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.
351
Female Friendship Stories Are FINALLY Taking Over
The new generation of female BFFs onscreen are finally dispensing with so many bad cliches and showcasing how having a true friend makes everything in life better.
15 min
352
Why “Female Entertainment” Still Gets Written Off
Why is there still so much shame and belittlement directed towards popular female media?
15 min
353
Why Today’s Content is Suffering a Quality Crisis
How did Kristen Stewart go from child actress to Twilight superstar to indie darling? Above all, by owning her authentic self, no matter what anyone thinks. Click to watch our new video on how Kristen became an icon through her non-conformity & authenticity.
13 min
354
What’s Really Behind Elon Musk’s Twitter Chaos
Elon Musk’s purchase and redesign of Twitter – a place that was once a public forum for underdogs to question those in power – could be its ultimate downfall.
11 min
355
How the Boomer Myth Shaped the World, and Then ...
Here’s our take on the way boomers mythologized themselves, the stories they left out along the way, and how they’re more similar to their Gen X and millennial children than anyone might expect.
11 min
356
What Makes the Trophy Wife Such a Prize
Who is the trophy wife, really? How do the qualities that make her a prize shift over time, and what does her evolution says about “ideal” womanhood?
14 min
357
The “End” of Cancel Culture - Why We Need a Bet...
In our new video, we're looking at who gets canceled, who doesn’t, and why there needs to be a better system for holding people accountable for their actions, while still allowing for second chances in our culture.
13 min
358
Will These Controversies Finally Bring The Roya...
The British Monarchy has always had a dark side – but in recent years a lot of the public has been willing to ignore that out of a deeply-rooted respect for Queen Elizabeth II. So, with their matriarch gone, how long can the rest of the family go without a scandal they can’t come back from?
13 min
359
Derry Girls’ Michelle - Rise of a Brash & Rowdy...
On Derry Girls, while Erin, Orla, and Clare are all some shade of meek, nervous, or unusual, the leader of their pack Michelle acts like she’s got it all figured out, and can’t wait for adulthood to start – but how real is that act?
10 min
360
Doomerism Isn’t Helping Us Cope. So Why Can’t W...
Our take on Doomerism, its impact on Gen Z and mental health, and how – even if there’s a lot that is bad right now – there’s also a better way to deal.
12 min
361
The Notebook - Madly In Love, But Toxic As Hell...
What made The Notebook the romance movie of the early 2000s, and how much of it actually holds up?
15 min
362
"Coastal Grandma" - Why Gen Z wants to skip adu...
After a few years of exceptional uncertainty, does the rise of the coastal grandmother aesthetic prove that above everything, gen-z just wants to slow down?
12 min
363
TikTok is the new Gen Z search engine. Are they...
A study from Google found that nearly 40% of gen-z use TikTok as their primary search engine... How worried should we be that gen-z is using TikTok to search for facts?
9 min
364
There Are Too Many "Annoying Liberals" Onscreen
Why are liberal film and TV characters always so annoying? Here’s our take on why movies and TV try to present themselves as being in the reasonable middle—by punching at anyone trying to make a change.
15 min
365
Why The Crown Season 5 REALLY has the Royals so...
The Crown season 5 is dredging up one of the darkest times for the royals’ reputation, the 1990s. So what exactly are the royals worried about? We're breaking down the controversy surrounding the show.
8 min
366
The “Wife Guy” Downfall - He Was Too Good to Be...
Culture is coming for the “wife guy” – because can anyone who’s that performative about simply having a wife really be trusted?
14 min
367
Daddy Issues Onscreen - Why Our Culture Mocks A...
Why are daddy issues mocked or fetishized, when they’re a byword for absent, neglectful, or dysfunctional parenting?
13 min
368
Female Body Horror - Today's Terror of Not Owni...
It can sometimes be hard to put words to the fear of losing the right to control your own body – but horror movies have been putting those fears on screen for decades. The female body horror genre is all about the terrifying idea that a woman’s body does not belong to her.
16 min
369
Rings of Power, Ending Explained - The Deeper M...
The Rings of Power Finale had some big reveals, which all underlined the biggest takeaway of the story: that it can be difficult to tell the light from the dark. So how did all this come together and where did the first season leave us?
15 min
370
The Vamp Trope - Everything a Woman "Shouldn't" Be
Gorgeous, heartless, and almost supernatural - the Vamp is as evil as she is beautiful and one of culture’s most alluring villains. The Vamp embodies exaggerated versions of all the things women are told they can’t be, and eventually, she’s punished for it.
13 min
371
How Wednesday Addams Became a Modern Weird Icon
Wednesday Addams, the sick, subversive, unfailingly cool and composed daughter of Gomez and Morticia is a powerful and extremely important character for us to look to right now.
10 min
372
Why Passing The Bechdel Test Isn't Enough
Is female representation in film and TV actually getting any better? Did the Me-Too era resurgence of interest and attention around the Bechdel Test and female representation make a difference in what we’ve seen since?
16 min
373
How House of the Dragon “Fixed” Game of Thrones
It’s time to ask: how does House of the Dragon stack up against the original Game of Thrones?
15 min
374
Euphoria's Maddy - A New Kind of "Mean Girl"
Maddy Perez is the Queen Bee of Euphoria High, but unlike the other on screen mean girls we’re used to, she has something special: a heart.
12 min
375
Bridget Jones's Insecurity - Why Women Hate The...
Bridget Jones is smart, successful, and... deeply insecure. *Why* does Bridget have such low self-esteem?
15 min