Bethan Ackerley

Wolverhampton

Sub-Editor and TV Columnist at New Scientist

subeditor and tv columnist @newscientist. 🍅-meter approved. slattern. she/her

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Articles

This stunning post-apocalyptic drama is the one you should be watching

1 week ago | newscientist.com | Bethan Ackerley

The EternautNetflixTo make good art, you must be specific. Perhaps that is too sweeping a statement â€“ and so rather contradictory â€“ but it is a fundamental principle I live by. It is no good chasing the lowest common denominator in the hope of attracting an audience. Whether it is a song, a painting or a poem, it is the specificities that we latch on to and fall in love with. This may be why, with hundreds of TV apocalypses out there, The Eternaut is such a breath of fresh air.
Murderbot review: How the new TV series made me a reluctant convert

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Bethan Ackerley

MurderbotApple TV+Friends and colleagues spent years trying to get me to read , a sci-fi series by Martha Wells about a cyborg security unit that gains free will. I resisted. They pitched it to me as quirky, which raised my hackles, or as comfort reading, which sent them skyrocketing. Not my sort of thing, I thought snootily. But once Apple TV+ said that it would be adapting , the first instalment, I knew I had to give it a read. It…
Climate drama Families Like Ours deserves to be a word-of-mouth hit

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Bethan Ackerley

Families Like OursBBC iPlayer (UK); no US release date yet announcedI recently wrote a piece for lamenting the lack of a wildly popular TV drama about climate change. A few short weeks later, along comes (BBC iPlayer), a wildly popular (in its native Denmark) TV drama about climate change. Patience was never my strong suit. While I climb down from my high horse, let me tell you a little bit about it. It is…
Where is the TV drama to move the dial on climate change?

2 months ago | newscientist.com | Bethan Ackerley

Everyone in the UK is talking about . Created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, the hit TV drama follows the investigation into a 13-year-old boy accused of killing a female classmate. It has sparked conversations about social media and the so-called manosphere, an online community of misogynistic influencers. It has been so widely praised that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently met the team behind to discuss the online radicalisation of teenage boys.
Black Mirror returns full of delights and disappointments

2 months ago | newscientist.com | Bethan Ackerley

Black MirrorCharlie BrookerNetflixWhen began in 2011, it was easy to describe: a British horror anthology series about technology. Over time, that description has become fuzzier. It no longer feels very British. It’s not always horrifying or tech-inclined. Sometimes, it’s not even TV: in 2018, an interactive film called let viewers control the life of troubled programmer Stefan (Fionn Whitehead). Now in its seventh season, Black Mirror has metamorphosed again.
Stunning new animated series tells the story of a cure-all mushroom

Mar 26, 2025 | flipboard.com | Bethan Ackerley

Bill Gates: Within 10 years, AI will replace many doctors and teachers—humans won't be needed 'for most things'Over the next decade, advances in artificial intelligence will mean that humans will no longer be needed "for most things" in the world, says Bill …
Stunning new animated series tells the story of a cure-all mushroom

Mar 26, 2025 | newscientist.com | Bethan Ackerley

Common Side EffectsJoseph Bennett, Steve HelyChannel 4 (UK); Cartoon Network, Max (US)One of the best shows I watched last year was , a lushly animated sci-fi series about an interstellar cargo ship that crashes on a planet full of strange, dangerous life. Sadly, it was cancelled after a single season. So, I was pleased to learn that one of its creators, Joseph Bennett, had partnered with writer Steve Hely on a new animated show called , all about a…
New Scientist recommends Weather Girl, an electrifying one-woman show

Mar 20, 2025 | newscientist.com | Bethan Ackerley

Weather Girl, at Londonâ€™s Soho Theatre until 5 April, is a frantic and funny one-woman show about the looming climate apocalypse. Written by Brian Watkins, it stars Julia McDermott as Stacey, a local weather forecaster in Fresno, California. Sandwiched between segments on dog shows and testicular tanning, her reports on the droughts and wildfires in her state are always delivered with a winning smile â€“ until, one day, she snaps.
The OA review: The late director David Lynch echoes through this TV show

Mar 5, 2025 | newscientist.com | Bethan Ackerley

The OABrit Marling and Zal BatmanglijNetflixLike many film fans, I was heartbroken by the recent death of David Lynch. A trailblazing director and painter, he was perhaps the most influential visual artist of the past 50 years, responsible for haunting works of film and TV like , and, of course, . “Visionary” seems too small a word to describe him. While reading tributes to Lynch, I stumbled across a list of TV shows influenced by his work. One of those…
New Scientist recommends Jennifer Walshe: Zero-gravity opera

Feb 26, 2025 | newscientist.com | Bethan Ackerley

I won’t pretend to know much about opera, but was hooked by the radio show Jennifer Walshe: Zero-gravity opera, on the BBC World Service recently. It previews an as yet untitled work by Walshe (pictured above), a professor of composition at the University of Oxford. She is writing the opera with Mark O’Connell as librettist â€“ he won the Wellcome Book Prize in 2018 for his exploration of transhumanism. The opera is set on Mars and is about female astronauts.