Phillip Maciak

Phillip Maciak (@pjmaciak) is the TV editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books. His essays have appeared in Slate, The New Republic, and other venues, and he's co-founder of the Dear Television column. He's the author of The Disappearing Christ: Secularism in the Silent Era (Columbia University Press, 2019) and Avidly Reads Screen Time (New York University Press, 2023). He teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.

Articles

Magic (Half) Hour: On "Reservation Dogs"
For Dear Television, Phillip Maciak writes about FX's Reservation Dogs, the best show of 2021, and the greatness of half-hour TV
Phillip MaciakDec 29, 2021
- Dear Television
Bloodsuckers, Bad Readers: "Midnight Mass" and "What We Do in the Shadows"
For Dear Television, Phillip Maciak thinks about What We Do in the Shadows and what Midnight Mass is doing on Netflix
Phillip MaciakOct 22, 2021
- Dear Television
Elizabeth Ito’s Neighborhood: “City of Ghosts” and the Rise of Netflix Animation
Phillip Maciak explores the extraordinary niche that “City of Ghosts” occupies in Netflix’s varied animated programming.
Phillip MaciakJun 24, 2021
- Television
Dark Night Rises: Ed Simon’s Alternative History of Pittsburgh
Phillip Maciak reviews Ed Simon's An Alternative History of Pittsburgh, a panoramic narrative of the city from Belt Publishing
Phillip MaciakJun 5, 2021
- History
Close Magic: Derek DelGaudio's Illusions of Other People
For Dear Television, Phillip Maciak sobs his way through the magic of pre-pandemic closeness in Derek DelGaudio's Hulu film In and Of Itself.
Phillip MaciakApr 1, 2021
- Dear Television
Dance Yourself Clean: Lovers Rock x The Crown
For Dear Television, Phillip Maciak explores the two Londons, the two lovers, and the two dance sequences of Lovers Rock and The Crown.
Phillip MaciakDec 29, 2020
- Dear Television
L.A. Hallucinations: The Spiritualism of "Better Things"
Phillip Maciak on friendly ghosts, ordinary hauntings, and why Pamela Adlon's Better Things is the best show on television.
Phillip MaciakAug 26, 2020
- Dear Television
Process Stories, or Who Loves the Sixers?
Phil Maciak considers Yaron Weitzman's "Tanking to the Top," the mythology of Sam Hinkie's Process, and his own life in exile as a Sixers fan.
Phillip MaciakApr 13, 2020
- LARB Ball

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