Cruel Summer
SimilarBaywatch Nights,
HIStory Nine: Nine Time Travels, The Twilight Zone, Twin Peaks,
In its first season, Cruel Summer was a roller coaster of a television show. It offered a new twist, loop, or drop around every corner. Cruel Summer Season 2, by contrast, feels more like the Slingshot. For one, the journey is much easier to understand and anticipate. Of course, there are still thrills to be hand. Still, it lacks a certain gonzo quality. As a result, this season is better and more logically plotted, but also significantly less likely to leave a viewer’s head spinning. Continue Reading →
Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields
The acclaimed documentarian joins The Spool to discuss Brooke Shields, her work, her life, and her relationship to "Brooke Shields" the image.
In 1981, Roger Ebert wrote a profile on Brooke Shields in which he—quoting a press agent—said, “She will be with us for the rest of our lives.” That turned out to be remarkably prescient, but neither the agent nor Ebert could have anticipated the myriad number of ways Shields has been with us in that time. Yes, she is extraordinarily beautiful. But many equally attractive people have come and gone, while Shields remains a consistent part of pop culture’s firmament. From her early appearances in films like Pretty Baby (1978), The Blue Lagoon (1980), and Endless Love (1981) and her controversial TV ads for Calvin Klein jeans, all of which focused on her sexuality while she was literally a child, to her shift in the later Eighties to become America’s Virgin to her reinvention as a comedic actress in the Nineties to becoming an advocate for those suffering from postpartum depression (and suffering the slings and arrows of Tom Cruise in full asshole mode as a result), Shields has been a persistently relevant figure in the American popular consciousness.
While Shields has lived much of her life in the public eye, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, a fascinating two-part documentary from Lana Wilson now streaming on Hulu, proves that she still has a great deal to say. Given access to nearly a half-century’s worth of archival material, which she presents alongside contemporary interviews with Shields, Wilson paints a fascinating, eye-opening portrait that demands a new consideration of Shields and her career. Much of her story is harrowing, be it specific to her life—her wrenching descriptions of sexual assault and her tumultuous relationship with her mother—or experiences too many young women in the spotlight share. (If you think having someone inquire about the state of your virginity sounds awful, imagine having talk show hosts do so on live television.) And yet, not only has Shields survived, she is thriving. She has found peace with herself and is able to look back on her life with a sense of control over it. Continue Reading →
Halo
Halo is a big deal. It's the game series that made the Xbox, the game series that drew the blueprint and set the standard for first-person shooters in the 21st century. Its most recent installment, Halo Infinite, drew rave reviews and was a major financial hit. In addition to the stories told in the games themselves, Halo also boasts an extensive transmedia presence—novels, audio dramas, and animated anthologies, amongst other mediums—that's beloved by the lore-digging side of fandom. That passion, and the infamously spotty history of video-game-to-other-medium adaptations, means that Paramount Plus' Halo: The Series faces an uphill battle. Continue Reading →
Selena + Chef
Season one of Selena + Chef found Selena Gomez picking up the basic skills of cooking during quarantine. Season two followed Gomez as she looked to advance her skills. Season three of Selena + Chef shows us a confident Gomez in the kitchen, exclaiming in episode one “We’re not playing on season three - we’re doing it!” Continue Reading →