Criticism Is Dead
What we’re watching and what it all means (if it means anything at all)
1 year ago

The White Lotus, The Menu, and Andor and political praxis

The lives (and deaths) of the 1 percent, plus the backlash against the Star Wars show

We discuss The White Lotus season 2 and The Menu, two works highlighting the relationship between those who serve and those who take from the silver platter.

02:39 The White Lotus’s second season, streaming on HBO Max, is even better than the first, poking with a sharper, slyer stick at sex, power, and gender dynamics.

23:01 The Menu, currently in theaters, sufficiently skewers foodie culture and fine-dining fetishism, but fails to cut as deeply elsewhere.

37:58 Plus, culture notes about Andor, which has found itself in the middle of a squabble on the left about mass-culture art and revolutionary politics.

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Music: REEKAH

Artwork and design: Sara Macias and Andrew Liu