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Atsushi Nishijima / Amazon Studios What Sets Amazon’s The Underground Railroad Apart From Other Slavery Stories
Directed by Barry Jenkins, the visually stunning series depicts the landscape—its terrain, its sounds, its emotional significance—with rare complexity.
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Will Heath / NBC Elon Musk Is Not Just a Celebrity
The Tesla CEO’s SNL performance was neither redemptive nor entertaining. But it served a classic purpose: glossing over his real power.
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HBO / Focus / Amazon / Hulu / … 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.
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Britta Pedersen / Getty / The Atlantic Elon Musk’s SNL Hosting Gig Is a Trap
By the time you understand the billionaire’s motives, you’ve already been trolled.
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Marvel Studios 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.
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Michele K. Short / HBO 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.
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Sindha Agha The Dark Side of the Houseplant Boom
American culture is becoming more and more preoccupied with nature. What if all the celebrations of the wild world are actually manifestations of grief?
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Tomas Schuler / EyeEm / Getty The Interior Lives of Hoarders
Cultural portrayals of hoarding tend to invite pity rather than empathy, revulsion rather than self-reflection. A new entrant in the field masterfully refocuses the lens.
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Amazon Studios Who Wants to Watch Black Pain?
More Black storytellers are turning to the horror genre to unpack the traumas of racism. But some viewers are growing tired of these stories.
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HBO Max 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.
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Kevin Winter / Getty When Meanness Was Celebrated
For decades, the media have chronicled a Hollywood mega-producer’s reputation as a bully—and even praised him for it.
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AMC / SKY The Crime Drama That Will Enthrall and Repel You
In the ornately violent AMC series Gangs of London, even the pigeons are on cocaine.
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Craig Sjodin / ABC ‘I Didn’t Realize How Much of a Machine It Is’
For years, The Bachelor has been losing sight of the fantasy that made it so beloved. Now many of its most loyal fans have had enough.
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HBO The New QAnon Docuseries Is a Gamified Mess
HBO’s six-part Q: Into the Storm turns the conspiracy theory into a rollicking adventure.
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Ben Blackall / BBC / HBO The Sad Déjà Vu of It’s a Sin
The beautifully made HBO/Channel 4 miniseries about gay men in 1980s London can’t help but show the way that tragedies become tropes.
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Tyler Varsell American Cynicism Has Reached a Breaking Point
The nation’s politics is in dire need of earnestness. Can its culture meet the moment?
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HBO 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.
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Dave Allocca / DMI / The LIFE Picture … Why Were We So Cruel to Britney Spears?
The more vulnerable she became, the greater the public’s interest was in watching her disintegrate.
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Orion / Everett Collection 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.
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Rosalind O'Connor / NBC SNL Is Breaking With Its Old Patterns
The show may have become less topical lately, but its earnest streak has made room for its cast to shine.
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