Thank you for reading The Lately! This issue is my weekly culture catch-up where I discuss what I’m watching, reading, and generally enjoying lately. If you like this newsletter, please consider becoming a subscribing member.
With Memorial Day Weekend comes the unofficial start of summer, and unfortunately with the finales of Barry and Succession AND Taylor Swift dropping her most devastating breakup song yet, it seems summer is off to a Sad Girl start.
But if you think about it, we are kind of just getting everything depressing out of the way right off the top. I have lots of silly little activities planned for June, so I am determined to turn the vibes around.
But before we can do that, we need closure with the aforementioned endings. Let’s get into it…
Watching Lately
BIG week for finales — both season and series. Spoilers ahead
Succession Series Finale
End of an era. Our Sunday nights will never be the same. I have loved every second of this show, even though the stress it caused surely took years off my life.
One of the things I enjoyed most about last night’s series finale was how it gave us a glimpse, however brief, at what might’ve been were the Roy children not so narcissistic and self-serving at every turn. Giggling in Caroline’s kitchen, we watched as close to a flashback as this show has given us, but of course this sibling unity was not built to last. Living for the hope of it all was the ultimate tragedy. I found myself actively distressed that I was empathizing with these monsters yet again — shoutout to the god-tier writing and acting and talent from this entire creative team.
When the sibs visit Logan’s Connor’s home, invigorated and moving as a unit for all of two seconds, unseen footage of a dinner Logan hosted plays in the dining room. In this breathtaking scene, Shiv, Roman, and Kendall witness a father they never knew. Amongst his inner circle — which I was delighted to see did include Connor — Logan was a different man than the one who bullied them their entire lives. It made the moment last week when Shiv asks Frank and Karl what her father was like, and they respond with “what you saw was what you got” that much more devastating.
My only complaint about the episode… personally could’ve used more Willa.
At the risk of this entire newsletter becoming a Succession thought dump, I’m stopping myself there. But if you want to discuss further, it would be a pleasure. I’ll be talking about it forever.
Barry Series Finale
Oh, wow. Ultimately, a show about the stories we tell ourselves so we can sleep at night and what it means to face up to the truth of who we are. The truth of who these characters on Barry are? Bleak.
So much happened in the final 36 minutes of this show, but I’m stuck on thinking about how in the flash forward, when John tells his mother “I love you,” in return Sally asks “was it good?” referring of course to the high school play (!!) she directed. Mentally I’ll be there for a while.
Seeking external validation in the form of “tell me I’m good” is a disease. Not to make everything about Succession, but Kendall Roy certainly suffered from it. The difference in the end being, for Kendall, the poison did indeed, it seems, drip through. And on Barry, when John watches the film about his father’s life — which has been completely rewritten to paint Barry as a hero — John gets closure and a chance not to carry on generational trauma.
YellowJackets Season 2 Finale
Not me watching Coach Ben burn down that cursed cabin and thinking GOOD. I am actively rooting against almost everyone in this show, and of course they had to go and kill off the only character with whom I actively empathize.
I know in a previous issue I wrote that even if horror and gore isn’t your thing, you can stomach this show, and I’m sorry if I lead you astray. I watched the finale with my hands over my eyes, skipping through moments I couldn’t handle. I find the storyline focussing on the teens much more compelling than the one with their adult counterparts, and now knowing that my favorite newly crowned teen queen of the YellowJackets doesn’t make it as an adult, I’m not as excited to tune back in. That said, I WILL tune back in because *Reese Witherspoon Voice* Women’s Stories Matter.
The Other Two
Just. Watch. It. Please.
You Hurt My Feelings
My favorite actor, Julia Louise Dreyfus, and filmmaker Nicole Holofcener reunite in A24’s new comedy, You Hurt My Feelings, now in theaters.
When novelist, Beth, (JLD) overhears her husband (Tobias Menzies) talking about how he doesn’t like her new book, her world is rocked. The film deftly observes the way we lie to those we love to provide encouragement and validation. It cuts especially close to the bone for those of us involved in creative pursuits, whose sense of self can so often get tied up in the work we do.
There’s one scene — not a spoiler — where JLD takes a giant cookie she’s clearly already taken a couple bites of out of her purse to continue munching, and as a girl who has — on more than one occasion — filled her purse with pretzels on a night out, I felt seen. Representation for girls who keeps snacks in their bags!
I laughed for 90 minutes straight and fully plan to rewatch as soon as it hits streaming. A favorite film of the year for me thus far, and clearly a big week for me watching women on screen ask “am I good?”
Wild Life
Last week, I attended the Los Angeles premiere for the National Geographic documentary, Wild Life, from Oscar winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. It’s a love story, both in the traditional sense, as the film follows Kris Tompkins and her love, the outdoorsman and entrepreneur Doug Tompkins (they'd helped pioneer Patagonia, The North Face, and Esprit), as well as a love story to nature, as Kris and Doug leave their businesses behind and turn their attention toward creating National Parks throughout Chile and Argentina. The doc is now streaming on Disney+ for anyone interested.
The highlight of the evening for me was during the Q+A, when Patagonia founder and documentary subject, Yvon Chouinard, came onstage with a bandaid on the middle of his forehead that was just went completely unaddressed. Also a big week for billionaires with bandaids on their heads *cough Roman Roy cough*
Ted Lasso’s finale is tomorrow night so thoughts on that to come.
Reading Lately
Hello Beautiful
Ann Napolitano’s Hello Beautiful wrecked me. 10/10, one of my favorite books I’ve read so far in 2023. If you enjoyed The Measure by Nikki Erlick or Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, you have to read this. A moving portrait of four sisters and the love shared over a lifetime.
I cried — no, I SOBBED — through so much of this book, some of my pages are literally tear soaked. Line after line just cut me open.
“She would wait, forever if necessary, for a man who saw the expanse of her, the way her father had.” *insert TikTok sound I need to buy a gun*
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
Another lovely crying book. This is what I get for taking a break from romcoms. I guess it’s time for me to circle back to thrillers.
“I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night”
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin tells the story of seventeen-year-old Lenni Pettersson, who lives on the Terminal Ward at the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. It is there that she meets 83-year-old Margot. The two quickly bond over their shared 100 years, and though they know their days are numbered, they aren’t done living quite yet.
“Somewhere, out in the world, are the people who touched us, or loved us, or ran from us. In that way we will live on.”
This is such a life affirming novel. Heartbreaking, but hopeful. I listened to the audiobook and finished it Saturday afternoon, sitting in a beach chair with my toes in the sand, tears running down my cheeks behind big sunglasses as I stared out at the Pacific.
When I go to the beach, I always think of my grandmother, who passed away last year at 80. I feel like she’s with me all the time, but especially by the water. I would’ve loved talking to her about this story.
Listening Lately
The latest Barbie trailer dropped and Dua Lipa’s Barbie Soundtrack bop Dance The Night was on repeat in my home, car, headphones etc all weekend long. Am I a Barbie? Because I too just want to dance the night away *clap clap*
Taylor Swift dropped Midnights (Til Dawn Edition) Friday at midnight EST.
I hate that I have to start this by saying this was almost definitely a PR move to distract from the fact that she’s allegedly dating Matty Healy, lead singer of The 1975.
For a woman who is so protective of her image, it’s WILD to me she would tie herself to a man who has made many — at best, we can call them problematic though racist is a word more fitting — remarks of late, including comments about Ice Spice in a now deleted episode of episode of the podcast “The Adam Friedland Show.”
Of course, it seems incredibly NOT coincidental then that Taylor would include Ice Spice in a collab on this latest album drop. And the whole thing is just very uncomfy.
Taylor’s brand of white feminism leaves us with a lot to unpack, to say the least. But let’s, at this time, unpack this new album.
Along with the new version of Karma feat. Ice Spice, Midnights (Til Dawn Edition) includes Hits Different (formerly just on the Target CD version), Snow on the Beach feat. More Lana Del Rey (where Lana gets the ACTUAL full verse she should’ve had all along), and You’re Losing Me, which is the new Hits Different (available only on CD and not streaming except for a bootleg versions floating around, one of which obviously my friends and I circulated until the link got taken down.)
I’ve been listening to Hits Different on TikTok since last October, a song that gives us the wildly relatable lyric “I pictured you with other girls in love / then threw up on the street.” So the new song in this album drop for myself and many others is You’re Losing Me, and let’s just say the group chat has been UNWELL since we got our hands on the previously mentioned bootleg.
I heard Taylor sing “I’m getting tired even for a phoenix / always rising from the ashes / mendin’ all her gashes” and thought OOF SAME GIRL!
Then she sang “I know my pain is such an imposition” and I thought OH I’ll be bringing this is up in therapy, for sure.
But when she finally said “I wouldn’t marry me either / pathological people pleaser / who only wanted you to see her” I was UNDONE at noon on a Friday. And honestly, again right now just thinking about it.
So with all of that out of the way, this is going to be a SILLY GIRL SUMMER! I am drinking little cocktails and sitting by the pool and eating yummy food and wearing little dresses and dancing the night away and it is going to be FUN dammit!
ANYWAY, I’m off to go hike and look at some flowers; I need to touch grass, as they say, before I watch the NBA finals Game 7 tonight. Thank you for reading! As always you can find me on Instagram and TikTok.