James Harmon

A deserted cliff. Lightning appearing out of nowhere. A mysterious lady all dressed in white. Netflix’s latest original program, “Meridian,” is spooky, confusing, and only 12 minutes long. That’s because although “Meridian” is available on the streaming service worldwide, it was made not for Netflix’s 83 million subscribers, but for algorithms and their programmers. Director Curtis Clark likely had artistic reasons for adding the film’s strange effects. But those elements are primarily there because they tend to trip up video codecs, or software that compresses and decompresses digital video, and other elements of the streaming pipeline.

A vampire named Bathor turned an entire village to vampires, stuck around long enough to teach them to survive, and then promised to return in 2000 years after conquering the rest of the continent. The only problem with this plan is that the vampires, although immortal, have only a limited capacity for memory. As time passes, they forget their utopian society and led by the totalitarian zealot Grando, become paranoid, superstitious fundamentalists, splitting their society by race and gender lines, seeking to destroy those who are deemed sinful. Long-forgotten lovers Élisabeth and Fantine find that, with the help of those who were banished in the past, it is their fate to piece together the past and help preserve the little that remains before Bathor’s impending return.

On December 31st, the Earth will be destroyed. Everything you know will become nothing. Maybe it already has.

Ten women spend the night in a supposedly haunted mansion on Spektor Island in December 1972. Crazy superstitions don't stop them from raiding the wine cellar and throwing a party, at least until the first murder.