As controversial a figure as J. K. Rowling may deservedly be, there's no denying that the Harry Potterseries revolutionized not just the fantasy genre, but the publishing industry as a whole. Throughout seven incredible books that sold like the hottest of cakes, Rowling revitalized children's and young adult fantasy in ways that were unheard of at the time. In all honesty, it seems unlike that a fantasy book series will ever have a pop-cultural impact of quite this scale ever again.

It's in no way an exaggeration to say that J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Ringstrilogy is the single most important and influential work of fantasy literature of the entire 20th century. Tolkien, somewhat reluctantly, originally devised The Lord of the Rings as a sequel to his groundbreaking 1937 children's book The Hobbit at his publisher's request. As he kept writing, the story kept growing into something far larger and more epic—particularly after Tolkien merged it with his foundational mythology of Middle-earth, which he had been developing since his time serving in World War I. Suddenly, The Lord of the Rings had become far more than just a Hobbit sequel: it was now the grand tale of the War of the Ring, inspired by various world mythologies, Tolkien's Catholic faith, philology (the study of language), and his experiences in the war. Originally written as a single epic novel, the text had to be published in three volumes; now, it's considered one of the greatest trilogies in the history of literature.

The art of the miniseries is, in many ways, quite distinct from the art of the regular television show. As opposed to running for a varying number of seasons, a miniseries tells a story in a predetermined, usually relatively limited number of episodes. As such, it's the perfect medium to convey powerful, self-contained stories in a variety of genres.

Science fiction is one of the most versatile genres at the disposal of TV creatives, one that allows them to tell exciting stories about modern society and the human condition through grand tales of technological advancement, space exploration, and futuristic speculation. Hard science fiction, however, is a category all of its own. The majority of sci-fi shows on Netflix are soft sci-fi, a subcategory of the genre that focuses on "soft" sciences like sociology and psychology. The main concerns of these shows are character development, thematic work, and emotion over scientific rigor. Hard sci-fi, on the other hand, is all about the "sci" part of the equation. These are shows focusing on "hard" sciences, scientific accuracy, natural laws, and an internal logic system.

Over the years, animated cinema has proved to be the perfect medium for highly imaginative and visually striking stories that can only find their home in the admirably inventive limitlessness of animation. On plenty of delightful occasions, this medium has been the perfect vehicle for tales of sweeping romance, allowing for particularly creative stories with colorful characters that make the love story at their center really come to life.

The crime genre has always been far and away one of television's most prolific, popular, and acclaimed. After all, it's not just any genre that could be able to produce revolutionary classics of the stature of The Sopranos, The Wire, and Breaking Bad. But even with the genre's outstanding track record, the last five years in particular have represented a bit of a golden age for crime television, with the release of several gems bound to go down in history as some of the genre's best.

For the most part, the last six years have been a great time for cinema. From genre-defining masterpieces like Dune: Part Two to Oscar-winning indie darlings like Everything Everywhere All At Once, the 2020s as a whole have offered some exceptional cinematic achievements. From 2021 until the present, however, there have also been some truly awful movies; shameful disasters that give the art form a bad name and prove that not just anyone deserves to be given the budget to make a motion picture. There are many reasons why a film could be awful, from clunky artistic direction to a poorly-written script, and the worst of the worst of the last six years checks all of those boxes and many more.

Warning: heavy spoilers ahead!