Laugh at Trump’s convention lineup all you want. Reality TV is coming for you

Megyn Kelly’s long-awaited interview with Donald Trump, after he harangued her for months for the sin of doing what journalists are supposed to do and asking him a tough question in the context of a Republican debate, has already come in for its deserved share of criticism. “The two spent quite a few of their […]

It’s long past time for ‘Jane the Virgin’ to let its titular character have sex

In the second season finale of “Jane the Virgin,” there’s a scene that calls back to the show’s pilot, in which Jane Villanueva (Gina Rodriguez) and her fiancé Michael Cordero Jr. (Brett Dier) are engaged in a hot and heavy make out session, parting only to breathlessly count down the days (and hours and minutes) […]

How the world feels about LGBT people

One of the major human rights stories of the past decade in the United States has been the astonishing progress toward equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. The advance of marriage equality across the states before the Supreme Court made it the law of the land; the narratives of bullying and suicide […]

No Woody Allen boycotts: We need to confront the passes we used to give him

Last week, my friend Matt Zoller Seitz wrote a terrific piece about Woody Allen and how he would approach and review Allen’s work now that he has come to the personal conclusion that Dylan Farrow is telling the truth when she says that Allen sexually abused her. I want to quote from it at length […]

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 4 Review: ‘Book of the Stranger’

Note: I’m reviewing “Game of Thrones” from the perspective of someone who has read all of George R.R. Martin’s novels, while my colleague David Malitz, who hasn’t read the books, will be writing straight recaps. His write-up of episode 4, “Book of the Stranger” will appear at The Post’s Style Blog. This post discusses the events […]

‘Scandal’s’ finale makes it clear: Olivia Pope’s real love is power

As of Thursday night’s finale, “Scandal” is a show about the quiet intimacy of Washington politics. Not shadowy counterintelligence organizations. Not international terrorist parents bickering over their child. Not big, bloody murders. Not selling the black woman star of the show on a digital auction block. Not big, torrid, forbidden love affairs. Last night’s finale, […]

If you want to judge Ben Rhodes by what he reads, be careful

If I were Ben Rhodes, I wouldn’t have countered David Samuels’s much-discussed New York Times Magazine profile with an essay on Medium defending the sale of the Iran nuclear deal. Rather, I would’ve listed all the books I owned. The sharpest shiv in Samuels’s story had nothing to do with diplomacy or spinning journalists. Rather, […]

The brilliant way ‘The Americans’ used its time-jump

This post discusses the fourth season of “The Americans,” including the events of the May 11 episode, “The Day After.” The most shameful thing I did involving pop culture this year didn’t involve failing to walk out of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” It didn’t even involve binging on old episodes of “Entourage” during […]

Hey Washington residents, don’t get your ‘Hamilton’ hopes up

The news yesterday that “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s wildly popular musical about the founder of the American banking system, would be coming to the District sent this terminus of the Acela corridor a-twitter. But just because the innovative show is going to be taking up residence at the Kennedy Center doesn’t mean that anything other than […]

In the fight against tobacco, advocates shouldn’t send free speech up in smoke

It’s not exactly news that anti-smoking advocates would like to see images of tobacco banished from the movies. And this February, the issue reemerged in the form of a lawsuit against the Motion Picture Association of America, the National Association of Theatre Owners, Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal and Warner Brothers, essentially […]

In ‘Captain America: Civil War’ the men are the eye candy–but still the heroes

One of the defining ideas — and debates — about the present age of superhero movies is the insight that comic-book stories aren’t merely the provenance of teenage boys anymore. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the few mass cultural events that exist anymore, and women are a big part of the audience. 41 […]

This season of ‘Game of Thrones’ was always going to let readers down

Over the previous five years, I’ve been writing about “Game of Thrones” from the perspective of someone who has read — and reread — George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels. And while I may not be quite as zealous as people like my friend and fellow critic Sean T. Collins, who has published […]

‘The Good Wife’s’ ending and what it means to be a strong woman

“You don’t want to live here alone,” the apparition of Will Gardner (Josh Charles) told Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) during the series finale of “The Good Wife.” “It would drive you crazy.” Alicia had been imagining what her life might be like if she stayed with her husband, Illinois Gov. Peter Florrick (Chris Noth), whose […]

How Ken Burns is preparing for the biggest speech of his life

Ken Burns always knew that it was a big deal when William Adams, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, asked him to deliver the endowment’s annual Jefferson Lecture. Lionel Trilling gave the address for the first time in 1972, and in the years since, it has become a way to honor Americans who […]

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 3 Review: ‘Oathbreaker’

Note: I’m reviewing “Game of Thrones” from the perspective of someone who has read all of George R.R. Martin’s novels, while my colleague David Malitz, who hasn’t read the books, will be writing straight recaps. His write-up of episode 3, “Oathbreaker” will appear at The Post’s Style Blog. This post discusses the events of the […]

‘Lazaretto’ is a historical novel — and a perfect book for the end of the Obama era

It has been eight years since Diane McKinney-Whetstone last published a novel. In that time, the world has changed significantly. We’ve spent nearly two terms with a black president. Technology has changed how many of us consume literature (I read whole novels on my smartphone now). And images of black women in popular culture — […]

In ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ a false choice between Iron Man and Captain America

This post discusses plot points from “Captain America: Civil War,” which arrived in American theaters on Thursday night. As part of the marketing for “Captain America: Civil War,” fans have been asked to pick sides. Are you #TeamCap and opposed to efforts to put superheroes under some kind of governmental oversight? Or #TeamIronMan and in […]

‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ ‘The Best Man,’ and the power of the romantic comedy franchise

“Crazy Rich Asians,” Kevin Kwan’s novel about a New York University professor who discovers that her historian boyfriend is from a wildly wealthy family when they travel to Singapore for his best friend’s wedding, is the kind of novel that’s just begging to be adapted into a movie. It’s got fabulous clothes, thanks to that […]

What ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and ‘Batman v. Superman’ have in common

This post discusses the plot of “Captain America: Civil War” in fairly general terms. When I left “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” back in March, I was convinced that DC’s attempts to build a cinematic universe to match Marvel’s wildly popular movie franchise was doomed. And while “Captain America: Civil War” suggests that Marvel’s […]

Covering Donald Trump as a cultural figure made it easier to take him seriously

Donald Trump’s ascendancy has prompted a lot of soul-searching among establishment figures and institutions who failed to predict or stop him, among them pundits who insisted publicly and repeatedly that there was no way he could possibly become the Republican Party’s nominee, much less the president of the United States. So given that Trump’s victory in […]

The 1989 movie conservatives who want to reclaim Hollywood need to watch

Every time actor and conservative advocate Kirk Cameron makes headlines, as he did this week for arguing that women should be submissive to their husbands, I think back to the only work of his that I’m really familiar with, his 1989 college debate movie “Listen To Me.” When I was in high school, I watched […]

How much violence is too much on ‘Game of Thrones’?

This post discusses the May 1 episode of “Game of Thrones,” “Home,” in detail. You can read my recap of the show here, and watch our discussion of it here. The morning after Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) did the inevitable on “Game of Thrones” and fed his stepmother Walda (Elizabeth Webster) and her newborn son […]

Yale doesn’t need Calhoun College. It needs a real slavery memorial.

Last week, Yale University President Peter Salovey announced that, after much protest and deliberation, the school will not rename a residential college named after John C. Calhoun, an ardent defender of slavery and one of the intellectual architects of secession. Salovey’s message to the Yale community on Calhoun College and a host of related issues […]