On 9 February 1967, hours after the US Air Force had levelled the Port of Haiphong and several Vietnamese airfields, NBC aired a Star Trek episode featuring a concept that clashed mercilessly with what had just happened. Under the “Prime …
Say Nothing’s empty empathy
Ever since Nicéphore Niépce took a snapshot from a window, overlooking the rooftops of Saône-et-Loire, in the 1820s, we’ve been living, and lost, in the kingdom of the image. With the development of photography, cinema, television, and the internet, the …
Gregg Wallace is a working-class hypocrite
“I’ll munch the living daylights out of your little tart.” It’s the sort of thing a woman might expect from the local park-bench drunk, not a BBC star paid £400,000 a year. Yet that’s exactly the remark Katy Brand received …
Why haters gonna hate Jacob Rees-Mogg
According to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s housekeeper her employer “likes it quite stiff”. It turns out she’s talking about the starched crease on his boxer shorts but it might as well have been his attitude to the proverbial upper lip.
We learn …
The Bear: a perfect drama for the Biden era
Tomorrow’s menu of television broadcast will deliver an onslaught of anger, argument and forceful articulation of two distinct visions of America’s future. No, not the presidential debate on CNN, but the season three of The Bear, on Hulu. For The …
The empty promise of Friends
This article was first published on 27 May, 2021
Neo fights his way free of the membrane. He sits bolt upright, slime sluicing from his bald skull, and stares in horror. Facing him is an endless vista of identical pods, …
How the mob turned on Huw Edwards
I was at the BBC on Wednesday afternoon when the news broke that Huw Edwards was the person everyone has been speculating about. I could tell something was afoot, as the newsroom started rushing around, in anticipation of some incoming …
Why Gen Z loves Seinfeld
Long ago, in another age, young people gathered in sitting rooms to watch television. And these moments of fixed attention, and the TV shows that create them, define generations. A quarter of century ago last weekend — slacking on the …
Can TV soaps get Erdoğan re-elected?
A well-turned-out man with a pointy beard stands in the centre of a luxurious living room, looking fierce. He waves away two flunkies — one of whom is a fat man with a large moustache, wearing a pristine white shirt, …
Why we fell for the con artist
Some people hunger for thrillers. Others feast on true-crime podcasts. My underrated source of tales of mind-boggling malfeasance is the ‘Scams’ section of the Guardian’s money pages, where no gimmicks are required. Here are stories of deception to chill the …