The Summer Solstice Deep Dive

Bits and bobs of what I've been watching and reading

The Four Seasons (Netflix)

Time is a vortex. Pollen is in the air. The weather is temperamental, but rising steadily. I’m stressed about what the fuck to wear this summer, and whether or not I can pull off the scarf-around-the-waist trend. How the hell is it nearly July? Allegedly, the back half of June is extremely fruitful for Aquarius (and my Leo sisters!). Should this be true, it’s been a wild kick start. In our home, since May, we have made some massive life and financial decisions, as well as knocked off some personal milestones, business stretched and grew, and new chapters are just a stone’s throw away, shimmying like sea glitter. It has been a high-octane start to the summer, every week combustible with nervous energy.

I’m writing to you late on a Saturday night with a can of pretentious cider and some Japanese incense burning, wishing you a fortuitous, bountiful summer, no matter your sign. What’s the old adage? Good things come to those who watch the tarot card girls on Instagram?

Anyway, here’s a little taste of what I got up to in May and June.

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🎥 The Devil Wears Prada 2

Haven’t seen it yet? Waiting for the streaming release? Well, colour me surprised: The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a perfect, perfect moviegoing experience.

I say this as someone who generally does not believe in resurrecting classics. Leave the dead alone. Let the canon remain the canon. Not every beloved pocket of culture needs a sequel, a reboot, a prestige television adaptation, or a stiff, sanitized reimagining.

But they got this one right, girls!

Set in the present day, 20 years after the original, with a classic New York City opener that calls back to the OG (I got a lump in my throat), Prada 2 is both a horror movie and a fantasy about having a journalism degree.

The plot was convoluted. Things moved very quickly. Emily Blunt, while serving an immaculate performance, could not emote. Lady Gaga has a cameo. Caleb Hearon (!!!) is a charming assistant. Stanley Tucci slipped into the titular Nigel role like a glove. Miranda Priestly’s blazers deserved their own billing. A lot of really great jeans and belts. Most importantly, to me: a movie that finally gets the internet.

We underscore that billionaires can’t buy style! We hammer it home that journalism is dying, and so are link clicks! I felt the waves of grief for a life in media I thought I stood a chance at when I was in journalism school, and then, lo and behold, I have a Substack now!

Heartbreak feels good in a place like this. Five stars!

Other watches of note:

• Blue Heron: one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful films I have ever seen and a thoughtful meditation on memory and family. Go out and see Sophy Romvari’s masterpiece (and visual ode to Vancouver Island!), if you still can.

• Lucid: a very locally made horror involving childhood trauma, bad art school art, monsters, and heart-shaped candy masked as a dream elixer

• Backrooms: Came for the hype, left disappointed. Although I seem to be an outcast on Letterboxd. Perhaps I am too old to be in on what’s hip!

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Hacks (HBO). Love them and miss them already.

📺 Hacks

The…show of our generation?

It’s too early to say that definitively, but I believe it.

This brilliant show had me in the palm of its hand for the first three seasons. I worshipped at the altar of Deborah Vance. A rare genius, gem of a script where every joke landed and every character was iconic and lovable. Season 4 had me a bit tired — the show’s central relationship had become cyclical in a way that began to feel less like character development and more like a formula. Deborah bullies Ava. Ava pushes back. They find common ground. They build mutual admiration. They accomplish something together. One betrays the other. Massive falling out. Repeat the cat-and-mouse dynamic. I especially hated the Singapore storyline.

Oh, but season five was extraordinary. What a momentous love letter to art and friendship, wrapped into an absolute romp. I think the series finale may be etched into history as one of the best send-offs to a series, ever.

I love you, Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky! Gods amongst us, who reminded us that art is worth living for! And getting old is hot!

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Also completed this month was the delightful second season of The Four Seasons on Netflix. My god, what was in Tina Fey’s pen when she wrote this remarkable season? I don’t think a single joke — or tender moment — missed me. Just a beautiful portrait of life, marriage, friendship, and all the many seasons they go through.

Colman Domingo has officially replaced Bradley Cooper in my Top 3 Favourite Celebrities ranking, btw. Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez still occupy the top two spots, naturally. His interview on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang is impeccable.

Honourable mentions:

• The Valley (Bravo) Season 3: the darkest reality show on television

• Couples Therapy (HBO) Season 5: challenging territory

• Margot’s Got Money Troubles (Apple): Euphoria wishes! I loved this raucous exploration of young womanhood, young motherhood, family, and sex work. Watch it for Michelle Pfeiffer’s face, stay for Elle Fanning’s wonderfully weird performance and Nick Offerman’s arms!

• Widows Bay (Apple): My entire personality is Kate O’Flynn and Matthew Rhys. I got absolutely hooked on this spooky, freaky, delightful horror-comedy that strikes such a perfect balance, it almost felt too good to be true. Widow’s Bay chat with tvscholar, forthcoming! I’m caught up on the full series and cannot wait to talk about this fucked-up island with the only living TV influencer.

  (I apologize to my Love Island and Summer House girls for my lack of participation. It’s just not my truth! )

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📚 Famesick

Lena Dunham has been at the centre of culture for me for fifteen years.

I was an insecure, waif-like, flailing twenty-something when I watched Tiny Furniture with my girlfriends on an overheating laptop, squished into a double bed.

From there—obviously, because I’m a white millennial—Girls was my religion. Girls was porn for self-absorbed 20-somethings who also felt that they were the voices of a generation. Lena Dunham was the loudest voice of my generation: for young women who had weird, confusing fights with their friends, and had complicated bodies, who loved sex, writing, and attention and dreamed about a New York life. It illustrated and mimicked the relationships I had in my own life at the time — representation matters, etc!

Over the years, I became deeply invested in Lena’s fertility story and found a surprising amount of comfort in her willingness to discuss complicated health issues. As someone who has spent years navigating my own confusing hormonal health mysteries, there was something reassuring about watching another woman publicly try to make sense of a body that seemed determined to keep secrets.

For better or worse, Lena Dunham’s work is a recurring character in my adult life. I get into this more with Tanvi Bhatia during our Google Doc Q&A — a fun conversation for fans of Famesick!

Next up:

• I recently just started American Spirits — the latest novel by girl Anna Dorn (Exalted, Perfume and Pain). So far, it’s everything Anna Dorn does best: obsessive, sapphic, twisty and uncomfortable.

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Tell me what you’re up to! What are you watching? What are you reading? What are you eating? What excites you about summer? I’m mostly jazzed about tomatoes.

I want to know everything. xo