The Week In Recommendations 12.18.24
Cozy clothes, cozy TV shows, and cozy holiday music!
This is the free edition of Rich Text, a newsletter about cultural obsessions from your Internet BFFs Emma and Claire. If you like what you see and hear, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Our latest subscriber post was about Ballerina Farm and Martha Stewart! An episode about “The Ultimatum” S3 is coming soon. Rich Text is a reader-supported project.
Claire has been reading… 📖
Will Tavlin’s N+1 essay about Netflix, “Casual Viewing.” Tavlin synthesizes some unignorable and widely critiqued issues with the streamer’s content and business model – inflated viewership numbers, a firehose of blandly forgettable content meant to be half-watched, the undermining of a business model built on residuals that sustained middle-class careers in the industry, a failure to support good indie films – with eye-opening reporting and historical contextualizing of Netflix’s sometimes confounding strategic moves. Netflix’s goal, he argues, has always been to ensure customers are continuing to pay a monthly fee. Predictable, safe content, delivered consistently, is the best way to do this. It’s fast food, not the local joint that might be much better or much worse than what you’d expect. Plus, “slipshod filmmaking works for the streaming model, since audiences at home are often barely paying attention,” so why bother making a more challenging piece of art? He goes on:
Several screenwriters who’ve worked for the streamer told me a common note from company executives is “have this character announce what they’re doing so that viewers who have this program on in the background can follow along.” (“We spent a day together,” Lohan tells her lover, James, in Irish Wish. “I admit it was a beautiful day filled with dramatic vistas and romantic rain, but that doesn’t give you the right to question my life choices. Tomorrow I’m marrying Paul Kennedy.” “Fine,” he responds. “That will be the last you see of me because after this job is over I’m off to Bolivia to photograph an endangered tree lizard.”)
Yeah, that sounds about right. Background viewing has always existed – soaps and daytime talk shows for housewives distracting themselves while folding laundry – but with Netflix it seems to be turning into a ratchet that only works one way. The more we half-watch while doing chores or scrolling social media, the less interesting the content we’re given needs to be, the blander they make it, and the more we accustom ourselves to watching as a secondary activity because the content just isn’t challenging or well-made enough to occupy all of our attention. I am, honestly, alarmed at what this is doing to my brain, and even more alarmed at what it’s doing to the arts and culture industries as a whole. Great essay, though!
Emma has been reading… 📖
I cannot get enough of reading about what other people are gifting themselves and others this holiday season. Yes, I recognize that everyone is a gift guider these days, and maybe that’s annoying. And yet! I love the insights you can glean from the things that other people are drawn to. Plus, I always get great ideas for future gifting. For this reason, I thoroughly enjoyed
’ post sourcing gift ideas from a dozen different writers. She has each person write about an item that they are gifting to others, and a gift they’d want themselves. It’s an absolutely delicious list.
Claire has been watching… 📺
Having bemoaned the entire business model of Netflix, I must now embarrass myself by admitting I have been watching Netflix all week. Greg and I even found a free night to watch another episode of “Great British Baking Show” for the first time in weeks. But more importantly, I binged the upcoming reality series “Selling the City,” dropping January 3rd. It’s New York’s very own real estate reality soap, starring Eric Adams ally and former rumored Dale Moss love interest Eleonora Srugo and her team of luxury agents at Douglas Elliman. Like “Selling Sunset,” the Manhattan iteration has abundant Instagram face, edgy style choices, Michael B. Jordan name-drops, and petty bitches who live for drama. The listings are even more out of my price range ($15 million for a four-bedroom apartment? Sounds like a bargain, actually!), but aesthetically they’re more my speed than the glossy SoCal mansions on “Selling Sunset” and “Selling the O.C.” Eleonora is oddly unreadable and remote for a reality star, but the rest of the cast provides vulnerability and drama in spades. A very enjoyable eight episodes. Watch it while folding laundry or prepping dinner!
Emma has been watching… 📺
I too have been watching Netflix! We are all irrevocably chained to that addictive content farm, but sometimes… it feels good. I’ve been deep into the new season of “Queer Eye” and crying like a god damn baby nearly every episode. Although I will miss Bobby Berk, Jeremiah Brent is an incredible replacement for home/design. He really injects a fresh, and deeply unjaded energy into the show. (I loved every scene where we see him break down and be like “Does this happen every time? Are you guys used to this?” to the other four leads.) Jeremiah also immediately gets into the mix with the Las Vegas heroes that the Fab 5 are helping. I was especially moved by episode six, which follows single mom Jen’ya Reynolds. After watching Jeremiah bond with Jen’ya and watching them both dissolve into a puddle of tears when she sees the home he and his team have put together for her and her daughter, I was truly unwell in the best way possible.
I’ve also been watching the teaser for season 3 of “White Lotus” on repeat, searching for plot / murder clues. Parker Posey forever!
Claire has been listening to… 🎧
Christmas music! The holiday season traditionally starts after Thanksgiving (kidding, it obviously begins on November 1st), but in my house it begins in mid-December, after my son’s birthday. In the evenings, I’ve been blasting holiday playlists through the apartment while we make dinner. It adds a certain festive flair to the usual routine, which involves my older son crashing Hot Wheels together as loudly as possible while my younger one waddles around trying to open cabinets and crying sporadically. Every holiday playlist contains the same standard fare, of course. I always sing along tearily to Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” and then I get Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath the Tree” stuck in my head for the rest of the night. Then I tell Greg we should get a Christmas tree this week, which we never quite get around to doing. It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
Emma has been listening to… 🎧
The Billboard Top 100 from 1999! Whenever Adam and I have a long (or long-ish) drive, we like to pick a year and listen to the top songs from that year. His younger cousin was in town recently, and so we decided to play this game with his birth year, 1999. ‘99 was smack dab in the center of my middle school years, so it was a real trip down memory lane. Britney Spears! Sixpence None The Richer! Ricky Martin! The Goo Goo Dolls! Smash Mouth! What a year.
Claire has been buying… 🛍️
The Soho zip boots in black from Thursday Boot Co. My winter shoe of choice has been the chunky Sam Edelman Laguna Chelsea, but now that I’m reentering the adult world of occasional dinner dates and parties after a year spent nursing a baby to sleep every night, a sleeker pair of boots seems to be in order. The perennial problem is that I have wide feet, and a sleek boot that accommodates a chunky foot is hard to find. I’ve heard that Thursday runs narrow, but I decided to give it a shot and hope that they were easy to stretch. I sized up a half size, and they actually zipped right on; my only concern is that the toe is really long, probably a couple inches past my toes. Will my feet end up slipping down uncomfortably in these as I break them in? Will I constantly trip over the long toes, or just feel self-conscious about how much longer and pointier they make my feet? Possibly! On the other hand, this is clearly the intended style; it’s just out of my comfort zone. I’m leaning towards giving them a chance, and I’m already eyeing the Tempo or High Standard boots in chocolate brown. (You know I love chocolate brown, and now I am tempted by these, Claire!!! -Emma)
Emma has been buying… 🛍️
The Reformation Lawson Oversized Cashmere Turtleneck in Walnut, which is now on deep sale. (Am I lightly cursing myself for buying this too early to get the deeper discount? Yes! But you can benefit from my error.) This sweater is very soft, with a turtleneck that gives you the desired effect without strangling your neck. I will be wearing the sweater all winter long — with leggings, with jeans, with skirts, with anything.
I’d also been really wanting to try an activewear jumpsuit, both for an easy travel outfit and for barre class, and I’m happy to report that Left On Friday’s plunge playsuit in Jet Black is 10/10! She *is* the moment. I also love that it comes in two different lengths — we love an acknowledgement that people are different heights! Obviously I went with the shorter inseam.
Claire has been making… 🧶
A chocolate birthday cake for my brand-new five-year-old! Five is apparently old enough to have very specific requests and expectations: a vanilla Batman cake for his bowling party, and a chocolate cake for his family birthday dinner. Unfortunately he didn’t love the ShopRite sheet cake (too much frosting inside), but this only flattered my ego, because he much preferred the family cake. I went with a Smitten Kitchen single-layer cake, since it was just the four of us, and it was a huge hit. Personally, I think it was a touch over-baked — I should have checked it more frequently after the first toothpick came out wet — but no one else seemed bothered
.
Emma has been making… 🧶
My oft-returned-to fave NYT Cooking recipe: Alexa Weibel’s Creamy, Spicy Tomato Beans and Greens. (It’s a perfect dish, I’m sorry to say!!!) I now want to cook my way through all of NYT’s most popular recipes of 2024.
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I am so impressed that you made it to age 5 before the birthday cakes got so specific! My 4 year old needed a cake with Elsa’s face larger than life this past June, and she told everyone from the preschool teachers, all the way to the bank tellers that that was what she was getting, so the pressure was ON!
Did not know about this White Lotus promo drop. Thank you 🙏🏼
Also, I listened to the While You Were Sleeping ep of LTSI and I smiled and laughed and swooned the whole time. I have never come across anyone who has the same affinity for that movie as I do. It was truly so lovely. 💕