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Close Reads

  1. close reads
    The Bold Type Embraced Its Worst Self This SeasonKat Edison’s season-four story line is more than a betrayal of the character. It’s a betrayal of the show’s most appealing fantasy.
    By Zoe Christen Jones
  2. close reads
    Padma Lakshmi’s Flirty Charm Is What Makes Taste the Nation So SpecialHer winsome style reflects the Hulu show’s optimism about what food can do in the face of racism.
    By Nina Li Coomes
  3. close reads
    Santana Lopez Kept Glee HonestAs played by Naya Rivera, the ever-unapologetic Santana could be straight-up cruel — and it was the best thing about her.
    By Cate Young
  4. like never before
    What Naya Rivera’s Glee ‘Songbird’ Performance MeantSantana Lopez gave a generation of queer people a flawed, deeply human role model to remember.
    By Madison Malone Kircher
  5. tens across the board
    A Legendary LegacyPride Month may be over, but the ballroom competition series’ unapologetic celebration of Black queerness keeps its spirit alive.
    By Chris Murphy
  6. emmy insider
    Why Isn’t Every Show Like Los Espookys?It’s a world where we don’t have to fight for representation, and TV can be as weird and queer as it wants.
    By Joshua Rivera
  7. close reads
    The Real Mud on The Golden GirlsThe blackface on The Golden Girls wasn’t blackface. But the entire series was still mired in racism and rape culture.
    By Steven W. Thrasher
  8. close reads
    Taste the Nation With Padma Lakshmi Reclaims the American DreamThe new Hulu food series examines how immigrants shaped the definition of American cuisine.
    By Bianca Gracie
  9. close reads
    The Impossible Role of the First Black BachelorLike many Black men before him, Matt James has to make his Blackness seem palatable, amiable, and safe to appeal to white audiences.
    By Andrea Reindl
  10. close reads
    Avatar: The Last Airbender Will Always Feel RelevantBy drawing on Japanese anime tropes about postwar trauma, the American animated series echoes through cultures and generations alike.
    By Adam Fleming Petty
  11. close reads
    The Peril of Issa and Molly’s Fractured Insecure FriendshipIt’s not about who’s right and who’s wrong. It’s about the emotional damage of falling out with your best friend.
    By Cate Young
  12. cancellations
    Good Riddance to CopsFor three decades, the show was a key cheerleader of American law enforcement’s manicured self-image.
    By Matt Zoller Seitz
  13. close reads
    What Is an Anti-Racist Reading List For?It is unclear whether each book supplies a portion of the holistic racial puzzle or are intended as revelatory islands in and of themselves.
    By Lauren Michele Jackson
  14. close reads
    Cops Are Always the Main CharactersTV perfected the cop show, metastasized it, and then franchised it into ubiquity. How does that affect the way audiences think about police?
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  15. legacies
    On Watching Mad Men in the Middle of a PandemicYou can see our world’s present-day crisis peeking through the negative spaces in Matthew Weiner’s 1960s saga.
    By Matt Zoller Seitz
  16. close reads
    What Did The Last Dance Tell Us About Michael Jordan, Really?It boosted Jordan’s standing as the greatest ever, but, like Mike himself, there was a hollowness at its center.
    By Scott Tobias
  17. close reads
    What’s With the Fake A.I. on Netflix Reality Shows?It’s a new age of reality-TV producer meddling.
    By Nikki Shaner-Bradford
  18. close reads
    Blackness Is Mythical in Netflix’s BlackAFWhat BlackAF demonstrates above all, in spite of itself, is that there may be nothing internally consistent about blackness in our current era.
    By Lauren Michele Jackson
  19. profile
    In Case of Emergency, Read Olivia LaingFrom The Lonely City to Funny Weather, the author writes to find a path forward through pain.
    By Hillary Kelly
  20. finales
    How to Get Away With Murder Was Queer TV RoyaltyThe unsung legacy of the show that risked putting queer sex front and center on network TV.
    By Steffan Triplett
  21. close reads
    In Never Have I Ever, the Real Love Story Is Between a Mother and DaughterBy the finale, Paxton Hall-Yoshida and Ben Gross feel like an afterthought.
    By Mallika Rao
  22. endings
    With Final Fantasy VII Remake, Video Games Have Their Last Jedi MomentIt’s not a story, but a struggle against fandom.
    By Joshua Rivera
  23. find a way
    Homeland’s End Brings the Show’s Defining Relationship Full-CircleThe final fate of Carrie and Saul’s partnership after eight seasons underlines what has always worked best about this series.
    By Brian Tallerico
  24. close reads
    Superstore Is the Only Show I Trust to Tell a Coronavirus StoryDozens and dozens of TV shows will tell pandemic stories. Let’s hope that Superstore is one of them.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  25. quibi
    Yep, Quibi Is BadI spent two weeks watching Quibi shows, but I still can’t tell you exactly what Quibi is.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  26. close reads
    Ozark Is the Platonic Ideal of a Netflix DramaYou’ll never ask yourself, “What the hell am I watching?” That’s key to Ozark’s success.
    By Sean T. Collins
  27. close reads
    I Read Woody Allen’s Memoir So You Don’t Have ToFirst off, there are two short passages that will forever change the way I think about him. I cannot unread, unhear, unknow them. I wish I could.
    By Mark Harris
  28. spoilers
    Better Call Saul Just Showed Us Who Kim Wexler Has Been All AlongThe ponytail is down, the gloves are off, and Kim’s finally unleashed her inner scrapper.
    By Jen Chaney
  29. close reads
    Final Fantasy VII Remake’s New Midgar Eerily Reflects Our Crumbling SocietyThe question here isn’t whether or not Final Fantasy VII could happen to us but, rather, how much of it already has.
    By Craig Jenkins
  30. close reads
    The Good Fight’s Most Scathing Episode Yet“The Gang Deals With Alternate Reality” is a study in not just the failures of corporate feminism but the white imagination itself.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  31. twin peaks at 30
    Why Agent Cooper’s Twin Peaks Entrance Is So BrilliantBest TV character introduction of all time?
    By Jen Chaney
  32. close reads
    Is There Any Hope for Picard?The series still has the potential to reach greatness, but only if it can engage the Star Trek franchise’s most essential quality.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  33. close reads
    Everything I Watch Reminds Me of the Coronavirus. Why Can’t I Look Away?Screens are our tether to reality right now, even if you’re looking for a distraction.
    By Jen Chaney
  34. close reads
    RuPaul’s Drag Race Just Can’t Escape the Sherry Pie of It AllThe disqualified queen’s presence can be mitigated, but it can’t be erased, and it’s going to fundamentally change the viewing experience.
    By Brian Moylan
  35. coronavirus
    Pro Wrestling in Empty Arenas Is the Weirdest Show on EarthAre pro wrestlers just the world’s most muscular theater kids? To quote Steve Austin, hell yeah!
    By Sean T. Collins
  36. cityscape
    How Real Architecture Inspired Westworld’s Futuristic CitiesThe meaning behind season three’s deluxe urban dystopia, agleam with prosperity and gentrified to a high polish.
    By Justin Davidson
  37. bachelor nation
    We Need to Talk About BarbPeter Weber may have been the Bachelor, but his mother Barb turned out to be the real driving force of this season.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  38. true crime
    Doug Mathews of McMillions Is America’s Showboat SweetheartFBI Special Agent Doug Mathews is a cocky white guy who laughs at his own jokes. Why do I love him so?
    By Jen Chaney
  39. coronavirus
    Why Is Pandemic Fiction So Comforting Right Now?The coronavirus crisis is terrifying. Contagion is a surprisingly soothing way to grapple with that fear.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  40. close reads
    In Workplace Comedies Like Mythic Quest, Even the Dream Jobs Are AwfulLabor, like comedy, is tragedy plus time.
    By Joshua Rivera
  41. spoilers
    I Am Not Okay With This Goes Out With a BangThe blood-splattered finale of Netfilx’s superpowered coming-of-age story is the culmination of a season-long remix of classic teen movies.
    By Jen Chaney
  42. spoilers
    For Better and for Worse, Love Is Blind Will Never Be This Messy AgainThe Netflix reality dating series’s perfect, disastrous climax is a distinct kind of magic that future seasons won’t be able to replicate.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  43. close reads
    It Doesn’t Take Much to Be Seen As an Unruly WomanTalk too much, too loudly, and that’s enough. Which is why Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn feels like the ultimate fantasy.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  44. close reads
    Every Good Show Needs a Good Stand-alone EpisodeIn different ways, High Fidelity and Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet show how taking a break from the main characters can make a series stronger.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  45. close reads
    Let’s Talk About That Horrific Alicia Silverstone Scene in The Lodge“We tried to make it as surprising for an audience as possible.”
    By Jordan Crucchiola
  46. close reads
    Thank God High Fidelity Fixed RobBy casting Zoë Kravitz as its music-savvy lead, the new Hulu adaptation upends the novel’s and the film’s most infuriating gender bias.
    By Jen Chaney
  47. encounter
    Jenny Offill Wrote the Perfect Worry NovelIn Weather, the author takes us through the Five Stages of Climactic Grief.
    By Hillary Kelly
  48. close reads
    BoJack Horseman Understood the Hardest Thing About Addiction“Recovery” is far more complex than simply not using.
    By Zachary Siegel and Abraham Gutman
  49. spoilers
    The Good Place and BoJack Horseman Died As They LivedThese wonderfully existential shows confronted death to emphasize the meaning of life.
    By Jen Chaney
  50. close reads
    So, What Is Taylor Swift’s New Netflix Doc Miss Americana About?Cats! And so so so much more.
    By Jill Gutowitz
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