her place. Season Two should arrive some time in 2027 and I’m looking forward to it.
Brilliant Minds – Season 2
This show was (pardon the pun) brilliant during its first season, but it fell flat with the simultaneous revenge and asylum storylines. The revenge side ran far too long and became tiring. The asylum story committed the sin of constantly flashing forward and trying to tease what was coming, but the payoff was lackluster and boring. The show took a long hiatus from February to May, only coming back to burn off the remaining episodes after the series was cancelled, and the ending was not satisfying. It’s sad to see a show like this fall so fast.
Sesame Street: 50th Anniversary Celebration (2019)
I know I’m several years behind the curve here, but I finally found this on my radar. I loved Sesame Street as a kid and still believe in its mission. This ended up being a “greatest hits” of those memories and a beautiful celebration of one of the best in educational television.
Books
He Who Fights with Monsters: Book Eight – Shirtaloon (Travis Deverell)
This book continued the adventure of Jason with his friends on the island chain. It seems to be wrapping up one storyline and setting the stage for another. I’ll be happy to get back to it after a break.
Dungeon Crawler Carl – Matt Dinniman
Carl’s Doomsday Scenario – Matt Dinniman
The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook – Matt Dinniman
After a series of recommendation from friends, I decided to give this series of books a try. It’s LitRPG just like He Who Fights with Monsters, but it has a vastly different style. In short, aliens descend on Earth and loot it for resources. They also televise a galactic fight to the death with humanity in a series of table-top RPG style dungeons.
It’s entertaining enough, but the series has a problem: The characters and setting don’t set the hook and become engaging until the end of Book Three. I was promised the stories get better, but if my friends hadn’t promised, I would have dumped this after Book One. In television terms, I don’t keep watching through Season Three to hope the show finally clicks. This hasn’t become a page-turner for me yet, and I find myself looking up plot points to see if I want to keep investing my time or move on to the rest of my “to read” pile. We’ll see where Book Four goes and if it can capitalize on the promises made that piqued my interest at the end of Book Three.
Stage
Monty Python’s Spamalot – Broadway in Atlanta
We finished this season of Broadway in Atlanta with Spamalot, which was hilarious. I’m a big fan of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and this was a great adaptation and reinterpretation of that zaniness. My wife has never liked the 1975 movie but found this version quite enjoyable. I had been waiting for a while to see this and it was worth it.
Games
None. I haven’t had a lot of spare time for video games lately. Related to that, though, my brother Nick is streaming periodically on Twitch if you want to take a look.
You can find him on Twitch as OldNick999.
Next Time
The next iteration will at least take us through the last quarter of 2026. I want to see Avengers: Doomsday in theaters, and maybe catch the new Hunger Games and Jumanji movies as well. By then, we’ll have seen Buena Vista Social Club, Death Becomes Her, and Mrs. Doubtfire through Broadway in Atlanta. I also need to catch up on Thunderbolts and the new Spider-Man before December.
Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.
Narrative Diversions sources poster art from various places, including The Movie Database (TMDB), Memory Alpha, Memory Beta, TARDIS Wiki, and publisher, distributor, and reseller websites. TMDB’s contents are available with a non-exclusive license for personal and non-commercial use. Fandom wiki materials are available with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported).
Many thanks to the fans who create and share their passion for entertainment and storytelling.
For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.
