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.
326
The Socialite - A "Heroine" We Love to Hate-Watch
Drama ostensibly comes from problems and obstacles—so why do we love watching people who seemingly have none? Here’s our take on our love-hate affair with the socialite and whether the voyeurism of watching her is really hate or rooting for her.
13 min
327
The Dangers of Making Everyone Too Pretty for S...
Is it a problem that Hollywood’s stars are too beautiful – especially when they’re playing real people?
14 min
328
How Modern Family Ruined Haley’s Story Arc
For most of the Modern Family's run, Hayley was pigeonholed as the pretty, dumb, popular character – but did the show let her down by not letting her be more?
12 min
329
The Devil Wears Prada - How Andy Predicted the ...
What would it cost to buy your soul? In The Devil Wears Prada, Andy gets the kind of opportunity people dream of. But in order to benefit from it, she needs to give up part of herself...
9 min
330
Red Herring Male Love Interests - He's Not The ...
There are five main types of red herring male love interests – and each represents a particular type of guy to be wary of, with a good reason: he’s not Mr. Right.
15 min
331
Who Will Gen Alpha Be? - How They'll Become Emp...
We’ve all been watching the rise of Gen Z as they replace millennials to dictate the rules of today’s cultural capital – but what comes next? It won’t be long before members of Gen Alpha are driving youth culture and popular media.
12 min
332
Gossip Girl - Serena and the Nice Rich Girl Fan...
Why is everyone on Gossip Girl so obsessed with Serena, and is her “nice rich girl” persona just an act?Gossip Girl encourages us to strive to be rich and gorgeous like Serena, while it reminds us there’s no way we’ll ever truly be like her.
10 min
333
Marilyn Monroe's Mythic Femininity - Why The Bl...
When does a person stop being a person and become a symbol? Marilyn Monroe as an idea has taken on a meaning all its own—the blonde bombshell, and the ultimate embodiment of a certain type of mythic femininity.
12 min
334
The Con Artist Trope - Why Lying Doesn’t Matter...
The Con artist is all over today’s film and TV – so are we supposed to be appalled by this figure, or are we actually… impressed?
16 min
335
The Biggest Hollywood Clichés - What’s Really B...
So often stories resort to lazy, easy shortcuts we’ve seen a million times before. When are they effective or timeless, and when is this just a boring lack of imagination?
10 min
336
Succession - The Strange Tragedy of Roman Roy
Roman Roy is an exhibitionist, but his kinkiness doesn’t just make him a memorable treat of a character. His particular perversities outline the Roy family’s psychological pitfalls.
16 min
337
Sydney Sweeney - The Serious Sex Symbol for Gen Z
Sydney Sweeney is putting a Gen Z stamp on the sex symbol. Here's our Take on how Sydney has deconstructed and rebuilt the sex symbol in a more serious way:
9 min
338
How We Overcorrected the Damsel in Distress Trope
The damsel in distress character has fallen majorly out of fashion – and for good reason – but have we overcorrected against her?
14 min
339
The Bad Female Leader - Why Film and TV are Obs...
Why is Hollywood so against women being in charge?
14 min
340
Nepo Babies are the symbol of our broken merito...
Nepo babies are everywhere in entertainment these days – from Maude Apatow to Dakota Johnson to Nicolas Cage, one of your favorite actors is probably related to the Hollywood elite. So what do these stars really say about inequality in entertainment, and in America more broadly?
12 min
341
Girls' Hannah - Why the millennial antihero was...
Hannah on Girls was widely deemed one of the most annoying TV characters of the 2010s, but was she just misunderstood?
12 min
342
The "Dead Girl" Story - Why It's Dangerous to S...
So many stories center around the mystery of a beautiful dead girl who is often flattened into a symbol and treated as a mystery to be solved. Here’s our take on the dead girl story, and the loss she really represents in our culture:
13 min
343
Beyoncé v Kelis - Who's Right, and The Bigger ...
Beyonce may have quietly removed a portion of her song Energy that interpolated Kelis’ Milkshake… but did she do anything wrong in the first place? Here’s our take on the drama, where the line is drawn, and why maybe even if you don’t legally deserve a credit, maybe you still deserve respect.
12 min
344
How Freaks and Geeks gets youth culture right t...
Freaks and Geeks taps into 80s nostalgia (from a late 90s perspective) – but in a genuine, complex way. The show got youth culture right - and it still resonates now.
15 min
345
How Barbiecore Turned Feminism Hot Pink
Barbiecore is the fashion trend of the moment, but the fun act of reclaiming this hot pink femininity can still be so fraught with controversy, debate and criticism.
10 min
346
The "Rich Guy" Lie - Why Tinder Swindlers and R...
Why do women often fall for the rich guy – even when there are a lot of red flags he’s a total fraud? It’s not fair to blame these victims or sim ply assume they’re shallow and materialistic when there’s a much bigger cultural problem at play here.
12 min
347
The Manifesting Trend - When it's a lie and whe...
Manifesting is everywhere these days, especially in the cultural collective of gen z. But today’s mainstream resurgence of manifesting also hints at a larger feeling of powerlessness in the face of bigger, systemic problems out of our control.
11 min
348
How Clueless's iconic fashion actually told the...
Did you ever think about the meaning behind Cher Horowitz’s most memorable looks in Clueless? Are all those perfectly curated clothes an expression of power – or are they actually hiding a teenage girl who feels powerless?
17 min
349
The Daddy’s Girl Trope - Why Our Culture Fetish...
The daddy's girl onscreen is an idealized – but stunted– version of femininity, who is seen through the rose-colored glasses of a father who never wants her to grow up. Here’s our take on the daddy’s girl, and what happens if she doesn’t outgrow seeing her dad as the greatest guy in the world.
12 min
350
Rebel Wilson and the Dark History of Forced Out...
Rebel Wilson’s attempted outing at the hands of an Australian newspaper was a shocking and revealing window into our current moment. Here’s our take on why it might prove we’re finally moving on from the shocking history of tabloids targeting LGBT people for profitable scoops.
13 min