Charlie Murphy, the Sidekick Who Became a Star
Rembert Browne | The Fader
“Charlie Murphy was the perfect supporting actor in a show whose inescapable magnetism was often the direct product of its star, Dave Chappelle. Murphy’s lines, while initially few and far between, always hit. His delivery dripped with authenticity—expertly playing a tough guy, since he was legitimately a tough guy. And he was effortlessly comfortable in his own skin alongside Chappelle, the heir to black comedy.”
Stop Comparing Girls to Sex and the City
Brian Moylan | Vulture
“The major difference between the two is one of tone and craft. Sex and the City is a sitcom in a very classic vein. Sure, it can sometimes be bittersweet, but most episodes end with the story lines tied in neat little bows and a sense of uplift. Week to week, season to season, we knew exactly what we’d get when tuning in. Girls was never as interested in that, vacillating wildly in terms of focus and quality (sometimes to its detriment) and willing to experiment with form in a way many series never do.”
How the Gothic Writing of Arthur Conan Doyle Inspired Other Creations
Kaya Genç | The Times Literary Supplement
“For their Victorian readers, Arthur Conan Doyle’s gothic tales did the kind of things Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror episodes have been doing for us over the past six years. They shocked and terrorized them thanks to the relentless imagination of their author, and yet also came to them naturally, depicting the extremities of the modern world they knew only too well. Both have emerged from shifts in the production and distribution of popular culture.”