“Religion can be kind of crazy,” comedian and actor Ramy Yousseff quipped during his monologue on the Colbert report back in 2017. Two and a half years later, the Egyptian American’s one-liner has found fertile soil in his self-titled Hulu original series, Ramy, where Yousseff plays a not-so-fictionalized character of himself navigating career, family, relationships, […]
Lay Down Your Weary Smartphone
Before there was Seinfeld, there was Cheers—a 1980s comedy about the lives of bartenders and regular patrons of a local pub. The show is famous for its lovable and deeply flawed cast of characters that spanned over 11 seasons. Now almost 30 years later, the jokes mostly hold up. But viewers today will readily note […]
Sacrificing Life to the TV God
My total depravity was revealed some years ago when a friend asked me to describe a time I felt closest to God. I’m sure she was fishing for some sort of prayerful experience, or a moment of crisis when I felt the hand of the divine rest gently on my shoulder. But after a moment […]
Rumors of Realness and the Almighty Catfish in Netflix’s The Circle
In a popularity contest worth 100,000 dollars, would you choose to be yourself? Or would you pretend to be someone else, say, someone better-looking or more accomplished? This at least in theory is the question behind Netflix’s The Circle, a reality show where contestants hole up for two weeks with no phones or computers; their […]
Eric Taylor Invites Us to Take a Knee
Yesterday Vulture polled a bunch of showrunners of TV series past and present to ask how their characters would be responding to the Coronavirus. They range from amusing to hilarious to, well, the speech Jason Katims wrote for his most beloved character, Dillon Pathers/Tigers coach Eric Taylor from Friday Night Lights. Needless to say, it’s pitch perfect, and just what the doctor ordered. Here’s how it ends:
He looks at them. He knows now he’s got to say good-bye to them for a while. This is hard.
COACH TAYLOR
There’s a reason why we got a football team and that’s not just to win games. It’s so in difficult times we have each other. Well, this is about as difficult of a time as any of us could imagine. I want you to use each other. Stay in touch as a community. Be there for each other on your phones, on Twitter, on FaceTime or whatever other kind of crap you use. And you all got my number. Call me. I know I usually tell you knuckleheads not to call me on my cell unless it’s an emergency, but right now everything is an emergency. You feeling a little sick, call me. Feeling a little down, call me. Is that understood?TEAM
Yes, sir.COACH TAYLOR
We may not be on the field together right now, but we are all in this together. Together, we are going to stay strong. We are going to stay united. We are going to stay healthy. And anyone who thinks that we’re not going to beat this, they don’t know this town, they don’t know this nation, and they sure as hell don’t know this team. I’ll miss you all. Tell your families that Tami and I are thinking of them. Tell them you’re all in our prayers. Stay healthy. Stay safe. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.
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The Despairing Place
Spoilers below. Early in the final episode of The Good Place, we find Jeff the doorman sitting at the gate between Earth and the afterlife. Jeff has an affinity for frogs, and as the episode progresses, he accumulates more of them — plastic frogs, plush frogs — until he barely registers any interest in them […]
