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Apple TV+ The Dark Side of Fitness Culture
The Apple TV+ series Physical is a reminder that making people hate their body is a thriving pillar of American commerce.
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Adam Maida / The Atlantic Slouching Towards Gilead
The Handmaid’s Tale showed the ease with which the unthinkable can become ordinary—a lesson crucial in the age of the Big Lie.
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Marvel Studios Is Loki Darker Than It Seems?
A Brutalist aesthetic. Allusions to autocracy. The early episodes of Marvel’s new series may seem breezy, but its dystopian design hints at more sinister twists ahead.
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Marvel Studios A Marvel Series That Cares Little for Marvel’s Universe
For more than a decade, the studio’s films and shows have been paragons of careful continuity. So far, Loki does away with that.
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Pari Dukovic / FX Pray Tell and the Church of Pose
In its final season, the FX series exposed the heavy toll of religious stigma for countless queer people—and illuminated the beauty of a different sort of fellowship.
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Michele K. Short / HBO The Real Twist of Mare of Easttown
In the HBO show’s finale, the impulses to care and to crime-solve collide. But the miniseries has thoughtfully explored how the two aren’t always mutually exclusive.
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HBO Max / Getty / The Atlantic The Friends Mythology Has Come Full Circle
The long-awaited reunion special is an uneasy continuation of the sitcom’s easy fantasies.
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The Atlantic / Amazon Studios / Netflix Even TV Is Struggling to Connect
Two new shows, Amazon’s Solos and Netflix’s Master of None, feature characters desperate for human warmth.
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Netflix Why We Watch Relationships Fall Apart
The latest season of Master of None charts the slow demise of a marriage. But if we don’t know what drew a couple together, we can’t empathize with what caused them to split.
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HBO What Hacks Proves About Jean Smart
The HBO Max series finally gives a stellar performer the kind of role she deserves. It also slyly questions what took TV so long.
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Atsushi Nishijima / Amazon Studios What Sets Amazon’s The Underground Railroad Apart From Other Slavery Stories
Directed by Barry Jenkins, the visually stunning series depicts the landscape—its terrain, its sounds, its emotional significance—with rare complexity.
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Will Heath / NBC Elon Musk Is Not Just a Celebrity
The Tesla CEO’s SNL performance was neither redemptive nor entertaining. But it served a classic purpose: glossing over his real power.
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HBO / Focus / Amazon / Hulu / … What the Sexual Violence of Game of Thrones Begot
Ten years after the hit series debuted, television’s reliance on rape culture still feels exploitative.
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Britta Pedersen / Getty / The Atlantic Elon Musk’s SNL Hosting Gig Is a Trap
By the time you understand the billionaire’s motives, you’ve already been trolled.
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Marvel Studios The Power of a Skeptical Captain America
All season long, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier asked not only what it meant for a Black man to inherit the storied shield—it asked whether the shield was worthy of him.
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Michele K. Short / HBO What HBO’s New Crime Show Gets Exactly Right
Mare of Easttown, starring Kate Winslet as a Delaware County detective, is brilliantly specific in its portrayal of a community. More of its peers should follow suit.
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Sindha Agha The Dark Side of the Houseplant Boom
American culture is becoming more and more preoccupied with nature. What if all the celebrations of the wild world are actually manifestations of grief?
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Tomas Schuler / EyeEm / Getty The Interior Lives of Hoarders
Cultural portrayals of hoarding tend to invite pity rather than empathy, revulsion rather than self-reflection. A new entrant in the field masterfully refocuses the lens.
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Amazon Studios Who Wants to Watch Black Pain?
More Black storytellers are turning to the horror genre to unpack the traumas of racism. But some viewers are growing tired of these stories.
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HBO Max When Love Is Optimized, Is It Still Love?
Television, of late, has been obsessing over technological advances that don’t yet exist—rather than the innovations that are already changing our romantic lives.
