When your teenagers become your fellow geeks

 I never thought this would happen or planned for it.

Back when I was a teenager, way back, buried in dog-eared paperbacks of Asimov, Herbert, and Tolkien, dice scattered across the dining room table, I figured by the time I hit middle age I’d be expected to “grow out of it.” You know, leave the fantasy novels and sci-fi shows behind for mortgages and lawn care. At the time (the 80's), parents just didn't play the way we did as kid. Video games, roleplaying games, weren't their thing.

But here I am, a dad in his early 50s, watching Arcane with my 18-year-old daughter, dissecting Andor with my 16-year-old son, enjoying Avatar or Studio Ghibli movies with the both of them. And not just tolerating these shows, but actually loving them, together. Talking about world-building, moral choices, the messy heroes, the broken systems. The same kind of conversations I used to have with friends after a late-night RPG session… except now, it’s with my kids.

I’ve been a geek my whole life. The kind or weirdo who still collects RPGs (even if they’ll never all hit the table), hoards sci-fi and fantasy books, and stacks “Art of” movie tomes next to histories of ancient Rome, the Cold War and current geopolitical non-fiction. It’s always been part of me. What I didn’t see coming was that it would become part of "us".

And that’s a beautiful thing.

There’s something special about sitting on the couch with your teenagers and realizing they’re not just humoring you, they’re genuinely into the same stuff. That shared spark makes all the difference. It bridges years, generations, and even the occasional disagreement.

I don’t take it for granted. 

I’m grateful. 

And honestly? I can’t wait to see what we’ll geek out over next.

Probably the new Avatar this coming December. 

Is this something you can relate to? Are you still playing or watching sci-fi or fantasy shows and movies with your kids, or your parents. Let me know!

Will "The Astronaut" crash or soar? Trailer thoughts

So this trailer for The Astronaut just dropped.

Kate Mara crash-landing back to Earth, Laurence Fishburne running the quarantine, and some weird extraterrestrial presence maybe tagging along for the ride? Yeah, I’m intrigued. It feels like a mix of grounded sci-fi and slow-burn horror, and I kinda dig that vibe.

I don’t know if it’s going to be brilliant or just another “alien hitchhiker” story, but there’s enough here to make me curious. I might actually go see this one in theatres when it lands October 17. Having said that, I’m a little apprehensive about the ending though, since a few (okay, a bunch of them,... okay okay, most of the) critics mentioned it starts strong but stumbles in the final act, so I’m keeping my expectations in check. 

At the very least, it’s giving me a reason to keep an eye on Jess Varley as a director, and my options open.

Anyone else planning to check it out?

Additional information:

• Wikipedia – The Astronaut (2025 film)
• Cosmic Book News – The Astronaut Trailer Release Date, Cast
• The Guardian – The Astronaut review: Kate Mara sci-fi is an underpowered dud
• The Hollywood Reporter – ‘The Astronaut’ Review: Kate Mara and Laurence Fishburne in Sci-Fi Thriller
• People – SXSW 2025: Kate Mara Teases ‘The Astronaut’ (First Look)
• FilmHounds – A Promising Outing Ruined by a Ludicrous Conclusion: The Astronaut Film Review
• Rotten Tomatoes – The Astronaut (2025)
• Letterboxd – The Astronaut (2025)

Where are the women in Asimov's Foundation?

After finishing season 3 of AppleTV+’s Foundation, I felt the itch to go back to the source material. It’s been years since I’d read Isaac Asimov’s original trilogy, and I wanted to revisit that sprawling galactic history that had so fascinated me the first time.

But here’s the thing I hadn’t noticed before, and it hit me like a ton of bricks as I turned the pages this time around: everyone is a man. Every bureaucrat, every scientist, every trader, every political schemer. Even the minor characters. Women are practically invisible in those early books.

Back when I first read the series, I completely missed it. Maybe it’s because the story itself is so captivating, with its galaxy-spanning rise and fall of civilizations, or maybe it’s because as a young reader (mid-teens) I wasn’t looking for what was missing. But now? It’s impossible not to see.

Does this revelation ruin the story for me? Not at all. Asimov was a writer of his time, and Foundation was more about ideas—psychohistory, politics, inevitability—than it was about fleshed-out characters. But it does cast a new light on the trilogy. The “future” it imagines is one where half of humanity is strangely absent from the narrative.

That’s why I think the AppleTV+ adaptation does something important. It doesn’t just modernize the story with visual spectacle or personal drama—it rebalances the cast. Strong female characters take their place on the stage, shaping the same epic narrative with voices and perspectives that Asimov either overlooked or simply didn’t imagine back in the 1940s.

So, as I reread the books alongside the show, I find myself in a strange position: still awed by Asimov’s grand vision, but also aware of the silence between the lines.

A silence that, thankfully, the screenwriters have done a great job imagining.