Emily St. James is a writer and critic whose work has appeared in Vox, The A.V. Club, and the New York Times. She is the co-creator of the podcast Arden and a writer on the TV series Yellowjackets.
No TV critic watches everything. So when my top 30 shows on TV list is unveiled on December 21 at the Vox Dot Com (along with, possibly, a very special sequel), you are bound to find that I've forgotten something, which will cause you great anger and distress.
It's that time of year again! The time of year when I insert some platitudes about how the calendar is reaching its end and time is meaningless. It's also time to talk about how it was a good year for TV! Maybe not as good as
I grew up surrounded by two things: Republicans and guns. Thus, I don't particularly hate the former, and I don't particularly fear the latter. That, increasingly, makes me feel like I'm out of step with my fellow progressive urbanites. Don't get me
WARNING: THIS IS THE DUMBEST INSTALLMENT OF THIS DUMB NEWSLETTER YET. TUNE OUT NOW! OR GO PLAY SOLITAIRE OR SOMETHING. I DON'T CARE! I saw The Revenant, the big Oscar hopeful, tonight. I'm under embargo for a few more hours, so I can't tell
(My apologies for any details I get wrong. I had intended to revisit this episode before writing this, but life, as they say, got in the way.) I love Rashomon episodes, even though they almost never purport to show what they say they're showing and even though the
Have you heard a bad version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"? I mean, I'm sure one exists. I'm sure in the vast infinity of Christmas covers, there's a terrible, rotten, no good version of this song. But it's
(This is part two of a series. To read part one, go here!) There was perhaps no TV feature so roundly misunderstood at the AV Club as TV Club 10. And I don't just mean it was misunderstood by commenters (though it was that). It was misunderstood by
I have a love-hate thing with canons. I think they're useful in general, because they give us all something to react to and push back against, but I also tend to find they have gigantic blindspots, in terms of voices represented, types of work celebrated, and the very
(We're talking about Broadway musicals this week, and it's gone better than you might have expected for an idea I half had one night when possessed by the desire to listen to "Superstar.") Endings are important, but especially in musical theater. A great closing
(We're talking musicals this week, which means it's time for the inevitable Stephen Sondheim post.) It actually took me a while to warm to Stephen Sondheim. And by that I mean, "When I was 12 and listened to lots of original cast albums, I didn&
(We're talking about musicals this week, because I don't really value my subscriber numbers.) There's a tradition in musical theater called the "11 o'clock number," which is based on the idea that shows used to start at 8:30, so
(We're talking about show tunes this week, because I feel like talking about show tunes this week. You can nominate some of your favorites! I probably won't write about them.) Since I received it as a Christmas gift last year, I've kept Stephen Sondheim&