With relentless heatwaves and a general fatigue of going outside, I’ve turned to holing up in my room with TV shows and movies for company. Let’s celebrate the final days of Hot Boy Shut-In Summer together. Here’s a rapid-fire retrospective.
“X-Men: First Class” (2011)
“X-Men: First Class” is the best divorce story I’ve had the pleasure of watching. As the title suggests, the film is a prequel to the X-Men group with a young Professor X and Magneto working together to stop the Cuban Missile Crisis from destroying the world. I really loved how the writers delved headfirst into the unserious nature of the superhero comic books, from trying desperately to convince the audience Magneto and Charles aren’t gay, to beating up Nazis in pure white submarines.
“Smallville” (2001-2011)
“Smallville” season one is god-awful, but it’s just so much fun. “Smallville” is a series focused on Clark Kent in his teenage years before he’s Superman. The clichés in this show are what “Clone High” made fun of, which is something to enjoy if you love garbage. Plus, the action and sci-fi aren’t half bad, as the evident budget restraints produce some interesting plotlines.
“Pretty Cure” (2004-Present)
Who needs antidepressants when you have “Pretty Cure?” Sometimes, one yearns for a time before they were born in a country they never lived in — “Pretty Cure” is the perfect fantasy for this. It’s a magical girl anime, following teens Nagisa and Honoka in their fight to defeat the darkness that threatens both our world and the magical garden of light, which is where their fairy companions come from. “Pretty Cure” makes the magical trope its own with combat choreography that breaks away from the formulaic tiara tosses of Sailor Moon and sympathetic spotlights on their villains.
“Project Hail Mary” (2025)
I wish I had watched “Project Hail Mary” earlier — I waited until it was streaming. This movie was everywhere, I don’t have to explain the plot to you. Besides being great PR for science and math, the main character, Ryland Grace, is interesting because, although he succeeds in saving both his planet and his alien friend Rocky’s planet, he hadn’t wanted to go on the mission. It’s bittersweet, but demonstrates how you just have to push through imposter syndrome and anxiety.
“Carol and the End of the World” (2023)
“Carol and The End of the World” is the best animated series I’ve watched this summer. It follows Carol, a mundane, reserved woman in the final months of the world. While everyone is losing their inhibitions and truly living it up, she’s working an office job. It feels like the writers knew exactly what they wanted to say with every character and the show as a whole. It also made me cry because it is still very much the end of the world, after all.
