News What to Watch What to Watch and Read This (Labor Day) Weekend: The “Thunderbolts* Was Surprisingly Good” Edition Plus Orphan Black with a side of French fries. By Molly Templeton | Published on August 28, 2025 Screenshot: Marvel Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Marvel Studios If you, like the Reactor team, have a long weekend ahead of you, may it be full of relaxing times and perfect temperatures. If you are somewhere where it is going to be absurdly hot and you wish to stay indoors, here are a few ways you might amuse yourself while doing so. Or you could take a book to the beach! Either way, let’s pretend Labor Day isn’t the end of summer, okay? We’re not ready for that. Or at least I’m not. You do you (and don’t forget to call your reps). Give Tatiana Maslany Another Role Worthy of Her Talents!!! Clone Club, our time has come: Orphan Black arrives on Netflix on Monday. The ever-more-twisty mystery stars Tatiana Maslany as Sarah Manning, who sees a woman who looks just like her step in front of a train. When Sarah investigates the life of that woman—a cop named Beth—she discovers even more versions of herself. Orphan Black is wonderful, impossible to sum up, occasionally ridiculous, and an incredible showcase for Maslany, who plays (among others) suburban housewife Alison, punky and troubled Sarah, murderous Helena, scientist Cosima, and corporate bitch Rachel. It’s an absolute crime that Maslany isn’t a superstar, given what she can do. She starred in She-Hulk (the entire cast of which is terribly underrated; also can we make Josh Segarra a star?) and had a run on Perry Mason, but it’s like no one knows what to do with her. At least not yet. She has a mysterious role in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and is starring in Osgood Perkins’ Keeper, so maybe the best is yet to come. In the meantime, I’ll be starting my Orphan Black rewatch immediately. In This House We Celebrate New Helen Oyeyemi Novels In SFF world, one novel has been getting much of the attention this week, but I would like to point out that there is … another. On Tuesday, we got a new novel from Helen Oyeyemi, A New New Me. The thing is, every Oyeyemi novel should be an Event. There ought to be parties with strange, nigh-incomprehensible themes and chaotic treats that inspire people to unlikely conversations. She is a national treasure in at least three or four nations.  And no, her books aren’t strictly speculative. (Though there is, in Parasol Against the Axe, a book that’s different for everyone who opens it, and Gingerbread looks to a fairy tale, and White is for Witching… well, you take my point.) They’re not strictly anything, which is part of what makes them so wonderful. A New New Me is about Kinga—or perhaps I should say Kingas, as there are seven of Kinga. One personality takes over each day of the week. You can immediately see how this might make solving a mystery difficult—such as the mystery of why there is a man tied up in Kinga’s pantry.  The mystery will not be the main focus of this novel, I’m certain; the focus is following Oyeyemi into the strange places only she can find, and through the beautiful sentences only she can write. In the Los Angeles Times, Ilana Masad called A New New Me Oyeyemi’s “weirdest and funniest yet — in the best way possible.” In The New Yorker, Katy Waldman called Oyeyemi’s style “style is equal parts mischievous, moony, and tart.” If these things appeal to you, well, you have your reading for the weekend.  The B-Team Turned A-Team: Thunderbolts* Is On Disney+ Now Thunderbolts* seems to have arrived on Disney+ with very little fanfare, which is a shame, because this oddball release is the most satisfying Marvel movie in years. A scrappy team-up that requires you to remember very little from previous Marvel outings, Thunderbolts* is hard to describe. Any attempt to sum up “what happens” makes the movie sound dour and ponderous. People have done bad things and they are very depressed about it! But, like, in a positive way? Eventually?  If you have ever liked a Marvel movie, you ought to watch this one, for Florence Pugh’s Yelena if for nothing else. (There is not enough Ghost in this film. That is one of my two main complaints. The other is spoilers.) Pugh is probably never going to get enough credit for making Yelena feel like a real, complex, messy-ass person, which she has done in everything from Black Widow (oy) to Hawkeye (the mac and cheese scene!!!) to Thunderbolts* and hopefully beyond. One small moment in this movie is my second favorite scene in a movie this year. (It’d be first, but nothing’s beating that party scene in Sinners.) I don’t want to spoil it, but it involves Yelena and the past, and a small gesture of love and forgiveness. Reader, I wept. At a Marvel movie. Is that not recommendation enough? Whose French Fries Are These? I need to preface this one with a brief warning: If you only want to read something with a fully satisfying ending, this is not the piece for you. But if you would like to read a diverting and somewhat surprising story about neighborly cooperation, french fries, and vague yet compelling scams, by all means, turn your attention to “The Great French Fry Mystery” and ask yourself: If small fast-food bags with the name “Rodolphe” were arriving every night on your neighbor’s porch, would you help them solve the mystery? That’s what Harley Rustad does—and documents—in this charming piece in Toronto Life.[end-mark] The post What to Watch and Read This (Labor Day) Weekend: The “<i>Thunderbolts*</i> Was Surprisingly Good” Edition appeared first on Reactor.