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The Political Scene Podcast

How the Reality-TV Industry Mistreats Its Stars

Lawsuits and the labor movement come to reality TV, by way of the Netflix hit “Love Is Blind.”
Cultural Comment

The Salacious Glossiness of Netflix’s Prince Andrew Drama, “Scoop”

Rufus Sewell and Gillian Anderson star in a re-creation of an infamous BBC interview that feels like a hallucinated episode of “The Crown.”
Culture Desk

The Heartbreak of an English Football Team

The Netflix series “Sunderland ’Til I Die” serves as a thesis both for fandom and for the inevitability of its disappointments.
Critics at Large

What Is the Comic For?

Standup comedy has long been an art of public transgression—but, in the age of the culture wars, do audiences want to be challenged, or affirmed?
The Front Row

Wes Anderson’s Roald Dahl Quartet Abounds in Audacious Artifice and Stinging Political Critique

Four new short films make clear how crucial the author’s work has been in the development of Anderson’s art.
The New Yorker Radio Hour

David Grann on Turning Best-Sellers Into Movies

The author of “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “The Wager” on his reporting process and adapting his work to the screen. Plus, Richard Brody makes the case for keeping your DVDs.
Cultural Comment

Hollywood’s Slo-Mo Self-Sabotage

Since the streaming era, movies and television feel less special, labor conditions have plummeted, and turbulent mergers and layoffs call into question which legendary institutions will still stand in another ten or twenty years.
Notes on Hollywood

“Orange Is the New Black” Signalled the Rot Inside the Streaming Economy

The innovative and daring show was a worldwide hit for Netflix, but some of the actors say that they were never fairly compensated.
On Television

Comic High Jinks and Repressed Despair in Netflix’s “Beef”

The drama, starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, is a study of male loneliness—a familiar theme in prestige TV that finds renewed urgency in an Asian American context.
On Television

Chris Rock’s Live Experiment in Saving Face

“Everybody fucking knows. . . . I got smacked, like, a year ago,” the comedian finally says at the end of his Netflix special, as if that’s not the reason we’re all here.
Daily Cartoon

Daily Cartoon: Friday, February 3rd

“Wow—Netflix wasn’t kidding about cracking down on password sharing.”
Cultural Comment

The Frictionless Charms of the Ferrante Cinematic Universe

The film and television adaptations of the Italian author’s novels offer an almost suspicious lack of resistance.
The Front Row

“Represent,” Reviewed: A Witty Attempt to Redefine the French Left

Jean-Pascal Zadi’s episodic follow-up to his breakout feature film embraces a wide-ranging satirical vision of France at large.
Shouts & Murmurs

Netflix’s (Less Popular) Shows About Ex-Royals

An eternity of hanging around with the pharaoh and fending off grave robbers got old for this prince and princess.
Profiles

How Much Netflix Can the World Absorb?

Bela Bajaria, who oversees the streaming giant’s hyper-aggressive approach to TV-making, says success is about “recognizing that people like having more.”
Shouts & Murmurs

Emily in Paris’s Year of Rest and Relaxation

I thought that if I slept enough I might kill off the part of Emily who said things like “Hashtag: oh, crêpe,” the Emily whose favorite “hidden gem” in Paris was the Louvre.
Cultural Comment

Meghan and Harry’s Netflix Fairy Tale

The new documentary presents a guy from London and a girl from L.A. who escape a wicked institution. It’s also a reminder of how good a royal Meghan could have been.
The New Yorker Interview

James Acaster Doesn’t Need Your Sympathy

The British comedian has turned his breakups and breakdowns into material. But his real subject is the nature of standup itself. 
On Television

Guillermo del Toro’s “Cabinet of Curiosities,” a Horror Anthology Fit for the Streaming Age

In his new eight-part Netflix production, the director acts as a benevolent landlord of the horror genre, carving out space for others in the crowded pop-culture terrain.
Our Columnists

How Netflix’s “Mo” Evades the Usual Representation Traps

A lesser show might have tried to make the titular character a bit more likable, or, perhaps, implanted within him a desire to explain his culture to the rest of the world.