Sophie Gilbert
Before joining The Atlantic in 2014, she was the arts editor at Washingtonian, where she won three Society of Professional Journalists awards for arts reporting and criticism. She has previously written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and The Brooklyn Rail.
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?
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Pamela Littky / FX The Show That Made Single Motherhood Into Art
Pamela Adlon’s Better Things is a tribute to all the people who carry their families because no one else will.
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Erica Parise / Hulu; Charlie Le Maignan / … Justice for Pamela
The brutal sixth episode of Pam & Tommy should have audiences rethinking how culture treated the ’90s sex symbol.
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Apple TV+ When Work Is a Terrifying Dystopia
Severance is an unsettling satire about never being able to leave the office.
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Barry Wetcher / Universal; Charlie Le Maignan / … America Needs a Rom-Com Bailout
“It’s this or porn, people.”
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Amanda Searle / HBO Max The Horror of an Optimized Life
In The Girl Before, residents of an austere house are compelled to live according to its mysterious rules.
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Craig Blankenhorn / HBO Max We Need to Talk About Miranda
And just like that, the most rational character on Sex and the City has become someone totally at odds with her former self.
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Erin Simkin / Hulu Curse of the ’90s Bombshell
In a new miniseries, the Pamela Anderson–Tommy Lee sex tape isn’t just a tabloid frenzy. It’s a moment that actually changed the world.
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Netflix / Charlie Le Maignan / The Atlantic A Netflix Movie Echoing the Strain of Pandemic Parenting
The Lost Daughter is the rare film about a struggling mother that doesn’t excuse—or judge—her choices.
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Alison Cohen Rosa / HBO An American Age of Greed Should Have Been Perfect TV Fodder
The Gilded Age, HBO’s new period drama, imitates the novelist Edith Wharton but entirely misses her insight.
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Claire Merchlinsky The Redemption of the Bad Mother
Two recent works challenge the long-standing pact of American motherhood: We give mothers nothing and expect everything in return.
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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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Niko Tavernise / Netflix / Charlie Le Maignan … Why Are People So Mad About Don’t Look Up?
Climate change is a tough subject for any film, let alone a satire.
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Hulton Archive / Getty; Imagno / Getty; Lambert … For Women, Is Exercise Power?
In Let’s Get Physical, Danielle Friedman traces the fascinating, loaded history of female fitness.
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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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Alamy / The Atlantic I Have Some Questions About the World of Teletubbies
Where do they come from? Are they prisoners? Are we complicit in their captivity? Why do my children love them so?
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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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Graeme Hunter / HBO A Perfect—And Cyclical—Succession Finale
The conclusion to Season 3 was both brilliant television and a patchwork of things the show has already done.
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Craig Blankenhorn / HBO Max And Just Like That Is a Far Cry From Sex and the City
HBO Max’s spin-off revisits the original show’s memorable characters, but they’re fish out of water in 2021.
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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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Graeme Hunter / HBO Has Succession Done the Unthinkable?
An episode chock-full of emotional violence may have ended with real tragedy.
