If you’re looking for a fresh side of self-awareness in your genre fare like I am definitely check out Red Valley! In an attempt to avoid spoilers we’ll just mention the buzzwords that had us hooked: “Conspiracy,” “Cryonic Preservation,” “Sonic the Hedgehog”. The vocal performances on the show - especially from Jonathan Williams as Warren and Alan Mandel as Gordon effortlessly match the dexterity of the dialogue which cuts the seemingly traditional Science Fiction jargon with hilarious off the cuff conversations about tv shows, video games, death metal, and the varying effectiveness of code names. Think The X Files by way of Edgar Wright. The soundscape for Red Valley also does a lot to place us in the world with these characters while steeping us in genre tropes that feel like a warm hug. Conversations in the rain, over telephones, intercoms, and audio logs all evoke the Sci-Fi genre just enough to allow us to unearth the the semantic layer underneath grandiose themes you think you’re familiar with. All in all Red Valley is a fast, evocative, and fun 6-episode season Sci-Fi show for avowed fans and skeptics of the genre.

If you’re looking for a lovable protagonist in a spooky setting, this show is legit the place. to. be. The show is about Dr. Jared Hel, a potentially immortal, amnesiac doctor who works at a facility called The Enclosure in a small midwestern town. Jared is lovable, charismatic, self-effacing, smart, and constantly in and out of unsettling, endlessly-intriguing setups as he searches for answers about his past, and the town. I fell in love almost instantly. The series draws on actual midwestern lore to create a really visceral sense of the town--we’re big fans of the Snipe Hunt episode, which brings us in on local traditions in a way that really establishes the central juxtaposition of these really genuinely unsettling creatures and entities in this town and the almost-aggressive polite energy of small midwestern America--an introvert’s true worst nightmare. (Look, I instantly imprint on any character who feels awkward at a party, I can't help it.) Part Twin Peaks, part Pushing Daisies, part early-Sleepy Hollow (the tv show), and all heart.

I LOVE a good horror miniseries, especially in the fall! At only four episodes, Circles is perfect to knock out in one single cloudy fall afternoon--or, if you’re feeling extra spicy, with the lights out at night... Circles feels like a Stephen King/Buffy/Scooby Doo mashup in all the best ways--a group of former-friends reuniting to face the entity they summoned years ago, an entity that can only be kept away if you stay within your chalk circle, that can take on faces and voices and shapes of all kinds to draw you out. There are endless audio Easter Eggs to dive into that really make the show hold up on relisten and the show plays excellently off of the (super relatable!) fears that come from isolation and paranoia. Because the characters have grown apart geographically over the years, they’re in their circles in some cases countries apart, only talking over the phone, and the seeds of distrust are sown deep and early--we only hear what the characters themselves hear, and the point of view is constantly shifting, so any of these narrators could be unreliable, very much not who they say they are, or different from one call to the next. It’s a narrative convention that is creative, fun, extremely scary, and very engaging as a listener--it’s a show that practically invites you to argue with a friend about who is trustworthy and who totally, definitely, absolutely isn’t.