John Powers

Everyone is either a fool, a knave or a monster in HBO's hilariously scabrous political satire starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. After seven seasons, Veep ends its run with its sharp teeth fully intact.

David Attenborough's Netflix series offers a strange waltz between wonder and melancholy. The show thrills us with the marvels of nature, and then saddens us that we are rapidly wiping them out.

Over the years, the HBO series has risen from being a nifty potboiler to a timely expression of a zeitgeist that contests everything from gender roles to climate change to immigration.

Ruth Wilson stars in the PBS drama based on the story of her own grandmother, who discovered, after 22 years of marriage, that her spy-turned-author husband may have been married to someone else.

Based on the true story of a crime gone wrong, Wanda is considered a cinematic landmark. The 1970 film, which is now out in a restored version, was written and directed by its star, Barbara Loden.

A new British mini-series takes a murder that became a tabloid spectacle in the United Kingdom and transforms it into a deft primer on the unspectacular reality of police work.

Lauren Wilkinson's sharp debut novel about a black woman living a double life as a spy spans three decades and leapfrogs from New York to the Caribbean to West Africa.

Cold War's richness comes from being steeped in detail. And it demonstrates what Everybody Knows does not: that the road to the universal begins with the specific.

A new, eight-part Netflix series examines the complex aftermath of the 1994 killing spree — and offers a good reminder that history is vast, messy and ever-changing.

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as the top strategist for Britain's "Leave" campaign in a new HBO film that offers a jaunty — if incomplete — take on the U.K.'s pending departure from the EU.

Nicole Kidman gives an intense performance as a drunken, pointedly unlikable police officer in Karyn Kusama's new film. Critic John Powers says Destroyer is a flawed, but fascinating, noir thriller.

Each year, Fresh Air critic-at-large John Powers finds himself haunted by the books, movies and shows that he loved but wasn't able to review on the air.

Natalie Portman plays a young Christian woman who is propelled to pop stardom following a mass shooting. Critic John Powers says Vox Lux is inventive — and exasperating.

Gina Apostol's dizzying new novel begin in present-day Manila before diving into the late 19th century — and the tortuous relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines.

John Powers reviews two new series based on true crime stories. Dannemora dramatizes the story of a 2015 prison break. Dirty John follows the delusions and dangers of a woman falling for a conman.

A new BBC/Netflix series about terrorism and political chicanery delivers plenty of thrills — but ultimately lacks seriousness. Critic John Powers says Bodyguard is "awash in a timely cynicism."

Paul Greengrass' new film re-creates the 2011 attacks in which a right-wing terrorist killed 77 people, most of them teens. Critic John Powers says 22 July is a superb film that avoids sensationalism.

Susan Lacy's terrific HBO documentary examines Fonda's juicy, controversial life in five parts. The first four are named for a man under whose influence Fonda lived; in the fifth, she stands alone.

Olga Tokarczuk's book won the 2018 Man Booker International Prize. Critic John Powers says the hard-to-classify work is positively exploding with maps, remembrances, riffs, history and more.

Morgan Neville's moving documentary about Fred Rogers and Netflix's stand-up special starring Australian comic Hannah Gadsby both refuse to play along with established genre conventions.