The first date is supposed to be about love languages. At the start of the second episode of the sixteenth season of The Bachelorette, nine men follow a trail of heart stickers to some unused alcove of the Palm Springs La Quinta resort where 39-year-old Clare Crawley, their leading lady (for the time being), gazes […]
Television
Cartoon Comforts
It was a kindergarten ritual: every day, my older sister and I would race off the bus, run into the kitchen, and switch on the TV. After the long day of dealing with elementary school stresses of drawing five-point stars and writing complete sentences, we had certainly earned a brain break. We munched on our […]
The Problematic Lens of Queer Eye
The latest mini-season of the hit Netflix show Queer Eye follows the beloved Fab Five to Tokyo, Japan with the mission of, as the show’s description puts it, “bring[ing] the message of self-care and compassion to Japanese men and women while exploring the country’s rich culture and cuisine.” Though the writers likely intended to suggest […]
One Day at a Time: Sitcom Review
I first watched One Day at a Time at the behest of my best friend. When I saw the opening montage of old-timey salsa dancing clips and pictures of Latinx families, I thought, “This is completely unrelatable. I’m not going to enjoy this.” As this article’s title suggests, I was very wrong. One Day at […]
In Defense of the Title Sequence
Netflix began phasing in the “skip intro” button in March of 2017. As its name implies, the skip intro button allows Netflix users to fast forward through the title sequences of all of their favorite shows, saving them from the relentlessly tiring task of watching a minute-long clip set to music. Social media and my […]
Jane the Virgin Knows How to Talk About Sex
Note: This article contains spoilers for all four seasons of Jane the Virgin. In season four, episode ten of Jane the Virgin, protagonist Jane and her grandmother walk into a sex shop. As Alba (Jane’s grandmother, played by Puerto Rican actress Ivonne Coll) glances from the handcuffs to the edible underwear on display, the look […]
Why The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Should Be the Next Big Thing in Television
On the rainy night before Yom Kippur, Midge Maisel stumbles onto the stage of a dinky Greenwich Village comedy club, the Gaslight Theatre, drunk off of Manischewitz wine, wearing only a frilly slip below her bell coat. Midge, emboldened by drink and rage, rants about her husband, Joel, an advertiser who moonlights as a stand-up […]
Riverdale and the High Art of Commercialization
Over the last year, following the success of Riverdale, the CW has being doing everything in its promotional power to establish the show as Gossip Girl for the new generation. For better or worse, this approach has worked. The absence of the crown jewel that was Gossip Girl left a vacuum in the heart of […]
What Hulu Gets Wrong About “The Handmaid’s Tale”
In our first glimpse of June as a Handmaid—as Offred—she is sitting on the window-sill of a stark, sunlit room, wearing the distinctive red habit of the new class of women to which she belongs. Her eyes are closed, her hands are folded on her lap, and she is still. “My name is Offred. I […]
“The Simpsons” and Me
There’s this one episode of “The Simpsons” where Bart, Milhouse, Nelson, and Ralph are recruited by a record producer named L. T. Smash to join a boy band named “Party Posse.” It turns out that the record producer’s real name is actually Lt. L.T. Smash and he’s using Bart and his friends’ boy band music […]