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.
376
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
377
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
378
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
379
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
380
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
381
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
382
Cassie’s Euphoria Season 2 looks and their hidd...
In season 2 of Euphoria, Cassie goes through some major changes, and so does her style. So what’s the secret emotional meaning underneath each of Cassie’s looks?
9 min
383
Why Gen Z is already burning out (and how to cope)
Gen Z is just getting started with adult life. So what does it say if the youngest adults are feeling burnt out already – and will the kids be alright?
12 min
384
Stars' Second Chapters - Why They Give Us Hope
So often we’re led to believe that, after a certain age, people are just stuck with their lot in life, however bad the job or relationship is. But the celebrity-starting-over trend is here to give us hope!
11 min
385
How Fight Club Predicted Today
Fight Club has long been a cult classic, and today Tyler’s complaints about the spiritual costs of turning ourselves into consumers instead of people feel more prophetic than ever – so do any of his solutions make any sense, too?
13 min
386
How the Manipulative Victim Trope Shaped the De...
Stories about women being deceptive or manipulative have been embedded in our culture for millennia, dating all the way back to Adam and Eve. Here’s our take on how narratives around the Depp-Heard trial draw on the tropes of the perfect victim and the devious manipulative woman, and how both of these fictional ideas fuel dangerous societal misogyny.
12 min
387
The It Girl - What Makes Her "It" In Every Era
The “It” girl represents something indefinable — a quality, charisma, or spark that makes her stand out and captures something of her time. So what truly makes a generation’s It Girl?
11 min
388
House of The Dragon - A Targaryen Deep Dive and...
Three years after the end of Game of Thrones, we’re heading back to Westeros. But what can we expect from HBO’s upcoming House of the Dragon?
12 min
389
The Cougar Trope - Why this joke is outdated
The Cougar used to be a punchline, but has the joke of an older woman preying on younger men stopped being funny? And was it ever?
16 min
390
Donnie Darko - What's the Meaning of Life?
For all its confusion and ambiguity and humanoid rabbits, what major takeaways did Donnie Darko leave us with?
16 min
391
The Handmaid's Tale - What's Come True and What...
Is America truly becoming Gilead? How much of The Handmaid’s Tale’s terrifying fiction has already come to pass? Maybe more than you’d think.
13 min
392
Euphoria Rue - A modern portrait of the addict
What is it about Euphoria’s portrait of Rue and her addiction that feels so honest?
16 min
393
The Elder Millennial - A generation lost in time
As quickly as they arrived, it seems like millennials might be over. So where is the Elder Millennial today – and will they be okay?
14 min
394
Stranger Things Season 4’s deeper meaning, expl...
Stranger Things’ epic fourth season hits close to home: unlike in the previous two seasons, the threat feels personal. So what did season 4 really mean?
12 min
395
Celebs don't age anymore. Is that bad for the r...
Aging is an unavoidable part of life - or at least it used to be. But this doesn’t seem to be true for today’s celebrities. Here's our take on the mixed messages that today’s never-aging celebrities send us about how (and whether) it's okay to get older.
15 min
396
Teen stories onscreen are all so risqué. How tr...
Teens on screens big and small are having some wild times. But is the risque teen trope an accurate depiction of what teenage life is like (now or ever)? Or is it an adult’s imagination of what kids today are up to?
13 min
397
The Single Lady - Why single life is in fashion
Are we finally moving into a new age where the single lady is aspirational? While she may still have her challenges, the single lady has come a long way from being shunned, to being celebrated.
13 min
398
How Millie Bobby Brown overcame the child star ...
Millie Bobby Brown is breaking free of the child star curse with poise and confidence – and exposing a lot of what’s pretty shocking in today’s culture along the way.
8 min
399
Fifty Shades’ Toxic Takeaways - What’s Not Hot ...
What are the messages the Fifty Shades trilogy leaves us with – and are any of them actually useful in real romances, or should we pretty much view this story as a cautionary tale?
19 min
400
How Workplace Dystopias Represent Our Toxic Job...
The workplace sitcom has given way to widespread workplace dystopia and how it reflects our angst that the nature of work today is not just soul-crushingly meaningless but actively wrong.
14 min