The Take
This is the Take. It's where you come to understand more about your favorite movies, shows and culture. Our video essays make the story worlds you enter richer and deeper. Think: Endings Explained, Character Studies, Hidden Messages and Symbols Revealed, Actor and Director Profiles, and more.
We want to share our love of visual culture with the world. So here's our Take.
276
Royal Wombs: The Obsession With Royal Fertility
We may think questions of bloodlines and royal heirs seem archaic, but these concerns have greatly shaped the lives of royal modern women, too. From Princess Diana in the 80s, to Kate allegedly having to take a fertility test pre-marriage, to Megan's revelations about the Firm's interest in her pregnancy.
9 min
277
Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn: The End Of One Era,...
It looks like Taylor Swift & Joe Alwyn are over after 6 years together... So what does this mean for Taylor’s eras – and the new era of her personal life that she’s embarking on?
8 min
278
What ruined the concert experience (And can we ...
Fans and artists alike are speaking out about a troubling shift in concert culture, from the nearly-impossible-to-get tickets, to seas of phone screens, to heckling, to... just nearly everything about the concert going experience getting worse. Why did this happen, and how can we turn things around?
13 min
279
Body Typing: Why We’re Still So Obsessed With L...
There’s no scientific proof that your body type says anything about you as a person – but this idea is back in the zeitgeist with the reemergence of Kibbe, and body typing has blown up into a surprising modern craze. So is there anything to body typing – and why are we so willing to believe there must be?
9 min
280
How Today’s Onscreen Elites Prove Money Doesn’t...
Everywhere we turn, we’re seeing unhappy rich characters. Even though today we’re pushed constantly to lust after having money in our culture, it seems that at the end of the day lots of money still turn you into a bad or miserable person...
14 min
281
Princesscore: The Fun Aesthetic vs. The Dark Re...
Over the past few years, real life Princess fairytales have been exposed in the press as apparently pretty nightmarish realities. So why does princesscore persist, for today’s adults and new generations?
10 min
282
Anya Taylor Joy - How She Keeps Us Guessing | S...
Anya Taylor Joy is THE alternative it girl. Anya intrigues us because it feels like we don’t know her - unlike some of her other peers who we’ve seen grow up on screen, it feels like Anya started her career suddenly, already fully formed. So how does this unknowability elevate her work on screen?
10 min
283
Social Media Dysmorphia: Beauty Filters Are Rew...
Social media apps make it easier than ever to filter, contour, smooth and shape our selfies into something completely different from what we actually look like, and this is leading to a big problem: Selfie Dysmorphia.
10 min
284
The Modern “FEMCEL”: Who She Really Is and What...
The term "incel" was first coined by a woman in 1997, but has been hijacked by men who promote misogyny and blame women and feminism for their struggles. This lead to a new term emerging: femcel. But what makes a femcel unique and different from the stereotypical male incel?
11 min
285
Why Handsome Hollywood Clones Are Taking Over C...
Between the Chrises, the Ryans, and all of the square-jawed, dark-haired guys on Ryan Murphy's shows, it’s getting harder and harder to tell movie stars apart... So, why is this happening & what do these types really represent?
10 min
286
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Trial: The Wackiest Moments f...
Gwyneth Paltrow’s ongoing trial is a deliciously ridiculous combination of wealth, celebrity and courtroom drama. Here's a rundown on the case & our take on why everyone's so obsessed.
11 min
287
Hailey Bieber: The Face of Gen Z’s Anti-Aging C...
Hailey Bieber’s rise in the skincare community has coincided with a crisis of the younger generation fearing aging at ever-earlier points. So is Hailey really that into health and skincare, or is her glow only skin deep and she’s just taking advantage of a market and generation already trending that way?
12 min
288
How I Met Your Mother's Marshall - The Truth Ab...
On HIMYM, Marshall seems like the perfect man... But, upon further inspection, he seems to be just as self-serving and morally limited as the rest of the cast, and he displays the show's inherently limited moral outlook.
11 min
289
Why Hollywood Can’t Ignore Its Consent Problem ...
Sex is out at the movies, and family-friendly superheroes are in. That’s partly because sex no longer sells, but also because the way audiences feel about movie intimacy has changed, too. Here’s our take on how consent plays into how we view intimacy onscreen – and whether Hollywood needs to start censoring again.
9 min
290
How Olivia Wilde Became the Internet’s Dream Vi...
Olivia Wilde had a wild past couple of years and still gets *a lot* of hate online. But how did Olivia Wilde become the Internet’s Most Hated Woman in the first place – and are there any darker agendas at play?
14 min
291
What Chris Rock’s “Selective Outrage” Says Abou...
Here’s our take on Chris Rock’s attack on outrage culture, what he gets right and wrong, and whether becoming more conscious of this outrage cycle can break us out of today’s tired back-and-forth culture-war conversations.
11 min
292
Plastic Surgery Regrets: How Stars Shape Danger...
The plastic surgery business is booming, and more people than ever making body modifications that they regret but that are impossible to reverse. Can create a culture that allows people the freedom to choose what they do with their body, without making them anxious about the body they’ve been born with?
9 min
293
The Royal Family’s “Other Women”: A Brief Histo...
Is Prince William’s Royal Affair actually real – or could it be totally invented by gossip and the media? The history of the Royal Family is full of juicy affairs and beloved mistresses, so the press is highly aware of how magnetically we’re drawn to this story arc of the royal “other woman.”
8 min
294
Endless Summer Vacation: Miley Cyrus’ “Personal...
Miley Cyrus is the queen of reinventing herself - and with her new era, it looks like Miley has found her most honest form yet. Our take on the hidden messages of Endless Summer Vacation, the new “Miley era,” and why it pays to drop genres and personas to get personal.
10 min
295
Selena Gomez: The Queen of Kindness… And Drama
Selena Gomez: queen of kindness... and controversy? Today we're looking at why, despite her best efforts, Selena keeps finding herself embroiled in controversy after controversy.
8 min
296
Succession’s Shiv - The Real “Woman Problem" in...
Succession does a great job of dealing with not just how the “woman” dynamics realistically play out around Shiv, but also how they’ve shaped her psychologically. Shiv has been molded into an arrogant-yet-insecure Girlboss who not only doesn’t help other women but often weaponizes feminism in service of her family.
13 min
297
Yellowjackets Ending Explained: S1 Character Ar...
Don't miss our Take on the hidden significance behind Yellowjackets season one’s most poignant reveals.
13 min
298
Elvis: What Baz Luhrmann Left Out… and Why
Biopics aren’t always the truth, but they are versions of the truth. With Elvis, we are hearing the King’s story through the voice of a classic unreliable narrator. So, what was left out… and more importantly, why?
10 min
299
The Banshees of Inisherin, Explained - What Tho...
Why do friendships break down – and once a conflict starts, can it ever really be over? The Banshees of Inisherin takes on these questions on both the personal and the political level...
14 min
300
Friends' Rachel & Her Sisters: What’s Really Dr...
Rachel’s sisters on Friends are unimpressive human beings – so what was it about Rachel that let her escape their spoiled, stunted adulthood?
10 min