The Show That Makes Being Awkward Feel Good
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Welcome back to The Daily's Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what's keeping them entertained. Today's special guest is Serena Dai, a senior editor who has written about the easiest way to keep your friends, the art of the restaurateur, and the endless hunt to make meaning of marriage.
Serena was surprised by how much she enjoyed The Rehearsal, the comedian Nathan Fielder's latest pseudo-reality series. She's also an avid romance-novel reader, a newly minted Jonas Brothers fan, and a longtime admirer of Kathryn Hahn's work.
The Culture Survey: Serena Dai
The television show I'm most enjoying right now: I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I could not bear to watch Nathan for You, a beloved show where the comedian Nathan Fielder suggests outlandish plans to help small businesses. Every person I trusted assured me that Fielder was a genius, and I got the sense that I must lack some sort of sophistication for not enjoying it. The entrepreneurs he was trying to 'help' with suggestions such as poop-flavored frozen yogurt were real people; I felt too badly for them to find the show entertaining. So I was surprised to discover that I loved his new series, The Rehearsal —and now, a few episodes into the second season, I finally understand the 'genius' moniker that my buddies have bequeathed him.
Similar to Nathan for You, the show pairs Fielder's monotonous tone with outrageous conceits, but this time, the premise is staging 'rehearsals' to help people prepare for difficult moments. Though he's still cringey (and still allegedly misleading real people), he also poses questions about how comedy can effect real-life change, and reveals some insights about his own role in the entertainment industry's worst impulses. His critiques feel organic instead of forced, something that is not easy. By the second episode of the new season, I found myself not only in awe of the lengths he would go for a bit but also laughing out loud at the results. [ Related: Nathan Fielder is his own worst enemy. ]
The upcoming entertainment event I'm most looking forward to: The return of Lena Dunham's work to our TV screens, with her upcoming Netflix show, Too Much. I recently rewatched the first season of Girls, and seeing it in my 30s (long after the heated discourse about Millennials and nepo babies that surrounded the show's debut), I had a deeper appreciation for Dunham's talent for writing sharply drawn characters—ones who, even when they're infuriating, you can't help but love. When she hits, she hits! The new show, which debuts on July 10, stars one of my favorite internet personalities, the comedian Megan Stalter. She has an intensity in her facial expressions that makes me laugh before she even says a word, and I am eager to see how Dunham works with her talents. [ Related: Eight perfect episodes of TV ]
An actor I would watch in anything: Kathryn Hahn. She's funny and moving in so much that she does, but I really fell for her in I Love Dick, an adaptation of the Chris Kraus novel where she excels at playing a woman who wants and wants and wants.
My favorite way of wasting time on my phone: This year, I finally did something that I've been thinking about for years: I started pulling up the Kindle app to read a book when I had the instinct to refresh my Instagram feed. I read an essay a long time ago recommending it as a way both to read more books and to make phone time feel less terrible, but I hadn't done it. For years, I still felt that any extended time I spent on my phone meant something bad about me, and frankly, I was also just easily distracted. But I decided I didn't need to read Proust, only stay off social media; as a result, I have probably tripled my intake of romance novels, which are breezy yet still require an attention span longer than 30 seconds. I recently dipped my toe into historical romance and have been loving the Ravenels series, by Lisa Kleypas, which you may also enjoy if you're a fan of Bridgerton. I do still spend plenty of time on Instagram trying to remind myself to not pay too much attention to parenting or fitness influencers, but I promise it's less. Much, much less.
An author I will read anything by: Jasmine Guillory. I love romance, I love love, and I love her characters.
An online creator whom I'm a fan of: I've been finding small ways to incorporate more Mandarin into my life because I'm trying to speak it more to my toddler, and a friend recommended following her Chinese teacher, Neruda Ling, on Instagram. He blends internet humor with Mandarin lessons, which is exactly what I need after a lifetime of associating the language with textbooks and long Sunday mornings in suburban community-college classrooms. Crucially, he also explains curse words and gay slang, something my immigrant mother would never have done in depth.
To be honest, I'm not sure if I remember any of the phrases he's taught, and even if I did, I doubt that I would have the guts to deploy them in casual conversation. Mostly, these videos remind me that the language doesn't have to feel inherently stiff like it did when I was growing up, and that Mandarin can, in fact, be a source of joy.
A good recommendation I recently received: I can't believe I'm saying this, but have you heard the latest Jonas Brothers single? It's called ' Love Me to Heaven,' and my husband stopped everything in our apartment one busy Saturday to make me listen to it. If you, like me, had kind of written them off as Disney Channel heartthrobs or tabloid fodder or reality-show jokesters, you too might be delighted to hear this pop-rock bop. I want to drive a convertible to the beach with the roof down and blast this song the whole way there.
Here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic:
The Week Ahead
Karate Kid: Legends, an action movie starring Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio (in theaters Friday)
Season 3 of And Just Like That, a sequel to Sex and the City (premieres Thursday on Max)
Never Flinch, a crime novel by Stephen King about a killer and a dangerous stalker (out Tuesday)
Essay
The Pedestrians Who Abetted a Hawk's Deadly Attack
In November of 2021, Vladimir Dinets was driving his daughter to school when he first noticed a hawk using a pedestrian crosswalk.
The bird—a young Cooper's hawk, to be exact—wasn't using the crosswalk, in the sense of treading on the painted white stripes to reach the other side of the road in West Orange, New Jersey. But it was using the crosswalk—more specifically, the pedestrian-crossing signal that people activate to keep traffic out of said crosswalk—to ambush prey.
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