When the first season of Netflix’s Emily in Paris debuted in October 2020, it was met with both delight and ridicule: Delight at its escapism into sunny France from the election and pandemic. But also ridicule at Lilly Collins’ bubbly American abroad blithely Instagramming her croissants by the Seine. (“The whole city looks like Ratatouille!”)

Ridicule and delight are not mutually exclusive though, as Emily in Paris’ many hate-watchers can attest. So with the arrival of a second season, three writers with three very different opinions of the series sit down to laugh both at and with the show. They also attempt to process its exact appeal: Guilty pleasure? Hate-watch? Self-aware commentary on luxury?

Voices:

Further reading:

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After its record-setting opening weekend, the third Tom Holland Spider-Man is already the most successful movie of 2021. David Sims, Shirley Li, and Spencer Kornhaber debate Marvel’s continued dominance of moviegoing — Will it continue? Do we want it to? For a film that navel-gazes about the various Spider-mans (Spider-men?) of the past two decades, what is No Way Home telling audiences about how comic-book movies have evolved? (And, of course, who is the best Spider-Man?)

David’s review: The Joyful Pandering of 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' - The Atlantic

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Succession’s Season 3 finale opens with a family session of Monopoly, a game that offers the perfect summary of the show: Players fight to be the last one standing—trading advantages and risking jail—going around the board over and over without a clear end in sight. But with the season’s exhilarating ending, has the game of Succession finally changed?

So far, each season has followed a different Roy sibling as likely successor: first Kendall, then Shiv, and now Roman. With that third season now over, how does Roman’s time as the Number One Boy stack up? And with Kendall as the show’s bloody beating heart, is every season fundamentally about him? 

Sophie Gilbert, Hannah Giorgis, and Megan Garber discuss Tom, Shiv, and all the players in the Game of Roys. They also answer which Succession character they’d want to be stuck on a desert island with. (Note: the correct answer is Greg, the only one tall enough to reach the coconuts.)

Further reading: 

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David Sims, Shirley Li, and Spencer Kornhaber try to decipher House of Gucci — what exactly is the new Ridley Scott film? Comedy? Tragedy? True-crime family epic? And what does the Lady Gaga / Adam Driver vehicle say about the state of movies? 

Only a few weeks ago, Ridley Scott’s well-reviewed The Last Duel flopped catastrophically and the director blamed younger generations’ attention spans. The trio discusses whether big-budget adult dramas have a future in theaters, and what these two very different movies seem to predict.

They also break down the very loud performances given by Lady Gaga and Jared Leto (“Boof!”), as well as favorite minor characters from the film.

Further reading: David’s reviews of House of Gucci and The Last Duel

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Adele’s new album 30 is a cinematic exploration of “divorce, babe, divorce,” but it caps a year rich with breakup anthems. From Kacey Musgraves Star-Crossed to Taylor Swift’s reissued Red (Taylor’s Version), pop music has seemed like a months-long opera of celebrity splits, all beginning of course with Olivia Rodrigo’s world-conquering “Driver’s License” in January. 

Why was 2021 the year of the breakup album? Shirley Li, Spencer Kornhaber, and Sophie Gilbert discuss Adele, Taylor, and more—plus they share what makes a good heartbreak record (and what their own all-time favorite breakup music is).

Further reading: 

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We’re off this week for the holiday, so here’s a special bonus from The Experiment, a podcast from The Atlantic and WNYC about the conflicts and contradictions that make America.

Hollywood has a long history of “passing movies”—films in which Black characters pass for white—usually starring white actors. Even as these films have attempted to depict the devastating effect of racism in America, they have trafficked in tired tropes about Blackness. But a new movie from actor-writer-director Rebecca Hall takes the problematic conventions of this uniquely American genre and turns them on their head. Hall tells the story of how her movie came to life, and how making the film helped her grapple with her own family’s secrets around race and identity.

A transcript of this episode is available. 

For further reading, Shirley Li’: “Netflix’s ‘Passing’ Is an Unusually Gentle Movie About a Brutal Subject”

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Emily Dickinson’s life, according to the show Dickinson, had a lot more gay sex and twerking than middle school English class would have had you believe. And, from what we now know of the reclusive poet’s life, at least half of that is true. 

The cult hit Apple TV+ show—now in its third and final season—retells Dickinson’s life by pairing a modern knowledge of her lifelong relationships with a modern set of anachronisms: The 19th-century residents of Amherst, Massachusetts, twerk to hip-hop. They stay in for “novels and chill.” They hook up, curse, and use slang as if they were alive today.

But Dickinson’s not alone in its approach. With shows like Bridgerton and The Great also blending the last few centuries, why is television using period settings to tell contemporary stories lately? Does the slant of that approach bring something direct storytelling can’t?

The Atlantic staff writers Sophie Gilbert, Shirley Li, and Spencer Kornhaber discuss.

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Sophie Gilbert, David Sims, and Shirley Li discuss Spencer, the new “fable from a true tragedy” about Princess Diana. After Jackie, director Pablo Larraín turned his attention to another high-profile woman captive to family and publicity. 

Does the movie’s surrealist approach complicate the Diana mythmaking, or act like the very paparazzi it criticizes? How does the always great Kristen Stewart do with the meta-casting that’s sure to draw award buzz? And if Larraín were to make a trilogy, which woman of history should be his third?

Come for the Kristen Stewart raves, stay for the Anne of Cleves stanning.

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Who says Halloween’s over? This week, we’re revisiting a modern horror classic. Sophie Gilbert, David Sims, and Lenika Cruz discuss The Ring, Gore Verbinski’s 2002 adaptation of the Japanese film Ringu. 

The Ring brought J-horror to North America, rekindled the supernatural monster movie after a decade of slashers like Scream, and gave audiences one of the best horror-movie endings of all time. But in the post-VHS and “prestige horror” era, how does The Ring hold up after two decades? Have any films since struck that perfect balance of techno-horror and ghost story?

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David Sims, Shirley Li, and Spencer Kornhaber discuss the new big-budget adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 classic Dune. The ur-text of modern sci-fi, Dune has a legacy that echoes through Star Wars, Alien, and countless Hero’s Journey epics. Does Denis Villeneuve succeed where David Lynch failed? Does its Chosen One narrative feel stale after so many imitations, or does the novel’s own skepticism of messianic belief shine through?”

Also: Worms! They're big. But what kitchen implement do they resemble most?

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