It was a big week for vampy girlbosses with flawless blowouts and questionable politics.
Olivia Nuzzi, the wunderkind politics reporter who left NYMag in disgrace when her digital affair with her source and then-presidential candidate RFK Jr. became public, has returned with not only a plum gig at Vanity Fair but a splashy memoir that seems to position her ethical lapse as a romantic tragedy. Meanwhile, her problematic ex Ryan Lizza, who left his own prestige media job in disgrace after being accused of sexual misconduct, has begun dropping Substack missives accusing Nuzzi of more and more lapses: another affair in 2020 with another source and then-presidential candidate, Mark Sanford; writing strategy memos and doing catch-and-kills for RFK Jr. while still covering the race as a reporter. (We recorded this episode before his second installment dropped on Friday night.) We discuss the framing of Nuzzi’s comeback tour, the purple prose and the emptiness behind it, the media rot that enabled it, and the grotesque parade of older, powerful men (very much including Lizza) who have participated in her rise and fall.
Next, we dug into season 4 of “Selling the O.C.” After season 3 ended in complete chaos, it’s unsurprising that the cast has been completely overhauled — but it is surprising, and disappointing, that the show has been almost completely whitewashed in the process. Yes, Alexandras Rose and Jarvis, classic MAGA Barbies, are gone, but they’re not the only ones. Every cast member of color was either ousted or reduced to occasional cameos. And to replace them? A host of new white women from the San Diego office. We discuss the new additions — Ashtyn the pregnant pot-stirrer, Fiona the Alex Hall acolyte, and Kaylee the raver chick — and break down the major points in this season’s drama. We also discuss the MAGA drift in the “Selling” franchise, the return of a much weepier Tyler Stanaland, and the persistent unlikability of the show’s central protagonist, Alex Hall.
Finally, we get into the hit Hulu drama “All’s Fair,” which stars Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, and Glenn Close as feminist divorce lawyers serving the fairer half of the uber-wealthy, alongside a crack investigator played by Niecy Nash-Betts. The show had been panned so roundly that we couldn’t resist taking a peek. And yes: it is that bad. It’s so bad that, while watching, we felt unmoored from reality. The pacing is off-kilter, the dialogue is flat and stilted, the plot is unhinged and leans too hard on half-baked feminist politics, the lighting and visuals are harsh and ominous, and the acting is so wooden that it’s hard not to root for the one person really going for it in her performance: Sarah Paulson as the villain, a female misogynist divorce lawyer whose sole objective is to destroy the show’s heroines. We talk about all of the above, as well as the show’s obsession with wealth and conspicuous consumption — including the consumption of expensive beauty procedures.
Timestamps for easy listening:
0:00 — The Nuzzi drama
51:06 — “Selling the O.C”
1:29:37— “All’s Fair”
Hope you enjoy, and happy Thanksgiving! xo
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