I didn’t love this episode. While it offered some key pieces of character development for three of our characters (despite still only being a guest star – or, perhaps a recurring character – Captain Batel is getting a heck of a lot of screen time), the episode felt a bit muddled at times in how […]
Tag: Strange New Worlds
Strange New Worlds – Wedding Bell Blues Review
Everything can benefit from having Rhys Darby. And boy, did this outing from Strange New Worlds absolutely soar with his addition to the proceedings as Trelane, a trickster character from The Original Series that we now know – thanks to a delightful voice over appearance from John de Lancie – is officially a part of […]
Strange New Worlds – Hegemony Part Two Review
When you end a season on a cliffhanger and then wait so long to release the next season that the season after that one starts production, it becomes hard to hide whether or not certain characters make it through the resolution of said cliffhanger alive and mostly well. And when you release a trailer that […]
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season Three Review
After two years in stasis, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is back for its third season. And, just to give you a taste of how long it’s been off the air, in that time the series has started filming its fourth season (several months ago, in fact) and been renewed for a fifth – and […]
Top Ten TV Shows of 2023
It’s that time of year again. The temperature is dropping, the days are growing shorter, and 2023 is drawing to a close. Which can only mean one thing: It’s time for Pop Culture Maniacs’ annual TV Top Ten list! This year in television was a tumultuous one, as it was for all of Hollywood, with […]
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Hegemony Review
Now that is how you do a cliffhanger finale! Not since “Best of Both Worlds” have we gotten a finale that truly has real, complex stakes and characters we love in real danger. But, then again, what would you expect from the finest Star Trek series in decades? Once again, Strange New Worlds takes what […]
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Subspace Rhapsody Review
It was all Patti LuPone’s fault. After all, it was the use of a recording of her singing “Anything Goes,” the titular song of the classic Broadway musical, that started this whole singing ships conundrum in “Subspace Rhapsody” – a lovely twist that made this Broadway nerd chuckle. But would the episode turn out to […]
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Under the Cloak of War Review
When I wrote about M’Benga’s episode arc in my review of the Strange New Worlds season premiere, I commented that I suspected PTSD and its impact might serve as a through-line for this season of the series. Of course, I wasn’t expecting the writers to dip back into that particular well with M’Benga once again […]
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Lost in Translation Review
It’s rare that an episode of television can both make me laugh, freak me out with some really great horror elements, and make me tear up – all within the confines of an hour. But that’s precisely what the great “Lost in Translation” managed to do, all while also giving us a great Uhura-centric episode […]
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Charades Review
What a string of episodes Strange New Worlds has churned out in the first half of their second season. And wow, what a hell of an episode “Charades” was. The trope of a half-human/half-alien losing their alien side isn’t new to Star Trek (Voyager had B’Elanna Torres split into two beings early in its run), […]










