The Ongoing Allure of Pride and Prejudice
Katy Waldman | New York
“If Austen’s restraint suggests treasure left beneath the surface, the paradoxes she sustains in her writing keep us from feeling as though we’ve figured her out. Who but she can conjure such ardencies in readers while remaining so pragmatic and demure? Who else splices so much light-fingered subtlety with so many fervent (and occasionally cruel) opinions?”
How Zayn Malik Keeps Refining the Art of Shade
Rob Sheffield | Rolling Stone
“Zayn's latest (and best) solo hit has the quintessential boy-band title ‘BeFoUr,’ which is a great moment in the history of human subtlety … But of course, 1D’s final album with Zayn was Four, back in the days BeFoUr he quit, leaving only FoUr of them to Be2Gether until their recent hi8Us. Also the capitalized letters spell BFU, which possibly means he’s sending a Big Fuck You to whoever he’s singing about.”
Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu Get One Basic Thing About TV Very Wrong
Todd VanDerWerff | Vox
“This has always been television's chief storytelling advantage. Instead of having lots of time, TV actually has less time—in that each episode is a short story in and of itself—but it can use its smaller stories to give the appearance of larger ones. The episode itself is the most important single unit of storytelling on TV, not the season or even the series. Without good episodes, shows inevitably end up feeling muddled and aimless.”