Twisted and Ambitious ‘The Curse’ Watches and Condemns Us
Satirizing the struggles of a married couple shooting an HGTV show, Showtime miniseries The Curse bends genres and points fingers to monstrous effect.
television feature
Biopic of Argentine Musician Fito Páez Immerses Viewers
Biopic Fito Páez: El Amor Después Del Amor (Love After Music) is, among other things, a gateway into Argentina’s most celebrated rock star’s songbook.
‘Frasier’ Is Back, But Are We Still Listening?
America is a more polarized political and social landscape since the original Frasier aired. Since it was never a socially conscious comedy like many of today’s sitcoms, who is this reboot for?
Time Is Love in Italian Romance Comedy ‘Generation 56k’
Italian romance comedy Generation 56k toys with the timeline between instant and delayed gratification in the eras of the early internet and social media.
Did Improv Comedy Help Elevate America’s Consciousness?
Improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway? associated transgressive ideas about blackness and queerness with beloved personalities. While Americans laughed, did they learn anything?
Is Syfy’s ‘Chucky’ the Horror We Deserve?
Chucky is still a doll possessed by a person possessed by a demon, but there’s something far more nefarious going on in Syfy’s new series, Chucky.
Rod Serling Undermines the American Dream with the Stories in ‘Night Gallery’
Existential fear about post-war American masculinity is dragged into disturbing light in Rod Serling’s dark tales of the American Dream, Night Gallery.
Why We Still Love Lucy After All These Years
The I Love Lucy cast insisted that the show didn’t intend to take on world-changing progressive issues, but it was far more subversive than they let on.
You Think Feminist Sitcom ‘Murphy Brown’ Had It Tough in the ’90s?
Would the Murphy Brown “Uh Oh” episodes, which addressed abortion, withstand the Texas Heart Beat act and America’s current right-wing cultural climate?
A ‘Midnight Mass’ for Post-Trump American Christianity
No work has so passionately tapped into the anxieties of Christianity in the wake of Donald Trump as Mike Flanagan’s mini-series, Midnight Mass.
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’70s TV Horror/Mystery ‘Kolchak: The Night Stalker’ Keeps Crawling from Its Grave
Horror-mystery TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker has a sour take on society that hasn’t dated since the ’70s; hence, its eternal afterlife.
Marvel’s ‘WandaVision’ Echos Our Lasting Pandemic Grief
Addressing pandemic-induced topics such as loss, grief, and mental illness, Marvel’s ‘WandaVision’ serves as a metaphor for life in the time of COVID.