Tag
Television
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The Shape of Ménage à Trois to Come
“However much desire there is for the threesome to maintain its stability, the cultural force of homogenous marriage is strong.”
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Pre-Recession Bliss, or Ignorance: “Laguna Beach” @ 20
There’s a connection between Laguna Beach’s lush close-ups of LC’s face and its recurrent, luxuriating shots of Orange County mansions.
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Addiction’s Bestiary: “BoJack Horseman” @10
BoJack’s alcohol and drug use are played for laughs as typical vices of a Hollywood has-been… at first.
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Payback: Korean Revenge Dramas Will Do It for You
South Korean media excels at the revenge plot. Here are seven shows you can stream right now to get your fix.
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Twitter Ethics Swarm “Euphoria”
The most tweeted about show of the decade, “Euphoria” provoked viewers to gossip about its teenage characters. What did they say?
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We Want Our Catastrophe TV
“We can ask why Squid Game was so popular. But really we should be asking how any show becomes a global success at all.”
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Name Drop, No Exit
“The Other Two” and a spate of recent comedies claim to mock celebrities while juicing their star power for references and cameos.
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Reboot, Squared
TV can’t reboot its way out of its past errors, any more than an individual can fix their past trauma by reliving it, over and over again.
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And Just Like That… the Viewer Cringes
The show’s white, middle-age, upper-class liberals clumsily realizing their privilege are an accurate mirror of some of its viewers.
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Fixing Nostalgia: “Star Trek” Boldly Goes to Less Utopian Futures
“Picard” is perhaps the least utopian of any “Star Trek” media. But’s that because its political pragmatism shows how to build a better reality.
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The Reboot Will Be Televised
“Star Trek: Picard,” “And Just Like That…,” “Bel-Air,” “Reboot”: even within our age of the reboot, old stories offer new insights.
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Derry Girls and the Absurdity of Adulthood
A work of absurdist art that entertains, but also carries a surprisingly grown-up message about taking responsibility for the state of our politics.
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Long Cons: The Tragicomedy of Prestige TV
Shows like “The White Lotus” distract us with progressive politics, while stealing our eyeballs for the very people the shows lambaste.
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“Better Call Saul”: No Rise, Just Fall
The show explores the phenomenon Lauren Berlant called “cruel optimism,” where “objects you desire are obstacles to your flourishing.”
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Out of the Closet—and into the Coffin
Interview with the Vampire uses vampirism to reveal fantasies & fears of the social contagiousness of interracial & homosexual desires.
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Passion. Mess. Genius. Mother.
Pamela Adlon reveals the mundane project of motherhood to be vast, fluid, and fascinating in its own right.
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On Our Nightstands: May 2022
A behind-the-scenes look at what Public Books editors and staff have been reading this month.
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Trans Women and Children on TV
The family as we know it today functions to further isolate trans children from trans women and vice versa. Thank goodness for TV.
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“Lupin” and the Limits of “Haute Culture”
Does Netflix’s “Lupin” resist the notoriously white milieu of European high culture, or, instead, endorse it?
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Trapped Inside with Bo Burnham
Autofiction like Burnham’s—or Wallace’s, or Lerner’s—show white men using irony, self-deprecation, and vulnerability. Should we listen?
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To Suffer a Witch in “WandaVision”
Anyone who has been called a bitch-witch might have predicted the show’s big twist: there is absolutely no right way to wield your power.
