Giant Freakin Robot

The rise of streaming services like Netflix has allowed us to binge like we never have before, but it has also lead a new problem that we never would have expected to arise before. As rights and deals run their course and expire, easy access to shows comes and goes. Every month, Netflix adds more titles to its list, while at the same time others disappear. Some come back eventually, others don’t. There was a big to-do a while back, when it looked like Doctor Who was leaving the streaming service (it didn’t), and Red Dwarf is no longer available, and now it looks like if you want to marathon The X-Files, you better do it by the end of the month.

You can handle that, right? Watching nine seasons, all 202 episodes of The X-Files in less than a months? I have faith you can pull this off by April 1. You may have to call in sick to work, but that’s a small price to pay. What are you doing still reading this, you have more important business to take care right now.

Jupiter Ascending was a mess, a crazy, beautiful, intriguing mess to be sure, but still a mess. This marks the Wachowskis’ third consecutive box office flop (it currently sits at $124 million worldwide, which sounds impressive, but against $176 million budget, that’s not good), and the brother-sister duo even joked recently that no one is going to give them the money to work on this scale ever again. That said, this hasn’t dampened their ambition on iota, and their upcoming Netflix series, Sense8, which teams them with Babylon 5’s J. Michael Straczynski, is going to be every bit as bonkers as their most outlandish films. The series has a new description and we now know exactly when we’ll get to check it out.

Love them or hate them, the Wachowskis do not make small or boring films. Even flops like Speed Racer and Cloud Atlas are ambitious, visually unique, and push boundaries. Now that they’ve team up with J. Michael Straczynski and Netflix for the series Sense8, which should drop sometime later this year, they’re not planning to tone it done one iota, and they’re bringing some insane shit to the table.

In a recent interview with Io9 Andy and Lana Wachoswki revealed a little bit of what they have in store for your binge watching pleasure and lets just say it’s not all going to be what you expect. For instance, they have been filming live births, actual babies being born, to include, and you should also plan on Sense8 featuring “crazy psychic orgies.” Their words.

Reports circulated earlier this week that Netflix was going to drop streaming for a ton of popular British shows—most notable for our interests were Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, Torchwood, and a handful of others. The news kicked off a massive outcry from fans, but as it turns out, there wasn’t as much need to be concerned as many initially thought. At least some of those shows, chief among them the adventures of a certain two-hearted Time Lord from Gallifrey, will remain available for your streaming needs. For a few others favorite titles, however, fans are shit out of luck.

According to Variety, a new deal has been struck between Netflix and the powers that be at the BBC, and for the foreseeable future you’ll still be able to watch these shows on your computer, tablet, smartphone, TV, or whatever your preferred delivery system:

With a new Doctor in Peter Capaldi and one chapter of his adventures with Clara closed in tragic fashion, the long wait for season 9 of Doctor Who has begun. Thankfully, you can revisit most of the Doctor’s “modern” adventures — beginning with Christopher Eccleston and stretching through the David Tennant and Matt Smith years — on Netflix. I would be very surprised if some of you weren’t in the midst of a trip back through those episodes as I write this. Well, I’ve got some bad news for all you Whovians: Netflix will be dropping Doctor Who from its streaming lineup at the end of the month, along with other British favorites such as Who spinoff Torchwood, cult favorite Red Dwarf, and a ton of other British fare.

Netflix taketh away (bye bye, Battlestar Galactica, among others), but Netflix also giveth — and I’m not just talking about the possibility of more Star Trek, or even about J. Michael Straczynski’s upcoming series Sense8. I’m talking about an awesome sci-fi import from across the pond: Black Mirror.

I’m totally obsessed with this show. It’s the best sci-fi anthology since The Twilight Zone, and it’s not for the faint of heart. Its incisive critiques on social media, technology addiction, and humans’ unfailing ability to convince themselves of their own realities (usually with the help of technology and social media) often take brutal forms. I’ve had to turn away more than once, but for me that signals powerful television. All the cringe-worthy moments have a purpose. And now, all those cringe-worthy moments are a lot easier to view, thanks to Netflix.