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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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?
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David Dolsen / Comedy Central The Holiday-Rom-Com Fantasy Has Nothing to Do With Romance
The ultimate Hallmark film is not about finding love. It is about finding relief from the demanding work of Christmas.
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Macall B. Polay / HBO Market-Speak Is the Love Language on Succession
One of the bleakest elements of the show’s satire is that its characters aren’t sure how to distinguish between earning capital and earning affection.
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Maria Chimishkyan The 16 Best TV Shows of 2021
The year’s most distinct and worthwhile series
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Jim McAuley The Loss at the Heart of Guy Fieri’s Entertainment Empire
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives is a mainstay of basic cable—and a rallying cry for a country that is losing touch with itself.
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20th Century Fox / Everett; The Atlantic Shallow Hal and the Never-Ending Fat Joke
The romantic comedy premiered 20 years ago. Its cruelties refuse to age.
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Macall B. Polay / HBO The Soul in Cousin Greg’s Linguistic Blunders
In the world of Succession, eloquence is a sign of complicity. Greg, a malapropism incarnate, is the exception that proves the rule.
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