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Melanie Mcfarland

Melanie Mcfarland

Salon

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Hurricane Katrina warned us. We haven’t learned

Five-part docuseries "Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time" warns of our next preventable disaster

25.07.2025 3

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Malcolm-Jamal Warner was Gen X’s big brother

Theo Huxtable was a good-natured, cool kid. That's one reason why people loved the actor who played him

23.07.2025 4

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Menopause is all the rage, from Hollywood stars to “The Change”

Thanks to stars and TV shows openly talking about it women have better role models for getting through it

23.07.2025 10

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Ken Burns meets America’s latest crisis

America's storyteller wants to put the 'us' back in the U.S. PBS is the key to that mission

17.07.2025 3

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Kathy Bates’ Emmys nod says a lot about the state of TV

Broadcast ratings hit record lows, but Kathy Bates' role in "Matlock" sends a signal in a sea of streamers

16.07.2025 2

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

No amount of wine can make “The Woman in the House” spoof work, despite its charismatic star

Kristen Bell would be terrific in a satire of a cheesy psychological thriller. Just not this one

16.07.2025 9

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

“Sinners” and “KPop Demon Hunters”: a double feature that slays through song

Two very different movies use music to highlight stories about resistance, community and cultural resilience

11.07.2025 3

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Lena Dunham nailed the messy TV woman. Now she’s in chaos mode

With "Too Much" and its star Meg Stalter, the "Girls" creator lands a win for women who excel at standing out

11.07.2025 10

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

All the “Alien” movies, ranked from worst to best

To prepare for Noah Hawley's "Alien: Earth" invasion, let's revisit the sins of Weyland-Yutani's past

05.07.2025 10

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

What the “Squid Game” baby says about us

The tiniest player in this death game is a symbol of a woman's value in a capitalist system run amok

05.07.2025 10

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

25 years later, “Office Space” explains the Gen X worker’s deflated spirit

Mike Judge’s cult classic still embodies the pain of being overworked and the joy of quitting with flair

03.07.2025 100

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Sadly, “Squid Game” may be right about democracy

"Squid Game" began as a critique of late-stage capitalism. It ends as a cautionary parable about tribalism

28.06.2025 10

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

“The Bear” gets it — we’re all burned out now

Like so many of us, Syd and Carmy are wondering why we do what we do

27.06.2025 10

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Why some see this “Alice in Borderland” breakout as a role model for survival

Chishiya is smug, only moves as much as he must and exploits others – but his cold calculation is admirable

26.06.2025 40

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

"The Pitt" has a diagnosis for what's wrong with America

One of the best series of 2025 so far, "The Pitt" ponders healing the cracks in America’s healthcare system

23.06.2025 6

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

"Justice would taste like the best pie ever": These activists bake a good fight into every slice

From Los Angeles to Minnesota to "PIEOWA," baking activists make a better world with slices that do (and are) good

19.06.2025 4

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

"And Just Like That" is having a fashion crisis

Every fashion choice on this show tells a story. Some make us wonder what they're trying to say

07.06.2025 8

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

How we learned to love the evil rich

"Sirens" is the latest of many TV pleasures that sell inhumane behavior as the inevitable spoils of the 1%

05.06.2025 5

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Marc Maron's heart made "WTF" a hit. In the Joe Rogan age, it's all about shallow brawn

Sixteen years after “WTF” launched, we’re all in a different place emotionally than where and when it started

04.06.2025 6

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

The alpha male era is on its way out

The right’s “masculinity crisis” has popular culture in a bear hug. But it may be nearer to tapping out

01.06.2025 10

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

How "Survivor" and "America's Got Talent" sell the lie that is the American Dream

Think you're watching a contest to find the next Terry Fator? You could be seeing a justification for Elon Musk

31.05.2025 8

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

"And Just Like That," midlife's a crisis for everyone on TV except rich, gay men

The gay men in "And Just Like That," "The Four Seasons" and "Mid-Century Modern" are the ones aging gracefully

29.05.2025 6

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

"The Last of Us" finale tests the limits of our empathy

In a time when the right views empathy as weakness, HBO's apocalypse drama springs it on us in a finale cliffhanger

26.05.2025 8

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

What Judy Blume's "Forever" still gives us — and the teen dramas that followed her won't

The classic coming-of-age novel that inspired a new series remains timeless and necessary, on the page and screen

21.05.2025 10

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

"The Last of Us" helps us grieve by leaving nothing unsaid

Pedro Pascal’s Joel returns one last time in an episode that mourns those conversations death leaves unfinished

19.05.2025 10

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

The MAGA war on PBS was never about money

The latest GOP push to defund public media won't save much cash. But it will disadvantage poor and rural kids

18.05.2025 8

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

On "Andor," good was always a four-letter word

Instead of leaning on the usual hero myth, this "Star Wars" tale boosts our faith in tyranny's inevitable breakdown

17.05.2025 3

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Joan Rivers would have hated this

"Joan Rivers: A Dead Funny All-Star Tribute” reminds us she would've preferred her flowers while she was alive

14.05.2025 6

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Melanie Mcfarland

YouTube at 20: The video platform transformed screen entertainment. Now it could change a lot more

The platform that changed the very meaning of electronic communication is now a dominant TV platform

13.05.2025 20

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Blessed be the memes, TV shows and "Conclave" for helping us welcome our first American pope

Before we met Pope Leo XIV, shows like "The New Pope" and "The Young Pope" mythologized the Vatican to the masses

10.05.2025 10

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

At long last, "Hacks" flips the table on the bitter mentorship at the heart of the series

Salon speaks to the show's creators about making Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels work through their hate

10.05.2025 7

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

The throwback comfort of "Poker Face" returns

In our fraudulent era, it's a joy to get back on the road with Natasha Lyonne's old-school, no-bull detective

08.05.2025 7

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

The path to the Death Star is paved with lies: On "Andor," as on Earth, disinformation defeats truth

Before the Empire finished its weapon, its lies destroyed societies. We're living through our version of that

07.05.2025 10

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

The radically divine message of "Sinners"

To say a movie scene or performance gives us chills evokes something common, especially when we're talking about a horror film, which "Sinners" is,...

02.05.2025 10

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

“Turning Point: The Vietnam War” lays bare the arrogance that fueled a lost cause

Brian Knappenberger's latest forgoes tragic sentimentality to present the war as it was: a senseless aggression

30.04.2025 4

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

What's happening at "60 Minutes" matters to anyone who cares about protecting free speech

We should rewatch the SLAPP Suits episode of "Last Week Tonight" in the context of Trump's threat to press freedoms

27.04.2025 6

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

The inspiring end of "Andor" shows us how great rebellions begin

A concisely rendered 12 episodes chart how fascism flourishes and the ways to fight it piece by piece

22.04.2025 9

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

A bloody tragedy on "The Last of Us" is a familiar move for HBO

The zombie hit now shares a defining trait with other great HBO dramas, but not because of that epic battle scene

21.04.2025 4

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Blue Origin's all-woman space flight made history, but not in the way it's promoting

The unifying message of Monday's all-woman rocket flight is that, for now, cold space belongs to the hot and rich

17.04.2025 3

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Barricade your heart because "The Last of Us" is on a mission to break it

Some worlds don't end in pandemics — they're undone by rash decisions that spin into massive, painful consequences

17.04.2025 6

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

The evergreen appeal of Sherlock Holmes helps us make sense of a perilously illogical world

"Sherlock & Daughter" joining "Watson" shows our yearning for the world to make sense hasn't been snuffed out yet

16.04.2025 5

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

"Your Friends & Neighbors" lets Jon Hamm sell you the life you can’t afford

With a recession looming, is now a good time to debut a show about a rich man with problems? Sadly, yes

11.04.2025 5

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

"Hacks" provides lessons in unlearning the rules of showbiz

Deborah and Ava have done their worst to each other, now they have to trust in each other's talent

10.04.2025 3

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Do we need to watch the final season of "The Handmaid’s Tale" when America’s writing its own?

We've watched June run in and out of Gilead and now we're running with her

08.04.2025 5

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

With "Lazarus," the creative force behind "Cowboy Bebop" soothes our present vibe with his own

If this is the end of the world as we know it, Shinichirō Watanabe's may help you feel a bit closer to fine

06.04.2025 10

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

Fired White House Correspondents' dinner host Amber Ruffin has learned her lesson. The WHCA has not

“I thought when people take away your rights, you're supposed to call it out," Ruffin said on Monday. "I was wrong"

02.04.2025 4

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

"Reading builds empathy": The case for saving America's libraries

America needs "third places" like our libraries more than we ever have, both functionally and philosophically

31.03.2025 50

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

MTG pitting Elon's DOGE against NPR and PBS is a literal hot mess

PBS and NPR have successfully defended public media from defunding in the past. This time feels different

27.03.2025 4

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

In "Ludwig," being a detective is tough—and leaving the house is tougher

This cozy murder mystery turns sacrificing solitude into an act of heroism

26.03.2025 6

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland

On "The White Lotus," the Ratliffs ooze the kind of idle rich ignorance that's killing us

Wealthy fools are a feature of "The White Lotus," but this family may be the apotheosis of society's ruin

24.03.2025 7

Salon

Melanie Mcfarland