Fleetwood Mac from left: John McVie, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie and Lindsey BuckinghamCredit: GettyFleetwood Mac’s album RumoursCredit: Alamy
But I’ve been told that there are serious discussions behind the scenes about a series of projects involving all of the remaining members to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their album Rumours, which is among the best-selling and most critically acclaimed records of all time.
At the centre of the plans is said to be Mick Fleetwood, who is leading peace talks between former couple Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, as well as John McVie.
A one-off show, a TV special and a documentary about the making of Rumours are among options being discussed for the 2027 milestone.
And Warner Records is also preparing a special re-release of the album featuring unheard material from the original studio sessions.
A source close to Mick in the US said: “Fleetwood Mac are discussing new projects and how to mark Rumours’ big 5-0. For certain there is a special edition version of the album coming, which the band and label have been secretly looking at.
“But also there is a significant hope that it is time for the definitive documentary on all the chaos in the studio that created the magic on record.
“John and Christine were divorcing and she was dating their lighting guy. Stevie and Lindsey were over just before she and Mick enjoyed a brief fling. And drugs and booze were everywhere.
“The desire is for everyone to sit down and present their side of events on screen.
“And then of course comes the potential for a stage reunion and concert. That is the goal from Mick.
“Stevie has said it would not feel right being on stage without Christine, but also she and Lindsey are on a healing journey right now, which could be the path to a new show.
“However there is a desire to pay tribute to Christine in some way and a live show around Rumours seems a very fitting way.
“The gig would fill a stadium dozens of times because of the love they command.
“But unless some major shift happens, a tour is unlikely at this stage.”
Aaron Bay-Schuck, co-chairman and CEO of Warner Records confirmed at LA’s City of Hope gala that “some very special” music leftover from the making of Rumours had been found.
He said: “We will do everything in our power to respect that anniversary as long as they’ll let us.”
Last month, Stevie and Lindsey suggested relations had thawed when they reissued their 1973 Buckingham Nicks album.
And in March, Mick admitted: “I always have a fantasy that [Stevie] and Lindsey would pal up a bit more and just say everything’s OK for them both.”
They are beloved by an entirely new generation now thanks to social media, so there will be millions around the globe hoping they can patch things up for one last hurrah.
Aaron Bay-Schuck was at City of Hope’s Spirit of Life gala to celebrate co-chairman and Warner Records COO Tom Corson, who was honoured at the event.
It is the centrepiece of the music, film and entertainment industry’s annual philanthropic campaign and raised nearly $6million.
When it was first published in 1975, “Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music” was immediately recognized as something new. In six taut, probing, far-ranging essays about certain popular or otherwise forgotten musicians, author Greil Marcus cracked open a world of sojourners, tricksters, killers and confidence men — the lost subterranean underlife of America as inflected in the music itself.
“Mystery Train” was a landmark in cultural criticism that took on Rock ‘n’ Roll as a subject of intellectual inquiry. In 2011, Time magazine named “Mystery Train” one of the 100 greatest nonfiction books of all time. For the book’s 50th anniversary, a new edition has been published, with a wealth of new writing from Marcus that brings his book up to date.
On a recent Zoom call, I chatted with him on the 50th anniversary of his book about its lasting impact, the anxiety of influence and the staying power of criticism.
You’re reading Book Club
An exclusive look at what we’re reading, book club events and our latest author interviews.
(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)
✍️ Author Chat
Book jacket of “Mystery Train” by Greil Marcus.
(Penguin Random House)
Congrats on 50 years of “Mystery Train.” Could you have possibly imagined that it would still have a life in 2025 when you wrote it in 1975?
For this book to have this kind of a life, you can’t predict it. I had a miserable time writing it. I’d never written a book before. I rented a room at a house near our little apartment, and just stayed there all day, trying to write or not trying to write, as the case may be. I didn’t have any hopes or ambitions for it. I just wanted it to look good.
This is the thickest edition of “Mystery Train” yet. Your “Notes and Discographies” section, where you update the reader on new books and recordings about the artists, among other things, is longer than the original text of the book.
That’s what’s kept the book alive. I mean, I still think the original chapters read well. I’m glad they came out the way they did, but for me, they opened up a continuing story, and that has sort of kept me on the beat so that I obsessively would follow every permutation that I could and write them in the notes section.
“Mystery Train” changed the way popular music was written about. Who were your literary antecedents?
Edmund Wilson, Pauline Kael, D.H. Lawrence’s critical studies. Hemingway’s short stories, just as a way to learn how to try to write. There was another book that was important to me, Michael Gray’s “Song and Dance Man,” which was a rigorous examination of Bob Dylan’s music. It was totally intimidating. His knowledge of blues, novels, poetry — I thought there’s no way I can write something as good as this. So I started doing a lot more reading, and listening more widely.
For many readers of the book, it was the first time they came across artists like Robert Johnson or Harmonica Frank. How did you discover these artists?
I was an editor at Rolling Stone magazine in 1969 when the Altamont disaster happened, when people were killed at a free Rolling Stones concert. It was an evil, awful day. I was drained and disgusted with what rock ‘n’ roll had become, and I didn’t want to listen to that music anymore. I found myself in this little record store in Berkeley, and I saw an album by Robert Johnson that had a song called “Four Until Late” that Eric Clapton’s band Cream had covered, so I took it home and played it, and that was just a revelation to me. It led me into another world. It became the bedrock of “Mystery Train.”
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger signs autographs at Altamont Speedway. Later, on Dec. 6, the Stones gave a concert where one fan was stabbed to death by a Hell’s Angel.
(Associated Press)
Your book explores how certain myths transfer across vastly disparate cultures. Had you read the great mythologist Joseph Campbell prior to writing the book?
I read a lot of Joseph Campbell in graduate school. Probably a half-dozen of his books. In some ways they cover the same territory as “Mystery Train.” Campbell makes the argument that myths persist, they don’t even need to be cultivated. They cultivate us, and they are passed on in almost invisible ways. That really struck a chord with me when reading Campbell’s work.
You’re very good at explaining what music sounds like. Are you influenced by fiction at all?
I’d say fiction is part of my work. One of the books that hovered over me when I was writing “Mystery Train” was “The Great Gatsby.” Certain lines, they sang out.
What is the purpose of criticism?
My next book is about Bryan Ferry, the leader of the band Roxy Music. Now, you listen to a song like Roxy Music’s “More Than This” and you say, what makes this so great? How did that happen? What is going on here? That’s what criticism is, just wrestling with your response to something. That thing where someone has captured a moment so completely that you sort of fall back in awe. That’s what I’ve been doing my whole life as a writer. There is this urge to, not exactly take possession of something, but to become a part of it to some small degree.
Your book plumbs the murky depths, exploring the mysterious dream life of America as transmuted through certain music. Are there any mysteries left for you?
Oh, yes, absolutely. I remember when I met Bob Dylan in 1997. He was getting an award, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, and I was to give a talk. We met and he asked what I was working on. I had just published a book called “Invisible Republic,” about his “Basement Tapes.” He said, “You should write a sequel to that. You only just scratched the surface.” Now, I’m not saying I did a bad job. He said that to me because certain music has infinite depth. So, yes, there are certainly more mysteries to think about.
📰 The Week(s) in Books
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Valerie Castallanos Clark loves Jade Chang’s new novel, “What a Time to Be Alive,” calling it “equal parts love letter to Los Angeles, narrative about being a first-generation Asian American, exploration of grief and love and a found-family novel featuring an adoptee that doesn’t put reunion as the emotional climax.”
With “Shadow Ticket,” Thomas Pynchon has delivered a late-career gem, according to David Kipen: “Dark as a vampire’s pocket, light-fingered as a jewel thief, ‘Shadow Ticket’ capers across the page with breezy, baggy-pants assurance — and then pauses on its way down the fire escape just long enough to crack your heart open.”
Stories Books & Cafe is on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park.
(Claudia Colodro)
Ever since it opened its doors in 2008, Stories Books & Cafe has been a community cornerstone. A snug yet carefully curated store, with loads of obscurantist art books and choice indie press titles, Stories also has a cafe tucked in the back that is always bustling. Owner Claudia Colodro runs the store as a creative cooperative with her five co-workers. I talked to the team about the shop on Sunset.
Stories is small, yet I always see titles in there I don’t see anywhere else.
Stories prides itself on its painstaking curation, influenced by every employee’s area of expertise. Much like the community we have garnered, Stories leans toward the eclectic, esoteric and even fringe. Over our 17 years in existence, Stories has been a bookstore that loves our local authors and independent publishers, and encourages readers to come in with an open mind more than a predetermined list.
Remarkably, you have endured in a neighborhood that has seen a lot of store closures, post-COVID.
In a world predominantly automatized and authoritative, we like our people and books to be a countermeasure to the mainstream creature comforts — in hopes to push people out of the path of least resistance and into the unseen abundance.
The surviving members of progressive rock titans Rush will reunite for a 50th anniversary tour in 2026.
Rush co-founders Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson will play 12 dates in honor of the band’s late drummer Neil Peart, whose monumental percussion talents made Rush a defining act in prog rock. The tour will begin June 7 at the Kia Forum — the site of the band’s last show with Peart in 2015.
“After all that has gone down since that last show, Alex and I have done some serious soul searching and come to the decision that we f— miss it,” Lee said in a statement announcing the tour. “And that it’s time for a celebration of 50-something years of Rush music.”
The question of a Rush reunion without Peart, who died of brain cancer in 2020, was a fraught one. Even up to last year, Lifeson had told Rolling Stone that “there’s no chance that we’re going to get a drummer and go back on the road as the rebirth of Rush or something like that.”
For this tour, the band will be joined by Anika Nilles, a German drummer acclaimed for her work with Jeff Beck.
“As we all know, Neil was irreplaceable,” Lee said in the band’s statement. “Yet life is full of surprises, and we’ve been introduced to another remarkable person; an incredible drummer and musician who is adding another chapter to our story while continuing her own fascinating musical journey. Her name is Anika Nilles, and we could not be more excited to introduce her to our loyal and dedicated Rush fan base, whom, we know, will give her every chance to live up to that near-impossible role.”
In their own statement, Peart’s wife Carrie Nuttall-Peart and daughter Olivia gave their blessing for the tour: “We are thrilled to support the Fifty Something Tour, celebrating a band whose music has resonated and inspired fans for generations, and to honor Neil’s extraordinary legacy as both a drummer and lyricist.”
DESPITE years as one of the most famous party boys in London and New York, don’t expect to see Mark Ronson hitting it hard for his 50th.
The Uptown Funk hitmaker is celebrating the landmark birthday today but is opting for a low-key family occasion instead of a blow-out bash.
Mark, who is gearing up to release his book Night People on September 16, explained: “I feel like because my whole life has been a party, not necessarily a party for me, but DJing a party for others and being in the party and all that s***, I have no desire to.
“Everybody’s like, ‘You’ve gotta do something big!’
“And my 40th, I kind of went all out.
“I had this big party with 60 friends or maybe more in the countryside.
“We all got on a tour bus and I DJ’d at Festival No6 in Wales.
“And then it was just three days of partying.”
But things are different for Mark these days, after he settled down and became a dad to two daughters.
He added: “Now I have absolutely no desire to do that.
“I just want to be with my family.”
Mark Ronson reveals he identifies as sapiosexual – meaning he’s ‘attracted to intelligence’ not gender
5
Mark Ronson won’t be hitting it hard for his 50thCredit: Splash News
SHAKIRA’S MEX ON THE BEACH
5
Shakira poses on a beach to launch her new haircare brand IsimaCredit: shakira/Instagram
SHAKIRA shore looks good as she poses on a beach to launch her new haircare brand Isima.
She shared the bikini pic from Mexico, where she is on her mammoth Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran world tour.
Shakira will play out the remainder of her gigs in South America before finally finishing in Argentina on December 9.
HAILEY LEGS IT TO NEW YORK
5
Hailey Bieber wowed in mesh basketball shorts with heels and an oversized leather jacket in New YorkCredit: Getty
HAILEY BIEBER looked like she was fresh from shooting hoops as she headed out in New York.
The supermodel wore mesh basketball shorts with heels and an oversized leather jacket.
Hailey has just signed a fresh deal with fashion house DKNY to be the face of its new autumn campaign alongside Candice Swanepoel.
She said: “DKNY channels everything I love about New York: It’s energized, unique and full of inspiration.
“There is a balance of structure and ease that makes everything so wearable.
“I gravitate towards elevated classics that I can throw on but still feel intentional.”
I gravitate towards anything in the washing pile that looks clean and not too creased.
HEAD OUT ON TOUR
RADIOHEAD have announced a run of 20 huge shows across five cities in Europe.
The band’s only UK gigs will be at London’s O2 Arena on November 21, 22, 24 and 25.
Fans can register for tickets by heading to radiohead.com from tomorrow.
Ed Sheeran has also announced a string of intimate gigs across the UK.
For a chance to access pre-sale tickets, you need to order his new album, Play, on Amazon Music before 7pm on Sunday.
ILL CELINE SCRAPPED EURO GIG
5
Superstar Celine Dion had to cancel her Eurovision final appearanceCredit: Getty
CELINE DION was forced to cancel her appearance during the final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Switzerland after struggling with her health.
The My Heart Will Go On singer had kept the surprise appearance under wraps.
But it ended up being one of music’s worst-kept secrets, with Eurovision presenter Graham Norton referencing a possible appearance live on air.
Celine, who has stiff person syndrome, had been due to perform Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi, the song she won the competition with for Switzerland in 1988.
French newspaper Le Parisien has now claimed Celine was in Basel for the event but suffered a medical episode and was forced to cancel her performance.
The revelation comes after her Prime Video documentary last year, in which she talked about living with stiff person syndrome, which is a neurological disorder that causes muscle stiffness and cramps.
She was diagnosed with the rare disease in 2022 and has shared her experience to raise awareness.
Celine said: “I barely could walk at one point and I was missing very much living.
“My kids started to notice.
“I was like, ‘OK, they already lost a parent. I don’t want them to be scared’.
“I let them know, ‘You lost your dad, but Mum has a condition and it’s different. I’m not going to die. It’s something that I’m going to learn to live with.’”
Celine, you are a warrior.
GAGA’S ALL DOLLED UP IN VID
5
Singer Lady Gaga becomes a broken doll for her latest videoCredit: YouTube
LADY GAGA transforms into a broken doll for her new video The Dead Dance.
She wears a tattered dress while strutting through a rain forest littered with creepy broken dolls.
Gaga debuted the video last night, with more than 74,000 fans tuning into the YouTube reveal.
The song is in the new series of Netflix’s Addams Family spin-off, Wednesday.
She also updated streaming platforms last night to add two tracks to her album Mayhem – Kill For Love and Can’t Stop The High.
Carlos Alcaraz says for half the matches of the tennis season, players “don’t feel that good” as the Spaniard secured a tour-leading 50th victory of 2025 at the Cincinnati Open.
The 22-year-old cruised past Serbian Hamad Medjedovic in straight sets 6-4 6-4 in the third round to also claim his 13th consecutive Masters 1000 win.
Alcaraz is the first player since 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic, from 2013 to 2016, to reach 50 wins in four consecutive seasons.
The world number two will face Italian Luca Nardi in the fourth round on Wednesday.
“You have to think positive and just play your best tennis possible that day,” said the five-time Grand Slam winner.
“I’m really happy that in really difficult matches I’m able to play my best tennis even though I’m not feeling the right way.
“I’m just happy and proud about it because it’s something I’m working on.”
Lucky loser Nardi, 22, led 16th seed Jakub Mensik 6-2 2-1 when the Czech retired from their third-round match.
June 7 (UPI) — Thousands converged to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Capital Pride Parade Saturday in Washington, D.C., amid an extended WorldPride LGBTQ+ celebration.
The two-day WorldPride Music Fest and parade marked Saturday’s portion of a three-day celebration of Capital Pride that concludes on Sunday.
The event is billed as the “world’s largest LGBTQ+” celebration and includes a music festival that is being held on three stages and features performers like Jennifer Lopez.
“Over the years, your love and your support have been a source of strength for me, and today I am here to celebrate with you,” Lopez said during her performance Friday night at the event’s RFK Campus Festival Grounds.
“I’m so happy to be able to be here to celebrate community, diversity, love and freedom,” Lopez told her audience.
Musical acts scheduled to perform on Saturday include RuPaul, Troye Sivan and Rene Rapp, Sofi Tukker, Purple Disco Machineand others.
Saturday’s Capital Pride Parade began at 2 p.m. EDT and lasted for six hours as it proceeded from the intersection of 14th and T Street N.W. and through Thomas Circle before turning onto Pennsylvania Avenue and concluding near the Navy Memorial.
Spectators and visitors filled restaurants and drinking establishments along the parade route.
Parade participants included cheerleaders, a 300-member choir and volunteers holding a 1,000-foot rainbow flag.
Deacon Maccubbin, who organized the first Capital Pride Parade in 1975, served as the parade’s grand marshal. So did actresses ReneeRapp and Laverne Cox.
Singer and actress Cynthia Erivo was scheduled to headline a parade-ending concert at 3rd Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
The extended WorldPride event annually rotates among leading world cities and got underway on May 17 in Washington, D.C.
The event concludes on Sunday with a rally and march that begins at the Lincoln Memorial and ends at the U.S. Capitol.
Insiders said Posh was away for work and Geri declined the invitation to the event.
We told last week how the Girls’ ex-manager is in talks for them to reunite as avatars, following in the steps of Abba.
An insider spilled: “Mel’s throwing a huge party in Leeds for her 50th. It’s also her fiance’s birthday today so it’s a joint celebration and will be a real family affair.
“But Geri and Posh can’t make it. Posh had a work commitment she couldn’t get out of.
“It’s a bit awkward given the reunion excitement.”
The Sun has contacted their reps for comment.
The snub comes just days after we revealed plans for the group to reunite as Avatars, following in the footsteps of pop legends Abba.
Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who is feeling better about their perpetual identity crisis after watching streamer Max flip-flop its name back to HBO Max.
This week delivered some fun roasting after Warner Bros. Discovery announced the company’s streaming platform Max was undergoing yet another rebranding and reverting to one of its previous names to restore the HBO television branding to its name. The internet — including the company itself — quickly mocked the backpedaling with memes expressing relief of order being restored. What’s old is new again, right? There’s another classic media entity making headlines this week: “Saturday Night Live” will close out its 50th season. TV editor Maira Garcia reflects on the milestone season of the iconic sketch comedy show in this week’s Break Down.
Also in Screen Gab No. 181, our experts recommend a celebrity podcast worth watching on YouTube — hold the eye-roll, this one will make you feel like your hanging with friends — and a documentary that looks back on the campaign to appoint the first deaf president at Gallaudet University, which is specifically geared to deaf and hard-of-hearing students. And for viewers who like to plan ahead, our guides on the 15 TV shows and 18 films to watch this summer are linked and ready to be added to your bookmarks. Plus, Melissa Fumero stops by Guest Spot to discuss the Season 1 finale of “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” and her hopes for a second season.
Newsletter
You are reading Screen Gab newsletter
Sign up to get recommendations for the TV shows and streaming movies you can’t miss, plus exclusive interviews with the talent behind your favorite titles, in your inbox every Friday
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
ICYMI
Must-read stories you might have missed
Jenna Ortega in “Wednesday” Season 2; Dominique Thorne in “Ironheart”; Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman; Michael C. Hall in “Dexter: Resurrection”; Jason Momoa in “Chief of War.”
(Illustration by Stephanie Jones / Los Angeles Times; photos Netflix; Marvel; Getty Images; Showtime; Apple TV+)
15 TV shows we’re looking forward to watching this summer: There’s a lot of great television coming this summer, including the return of favorites like “The Bear” and “Wednesday,” and new series like “Ironheart,” “Too Much” and “Alien: Earth.”
The 18 summer movies we’re most excited about: The season looks strong, loaded with the kind of big Hollywood swings, smart indie alternatives and a fair amount of delicious-looking dumb, necessary in every summer diet.
Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times
Jerry Covell in AppleTV+’s “Deaf President Now!”
(Apple TV+)
“Deaf President Now!” (Apple TV+)
This newly released documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year follows a history-making protest led by students at Gallaudet University in 1988, when the school’s board of trustees voted to install a hearing president over two deaf candidates. The university, located in the nation’s capital, has the distinction of being the first school of higher learning designed for deaf students. And after decades of hearing leadership, the students had had enough. The documentary features footage of the protests and interviews with the student leaders, who passionately explain why it was important to have a president that understood what it was like to exist in a world that regularly discriminated against them. Their protest would go on to help pave the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act, a pivotal civil rights law. — Maira Garcia
Amy Poehler’s weekly video podcast series, “Good Hang With Amy Poehler,” features conversations with celebrity guests.
(Spotify)
“Good Hang With Amy Poehler” (YouTube and various audio platforms)
In this land of a thousand podcasts, where every other celebrity is a host, you choose your shows like you choose your friends. The wonderful Amy Poehler debuted hers this March (“I like to be five or six years late to any trend,” as she puts it). And its title, “Good Hang With Amy Poehler,” is nothing but accurate; it has the air not of an interview show but of a conversation between pals you’ve been privileged to join — silently, of course, because what could you add to Poehler’s talks with Paul Rudd, Martin Short, Jack Black, Kathryn Hahn, Michelle Obama, Ike Barinholtz or Rashida Jones? At the beginning of each episode, the host quizzes the guest’s friends on what questions she should ask, so, if you tune into her episode with Tina Fey — unmissable, obviously — you get a bonus of Seth Meyers, Zarna Garg, Rachel Dratch and Fred Armisen making each other laugh. “I’m not here to change your life,” said Poehler, kicking off her series. “I don’t care if you get any better. I don’t have any advice for you. I just want us to have fun.” Includes many ’90s cultural references. Watch the video version of the podcast for the visual sunshine, but it’s great either way. — Robert Lloyd
Guest spot
A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching
Melissa Fumero as Birdie in NBC’s “Grosse Point Garden Society.”
( Matt Miller / NBC)
In “Grosse Pointe Garden Society,” the soapy drama that follows four members of a gardening club in a wealthy Detroit suburb who are scrambling to cover up a shocking murder, Melissa Fumero is able to mine humor in the dark corners of the stressful situation her character is navigating. The “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” alum plays Birdie, a loud and brash socialite and romance novelist who is carrying her own secrets in the middle of this murder mystery. The dark comedy reaches its Season 1 conclusion Friday on NBC and it’s poised to bring a new set of twists and cliffhangers as the group tries to evade law enforcement and a private eye plotting blackmail. But the series faces its own uncertain future. It’s the last of NBC’s scripted programs without a renewal or cancellation; there are reports that a potential second season could land on Peacock. Fumero stopped by Guest Spot to discuss her hopes for a second season and the classic rom-com she hopes never gets Hollywood remake treatment. — Yvonne Villarreal
Ahead of the Season 1 finale, what can you tease about where things end with Birdie that makes you eager to continue her story?
The stakes are really high for Birdie when Season 1 ends. She has everything she’s ever wanted, but the really dark cloud of her choices and circumstances hangs over her. I think she’s probably terrified of losing it all, which maybe makes her make more bad choices? I hope we get renewed because I really want to know what happens next!
What have you found intriguing about exploring a character like Birdie, who has such a layered backstory, against the backdrop of friends unexpectedly committing a crime?
What intrigued me the most about Birdie was definitely the “what you see is not what you get” aspect of her character. On the surface, she’s powerful, self-assured, glamorous, wild and free-spirited; and while most of that is true, she is also really lost, vulnerable, and maybe having a bit of an identity crisis. Then she’s plopped into this garden club with three people who become friends — maybe the first real friends she’s ever had — and they all get roped into this crazy, mostly accidental murder. That’s A LOT of fun stuff to explore and play, and a dream for any actor, honestly.
What have you watched recently that you’re recommending to everyone you know?
I am VERY into “The Last of Us” [HBO Max] right now. This season is insane, and I look forward to it every week. It’s such an exciting and heart-wrenching show. Isabela Merced (who I am a fan of and love seeing a Latina play a leading role on such an epic show) and Bella Ramsey are doing such extraordinary work. It’s also very dark, but I find myself drawn to darker things these days — there’s something cathartic about it.
I think that’s why even “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” is such a fun watch.We don’t go too dark. But there are days where the world really feels like it’s on fire and I find myself wanting to watch people survive things, big or small. It’s weirdly comforting.
What’s your go-to comfort watch, the film or TV show you return to again and again?
“When Harry Met Sally” [VOD]. It’s a perfect movie. A perfect rom-com. If it’s on a streamer or playing live, I will watch. It’s on a lot of airlines, and I’d say my last five viewings were on flights. I should just buy it, but I’m afraid I’ll put it on every night and never watch anything else ever again. It’s so good. I hope they never, ever try to remake it. Don’t touch it. It’s too perfect.
Break down
Times staffers chew on the pop culture of the moment — love it, hate it or somewhere in between
Musical guest Bad Bunny, host Scarlett Johansson and Kenan Thompson during promos for “Saturday Night Live’s” season finale.
(Rosalind O’Connor / NBC)
“Saturday Night Live’s” historic Season 50 is coming to a close this weekend, with Scarlett Johansson as host, and it’s been nothing short of memorable. There were many cameos, whether political figures (Kamala Harris, Tim Kaine) or celebrities in the zeitgeist (Julia Fox, Sam Rockwell), multihyphenate hosts (Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande) and regular appearances from former cast members, including Maya Rudolph, Mike Myers, Andy Samberg and Dana Carvey. But what also made this season special was the programming that happened outside of it: “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert,” which featured a phenomenal lineup of musicians and comedy skits; a live prime-time special; and a pair of docuseries that shed light on the show’s history, “Beyond Saturday Night” and “Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music.”
The series’ effect on television and comedy over the decades cannot be overstated, having churned out dozens of film and TV stars, now mainstays and creators in their own right (Tina Fey, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy, to name a few); memorable sketches that have become a part of pop culture lingo and a visual language through costumes that have elevated jokes into comedic art. As television critic Robert Lloyd wrote in an essay reflecting on the show’s 50th, the show survives through constant churn, whether through hosts, cast members or the comedy it produces. And even as culture and technology evolves, it remains a stalwart of television: “Counted out more than once, it has risen from the mat to fight again, new wins erasing old losses — a once and future champ.” — Maira Garcia
