Won’t You Be My Neighbor: An Anti-Hate Pop Culture Syllabus By Soraya Roberts Feature Media and entertainment grounded in empathy are a critical part of a saner culture — and we can all help by actively producing, seeking, and supporting it.
How Do You Move Past a Dad? By Sara Fredman Feature Pamela Adlon’s Better Things is not a riff on the antihero show so much as it is an antidote to it.
‘TV Has This Really Fraught Relationship with the Audience.’ By Jonny Auping Feature Emily Nussbaum talks about why TV’s relationship with its audience has become more intimate, whether we can blame Trump on True Detective, and how a TV critic’s biggest challenge is just figuring out what to watch.
Fashions Fade, But Fleabag Is Forever By Soraya Roberts Feature The jumpsuit is great, but it won’t get you a hot priest or a BAFTA — you’re not Fleabag (or Phoebe Waller-Bridge).
And What of My Wrath? By Sara Fredman Feature Cersei Lannister could have been a great antihero, but she was on the wrong show.
The Good Bad Wives of Ozark and House of Cards By Sara Fredman Feature What if a TV antihero and his wife were partners instead of rivals?
The Blaming of the Shrew By Sara Fredman Feature Golden Age antiheroes and the nasty women who humanized them.
On Blackface, Bert Williams, and Excellence By Danielle Jackson Commentary A complicated racial anxiety rests at the heart of American entertainment.
Queer Eye Is an Upbeat Documentary of a Failing Social Order By Ben Huberman Highlight How a hard-not-to-love show glosses over the powers that produced its makeover subjects.
Author Carmen Maria Machado on the Next Phase of #MeToo By Danielle Jackson Highlight Carmen Maria Machado discusses the nuances of “benevolent sexism,” who gets to define the #MeToo movement, and how it should progress.
When ‘The Real World’ Gave Up on Reality By Rebecca Schuman Feature The true story of the exact moment in the mid-Nineties when reality television morphed from its best self to its worst.
Why Were We All So Upset About Jason Bateman? By Michelle Weber Highlight Never underestimate the insidious, destructive power of gaslighting, especially public gaslighting.
A Clarifying Dose of Reality (TV) By Valentina Valentini Feature A try-out for American Idol put Valentina Valentini permanently off fame-seeking.
Longreads Best of 2017: Arts & Culture Writing By Longreads Reading List We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in arts and culture writing.
‘Twin Peaks: The Return’ Has Made Traditional TV Recaps Obsolete By Ben Huberman Highlight How do you talk about a weekly TV show that defies narrative order?
Remembering ‘Ally McBeal’s’ Creepy Dancing Baby By Mike Dang Highlight An oral history of “Ally McBeal” from the show’s cast and creators, 20 years after its debut.
Failed Promises: A ‘Bachelorette’ Reading List By Ikya Kandula Reading List This was the year ‘The Bachelorette’ tried to take on race. Things did not go well.
Into the Woods: Three Personal Essays on ‘Twin Peaks’ By Ben Huberman Reading List The cult show returned this week. Here, three writers reflect on David Lynch’s effect on their lives.
The Unnecessary Beauty of Ice Hockey By Michelle Weber Highlight Kent Russell loves hockey. A lot. I don’t, but Russell’s writing about the game is utterly engrossing
When ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Isn’t Fiction By Pam Mandel Highlight Growing up in the fundamentalist Christian “Quiverfull” movement, Hännah Ettinger saw her own story in Atwood’s vision.
The Anatomy of a TV Show: How ‘The Americans’ Is Made By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Caroline Framke shadowed the crew of FX’s Cold War spy drama The Americans during the production of season four episode “Clark’s Place” and explained how the show was made.
The Mike and Carol Brady Art Collection By Pam Mandel Highlight “One element that survived the entire duration of the show is the set of mixed media pieces covered with things you might find in a pair of pants.”
Twenty Years of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’: A Reading List By Emily Perper Reading List I don’t remember consciously watching Buffy—it feels like I absorbed it by osmosis. It’s not perfect, but it is wonderful.
The David Letterman University of Excessive Self-Deprecation By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Talking late-night television, retirement, and putting comedy in service of our nation, with the great David Letterman.
‘Have You Ever Had Trashcan Nachos?’ By Michelle Weber Highlight Helen Hollyman spent a lot of time plumbing the depths of America’s leading purveyor of Donkey Sauce™ to produce this in-depth profile of the man behind the sunglasses, Guy Fieri. But what did she really learn?
How the ‘Girls’ Cast Came to Be By Ben Huberman Highlight Lacey Rose gives the cast and creators of Girls — from Lena Dunham to Judd Apatow and Jenni Konner — the full oral-history treatment.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s Feminist Struggle By Jennifer Keishin Armstrong Feature Her iconic main character inspired millions, but some argued the show needed to go even farther.
The Moment Jon Stewart’s ‘Daily Show’ Changed Course By Mark Armstrong Highlight The internal battles and the decisions Jon Stewart made after taking over The Daily Show from Craig Kilborn.
America’s HGTV Obsession: A Reading List By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Reading List These longreads explore some of HGTV’s most popular home and lifestyle shows, from House Hunters to Fixer Upper.
