Aidy Bryant in "Shrill"

By Spencer Coile 

Aidy Bryant has been stealing scenes left and right for years now. From a brief stint on Girls, to a supporting role in The Big Sick, to her notable (and Emmy nominated) work on Saturday Night Live, Bryant has been diligently carving out a space for her voice to be heard. Fortunately for long-time fans, 2019 is the year where she has fully paid her dues and doesn't have to steal the scenes anymore since they're centered on her.  

Shrill, on Hulu today, is the adaptation of Lindy West’s memoir of the same name. Following timid journalist Annie (Bryant), the series explores what it means to be a plus-size woman living in a world that has excluded them from the cultural conversation...

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Jan-Michael Vincent (1945-2019)

by Nathaniel R

Some stars burn bright and endure, others flame out. The latter was the case with Jan-Michael Vincent, a rising  star of movies and television in the 1970s. He's best remembered today from his leading role in the TV series  "Airwolf" but afterwards it was low profile movies (the kind we used to call "straight to video" - there doesn't seem to be a unified term for those movies anymore) and an increasingly diminished profile, his last screen performance coming in 2002. He died in February at 73 years old and the news was only just released a full month later...

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Better Things Season 3: Back and Better Than Ever

By Spencer Coile 

Better Things being renewed for a third season was the miracle we all deserved. Since co-creator/ executive producer Louis C.K. was fired, any worries about the series maintaining its high-wire act of cynical humor and raw emotion should be put to rest. Where the magic of Better Things laid all along was is in its leading lady's craftsmanship. Writing, directing, and playing single mother and working actress Sam, Pamela Adlon is a 2019 force to be reckoned with. 

Better Things has arrived in the wake of a highly contentious Oscar season, and it could not have come back at a better time. Built into every moment is a snapshot (sometimes literal) of the mundane, almost thoughtless acts we so often take for granted. Adlon has rendered these minuscule details into something finely tuned and deeply felt...

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Another Academy Reversal. But We're Still Feeling Battered

We were offline last night (a break for computer strained eyeballs) so we're hours late delivering the news but good news is still good the next morning. Deadline scooped that the Academy has decided to reverse the decision to not present all categories live. This is a very happy turn of events but it's also left us feeling bruised and battered. Deadline's scoop reminds us that a large part of the problem -- a problem that's not going away any time soon -- is the way the media frames these issues. The media is essentially complicit in ABC's tactics at undermining the Oscars. For those who are looking closely at the situation it's become blindingly obvious that ABC is a toxic and abusive partner to The Academy, more concerned with pushing their own stars (like Jimmy Kimmel) and movies (more awards for Disney blockbusters plz -- hey how about a "popular Oscar"?) than perpetuating the brand of the Oscars themselves. And that brand, the Oscars, is the reason people tune in each year, not for any particular host or any particular movie.

ABC has strategically kept the Academy in panic mode with 'the sky is falling' style messaging about their lack of popularity (which is bollocks but facts are hard to see when you're in an abusive relationship). But the problem  becomes larger because the media continually helps them do it! Consider the way Mike Fleming Jr frames the piece (and he's hardly the first) in his article...

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Russian Doll: Season One

By Spencer Coile

Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) regards her reflection in the mirror. The moment lingers until a sharp knock at the door pulls her out of it. She stomps her way out of the newly renovated bathroom of her best friend Maxine (Greta Lee) – complete with a shotgun doorknob – to join her comrades for her 36th birthday party. Taking a hit from a cocaine-laced joint, hooking up with a stranger, and searching for her cat Oatmeal eventually lead to Nadia’s death. She is struck by a car when crossing the road.

She wakes up, exactly where she was before.  

Reconfiguring the influential conceit from Groundhog Day in meaningful ways, Russian Doll is groundbreaking in its own right...

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