Television

I’m Really Sorry, but Let’s Talk About That Chicken Movie

In a time of rampant lies, a KFC-Lifetime rom-com is about as refreshingly blunt as you can get.

• Megan Garber
• December 14, 2020

The 15 Best TV Shows of 2020

The year’s most distinct and worthwhile series

• Shirley Li, Hannah Giorgis, and Megan Garber
• December 12, 2020

The New Comedy of American Decline

Even works of escapism are reckoning with waning national myths.

• Megan Garber
• December 3, 2020

Margaret & Diana & Elizabeth & Nancy

Netflix’s The Crown and Showtime’s The Reagans offer four different models of female power colliding with history, and with one another.

• Sophie Gilbert
• November 20, 2020

Forget SNL. The Best Election Satire Is on TikTok.

The app’s young creators are outshining mainstream political comedy—and tapping into a longer tradition of Black American humor.

• Hannah Giorgis
• November 13, 2020

The Crown Takes the Shine Off Queen Elizabeth’s Reign

In its fourth season, the Netflix drama is sharper than ever as it paints a portrait of an out-of-touch ruler caught off guard by change.

• Shirley Li
• November 11, 2020

How Alex Trebek Made a Mundane Game Show Brilliant

The late Jeopardy host made the biggest trivia nerds look cool.

• Mansee Khurana
• November 10, 2020

Dave Chappelle Doesn’t Think America Is Saved

After four years, the comedian returned to host Saturday Night Live. In 16 minutes, he explained why a new president alone won’t fix the country.

• David Sims
• November 8, 2020

How to Tell the Story of a Cult

Two docuseries about NXIVM present a question: Are the people who have escaped a controlling organization the most reliable sources on what happened to them?

• Sophie Gilbert
• November 8, 2020

Beware False Endings

At a time when uncertainty may be the election’s only immediate result, Americans have an opportunity to rethink the way stories are told.

• Megan Garber
• October 31, 2020

Dwight Schrute Was a Warning

When The Office originally aired, its resident fool made for easy comedy. Fifteen years later, it’s hard to watch Dwight without seeing tragedy.

• Megan Garber
• October 29, 2020

Sarah Cooper’s Humor Is Not What You Thought

The comedian went viral for “playing Trump,” but in her new Netflix special, Everything’s Fine, she shows how unusual her comedic taste can be.

• Shirley Li
• October 28, 2020

On TV, Having Wealth Means You Get to Suffer Beautifully

Like other stories about terrible rich people, HBO’s glitzy murder mystery The Undoing is entranced by a world it finds immoral.

• Hannah Giorgis
• October 27, 2020

Would a Soul Mate Fix Your Anxiety Right Now?

Probably not—but a new AMC show about the false promise of true love makes for strangely comforting viewing in pandemic times.

• Hannah Giorgis
• October 15, 2020

Emily in Paris Is an Irresistible Fantasy

In Darren Star’s latest series, the Sex and the City creator imagines an alternate universe where good intentions and accomplishing the bare minimum are enough.

• Shirley Li
• October 5, 2020

Gillian Flynn Is Obsessed With Conspiracies

In her new series, Utopia, the Gone Girl author examines the tricky relationship between fact and fiction in the age of disinformation.

• Shirley Li
• September 29, 2020

The Dangerous Naïveté of Coastal Elites

HBO’s tepid satire about the provincialism of U.S. liberals doesn’t play well in a year as catastrophic as 2020.

• Hannah Giorgis
• September 12, 2020

The Southern-Gothic Stripper Drama That TV Deserves

Give into the lush, neo-noir pleasures of the new Starz show P-Valley.

• Hannah Giorgis
• September 5, 2020

When TV Commercials Ruled American Culture

The pandemic has accelerated the death of a once-crucial medium: the TV ad, which had the surreal job of heroizing a product in 60 seconds or less.

• Mac Schwerin
• August 24, 2020