Liars and Saints

 My favorite episode from the Middle Phase of THE CROWN was "Margaretology." In that one, Princess Margaret traveled to America; on her trip, she met with LBJ, and she persuaded LBJ to give funding to England for one event or another. (In THE CROWN, England is always in danger of suffering a major blow, and there is always just one unorthodox person who can change history with a few well-timed gestures. Maybe it's Margaret, joking with LBJ. Maybe it's Di, hugging children in Australia. Maybe it's Elizabeth herself, expressing public faux-sadness after Di's death. We'll need to wait for Season Six, for that.) In "Margaretology," everyone wants Margaret to be formal and polite with LBJ, but Margaret understands the person she is dealing with. So she insults the memory of Kennedy. Then she becomes involved in a dirty limerick contest, and she delights LBJ: There was a young lady from Dallas Who used dynamite instead of a phallus. They found her vagi...

When I watch "The Crown," it's hard for me not to think about "windows and mirrors." This approach to English education says a book shows us windows: It allows us to see other cultures. A book also shows us mirrors: It allows us to see *ourselves* more clearly. The Royals: They are NOT just like us! They own islands. They meet LBJ. They meet the moonwalkers. Their dalliances are splashed across newspapers. The Royals: They are JUST LIKE US! They have tender moments with their siblings. They bicker with their spouses. They struggle to detach from their parents. I found moments exasperating. "Moondust" represents "The Crown" in its most aimless and most self-indulgent phase: an episode that seemed to go on forever, and that led me to ask, over and over, WHO CARES??? And why did Peter Morgan feel a need to invent a Wales story line--involving Prince Charles--that never actually happened? (Lazy and inexcusable, and Hilary Mantel is n...

I don't always love "The Crown." It's not as tight as "The Queen." (Also, could Peter Morgan work on his titles?) "The Crown" sometimes wants to tie things together in a way that feels hammy. There is excessive tidiness. I felt this way in an early episode about smog and a later one about a visit from JFK. And--as in many other Netflix series--there's often a sense of bagginess. You sometimes want to ram your head into a wall and ask, "Did this episode really need to be SIXTY MINUTES long?" I wanted to say that because there's so much "The Crown" does well, the reverence it inspires can be "too much." We should hold "The Crown" to higher standards, for the sake of "The Crown." The new teaser trailer is what you would expect. The writers need to acknowledge that Olivia Colman has replaced Claire Foy. They show Colman scrutinizing a formal portrait. (We're reminded of the famous ...

It's not news to praise "Fleabag." Everyone loves this show. It has been called "a perfect show." It's also not news to praise the writer's eccentricity. She's Phoebe Waller-Bridge; she seems to have come from nowhere; she can write, act, be tragic, be funny, be weird. She is like Lena Dunham--fearless and astonishingly talented. A huge inspiration. All that said, I just have to add to the heap of adulation. It's rare for me to feel I'm seeing "myself" in a story. But, for whatever reason, I feel that Ms. Waller-Bridge has a direct line to my heart. Though I do not sit listlessly in a rat-infested empty cafe everyday, I nevertheless feel my work life is somehow symbolically *linked* to sitting in a rat-infested cafe. Though I do not have a passive-aggressive artist stepmother working on a "Sexhibition," I nevertheless know what it's like to be in a conversation, un-moored, constantly wondering if the remark I...

Gay men worldwide gasped when Glenn Close lost her Oscar. We couldn't believe it. We felt as if a diva had been denied her crown. BUT writer Adam Goldman spoke for many gay men when he found a silver lining here: "Imagine the roles Olivia Colman will get from now on..." Because the truth is: Olivia Colman is a stunning performer. She can be sad and scary and funny and surprising in the span of one scene. She seems not to have an artificial moment--not one!--in her repertoire. She is just real and charismatic, minute after minute after minute. And while Glenn Close will always find interesting roles, Olivia Colman really did need that Oscar win to "take the next step." So hurray for that. Olivia Colman: a gift that keeps on giving. How so? Colman's win led me to dig into her career, and to find "Broadchurch," which maybe most of the world discovered before I did. Have you not yet seen "Broadchurch"? Here's what you need to know...