Night Sky (Movie/Show Review #13)

I like my sci-fi shows, and I’m also a fan of J.K. Simmons, so I was excited about Night Sky. My watchlist is completely packed, though, so I’m late to the party once again—the show was released almost four years ago. But I finally got to see the 8 episodes last week.

As usual with streaming services, if a show doesn’t go viral immediately, it gets nuked pretty quickly. Shame on them, because many shows only find their footing over time. Just look at the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was a mess. But in season two, the production quality improved, and the character development and world-building became genius for the six seasons that followed.

We’ll never know where Night Sky might have gone, because they pulled the plug far too early.

The show itself is well made. Acting is great, suspense is intriguing, and the cinematography pleasing. It starts slowly, yes, but the premise is a good one for every sci-fi fan. I would have loved to see where the story was heading.

But again—we’ll never know.

If you enjoy slow-burn sci-fi, it’s worth a watch. Just be aware that almost nothing is revealed: no real answers, no resolved storylines. What a shame.

Why The Movie Ballerina Flopped

I watched Ballerina a week ago.

With an IMDb rating of 6.8 and a box office result of $135 million against a $90 million budget, the movie somewhat flopped. It certainly wasn’t the biggest flop of the last few years, but it clearly underperformed.

Technically speaking, the movie wasn’t bad. A rating of 7 out of 10 is perfectly fine. Compared to its parent franchise, John Wick, it was weaker, though. The direction, action choreography, and overall aesthetics were a step below what audiences expect from a typical Wick movie, and the world-building wasn’t as innovative.

That said, it was still a decent action flick with a very typical storyline for the genre.

So why did it flop?

I think it’s the thin line between art and marketing that ultimately caused the movie to underperform.

Every time a new idea works even somewhat, Hollywood tries to milk it dry: sequel, prequel, spin-off, remake. It becomes too much, and it’s obvious when a project exists mainly as a cash grab that studios want to force down our throats.

With Atomic Blonde, they had already given us a “female John Wick” without the John Wick label. The movie made $100 million on a $30 million budget, which was respectable but not enough to build a major franchise. As a result, the studio decided to make the next “female John Wick” more directly connected to the original franchise, hoping this would pull more people into theaters.

In short, Ballerina doesn’t feel like it was made primarily for art or entertainment; it feels like a marketing strategy.

And while people are aware that marketing is everywhere—and even necessary to some degree—nobody wants it shoved in their face. Ballerina practically screams: “Hey, movie lovers, we heard you like John Wick. So here’s the female version. Now give us your money!”

A good rule for any franchise is to only make a spin-off when audiences actually ask for it. If they don’t, it just feels like a sales tactic rather than a story that needs to be told.

Chernobyl (Movie/Show Review #12)

You never really know whether entertainment media tells the true story of a historical event. They lie to us about many things, bend the truth to fit their narrative, and sometimes replace real historical figures, and even invert entire realities to serve political ideologies.

But when I watch shows that depict the sheer evil of communist Soviet Russia, I’m quick to believe most of it.

The current system clearly wants us to live under a state-controlled form of communism, which is why mainstream narratives often portray communism and its pre-form, socialism, in a more favorable light.

A show like Chernobyl is therefore not something I would expect to exaggerate the truth. If anything, I assume reality was even more disgusting than what we see on screen.

From a technical standpoint, the show is outstanding. The writing, cinematography, and acting are excellent throughout. It’s a top-notch production made by very skilled people. Stellan Skarsgård is in it—one of my favorites—and he delivers a fantastic performance as always. That said, the entire cast is great.

Ironically, the female protagonist who is willing to fight the communist system was entirely invented and serves as a placeholder for numerous male Soviet scientists. So yes—there’s your liberal feminist propaganda, pushed even into a show like this.

If you watch Chernobyl as a historical piece, it makes your blood boil. The communist regime “disappeared” far more people than we will ever know, and one of the greatest crimes it committed was Chernobyl. So many people suffered under state rule in the mass experiment called the Soviet Union that I genuinely can’t understand how so many people today see socialism, or even communism, as something good.

If you give the state absolute power, it will abuse it absolutely. Chernobyl was not just an “accident”; it was another example of state failure, killing innocent people on a massive scale.

Watch the show for an example of that, or what it for the entertainment value. But definitively watch it, as it’s a great show.

The Best Love, Death & Robots Episode So Far

Love, Death & Robots is hit-or-miss in many ways, which isn’t surprising given the anthology format, with each episode telling a completely new story. Still, one episode truly blew me away—because the writing is exceptionally good.

That episode is “Bad Traveling” (Season 3, Episode 2).

The story follows a ship’s crew member who strikes a deal with a monster from the deep, and the way the narrative unfolds is nothing short of genius. Looking at the track record of writer Andrew Kevin Walker, you’ll find absolute bangers like 8mm, Se7en, and Sleepy Hollow. The other writer, Neal Asher, is mainly credited for his work on the show itself, at least according to IMDb.

The episode runs for just 23 minutes, yet it delivers multiple twists you won’t see coming. The protagonist is perfectly fleshed out in that short amount of time, and the ending is deeply satisfying.

I can only describe the writing as brilliant.

There is so much to learn from this twenty-minute short if you want to become a better writer. I highly recommend watching it if you haven’t already. And even if you’re not looking to study storytelling, watch it simply for pure entertainment.

To Andrew Kevin Walker and Neal Asher: congratulations, gentlemen. I’m genuinely in awe of the masterpiece you brought to life.

Reading a Book a Week Again

This year, I must have read less than at any point in the last 20 years. I haven’t even counted properly, but it must have been only around ten books. Last year I read about 60, and the year before that it might have even been close to 80.

There’s a giant stash of unread books on my shelf. I also didn’t make enough use of Kindle Unlimited to justify paying €12 a month. Even when it comes to comics, I didn’t read as much as I wanted to.

So one of my main projects for 2026 will be to read and review one book per week again. I did this years ago on Medium, on X, and on a German site I used to own. It motivated me to read even on busy days. And since next year is going to be busy, I’ll need that motivation.

Fifty-two books in fifty-two weeks is a nice challenge. I’ve seen it on many websites, and it’s always enjoyable to read about. Ideally, this will be a project that improves both my life and my blog.

Books I need to finish

  • The James Bond novels (I must be about halfway through Fleming’s originals. Goldfinger is next on my list.)
  • Harry Potter (I haven’t started yet, but I already own the books.)
  • Reacher, Miss Marple, and Poirot (I used to read one book per year from each of these series.)
  • Chuck Palahniuk (There are still a few works left before I’ve completed his entire bibliography.)
  • Philip K. Dick (I have a massive short-story collection of his that I need to finish.)
  • Robert A. Heinlein (Along with Dick, he’s one of my favorite authors. Unfortunately, his earlier works are hard to find in German.)
  • Bible Reading (I’ve been working on that for years. I’m still not through as a lot of books in the bible are just painfully boring.)

New reads to try

  • I’m open to exploring indie authors. If you’re an indie writer and you’re reading this, leave a comment and tell me what you write. I might check it out.
  • I enjoyed The Walking Dead comics. The same author also wrote Invincible, which I want to try this year.
  • Mystery reads: One idea I have is to look for books on Kindle Unlimited with bad covers and no reviews, and give one a chance each month. Maybe I’ll find some hidden gems.

BookTuber books

Something that could also help my own book marketing is reading books by people with an existing reach—whether through a big blog, YouTube, or X—and then writing a review. Afterward, I’ll send them a tweet letting them know I wrote about their book. Maybe they’ll check out my work or at least retweet the link to my review.

Yes, that’s marketing—but I don’t want this project to be only about marketing. I won’t write glowing reviews for bad books just to get a retweet. Still, I need to find ways to get some attention for my work, and this feels like a fair approach.

Your recommendations

Finally, I didn’t create this website only to find readers—I also want to find great books. Let me know in the comments what you’re reading. Maybe I’ll discover an amazing author I’ve never heard of before.