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.
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The Devil Wears Prada: Miranda Priestly - A Def...
Is Miranda Priestly actually "the devil" in The Devil Wears Prada? Her pursuit of excellence actually makes her a role model for working women, and we can all use a touch of Miranda in our professional lives -- that is, of course, if you’re willing to pay the price of perfectionism.
22 min
502
Clickbait’s Crazy Ending, Explained - The Click...
Netflix's Clickbait uses the same kinds of techniques as internet clickbait to keep us pressing “next episode”: focusing on sensational, violent spectacle; raising tantalizing questions that it delays answering, and ending episodes with cliffhangers that tease a big reveal, only to send us down a lot of false paths.
21 min
503
The Antihero’s Wife - Home Is Where The Crime Is
The anti hero’s wife enables him to self-identify as a ‘family man,’ but they also serve to highlight that -- however much these men claim that their wrongdoing is separate from their pure family home -- it’s impossible to cleanly close the door on dirty business and retreat into the realm of pure domesticity.
19 min
504
The Office: Why Michael Scott is Actually the W...
The mug speaks the truth: The Office’s Michael Scott (Steve Carell) IS the world’s best boss.
17 min
505
The "Quirky Black Character" - How Black Creato...
More than ever today, the Quirky Black Character is becoming a well-rounded protagonist in a Black-created story -- expressed not just as a personality, but through an individual or downright weird worldview that shapes the whole texture of the narrative.
19 min
506
Mean Girls: Regina George, The Psychology of a ...
Did you know Regina George (Rachel McAdams) actually tells us a lot about how dictatorships work? Listen to our take and find out more about this iconic character and her North Shore High “regime.”
19 min
507
Ted Lasso on Today's Toxic Positivity - Season ...
Ted Lasso’s relentless optimism won us all over in season one. But by season two, Ted’s refusal to look anywhere but on the sunny side of things is looking less and less healthy. So what really went wrong with Nate, and how can you achieve a “Light Side” that’s based on a genuine, rock-solid foundation?
21 min
508
The Cool Girl Trope, Explained
She’s not like other girls. She’s a COOL girl. But does this fun, junk food-loving hottie actually exist? And what’s behind this myth? In this episode, we take on how the Cool Girl has evolved onscreen and what she represents in our culture.
19 min