Don't look now, but Family Guy is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. (Yes, it has really been that long.) The long-running animated series, which just concluded its 22nd season, debuted in 1999. With the help of subversive humor from creator Seth MacF... More »
It’s a beautiful day for a movie. The place: New York City. Date: June 20, 1975. You walk to the theater, turn a corner, and spot one of the longest lines you’ve ever seen. Why is there such a wait? Well, the billboard reads “JAWS” in all caps.“THE TERRIFYING ... More »
Shōgun ended not with a bang, but with a great job, everyone! After moving around his loyal chess pieces like Magnus Carlsen, Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) stares into the distance and envisions his long-held dream of becoming the shōgun. Japanese history ... More »
It took showrunner Justin Marks and writer Rachel Kondo roughly five years to make Shōgun. The couple behind the show's fictional power struggle joined the FX series in 2018, overseeing a massive retooling of prior scripts and a dedication to cultural authenti... More »
Josephine Bell is in trouble. In episode 2 of Under the Bridge, she confessed to killing Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta) to impress Rebecca Godfrey (Riley Keough), a writer from New York City who’s working on a novel about Reena’s death. Here’s the thing: Josephine... More »
This story contains historical spoilers for Shōgun episode 10.By the time Shōgun’s conflict ends, there is no violence. The FX drama, adapted from James Clavell’s 1975 novel of the same name, takes place during a power struggle in feudal Japan right before one... More »
When Shōgun begins, Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) states that he doesn’t seek to gain power. Of course, he’s lying—but like every great leader, he knows that it’s more important to earn respect than it is to rule by fear. Toranaga’s goal throughout FX... More »
We finally made it, loyal readers—it’s the end of the road for Shōgun. Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) lost many allies to reach this moment. Now the shogunate is within his grasp. If you followed along with Shōgun knowing the true story of feudal Japan, the... More »
Two days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Sasha Vasilyuk published a wrenching op-ed in the New York Times titled, “My Family Never Asked to Be ‘Liberated.’” In the essay, she recounts urging her 90-year-old grandm... More »
The Front Row“Civil War” Is a Tale of Bad NewsCailee Spaeny and Wagner Moura star in “Civil War.”Photograph courtesy A24Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyThe subject of “Civil War” is so clickbaity that it’s easy to forget that it’s a... More »
“The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book”by Alice B. ToklasLast summer, I visited Père Lachaise Cemetery, in Paris, for the first time. It was not the first visit for the man I was with. He had spent most summers of his life in France, and he wound through the cemetery,... More »
When I was pregnant with my son, I took slow, blood-circulating walks around Prospect Park and thought about feeding him lemons. Not just lemons, of course. Also roast chicken and broccoli florets, their edges nicely charred from the oven; sweet, juicy peaches... More »