The Week In Recommendations 5.17.23
Early '00s reality TV, support for our WGA mates, and dresses that will hit the sweet spot of elegant AND comfy.
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 podcast was about the Scandoval, and later this week we’ll be dropping an episode about season 6 of “Selling Sunset.” Rich Text is a reader-supported project — no ads or sponsors!
We’ve been reading…
’s latest newsletter is one that has kept sitting with me since I read it on Sunday, Mother’s Day. In it, Haley writes about trying to get pregnant, and her subsequent foray into the Trying To Conceive (TTC) forums. That part isn’t relatable to me, but her reflections on her (underlyingly misogynist) desire to distance herself from the women she found on the forums — women who are “laser-focus[ed] on getting pregnant”; women “eager to sacrifice their bodies, their autonomy, their time, their freedom.” Her essay reflected my own twisted confusion about what it would mean for my autonomy and time and body and freedom to make the choice to have a child, and what it would mean for all of those things to make the choice not to. It all feels impossibly hard, and I am no closer to making a decision one way or the other, but it is comforting to see my own anxieties written down and then answered so beautifully. -EmmaBelatedly, Michael Schulman’s New Yorker piece on the misery of TV writers. Our WGA mates have been on strike now for weeks, amid a desperate push for better contractual terms around issues ranging from streaming residuals to the use of AI in writers rooms. in the future. As the strike neared, I had been somewhat surprised to realize TV writers were so unhappy; it felt like just a couple years ago I’d been hearing endless stories of journalists fleeing the broken news media industry for the more lucrative work of writing TV scripts. Schulman’s reported piece, along with numerous firsthand testimonials I’ve read on social media in the past weeks, fills in the gaps. “Streamers are ordering shorter seasons, and the residuals model that used to give network writers a reliable income is out the window,” he explains. “Studios are cutting writing budgets to the bone by hiring fewer people for shorter time periods, often without paying for lower-level writers to be on set during production, which makes it all but impossible to learn the skills necessary to run a show.” It sounds all too familiar: an industry, flush with cash and eager to compete for the best talent, starts out by throwing money at creatives, only to quickly find ways to squeeze more and more work out of the writers they’ve tempted to their industry while offering them less and less remuneration. Before long, the corporations have managed to hoard all the profits while the artists who make the actual product live hand-to-mouth. Capitalism is broken! But we love our unions. -Claire
We’ve been watching…
I’m still watching the Bridgerton “Queen Charlotte” show on Netflix, and it really is great! It’s not as frothy and filled with wish fulfillment as the normal “Bridgerton,” but that’s part of what makes it so good. The series deals with the mental health issues of King George III, and the horrors the medical establishment at the time had in store to “treat” them. Where Violet Bridgerton has always seen marriage as something sacred and beautiful and built from a love match, young Lady Danbury and Queen Charlotte experience marriage in a more complicated way: Its duties, its obligations, and its restrictions. Maybe you get love and great sex as a little surprise, eventually. Charlotte’s love story is fundamentally tragic, and yet the show still sparkles with hope. -Emma
The new season of “Single Drunk Female,” which finds protagonist Sam (Sofia Black-D’Elia) sober, employed, and ready to rebuild her life — though, unfortunately, that’s not as simple as it sounds. She still has to sort out her relationship with her overbearing mother (Ally Sheedy), figure out dating while sober, and try to maintain steady employment in the notoriously stable field of digital journalism. It’s a quieter season, now that Sam finds herself in a relatively solid streak of sobriety, but that offers the opportunity for the show to explore the nuances of life in recovery. Sam wonders when to tell a “normie” date that she doesn’t drink and why, and tries to figure out how to move forward with family and colleagues who have seen her at rock bottom. For a sitcom, it doesn’t make me laugh that hard, that often; it’s more of a mild half-hour dramedy. But it is a pleasant way to spend a half hour here and there, so I’ve been squeezing in episodes during lunch breaks. -Claire
We’ve been listening to…
The latest “If Books Could Kill” bonus episode on the GameStop stock explosion of 2021, and meme stocks more generally. I learned so much about short squeezes and Reddit cults! My subscription to their Patreon is really paying dividends. See? Finance stuff! -Emma
“You Could Do That On Television,” a new podcast about early 2000s reality TV. Mohanad Elshieky and Hannah Wright, the cohosts, discuss one unhinged early aughts reality show in each episode (not sure how long they can keep that up, but maybe there were many hundreds more reality shows than my brain is even capable of understanding). The first episode covers “Joe Millionaire,” infamous off-screen slurp and all. I’m far from an expert on early reality TV — I barely watched any until I was an adult with my own streaming subscriptions — but I remember shows like “Next” and “The Swan” with affectionate horror and am always delighted to explore these cultural artifacts and revel in their sheer absurdity. -Claire
We’ve been buying…
I, predictably, placed a far-too-large Hill House Summer drop order. This collection is just so beautiful, full of sumptuous prints and new jersey and cotton sateen fabrics. I am especially excited about the Seraphina in Night Bloom (an elegant silhouette!) and this insanely beautiful matching set — the Scallop Lace June Nap Top in Poppy Red, and the matching Scallop Lace Delphine Nap Skirt. Can you tell I’m ready to dive headfirst into summer? -Emma
This ‘90s-core button-front midi dress from Madewell, which I bought during a flash sale recently. It is roomy enough to work with a bump, but it also drapes beautifully and hits the exact sweet spot of girly and comfy that I’m always chasing. (Plus: buttons. I remember all too well having to give up 80% of my wardrobe for 18 months because there was no nursing access!) -Claire
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Loving the Queen Charlotte show!! Will you guys be doing an episode on it?
Also saw the Hill House summer drop and almost bought every item 🙈