Megan Garber
She is the recipient of a Mirror Award for her writing about the media, and she previously worked as a reporter for the Nieman Journalism Lab and as a critic for the Columbia Journalism Review. At The Atlantic, she writes about the intersection of politics and culture (which often, but not always, means that she writes about reality TV).
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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Tyler Golden / Netflix; Nick Wall / Searchlight; … The Older Woman Comes of Age
In a new comedy, Emma Thompson plays a woman who finally sees her body, the actor says, “as her home.” Her victory, in a post-Roe world, takes on the dimensions of tragedy.
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Andrew Harnik / AP Make America Remember Again
Caroline Edwards’s testimony about the January 6 insurrection was a reminder that words can convey truths that even images cannot.
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Paramount / Sunset Boulevard / Corbis / Getty; … The Review: Top Gun
How does the classic work of propaganda hold up? And can its sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, deliver decades later?
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Steve Helber / AFP / Getty; Jim Watson … The Amber Heard–Johnny Depp Trial Is Not a Joke
Why are so many people treating it like one?
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Universal / Everett; The Atlantic The Review: Knocked Up
Sophie Gilbert, Megan Garber, and Hannah Giorgis discuss Hollywood and the way it depicts abortion (or doesn’t).
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Mel Haasch The Fight to Decouple Sex From Marriage
Sixty years ago, Helen Gurley Brown’s best-selling book promised women sexual freedom. Today, it reads like an omen.
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Paul Spella / The Atlantic; Moviestore Collection Ltd … Knocked Up and the American Impulse to Edit Out Abortion
How the comedy, now 15 years old, foresaw Roe’s looming tragedies
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Beth Dubber / Hulu; Charlie Le Maignan / … Why The Dropout Succeeds Where Other Scammer Shows Fall Short
It’s all too easy to forget the victims and glamorize the grifter.
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Adam Maida / The Atlantic The Great Fracturing of American Attention
Why resisting distraction is one of the foundational challenges of this moment
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Zelensky Official / Facebook The Grim Stagecraft of Zelensky’s Selfie Videos
The Ukrainian president’s dispatches from the streets of Kyiv have doubled as proof of life and missives of solidarity.
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Apple TV+ A Whodunit Whose Culprit Depends on How You Tell the Story
The Afterparty is one of a series of works that privilege multiple points of view—leaving us looking for truth among conflicting accounts.
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Getty; The Atlantic When Home Improvement Is Self-Improvement
A new group of makeover shows is grappling with a timely truth: Needing help doesn’t make you a failure.
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Kailey Schwerman / Showtime; Charlie Le Maignan / … Yellowjackets Is So Much More Than a ‘Female Lord of the Flies’
The real horror is the friends we made along the way.
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Gale M. Adler / NBC / Getty / … The Classic ’90s Sitcom That’s Actually Worth Rewatching
Frasier is a time capsule of its era—and yet, has aged remarkably well.
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Kailey Schwerman / Showtime The TV Show for the Age of Conspiracism
Yellowjackets, a feminist update of Lord of the Flies, has created a rich world where everyone—and everything—is a suspect.
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Netflix / Charlie Le Maignan / The Atlantic The ‘Meta-emptiness’ of Emily in Paris
Can the joyfully escapist Netflix show also argue for the importance of escapism?
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D Dipasupil / FilmMagic / Getty The Sly Sunniness of Betty White
The actor and producer and host, who died yesterday at 99, spent eight decades poking fun at those who would underestimate her.
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RKO Pictures / Getty The Mournful Heart of It’s a Wonderful Life
The holiday classic is now 75 years old, and a timely exploration of what happens when all that you’ve relied on fades away.
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Kathy Willens / AP Joan Didion Was Our Bard of Disenchantment
The prolific writer, who died today at 87, was a penetrating anthropologist of American myths.
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Graeme Hunter / HBO / Charlie Le Maignan … Succession Is a Game of Monopoly
Did the finale finally flip over the board?
