Meagan Good’s hair can change with each project. In Prime Video’s Harlem, red dreads trace her back, in Shazam! Fury of the Gods she wears a curled bob, and in Think Like A Man, she sports a middle part with a swept bang. Despite her hair’s versatility, not every stylist …
Read More »'That '90s Show' and 'Night Court' Try to Breathe Life Into a Dying Form
Depending on the season, the opening credits sequences for Night Court and That ‘70s Show ran between 30 and 40 seconds. Their new legasequels — NBC’s Night Court and Netflix’s That ‘90s Show — use intros that top out around 15 seconds, with updated versions of familiar theme songs that …
Read More »'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' Enters Its Ouroboros Phase
This post contains spoilers for the first two episodes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season Four, which are now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Late in the second episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s new season, the show’s title character — Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), a housewife-turned-comedian in the …
Read More »'They Let Me Do Whatever I Want': James Gunn on the 'Peacemaker' Finale
This post contains full spoilers for Season One of Peacemaker, the finale of which is now streaming on HBO Max. So what did we learn from the Peacemaker finale, kids? Well, we learned that a human torpedo is ultimately more powerful than a kaiju that provides milk for a race …
Read More »In Defense of Che Diaz
There’s a popular concept on Twitter known as the Main Character, or someone who fills the position of flogging post after having posted something outrageously stupid. Usually, the Main Character is a minor columnist with a bad parenting take, or a clueless centrist pundit who takes umbrage to people making …
Read More »Goodbye, Golden Girl: How Betty White Conquered TV Over Six Decades
“You know, being together every week is getting to be a very, very nice habit. I hope you’ll keep it up, will ya?” https://youtu.be/gjkIo4WTMBo?t=1483 This was Betty White‘s line at the end of each episode of her very first sitcom, Life with Elizabeth, in which she and Del Moore played …
Read More »'LFG' Filmmakers on the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team's Battle for Equal Pay
Like working women everywhere, the players of the U.S. women’s national soccer team are tired — tired of fighting against structural discrimination. “It’s like Whac-A-Mole — it’s like whack-a-sexist, basically,” team captain and activist Megan Rapinoe says in the new documentary LFG, which started streaming yesterday on HBO Max. “Every …
Read More »'Mare of Easttown' Finale: Much More Than Just the Facts
This column contains spoilers for the finale of Mare of Easttown, available now on HBO and HBO Max. For a show whose characters seemed congenitally incapable of smiling or experiencing joy, Mare of Easttown inspired a lot of amusing side discussions among its audience. There was the analysis of all …
Read More »The Year That TV Saved Us
Back in March, while my son and his friends were enjoying a chilly morning of socially distanced outdoor fun at a campground, all the dads lingered near the fire our kids had built. We spent a few minutes catching up on how we’d all been dealing with one year and …
Read More »Nahnatchka Khan on Rethinking the 'Strong Female Character'
Audiences want to see their experiences reflected back at them on television. Audiences want to see aspirational stories on television. People don’t like to feel challenged, they want escapist entertainment. People want to feel challenged, they don’t want to waste time watching fluff. These are just a few of the …
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