DEAR TELEVISION

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 MACIAK

DEAR TELEVISION

Flick and Feather: On Diana’s Hair

Sarah Mesle reckons with what Diana's hair, in Spencer and in real life, says about feminism, power, whiteness, and princesses...

SARAH MESLE

DEAR TELEVISION

FILM

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 MACIAK

DEAR TELEVISION

Law and Wooder: On Mare of Easttown

For Dear Television, Aaron Bady thinks about what justice means on HBO's Mare of Easttown and asks why anybody would ever want that....

AARON BADY

DEAR TELEVISION

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 MACIAK

DEAR TELEVISION

The WandaVision Cul-De-Sac

For Dear Television, Aaron Bady watches WandaVision and finds the Marvel Cinematic Universe dreaming about itself once again....

AARON BADY

DEAR TELEVISION

Dickinson's Hair

For Dear Television, Sarah Mesle explores the follicular politics of gender, race, and poetics on Apple TV+'s revisionist fantasy Dickinson....

SARAH MESLE

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 MACIAK

DEAR TELEVISION

We Have Always Lived in the Castle: One Month of "The Queen's Gambit"

For Dear Television, Aaron Bady remembers what it was like to watch the soothing counterfactuals of The Queen's Gambit all the way back in October 2020....

AARON BADY

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 MACIAK

DEAR TELEVISION

The Jordan Rules, Recycled

ESPN’s documentary “The Last Dance” is an “untold story” we’ve all heard a million times....

HAL SUNDT

DEAR TELEVISION

TELEVISION

SPORTS

Dear Television vs The Psychometric Personality Quiz

We took that Psychometric Statistical "Which Character" Personality Quiz, and we're not happy. And, come to think of it, who are *we* at all?...

PHILLIP MACIAK, SARAH MESLE, JANE HU, JORGE COTTE

DEAR TELEVISION

Dr. Manhattan is a Cop: "Watchmen" and Frantz Fanon

Aaron Bady, for Dear Television, considers the way that HBO's Watchmen came so close to unmasking the world's real supervillain....

AARON BADY

DEAR TELEVISION

The Year in Yelling: "Catastrophe," "Marriage Story," "Moonstruck"

Phillip Maciak, for Dear Television, considers the year in culture by way of three arguments: from Catastrophe, from Marriage Story, and from Moonstruck....

PHILLIP MACIAK

DEAR TELEVISION

Good Crumb: On The Great British Bake Off

For Dear Television, Sarah Mesle talks rough puffs, proving drawers, self-saucing puddings, and The Great British Bake Off in the age of Brexit....

SARAH MESLE

DEAR TELEVISION

A Television of Her Own: On Emily Nussbaum

Dear Television's Sarah Mesle considers Emily Nussbaum as a feminist critic and a chronicler of the televisual cult of seriousness....

SARAH MESLE

DEAR TELEVISION

Big Little Lies, "The End of the World"

This week on Dear Television, Phil Maciak asks why the third episode of the second season of Big Little Lies won't follow the money....

PHILLIP MACIAK

DEAR TELEVISION

Big Little Lies, "Tell-Tale Hearts"

For Dear TV, Jane Hu and Phil Maciak put Big Little Lies, season two, episode two under surveillance — it's disappointing....

JANE HU

DEAR TELEVISION

Big Little Lies, "What Have They Done?"

For Dear Television, Phil Maciak considers season two of Big Little Lies, and what director Andrea Arnold has in store for people with kitchens like that....

PHILLIP MACIAK

DEAR TELEVISION

Game of Thrones: Season 8, "The Iron Throne"

For Dear Television, Aaron Bady and Sarah Mesle consider the new occupant of the Iron Throne and what got them there and ask, "But why, though?"...

AARON BADY, SARAH MESLE

DEAR TELEVISION

Game of Thrones: Season 8, "The Bells"

For Dear Television, Aaron Bady, Sarah Mesle, and Phil Maciak consider the relative madness of the queen(s) on Game of Thrones....

AARON BADY, SARAH MESLE, PHILLIP MACIAK

DEAR TELEVISION

Game of Thrones: Season 8, "The Last of the Starks"

For Dear Television, Aaron Bady and Sarah Mesle check in with the last of the Starks on the day after the long night in Westeros....

AARON BADY, SARAH MESLE

DEAR TELEVISION

Game of Thrones: Season 8, "The Long Night"

Dear Television's Aaron Bady, Sarah Mesle, and Phil Maciak reluctantly celebrate all the characters who survived "The Long Night," they guess....

AARON BADY, SARAH MESLE, PHILLIP MACIAK

DEAR TELEVISION

Game of Thrones: Season 8, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms"

Dear Television's Aaron Bady and Sarah Mesle talk about all the listening and learning going on in "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms."...

AARON BADY, SARAH MESLE

DEAR TELEVISION

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