6+ hour, 23+ min ago (195+ words) Since "The Chair Company" isn"t built to deliver a coherent answer to its central conspiracy, we"re naturally pushed toward a more rewarding question: What is this show really about? All of that is in The Chair Company, but so is much more There's a particular midwestern-ness to the show's interests, seen in the sheet-metal-company-owning father at the top of the eighth episode who is proud about being "kind of a big deal around here" but whose earthy humility is laced with a thirst for greater recognition I continue to think there's a lot baked into Ron's gripes on the suffocating feeling of modernity: "That's the problem with the world today People make garbage, and you can't talk to anybody You can't scream at them." On and on and on.All these readings are equally valid because The Chair…...

1+ day, 7+ hour ago (1194+ words) Tom Stoppard, playwright of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," "The Coast of Utopia," and "The Real Thing," has died at 88. I would never be writer and theater-maker that I am without his work. Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission. Or, very probably, he is nowhere. Now you see him, now you don"t. "Here one minute and gone the next and never coming back " an exit, unobtrusive and unannounced." Because death isn"t "gasps and blood and falling about " Death is not anything " death is not " It"s the absence of presence, nothing more " the endless time of never coming back " a gap you can"t see, and when the wind blows through it, it makes no sound." I was 17 years old and playing Guildenstern in a local teen production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are…...

1+ day, 20+ hour ago (249+ words) " I'm not totally clear on Natalie's deal. Was she getting sucked into the conspiracy with Ron for real? She and Tara are arguing in this episode after she spilled the beans about Wendy's Carvers, but there's no real resolution to that. " "I've just seen the Christmas ones, and they're always just, like, Santa can't do it." " "I'm home alone at a sleepover, and we're terribly behaved boys." " "She can get in a lot of trouble." "I'm not gonna tell anybody Wendy's is doing a nicer ham restaurant." " I have to stay, that whole shed sequence at Asher's stumped and terrified me. (Tim Robinson's over-the-top but deserved "Oh my god!!!" defused the tension somewhat.) More nightmare logic, I guess, and Ron wakes up again on his couch a moment later. " It turns out Barb was actually kind of teasing Ron with…...

2+ day, 45+ min ago (206+ words) Well, well, well! Is that a flicker of ambition I see creeping into the laissez-faire vibes of I Love LA? Dare I say, even a few flickers?? " I Love LA's sudden vomit counter: 2. Any bets for where we'll be by season's end? " Maia at Alyssa180 feels like what might've happened if Broad City's Ilana actually cared about her job and her coworker didn't hate her fucking guts. " Justice for Courtney and her extremely on the nose cat vest! Enjoy your biking apple tour, Courtney! It sounds LOVELY! " Every piece of disturbing lore Alani drops, unfortunately, I'm so sorry, hits even harder and funnier than the last. This week, that honor goes to the revelation that her gorgeously lit nudes were taken by her dad's former DP (it's messed up what happened to him, everyone overreacted). " Leighton Meester continues to crush in…...

2+ day, 1+ hour ago (249+ words) " I'm not totally clear on Natalie's deal. Was she getting sucked into the conspiracy with Ron for real? She and Tara are arguing in this episode after she spilled the beans about Wendy's Carvers, but there's no real resolution to that. " "I've just seen the Christmas ones, and they're always just, like, Santa can't do it." " "I'm home alone at a sleepover, and we're terribly behaved boys." " "She can get in a lot of trouble." "I'm not gonna tell anybody Wendy's is doing a nicer ham restaurant." " I have to stay, that whole shed sequence at Asher's stumped and terrified me. (Tim Robinson's over-the-top but deserved "Oh my god!!!" defused the tension somewhat.) More nightmare logic, I guess, and Ron wakes up again on his couch a moment later. " It turns out Barb was actually kind of teasing Ron with…...

4+ day, 11+ hour ago (29+ words) Even more Meyers family were on "Late Night" for Seth Meyers" annual family reunion. Ashe, Adelaide, and Axel Meyers were guests on their dad"s talk show for Thanksgiving....

1+ week, 1+ day ago (375+ words) It's just true that some of the darkest vibes on this entire planet can be found at daytime parties in the Hollywood Hills. Sure, any place full of people trying to network and one-up each other is basically a waking nightmare. But when you're stuck with them up in the Hills with spotty cell service, you might as well be stranded in space where no one can hear you scream. So as perverse as it sounds, it's somewhat encouraging that Tallulah's reaction to Quen asking what she actually wants is a nervous sort of terror. She clearly has no fucking idea, but maybe " just maybe! " this moment could prompt her to try to figure it out. But even if she never does, the show could only benefit from her considering this question a tad more seriously anyway. And lo, who…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago (426+ words) This week, HBO announced that The Chair Company had been renewed for a second season. From a business standpoint, it makes sense: The show is "HBO's top freshman comedy in platform history," after all. But " does this really make sense for the story being told across these initial eight episodes? Even early in the episode, Ron is feeling good, though we have little reason to believe his hopefulness is justified. After all, the guy just got "a little suspended" from work (possibly fired) for pushing his boss, then brought a dog home without talking to Barb. She's right to be furious and to point out how much she has carried this family recently. He does have some solid leads here, though, including the Tecca chairs being loaded into trucks at one of the Delaware government buildings. And an innocuous text…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago (311+ words) So this is just how it's going to be from now on, huh? Late-night hosts make jokes, President Trump and/or FCC chairman Brendan Carr call for late-night hosts to be fired, then late-night hosts make ... Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission. So this is just how it's going to be from now on, huh? Late-night hosts make jokes, President Trump and/or FCC chairman Brendan Carr call for late-night hosts to be fired, then late-night hosts make jokes about the calls for their firing. In the words of Me You and Everyone We Know, "back and forth forever." Trump came for Seth Meyers first this week, with Carr retweeting it. As Meyers pointed out on Monday's "A Closer Look," the last time Trump threw shade at Late Night was when Meyers talked about…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (640+ words) Brian Cox will be voicing God in a 52-episode-long Fox News podcast that will guide "listeners through the life and teachings of Christ." But it seems he might not even be aware. Feisty himself will be voicing God in a new, 52-episode-long Fox News podcast that will guide "listeners through the life and teachings of Christ." It's a dream part for an actor who loves to say how he feels about stuff with the utmost authority " except he already landed it The podcast also features Kristen Bell as Mary Magdalene; she says her recording was for an audiobook from 15 years ago.Bell's reps told Rolling Stone that the actress only learned her voice would be repurposed for the podcast when she received a request to appear on Fox & Friends, adding that she never gave permission for her audiobook recording to…...