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Close Reads

  1. spoilers
    BoJack Horseman Fades to BlackTo fully process that series finale we must first discuss that doozy of a penultimate episode.
    By Jen Chaney
  2. close reads
    The Good Place’s Final TwistEverything ends, we don’t know exactly what that looks like, and that’s okay.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  3. close reads
    How Rage Cagey Is the New Nicolas Cage Movie Color Out of Space? Let’s Discuss.What follows can only be described as the indiscriminate slaughter of fruit.
    By Jordan Crucchiola
  4. close reads
    The Good Place Doesn’t Need a Love StoryRemember when Eleanor and Chidi were just friends?
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  5. close reads
    The Weekly’s Endorsement Episode Was a FailureAnd not just because the Times endorsed two candidates.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  6. oscar endings
    Bong Joon Ho on Why He Wanted Parasite to End With a ‘Surefire Kill’The director explains his coda: “I thought it was being real and honest with the audience.”
    By E. Alex Jung
  7. close reads
    How Can The Witcher Be So Fun and So Incoherent?This show makes absolutely no sense, which is why it’s so enjoyable.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  8. close reads
    The Women of The Witcher Get Their DueSubtle but significant changes to the Witcher books make all the difference in Netflix’s hit adaptation.
    By Joelle Monique
  9. close reads
    The Mandalorian Doesn’t Care About DiapersA series uninterested in the details of parenting indulges a very particular image of fatherhood: the guy who doesn’t have to sweat the small stuff.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  10. what were the 2010s?
    All Hail the Pop Culture RemixIn TV, film, and literature, the 2010s challenged us to reexamine the stories we thought we knew.
    By Jen Chaney
  11. spoilers
    The Morning Show Finally Got Its Network MomentFor all its flaws, The Morning Show does a nuanced, cogent, and absorbing job of exploring a MeToo story.
    By Jen Chaney
  12. close reads
    Watchmen Gave Us All the AnswersDid we need them?
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  13. close reads
    Let’s Talk About Watchmen’s Egg-cellent FinaleThe surprising ties between Angela’s fate and the Beatles song “I Am the Walrus.” No, really!
    By Jen Chaney
  14. close reads
    Will The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Finally Reckon With Its Heroine’s Flaws?The season-three finale hints that it might, which is good, since the series is screaming out for Midge to take a harder look at herself.
    By Jen Chaney
  15. watchmen
    In Watchmen’s Clothing, the Past Is PresentThe HBO series weaves the threads of complex and often painful personal histories throughout its characters’ costume choices.
    By Samantha Powell
  16. close reads
    Watchmen Beautifully Wrestles With Toxic Nostalgia“This Extraordinary Being” is a dizzying exploration of memory and the dangers of failing to see the past for what it was.
    By Jen Chaney
  17. close reads
    The Crown’s Royal Sisters Finally Understand Each OtherAfter years of Elizabeth and Margaret’s bond being eroded by the monarchy, the end of season three sees them finding their way back to each other.
    By Alicia Lutes
  18. close reads
    The Morning Show Isn’t a Train Wreck. It’s Something Even More Exciting.It’s terrible and it’s great and that’s precisely why it’s so watchable.
    By Jen Chaney
  19. disney+
    When Disney Gains The Simpsons, What Do We All Lose?The streaming boom has warped our sense of pop-cultural history. And it’s going to get a lot worse.
    By Jen Chaney
  20. close reads
    Jennifer Aniston Is a Great Actor. The Morning Show Proves It.It’s the closest Aniston may ever come to playing a pastiche of her own career and celebrity.
    By Hillary Kelly
  21. close reads
    The Deuce’s Final Scene Leaves So Much Unsaid. That’s Why It Works.Every idea the show explored is percolating beneath that flash-forward, in which an old man confronts his past while surrounded by the future.
    By Vikram Murthi
  22. close reads
    Stumptown and TV’s Legacy of Hard-Boiled DetectivesThe ABC procedural nods to the heyday of Columbo and The Rockford Files, but it’s also quite modern.
    By Susanna Lee
  23. close reads
    Every Succession Episode Is a Contained ExplosionThe series turns each hour into a distinct battleground, where characters vying for their own self-interest are also inextricably linked.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  24. spoilers
    Should We Be Happy for Jesse at the End of El Camino?The conclusion of the Breaking Bad movie isn’t so clear-cut.
    By Jen Chaney
  25. close reads
    The Impossible Politics of JokerHow Todd Phillips’s supervillain story deliberately mixes its messages.
    By Alison Willmore
  26. oscar endings
    Let’s Talk About the Ending of JokerHow much of this movie was real, and how much was fantasy?
    By Nate Jones
  27. close reads
    Shiv Is Exactly Who You Think She IsSuch an Ivanka.
    By Jen Chaney
  28. history lesson
    Succession Loves Ancient Greek and Roman Myths, But What Does It All Mean?From Romulus to Coriolanus, the show’s mythical references reveal quite a lot about the Roys.
    By Tim Joseph
  29. close reads
    Hustler’s Greatest Trick Is Its Take on the Female GazeThe women in Hustlers are in the business of knowing what men want to look at, but the movie itself is gloriously free of a male perspective.
    By Alison Willmore
  30. close reads
    The Good Place Is the Quintessential TV Show of the Trump EraIt’s not about politics, but its themes and concerns are right in line with what’s happened since 2016.
    By Jen Chaney
  31. legacies
    Transparent Changed TV As an Art FormIt defined an entire genre of TV comedy and opened new avenues for TV storytelling.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  32. close reads
    The Doctors Made ER Great. The Nurses Made It Radical.County General’s nursing staff represented a reconsideration of who matters most in a hospital, and which stories are worth telling.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  33. close reads
    As ER Turns 25, a Look at How Its Visual Style Changed the TV GameWhen ER debuted in 1994, its kinetic, Steadicam energy was like nothing else on TV.
    By Jen Chaney
  34. close reads
    The Paul Hollywood Handshake Is the Absolute WorstPaul’s signature move has gone from a cute gesture to a threat to The Great British Baking Show as we know it. It must end.
    By Brian Moylan
  35. close reads
    A Former Stripper’s Thoughts on Hustlers“I’m not saying the movie made me feel comfortable, but it did make me feel recognized.”
    By Lily Burana
  36. close reads
    Unbelievable Is the Most Feminist Crime Show I’ve Ever SeenThe quiet but sturdy feminism of Netflix’s remarkable true-crime drama.
    By Jen Chaney
  37. friends anniversary
    Friends Is a Gen X Show. Why Don’t We Ever Call It That?Baby boomers created it. Millennials and Gen Y kept it popular. But Friends will always be about Gen X.
    By Jen Chaney
  38. close reads
    An Ode to Speckle, a (Bird)Man for Our TimesTuca & Bertie’s cancellation has deprived us of so much, including TV’s best depiction of a nice person and all his nice-person flaws.
    By Josh Gondelman
  39. close reads
    Steven Universe: The Movie Is All About Doing the WorkLike the beloved series that precedes it, the movie is a beautiful, ambitious users’ manual for those learning to love themselves and others.
    By John Maher
  40. close reads
    The Tigers Are Not Afraid Director Unpacks Her Movie’s Most Pivotal Scene“I like a movie that starts bleak, gets bleaker, and then ends in hell,” says Issa López.
    By Jordan Crucchiola
  41. close reads
    The Florida I Know and Love Is Finally on TVWhen I watch On Becoming a God in Central Florida and Florida Girls, I’m transported back into my rose-colored memories of the Sunshine State.
    By Monica Castillo
  42. spoilers
    Let’s Talk About the Mindhunter Season-Two FinaleIt’s a story about failure, but it’s still a story about hoping the hero will catch the bad guy.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  43. close reads
    Is Succession a Comedy?The Roys’ lives might be tragic, but their whole world is laughable.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  44. close reads
    Lucy Liu’s Joan Watson Was Elementary’s Humanistic HeartThrough her performance in the CBS procedural, Liu crafted a layered study in empathy that suggests second acts are possible in life.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  45. close reads
    The Trans Heroes of Euphoria and Assassination NationTo understand why Jules is such a revolutionary character, watch the last movie by Euphoria’s creator.
    By Riley Leight
  46. close reads
    What Does It Mean for a Rape Scene to Be ‘Done Well’?After watching the brutal sexual violence in The Nightingale, I started to think about what we can learn from classic Hollywood depictions of rape.
    By Angelica Jade Bastién
  47. close reads
    On the Troubling Subtext of Once Upon a Time in HollywoodYes, that ending is part of it.
    By Jen Chaney
  48. first person
    On Jane the Virgin, There Was No Shame in Being an Adult Woman Anxious About SexWhen I was a child, I underwent genital mutilation, a trauma that made it difficult to separate shame from sex. No show understood this like Jane.
    By Mariya Karimjee
  49. close reads
    Jane the Virgin Was a Fantasy, That’s Why It Felt So RealThe telenovela twists were preposterously silly, but they clarified all the messy complexity of ordinary life.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  50. close reads
    This Time, the Winner of The Bachelorette Was the BacheloretteDon’t mess with Hannah Brown.
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
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