Sophie Gilbert

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.

• Sophie Gilbert
• June 12, 2021

We Choose Our Cults Every Day

Cultish, a new book by the linguist Amanda Montell, reveals how insidery language informs the communities of modern life.

• Sophie Gilbert
• June 10, 2021

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.

• Sophie Gilbert
• May 30, 2021

Even TV Is Struggling to Connect

Two new shows, Amazon’s Solos and Netflix’s Master of None, feature characters desperate for human warmth.

• Sophie Gilbert
• May 26, 2021

The Literary-Abuser Trope Is Everywhere

A spate of recent works—some memoiristic, some fictional—points to how uniquely teachers and mentors can manipulate their power.

• Sophie Gilbert
• May 20, 2021

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.

• Sophie Gilbert
• May 18, 2021

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.

• Sophie Gilbert
• May 4, 2021

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.

• Sophie Gilbert
• April 23, 2021

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.

• Sophie Gilbert
• April 21, 2021

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.

• Sophie Gilbert
• April 15, 2021

The Crime Drama That Will Enthrall and Repel You

In the ornately violent AMC series Gangs of London, even the pigeons are on cocaine.

• Sophie Gilbert
• April 7, 2021

The Mortifications of Beverly Cleary

The author recognized that humiliation is a kind of trauma—and that gentle humor could help neutralize it.

• Sophie Gilbert
• March 30, 2021

The Unending Assaults on Girlhood

Rape culture permeates adolescence. The lessons that it teaches girls cast long shadows.

• Sophie Gilbert
• March 30, 2021

The New QAnon Docuseries Is a Gamified Mess

HBO’s six-part Q: Into the Storm turns the conspiracy theory into a rollicking adventure.

• Sophie Gilbert
• March 21, 2021

Becoming a Parent During the Pandemic Was the Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done

This completely different person I’ve become since I gave birth is someone virtually no one knows.

• Sophie Gilbert
• March 10, 2021

What Will We Want When We Can Travel Again?

Two new TV series offer hints.

• Sophie Gilbert
• March 3, 2021

The Awful Intimacy of Allen v. Farrow

A new docuseries about the molestation allegation against Woody Allen is determinedly focused on making its case, sometimes at the expense of nuance.

• Sophie Gilbert
• February 23, 2021

Why Were We So Cruel to Britney Spears?

The more vulnerable she became, the greater the public’s interest was in watching her disintegrate.

• Sophie Gilbert
• February 13, 2021

The Dark Fate of Clarice Starling

Across decades of Silence of the Lambs sequels and spin-offs, Hannibal Lecter has become a pop-cultural juggernaut. Starling, not so much.

• Sophie Gilbert
• February 12, 2021

The Slow, Creeping Horror of The Salisbury Poisonings

The AMC miniseries sidelines international intrigue to focus on the mundane dread of contamination.

• Sophie Gilbert
• February 1, 2021