For persons of sound mind, the standard response to any given episode of Nathan for You, the mid-2010s Comedy Central series that dispatched creator Nathan Fielder to give disastrous advice to struggling small business owners, is something along the lines of: What is this guy’s deal? In between awkward conversations and viral stunts, viewers could often glimpse Fielder wrestling with the same question. His follow-up series The Rehearsal is, among other things, an attempt to answer it.
What has made Fielder such an enigma, for fans as well as for the unwitting subjects of his docu-comedy, is the unlikely combination of his soft-spoken, preternaturally calm affect and the psychological pressure he’s nonetheless able to exert on people who are n…
“This used to be my playground,” Madonna laments in the hit theme song for A League of Their Own, the classic 1992 film about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. It’s a fitting image, if an uncharacteristically tame one by Erotica-era Madonna standards, to attach to what is essentially an outstanding kids’ movie. Stacked with stars including Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Rosie O’Donnell, and Lori Petty, as well as Queen Madge herself, the original League was a PG-rated chronicle of baseball, friendship, and sibling rivalry amid the sexism of the World War II era. For little girls in the ’90s, this was nothing short of exhilarating. (I should know: I was seven and playing intramural softball, badly, when the movie …
Sex Education, the hit British teen dramedy, returned to Netflix on Thursday with its fourth and final season, bringing the students of Moordale Secondary School to a whole new place, literally. In Season 3, Moordale was sold to developers, and a new school—along with its sustainable, artsy, free-form aesthetic—has now entered the picture: Cavendish College.
Cavendish seems to have it all: there’s an indoor slide; daily meditation, silent discos, sound baths, and yoga for mental health; and each student gets a tablet, tote bag, and reusable water bottle. “It’s like Amsterdam,” marvels Otis (Asa Butterfield). “But in space,” adds Eric (Ncuti Gatwa). It’s a gossip-free zone, and the school motto is: Why be mean when you could be green? “Well,” remarks…