Tag Archives: translucent screen

Fritzes 2026, an intro

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The Fritzes award honors the best interfaces in a full-length motion picture in the past year. Interfaces play a special role in our movie-going experience, and are a craft all their own that does not otherwise receive focused recognition. (Looking at you, Academy.) Awards are given for Best Believable, Best Narrative, and Best Interfaces (overall). Some years I give awards and shout-outs to other interesting trends or interfaces I spot along the way. This year I’ll do that, too.

History (still) unfolding note: Here in my home country we are still in the throes of Epstein-class fascism that amounts to a crimes-against-humanity, cartoonishly-incompetent, distraction-war. We are obligated to root out and overcome these forces. But we can’t be “on” 24/7, and sometimes the best thing we can do in these circumstances is resist and thrive, so despite the daily horrors, for when you’re done protesting and voting and resisting, I present this minor distraction with the full knowledge that there are other things with orders of magnitude more importance going on. It is not meant to normalize the kakistocracy.

Last year surprised me for the number of quality interfaces in sci-fi. I keep a long note on my phone across the year as I see shows, and despite that very concrete memory anchor, when I started thinking through the complete set for 2025, I had a vague sense that there weren’t that many. But when I started looking, I was wrong. There are a lot, and some really good ones. I’ll save further comments on the whole year in the wrap-up post.

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD

Major spoilers in the days and weeks ahead, as I’ll be posting these in parts. Today, a pre-award shout-out to interfaces from long-format shows.

Pre-award shout out: Series!

Long-form formats like TV shows require a lot more of me to give those interfaces their due. More watching, more capturing, more analysis. But I do watch some shows, and there’s some great, great stuff happening. Maybe I should start an Emmy-esque award series, but that takes time I do not have. But as a simple shout-out, let me name a few you might want to check out.

Check out Alien Earth!

Working between the palette of the existing movies and genre and bringing something new to the franchise.

A man wearing a grey jacket stands confidently in a dimly lit room, with glowing lights around him and a large control panel behind.
A young man with curly hair, wearing a light-colored cardigan over a button-up shirt, stands in front of multiple vintage computer screens displaying green graphics and data, looking surprised or concerned.
A group of three individuals discussing in a futuristic lab with large screens displaying medical imagery and data analysis equipment.
A man with white hair is speaking on the phone in a control room filled with equipment. In the background, another person is standing near a table with various technological devices, while a retro-style monitor displays data on a screen.
A retro computer monitor displaying a blue-tinted interface with various data readings and descriptions related to pressure measurements, accompanied by numerous control buttons on either side.
Two individuals in dark uniforms stand in front of a large control panel filled with lights and screens in a sci-fi setting.

Check out Murderbot!

Check out their beautifully controlled palette (light gray and orange as keystone colors are just gorgeous), and what look like deeply considered interfaces throughout.

A person in a futuristic setting, speaking with a serious expression, standing near control panels displaying various data and graphics.
Close-up of two hands interacting with a futuristic touchscreen interface, with illuminated control panels in a modern setting.
Three individuals studying digital displays in a high-tech environment, with plants in the background.
A person holding a tablet displaying a holographic image of a helmet in orange and black, with digital interface elements on the screen.
A futuristic display shows a blue holographic rocket with the text 'BEACON IDENTIFIED' in orange against a mountainous landscape, depicting a sci-fi environment.
A person viewing a futuristic holographic interface displaying various client information and alerts related to a project or mission.
A person wearing a light-colored vest interacts with a high-tech control panel in an outdoor setting, surrounded by greenery.
A digitally enhanced face with a distorted visual effect, overlaid with red digital elements indicating a transmission process and error notifications.
A person observing a futuristic holographic display showing a spacecraft and a trajectory path.

Check out Pluribus!

It’s much more of an abstract conversation, but the show is quite smart about the interfaces between the Unum (my term for the hive mind) and the free-willed. (Though come on, surely they could shorten that voice mail message after her first couple of calls.)

A stylish group of individuals gathered around a poker table in an upscale casino, featuring a man in a white tuxedo holding a cocktail, surrounded by elegantly dressed women and men.
Signage for Westgate featuring a digital welcome message for Carol, illuminated at night.

There are certainly some shows I’ve missed because I don’t have so much time to survey all the TV shows, much less in their entirety. Sorry if I missed your favorites, but give a comment below if there’s a series with great interfaces. As noted, though, the Fritzes are about movies, so I’ll say so long to TV for now.

Previous awards: [2021] [2022] [2023] [2024] [2025]

Next up: We’ll move on to movies and the Best Believable interfaces from 2025

Coulson Calling

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JARVIS interrupts his banter with Pepper, explaining, “Sir, the telephone. I’m afraid my protocols are being overridden.” We can hear Coulson’s voice saying, “Mr. Stark, we need to talk.” Perturbed, Tony grabs his custom phone from where it sits on a nearby table. It is made up of a glass plane within a rounded-rectangle black band. On its little screen we can see a white label reading, “Connected.” Remarkably, this label is presented in mixed case. Nearly all sci-fi interface typography is rendered in all caps, so I have some curiosity how this ended up in majuscule and miniscule. But it feels right. Perhaps that’s because it’s kind-of a consumer device?

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Anyway, beneath the label is a static photo of the caller, Agent Coulson, and below that a large circle with a central bump, and some other tiny controls.

Tony positions the phone before him, looks into the glass, and says, “You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message.” Coulson doesn’t fall for it, saying, “This is urgent.” Tony tries to admonish him, “Then leave it urgently,” but it’s too late. Coulson himself walks out of the elevator in the room, his phone to his ear.

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Aside from the trope screens are cameras, and the bad-but-understandable translucent screen, I have another question about the interaction: What is Tony doing looking at the phone for the duration of the short conversation? Since Coulson isn’t looking at his phone, it’s just an audio connection between them. The phone should convey that status to Tony, and in fact the static image of Coulson seems to imply just that. So, why does he bother looking at it?

So try as I may, I can’t apologetics-my-way to get around this odd behavior in the scene. Perhaps Downey believed that the interface would be rendered with a video image of Coulson on the other end, and that turned out not to jive with Gregg’s holding it to his ear. I hate to leave it at “misinformed actor” but I can’t think of a diegetic explanation. Anyone have a plausible one?

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