The Handmaid’s Tale showed the ease with which the unthinkable can become ordinary—a lesson crucial in the age of the Big Lie.
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.
The year’s most distinct and worthwhile series
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives is a mainstay of basic cable—and a rallying cry for a country that is losing touch with itself.
The romantic comedy premiered 20 years ago. Its cruelties refuse to age.
In the world of Succession, eloquence is a sign of complicity. Greg, a malapropism incarnate, is the exception that proves the rule.
On the show, at least, Donald Trump is back.
How a genre premised on artifice got obsessed with disguise
James Michael Tyler, who died yesterday, played the beloved Friends character with a sense of ironized self-awareness.
Almost 100 years ago, Mrs. Dalloway anticipated the anxiety of seeing—and being seen.
On the new Culture podcast The Review, our Atlantic staff writers break down the Emmy-winning soccer sitcom and its much-discussed second season.
The mistakes the show made in its attempts to replace Alex Trebek have doubled, for fans, as betrayals.
The wealthy vacationers in the HBO series The White Lotus assume that the world revolves around them. The show ultimately proves them right.
The New York governor took refuge in his meme-friendly brand—until he couldn’t any longer.
The hit sitcom Ted Lasso is a witty ode to empathy. Its second season remains warmhearted—and turns the show’s original thesis on its head.
The HBO show Hacks, like several other recent works, explores the particular intimacies of professional relationships—and expands what it means to be a couple.
The Fox host has a new daytime show, and he’s using it to poison the meaning of patriotism.
Reconsidering the meaning of Maverick
The new Disney film could have embraced villainy, in all its complications. Instead, it opts for a cheaper sort of sympathy.
The long-awaited reunion special is an uneasy continuation of the sitcom’s easy fantasies.
The final frontier, as a setting, has long channeled giddy dreams of human communion. A new group of cultural works explores the opposite possibility.