Our weekly recap highlighting the best feature stories from around the internet.
Ben Lindbergh explores the phenomenon of the 'Frasierverse' this week for The Ringer. Photo: NBC
We’re Listening: Exploring Frasierverse, an Incredible Internet Rabbit Hole of Fictional Spinoffs, by Ben Lindbergh, The Ringer
“It’s a testament to the quality of Frasier’s characterization and writing (and the series’ second life on Netflix, which added Frasier to its catalog in 2011) that the sitcom’s somewhat insular world — which revolved around the farcical antics, endearing insecurities, and comedically conflicting pretentions and salt-of-the-earth sensibilities of Frasier’s family, friends, and broadcasting colleagues — is still inspiring fans with active imaginations more than 13 years after the series-ender aired. Cut off from Frasier after spending two decades with the character as a constant prime-time companion, Frasierphiles have gone to great lengths to keep him and his on-screen social circle in their hearts, even if it means supplying the scripts themselves.”
The Nationalist's Delusion, by Adam Serwer, The Atlantic
“The specific dissonance of Trumpism—advocacy for discriminatory, even cruel, policies combined with vehement denials that such policies are racially motivated—provides the emotional core of its appeal. It is the most recent manifestation of a contradiction as old as the United States, a society founded by slaveholders on the principle that all men are created equal.”
The Culture Caught Up With Spike Lee — Now What?, by Thomas Chatterton Williams, The New York Times Magazine
“Cliché or not, it’s true: People are kind of woke these days. And it must be vindicating and also somewhat disorienting for a figure like Lee, a man who hasn’t changed one bit but whom the wider culture has increasingly come to resemble. Beginning with his third film, the masterpiece “Do the Right Thing” (1989), about a feverish day in Bedford-Stuyvesant that culminates in a deadly race riot; intensifying in his fifth film, “Jungle Fever” (1991), a blunt cautionary tragedy of interracial romance; and culminating in his sixth movie, “Malcolm X” (1992), a three-hour biopic brought to fruition through force of will alone, Lee has earned and never really shaken the reputation of a talented but polarizing director — something of a professional black crank.”
Tricky Dick: A Review of 'Something to Behold!', by Lachlan Taylor, The Pantograph Punch
“Dick has been waiting for a review like this. The provocation and reaction, the expectation of controversy, is an essential part of the experience for him, maybe even the essential part. Knowing that, I was hesitant to write this – better to starve the oxygen than feed the flames – yet here I am. These are important events to talk about. Not just as yet another criticism of a perennially problematic artist, but as an opportunity to take stock of the wider culture that the cult of Frizzell has come to represent.”
The Director Of The Year’s Most-Hyped Movie Isn’t Playing Hollywood’s Game, by Anne Helen Petersen, Buzzfeed
“The film doesn’t have a happy ending, but it’s not maudlin. Instead, it’s a provocative depiction of the realities of postrecession America, highlighting the fragility and necessity of the fantasies that buoy us just above the surface. The uneasiness that comes from the film — that bittersweetness that sticks in your throat — stems from the way Baker communicates something we’ve known, and forced ourselves to forget, about how people live in this country. It’s a slice of life smashed right in your face.”
