Mailbag
September mailbag!
This month: the Criterion Closet, a live-action Infinite Jest adaptation, and what we'd do if *we* ran the Emmys.
Mailbag
This month: the Criterion Closet, a live-action Infinite Jest adaptation, and what we'd do if *we* ran the Emmys.
Infinite Jest
Is Infinite Jest why we got prestige TV? Honestly, maybe!
it's a wonderful life
The fun things Emily and Lauren Theisen learned when working on their new It's a Wonderful Life book
Ponies
Plus: Damien McCarthy's horror movies, Some Like It Hot, and true fashion.
mailbag announcement
It's that time again!
Whalefall
Why do people love Daniel Kraus' novels? Maybe it's because he's not afraid of a big metaphor.
Beth March Returns from the Dead
Plus: The e-book of Woodworking is on sale too? Remember Woodworking?
Smart longform writing about the moments that make pop culture.
Plus: The e-book of Woodworking is on sale too? Remember Woodworking?
This week: the enthralling and the exhausting kind of become one singular thing.
A preview of this week's premium Wednesday newsletter!
Watching the show's first season in 2026 is an exercise in seeing just how far Hollywood "progressivism" has fallen across a decade.
Also: Paranormal Activity on stage, the Furious finale, and a good comic about a cat.
Who is responsible for your own unhappiness? The answer may disappoint you.
We're talking irony, sincerity, and, of course, Randy Lenz.
Art about pandemics and plagues rarely gets made after the fact. Yet here's the Spanish flu in It's a Wonderful Life.
Also: A trip to the Minnesota State Fair, The End of Oak Street, and America's reigning Garfield princess
Or in me, specifically.
Is careful observation the same thing as love? Lily and Emily investigate.
Over a decade after its debut, HBO's cult series about an ambiguous apocalypse only grows more prescient.