The week in theatre: The Cherry Orchard; Minority Report; Laughing Boy – review
The aged servant steals the show in a fast-paced 21st-century Chekhov, Max Webster’s dystopian sci-fi dazzles the eye, and a campaigning drama is tender and furious
April 2024
Minority Report review – futuristic fugitive thriller is criminally undercooked
Max Webster and David Haig’s ambitious female-led stage version of the sci-fi thriller is overwhelmed by its own optics
November 2023
Michael Bishop obituary
Experimental science fiction writer who looked to distant worlds and ages to address eternal human concerns
August 2022
Top 10s
Top 10 books about Israel
Beyond the feted international stars, these poets and novelists each find very different ways to write about this contested land
June 2022
Minority Report at 20: Cruise and Spielberg test their limits in top-tier thriller
The director and star both played with their images in a knotty and exciting adaptation of Philip K Dick’s prescient short story
February 2022
Blade Runner 2099: Ridley Scott to bring sequel TV series to Amazon
The follow-up to Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 will be a live-action series that is reportedly a priority for the company
June 2021
Top 10s
Top 10 novels told in a single day
From James Joyce and Virginia Woolf to Nicholson Baker, the ‘circadian novel’ can pack lifetimes of experience into 24 hours
February 2021
A Glitch in the Matrix review – deep-dive into simulation theory
Using animation, archive and clips from the movie franchise, Rodney Ascher’s genre-bending doc gives philosophers and kooks space to explain why we are living in a synthetic world
July 2020
What if the Nazis won? The inexorable rise of alternative histories on TV
The Plot Against America is the latest what-if series about the rise of fascism to arrive on our screens. But while some are sensitively-made, others risk glorifying disturbing beliefs
February 2019
Top 10s
Top 10 genre-twisting novels
From Cervantes’ warping of chivalric romance to Flann O’Brien’s narrative games, novelist Alan Trotter picks his favourite convention-smashing tales
May 2018
Top 10s
Top 10 books to help you survive the digital age
Brief letters
Electric dreams of Philip K Dickleburgh
November 2017
Do we really need a Twilight Zone revival in the era of Black Mirror?
The Get Out director, Jordan Peele, is being lined up to bring back the classic sci-fi anthology show, but should it be left alone?
October 2017
Top 10s
Top 10 imaginary drugs in fiction
From the mind-bending potion in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to Don DeLillo’s cure for the fear of death, these are some of the most potent hits in literature
September 2017
Observer TV reviews
The week in TV: Strike; Electric Dreams; Doc Martin; Transparent; Bad Move; W1A
TV review
Electric Dreams: The Hood Maker review – will make you want to take a look in the (Black) Mirror
Sound and vision
The best TV this week: Transparent explores Jewish identity
The endless adaptability of Philip K Dick
August 2017
The Philip K Dick book I love most…
The sci-fi writer’s probing of the nature of reality seems ever more prescient. Ahead of a Blade Runner sequel and new C4 series, three novelists pick their favourite works
February 2017
Do we still need Doctor Who? Time travel in the internet age
From HG Wells to the Doctor and beyond … how technology caught up with science fiction
