Contributor: Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

Carnival Row

This show’s real monstrosity is its excessive use of language, sex and gore to tell a tale just as interesting without it.

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Grand Hotel

ABC’s soapy drama invites us into a hotel where guests, employees and owners often behave badly.

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13 Reasons Why (Season 3)

Netflix’s controversial teen drama returns with another season full of adolescents behaving very badly.

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iZombie

It’s tough to be a young adult trying to live in the 21st century. Especially if you’re dead.

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Culture Clips: The Existential Crisis of So Many Christmas Movies!

TV’s “25 Days of Christmas” has arrived! And while many a family may be excited to share familiar Christmas classics such as The Santa Clause, Home Alone and Richie Rich’s Christmas Wish on Freeform, there’s also an entirely new lineup of movies coming …

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Noelle

Noelle is packed with messages about the importance of being kind. But it’s also all about Santa.

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Honey Boy

This former child star’s path to redemption is obviously a painful one, filled with excesses and extremes onscreen.

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The King

For a film that preaches peace so vehemently, there’s an awful lot of fighting going on here. Blood pours by the bucketful.

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Holiday in the Wild

Holiday in the Wild is streaming on Netflix, which seems increasingly willing to borrow Hallmark’s proven rom-com formula.

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Don’t Start Now

Dua Lipa’s latest single delivers some empowering messages to women … and perhaps some mixed messages, too.

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Culture Clips: A Sad Goodbye

Truett Foster McKeehan, eldest son of Christian hip hop artist TobyMac, died suddenly Oct. 23 at his home in Franklin, Tennessee. As the artist and his family grieve their loss, TobyMac spoke about his son, saying that Truett “had joy that took the roo …

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Countdown

Viewers should consider the terms and conditions of Countdown before going to see it.

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Culture Clips: TikTok Trouble

Parents of teens and tweens may be familiar with TikTok, a popular social media app that allows you to create videos by lip-synching or dancing along to songs. However, parents might not be as familiar with the problematic content on the app. When ABC …

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The Laundromat

The Laundromat pulls back the curtain on a complex system of laws that enables wealthy individuals and corporations to avoid taxes and evade consequences.

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Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Despite its strong redemptive themes, this sequel’s intense-but-sanitized violence might still be too much for sensitive viewers.

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