The fact that Lady Chatterley’s Lover has landed on Netflix—a mainline to pop culture—would have shocked the public as recently as 1960. English author D. H. Lawrence’s novel tells the story of a young married woman (Connie Chatterly), her husband’s gamekeeper (Oliver Mellors), and the forbidden love between them. The book was first published privately in 1928, but it wasn’t until 1959 that a ban on the book was lifted in the U.S., and 1960 that an uncensored version was published in the United Kingdom.

Lawrence’s novel was also banned for obscenity in Canada, Australia, India, and Japan. It soon became infamous for its explicit descriptions of sex, use of four-letter words, and depiction of a relationship between an upper-class woman and a working-class man. Perhaps most outrageous at the time, though, was the author’s portrayal of female sexual pleasure.
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“His statement is still so vivid. We are going through times today with Roe vs. Wade, the revolution in Iran, where the body of the woman is the subject of political tensions,” Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, the director of the new movie, told W Magazine. “That, for me, was what I really wanted to express with this version.”

Read more: Netflix’s Steamy Lady Chatterley’s Lover Breathes Fresh Life Into a Once-Forbidden Novel

Why Lady Chatterley’s Lover’s was censored

D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover was ostensibly censored for being indecent and immoral: In the U.S., it was banned under obscenity laws, and in England, it was blocked by the Obscene Publications Act.

The novel initially had two small private runs—one in Italy in 1928 and one in France a year later—as Lawrence couldn’t obtain commercial publication for the uncensored book in either England or the U.S. In 1932, however, two years after Lawrence’s death, heavily censored editions were published in both countries. Until 1959, strict obscenity laws in England barred any “purple passages” that could potentially corrupt unsullied minds.

Passed in 1959, the Obscene Publications Act was intended “to provide for the protection of literature and to strengthen the law concerning pornography.” Just one year later, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, finally published in full by Penguin Books, became a test case for the law.

In a piece for The Guardian in 2010, lawyer and academic Geoffrey Robertson explained that Penguin was selling the book at a price accessible to women and the working class—and that this was the key factor in the decision to prosecute. That was what “the upper-middle-class male lawyers and politicians of the time refused to tolerate,” he wrote.

In 1959, the publisher of Grove Press sued the U.S. Post Office for confiscating uncensored versions of the novel in the mail. Court of Appeals Judge Frederick van Pelt Bryan held that the novel had significant literary merit, ruling that to exclude Lady Chatterley’s Lover from being mailed on the grounds of obscenity would “fashion a rule which could be applied to a substantial portion of the classics of our literature” and that “such a rule would be inimical to a free society.”

PEN America, a nonprofit that aims to defend free expression, includes an op-ed about the work on its website. It was not just Connie’s adultery that was so scandalous at the time, it posits, but also her choice of a partner—and the author’s failure to condemn the relationship.

“And that this partnership—for that is what it is, unlike the vassal/lord relationship between her and her husband—is sustained, and triumphs in the end,” the op-ed continues, “is unbearable for those who like their marriages traditional, their women meek, and their ruling class upheld.”

What overturning censorship meant for the culture

The poet Philip Larkin wrote a tongue-in-cheek quip about Lady Chatterley’s Lover in his 1967 poem, “Annus Mirabilis.”

Sexual intercourse began

In nineteen sixty-three

(Which was rather late for me) –

Between the end of the Chatterley ban

And the Beatles’ first LP.

Some have argued that the sexual revolution of the 1960s was heralded by these two landmark events. And indeed, Lady Chatterley’s Lover was the first of three erotic novels to be un-banned in the U.S. between 1959 and 1966 (the others were Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and John Cleland’s Fanny Hill.)

“For many decades, the courts upheld racial segregation; then, suddenly, they didn’t,” Fred Kaplan wrote for the New York Times. “For many decades, the courts let the Post Office decide which books people could read; then, suddenly, they didn’t. In both cases, and many others that could be cited, the laws hadn’t changed; society did. And the courts responded accordingly.”

Grove Press’ success in court effectively overturned America’s obscenity laws—or at least knocked over the first domino. It also granted the public access to art about female sexual pleasure. The author championed the idea of true passion necessitating both a physical and mental connection.

“Obscenity only comes in when the mind despises and fears the body,” he writes in the book, “and the body hates and resists the mind.”

Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s new adaptation on Netflix

The director—known for the 2019 drama The Mustang—received the script for the film in March 2020, just as the pandemic was beginning. The need for human connection drew her to the film, especially as loneliness felt magnified.

“I felt I needed to bring this as well, but as a revitalization of a human being, as something that heals,” Clermont-Tonnerre told W Magazine. “Especially the scene where they’re running under the rain naked—there’s something so erotic and so liberating.”

Connie Chatterley (Emma Corrin) and Oliver Mellors (Jack O’Connell), the gamekeeper on her husband’s estate, come from drastically different social classes—a fact that Lawrence very intentionally highlighted. Lady Chatterley’s husband, Clifford Chatterley (Matthew Duckett), is a baronet who becomes hellbent on “fixing” the Tevershall coal mines, which he owns. In Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s film, the husband and wife spar over the working conditions in the mines.

During one conversation, Clifford smugly tells Connie that “Most of those men have been ruled since time began,” to which she responds incredulously “And you can rule them?” Clifford explains that he has been raised and trained to fulfill this role, and when she asks if he believes that they and the miners share any humanity, he replies: “We all need to eat and breathe, but beyond that, no.”

Connie and Mellors “are very similar personalities and beyond class and status, there’s something that connects immediately,” Clermont-Tonnerre said. “These emotions lead to a physical expression, which defines their relationship as a celebration. It is first an emotional love story about two lonely people who feel the need to connect to exist.”

It’s an age-old question: If you could choose who would play you in a movie, who would you pick? Michael Ausiello, author of Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies, got to make this choice for the adaptation of his memoir, and he went with Jim Parsons. Ausiello tells TIME that the choice dates back about five years when he asked the actor and producer known for The Big Bang Theory and The Boys in the Band to moderate a Q&A at The Grove in Los Angeles in September 2017—the week his moving memoir came out. Parsons said yes without even having read the book.
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Before they got in front of the audience, Parsons said he would like to option the book to be made into a movie with the production company he runs with his husband, Todd Spiewak. “It felt like a tremendous confidence boost to me when I needed it most,” Ausiello says. “This was the week the book was coming out, and I didn’t know how it would be received. I was in a vulnerable place.”

In the book, Ausiello recounts his relationship with his late husband, Christopher “Kit” Cowan, who died in 2015 from colorectal cancer, a rare neuroendocrine cancer. The memoir details the ups and downs of their relationship, Cowan’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, and Ausiello mourning the loss of the love of his life. Parsons was “connected to the story,” Ausiello says. “When he was reading the book, he was surprised at how similar the course of my relationship [was compared to his relationship] with Todd. He just saw a lot of parallels there.”

Read More: Jim Parsons Is So Much More Than Sheldon

Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies was well received, with multiple publications touting its well-balanced mixture of humor, grief, and loss. “The ending is given away in the title, but the experience of reading it is something wholly unexpected,” the Daily Beast wrote in a review. It also received over 5,000 five-star reviews on Goodreads.

Five years after that initial conversation with Parsons, the actor and producer’s idea has come to fruition, and a feature film based on Spoiler Alert, with Parsons playing Ausiello and Ben Aldridge (of Pennyworth and Fleabag fame) playing Cowan, hits select movie theaters on Dec. 2 before being released nationwide on Dec. 9. The movie is just as moving as the book, if not more so, with director Michael Showalter bringing both the humorous and the poignant lines of text to life onscreen.

Ausiello tells TIME that the team—screenwriters David Marshall Grant and Dan Savage, along with Showalter—welcomed his involvement and allowed him to be a part of every step of the movie-making process. Ausiello, a TV journalist by trade and creator of the website TVLine, says the details he was most scrupulous about were which TV shows Michael in the movie would be obsessed with and should be referencing. He remembers suggesting Felicity and Gilmore Girls: “Those weren’t necessarily what was scripted out of the gate, but I felt that we should be faithful to the story in those cases.”

He adds, “I think what people respond to in the book is the little things, the details, and the specifics of the relationship that Kit and I shared. Everything from my Smurf collecting to my Diet Coke obsession and my body issues. I felt like the story benefited from that authenticity.”

A few moments in the movie differ from the book, especially when it comes to the ending. Ausiello tells TIME that that decision really came down to timing. At the end of the book, Ausiello writes about going back to Millersburg, Pa., where Kit’s parents lived, for Kit’s local memorial reception. Kit’s parents chartered the ferry he loved to take, and from which Ausiello scattered Kit’s ashes into the Susquehanna River. He then took Kit’s wedding band from his pocket and took his own off, thanked Kit, and threw them in the river.

In the movie’s ending, however, audiences see Michael grieving Kit and getting in a cab to make his way to Los Angeles. “It would have been wonderful if [the Millersburg scene] was in there,” Ausiello tells TIME. “But to me, what was important about that was that Michael have a moment with [Kit’s mother] Marilyn because they have a very special relationship, and I’m glad we did that.”

Though the movie changes the ending somewhat, it does add a new scene that is among the most heartbreaking in the film. The moment after Kit passes away, the scene turns into a dream sequence as if it were a film set and Kit were the star of the project. Michael goes into journalist mode and begins asking him prophetic questions about life, seemingly the questions he wanted to ask Kit before he died. “That was part of David and Dan’s initial pitch for the movie, and that’s what pretty much sold everyone on it,” Ausiello explains. “They had this cinematic idea to take the story and frame it through Michael’s obsession with television, and that was one of the things that got everybody excited about their pitch.”

Read More: How One Movie Changed LGBT History

When asked if the movie-making experience was challenging or therapeutic, Ausiello responded that it “wasn’t difficult because it’s not really my life,” he says. “It’s a movie version of my life, and I was always aware of that. I was on set every day, and even while I was watching the scenes being shot, I was moved by them because the performances were so good.”

Ausiello says he doesn’t want to impose any of his hopes and feelings on moviegoers. He just wants them to go into the movie with as open a mind as possible. But he wants to ensure that people know two of the most important things to him when making the film. First, it was crucial to show how Kit’s parents showed up for their son when he was sick. The second is that Kit was not a victim. Ausiello says, “I had no interest in doing a movie where he was portrayed as such.”

And while we all think about who might play ourselves in a movie, casting a lost loved one is a weightier decision. When it came to casting an actor to portray Kit, Ausiello says he took a bit of a “leap of faith” with signing off on Aldrige because he wasn’t very familiar with his work outside of Fleabag. “But once I saw him on set and seeing him embody this role,” Ausiello says, “I knew very early on that Kit was in good hands.”

To rescue a book from its status as a punchline is a noble goal, and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre has pulled it off with her thoughtful and radiantly carnal adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, a book many people think they know even if they’ve never read it. Full disclosure: I haven’t read it either, but now I will, given the complexity, ambition and beauty of Clermont-Tonnerre’s film. The picture is, in places, a bit decorous; set on an estate in the English countryside, it’s gorgeous to look at, which always sets off the old Masterpiece Theater alarm—does this thing look good only because this gorgeous landscape is impossible to ruin? (The cinematography is by veteran DP Benoît Delhomme, and it’s sparkling no matter what, as are Emma Fryer’s costumes.) But even if you believe you’re settling in for just another Lady Chatterley adaptation—there have been plenty already—at least this is a film, a rather sexually explicit one, that’s reaching for something rather than shrinking away. In a world where we always seem to be recoiling, where refusal and fear are always easier than saying yes, Clermont-Tonnerre and her actors strive for boldness. If Lawrence’s ideas were radical, and sometimes unpopular, in the late 1920s, they can still rattle us today—and maybe we need to be rattled.

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Emma Corrin (splendid, recently, as the young Lady Diana in The Crown) plays Connie Reid, a well-heeled young woman who has just married a baronet, Matthew Duckett’s Clifford Chatterley. That means she has married well, and she’s happy enough with her new husband, who’s just about to go off to war. But everything changes when he comes back: he has suffered injuries that have permanently confined him to a wheelchair. Connie has become the mistress of his family estate, also inheriting a stuffy bedroom decorated with stale Victoriana. And the sex life to which she was clearly looking forward at the beginning of her marriage has evaporated. Clifford assures her that it doesn’t bother him much—he’ll be all right. But he doesn’t stop to think about what this new life might mean for her.

He does, however, want an heir, and he’s open-minded enough to suggest, to Connie’s initial horror, that she go out and discreetly find a suitable lover to serve as sperm donor. His rules are firm—Connie must not get emotionally attached to this stud-slash-paramour—which means they’re just begging to be broken. And sure enough, Connie’s loneliness and sexual frustration intensify into a firestorm around one of Clifford’s employees, the former army officer, well-read but of the lower classes, he has recently hired as gameskeeper. Oliver Mellors (Jack O’Connell) may not literally own the property he works on, but he’s the king of it even so, his heavy boots familiar with every inch of it, rough scarves tucked jauntily into his work shirts, more dashing than any silk cravat. Connie begins to find more excuses to stop by the little hut where Oliver works, always with a book in tow. Soon she starts forgetting the book. She’s particularly entranced by a group of newly hatched pheasant chicks—she asks Oliver if she can touch one, but she’s afraid. He gently cups her hand in his, and they scoop up a chick as one. It’s only a matter of time before they’re meeting, every chance they get, for sex that’s at first purely hungry and later, as their emotional attachment blossoms, more fine-tuned.

This can end well for neither of them, but their love is pure even so. It’s also what opens Connie’s eyes to the useless rigidity of class distinctions, and to her husband’s real shortcomings, which have nothing to do with the state of his hydraulics. Clifford thinks he’s a member of the ruling class for one reason, to rule, and that’s perfectly fine by him. The closer Connie draws to her cottage lover, the more repellent she finds her husband. She also comes to see the real damage that war does to men, and how they need to find tenderness within themselves to counteract it. Clermont-Tonnerre deftly weaves these ideas into the narrative, but her actors never come off as mere mouthpieces for concepts. Corrin is wonderful. She plays Connie as a woman who’s picking up signals from the air around her, little bits of information about how to live and breathe that have never managed to reach her before. And O’Connell plays Oliver with the right balance of scampish joy and wariness. As the duo’s commitment deepens, the danger around them escalates. “We haven’t thought beyond tomorrow, have we?” he says to Connie, who harbors dreams of running away with him. O’Connell brushes the moment with a kind of pragmatic mournfulness.

Read more reviews by Stephanie Zacharek

The love scenes between these two, as Clermont-Tonnerre handles them, are vital and believable—no faux-modest bedsheet-bandeaus here. They’re not so much what we used to call, in the olden days, “explicit sex.” The degree of emotional intimacy between these two characters is what makes the sex scenes steamy—the way Oliver’s hands instinctively reach for Connie’s, seeking the entwinement of fingers, or the way their kisses last a few seconds more than we’re used to, because no one is running a timer. There’s ridiculous stuff, too, like the way the lovers dance naked and free outdoors in the dappled sun, with flowers tucked behind their ears, or behind their whatever. Scenes like these remind me of a little poem a friend of mine used to recite every May 1st—“Hooray, hooray, the first of May, outdoor [blank]ing starts today!”—a joyful ditty nonetheless imbued with an acknowledgment that the reality of the thing rarely lives up to the idea of it.

But the joy-of-nature stuff, even at its silliest, is part of Lawrence’s ethos, his eagerness to embrace sex as an antidote to the oppressiveness of the workaday world. And couldn’t we all use a little more of that? Though Lawrence’s views of sex overall were complicated and sometimes contradictory, and not always what you’d call progressive, Clermont-Tonnerre and her actors draw from his ideas with clear-eyed generosity, presenting them so that they feel fresh as a new crocus. Clermont-Tonnerre’s last film was the marvelous 2019 picture The Mustang, starring Matthias Schoenaerts. The script is by David Magee, whose other adaptations include Life of Pi and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Together they honor the best of Lawrence’s ideas, and their actors join the dance.

There’s something else: in a 2006 introduction to a Penguin edition of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Doris Lessing notes that she now sees the novel as “one of the most powerful anti-war novels ever written.” She also pinpoints another truth, possibly even more potent today than it was 17 years ago: “In parts of the world where women are not free, may be stoned to death or publicly hanged for adultery, this novel is being read as Lawrence wanted it read, as a manifesto for sex, for love.”

In the past 20 years, movies have become more sexually repressed, not less. Anyone who complains about excessive nudity or sex in today’s movies clearly isn’t watching many of them. Clermont-Tonnere’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover feels like a shout of freedom, albeit a gracefully tempered one. It’s as if she’s seeking new life for a novel that Lawrence himself rewrote several times—he completed the final reworking as he was dying of tuberculosis—and whose uncensored version was unavailable to readers until a famous court case at last drew back the veil, in 1960. It’s also, simply, a movie adaptation that makes you want to read the book it’s based on. Hooray, hooray! And why not?

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s ongoing quest to become media multihyphenates is set to peak in the coming weeks: Harry’s hotly anticipated memoir Spare hits the shelves on Jan. 10, Meghan recently landed major celebrities and public figures like Sophie Grégoire Trudeau and Serena Williams on her podcast Archetypes, and Netflix just released the first trailer for the Duke and Duchess’ six-part documentary series Harry & Meghan.

Directed by Liz Garbus, the series—which is yet to confirm a release date—is likely to offer an intimate portrait of the couple’s love story and life since they stepped back as working members of Britain’s royal family in early 2020 and relocated to California. The synopsis for the series reads: “Across six episodes, the series explores the clandestine days of their early courtship and the challenges that led to them feeling forced to step back from their full-time roles in the institution.”
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While little else is known about the contents of the series, the minute-long trailer shows fleeting black-and-white images of the pair. Among these are holiday memories, pixelated selfies, a snap of them dancing at their wedding reception, and a photo-booth kiss.

The trailer opens with what is presumably Garbus’ voice asking the couple, “Why did you want to make this documentary?” Harry proceeds to tell her, “I had to do everything I could to protect my family,” while Meghan responds with her own question: “When the stakes are this high, doesn’t it make more sense to hear our story from us?”

Here’s what we know so far about the series and the multimillion-dollar collaboration between streaming giant Netflix and Archewell Productions, founded by Harry and Meghan.

Liz Garbus’ critically acclaimed filmography

Liz Garbus is an American filmmaker best known for the 2015 biographical documentary film What Happened, Miss Simone?, which chronicles the life and activism of musician Nina Simone. The film opened the 2015 Sundance film festival and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars in 2016—an accolade she was previously nominated for in 1999 for her documentary on America’s largest maximum security prison in Louisiana, entitled The Farm: Angola, USA.

Garbus also directed Season 4 of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which earned her an Emmy nomination in 2021. Additionally, she directed the 2020 true crime film Lost Girls, as well as HBO’s 2020 true crime docuseries I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.

In June, Page Six reported that Garbus would take on the Harry and Meghan project after being spotted with them on a trip to New York the previous fall. Since then Meghan has gushed over Garbus’ work and confirmed the documentary in an October interview with Variety.

“It’s nice to be able to trust someone with our story—a seasoned director whose work I’ve long admired—even if it means it may not be the way we would have told it,” Meghan said of Garbus. “But that’s not why we’re telling it. We’re trusting our story to someone else, and that means it will go through their lens.”

How the couple responded to prior reports of a documentary

The Duke and Duchess changed their tune a number of times about the nature of the docuseries, and whether it was happening at all. In September 2020, weeks after they announced their Netflix deal, a spokesperson for the couple said that they were “not taking part in any reality shows” after reports suggested a fly-on-the-wall documentary would follow their work for three months.

The couple was spotted with film crews a number of times, leaving many suspicious that such a project did exist.

Speaking with The Cut in August, Meghan once again denied that the project is a “reality show.” According to writer Allison P. Davis, the duchess met questions about the rumored project with “half-answers shrouded in winks, codes, and redirection” before noting what Davis described as the “difference between a historical documentary and a reality docuseries.”

Meghan also told the writer why she was being vague, “What’s so funny is I’m not trying to be cagey. I don’t read any press. So I don’t know what’s confirmed.”

Previous interviews given by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

The couple famously delivered a two-hour sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, where they shared shocking revelations about the British monarchy. The couple opened up about racism within the royal family, disagreements between Meghan and Middleton, and the duchess’ struggles with mental health. They also revealed that they were expecting a second child, a baby girl now known as Lilibet, who was born in June 2021.

Read more: The Core Message of Meghan and Harry’s Oprah Interview: Racism Drove Us From the Royal Family

Since then, Prince Harry has undertaken a number of interviews alone. Harry and Oprah joined forces again for the Apple TV+ mental health docuseries The Me You Can’t See, and ahead of the Invictus Games—a sports competition he founded for wounded veterans—Harry participated in an interview with TODAY in April. He spoke about his kids, returning to the U.K. and seeing Queen Elizabeth. He also opened up about his mental health issues.

Meanwhile, Meghan has focused on her Archetypes podcast, which concluded its first season on Tuesday with episodes featuring guests such as Mariah Carey, Issa Rae and Trevor Noah. She also gave an extensive interview to Variety—her first since the death of Queen Elizabeth—which included a video interview and behind-the-scenes footage of her cover shoot with the publication.

Reactions to the trailer

The series is already receiving viral attention. Netflix’s Twitter post sharing the trailer has over 50,200 likes at the time of writing, while their Instagram post has more than 288,400 likes. Not surprisingly, however, criticism from royal commentators and British media figures has already started to pour in with many, including broadcaster Piers Morgan—a longstanding critic of the Duke and Duchess—turning to the British tabloids to publish their views.

I’m one of those people who thinks every year is a great year for movies. Finding 10 to love in any given year is never a problem. But even in that context, 2022 was extraordinary. Is it possible that filmmakers, at last freed from some of the constraints and anxieties of early-pandemic film production, experienced a collective burst of energy and imagination? Or are we, as members of the audience at large, finally awakening from the sluggishness of our earlier pandemic-era hibernation, more open to the possibilities of movies than we were before? There’s no clear answer to those questions, but that doesn’t diminish the splendor of this year’s crop of movies. Here are ten of my favorites for 2022, with a hearty list of honorable mentions at the end.

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10. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

9. The Inspection

8. Il Buco

7. EO

6. Tár

Cate Blanchett stars as orchestra conductor extraordinaire Lydia Tár, a figure so vivid that you could almost believe she’s a real person. She’s not: Writer-director Todd Field and Blanchett summoned her, tyrannical and magnificent, from imagination. This is an ambitious—and often drily funny—film about a complicated, often unlikable woman who works hard and reaches high for what she wants. But it’s also about art as a kind of sustenance—fuel for survival in a sometimes merciless world.

5. Happening

4. Elvis

3. Armageddon Time

2. Aftersun

Even on Elon Musk’s Twitter, there are red lines for permissible content, and Kanye West, who now calls himself Ye, crossed one of them with a late Thursday night post that prompted the network to suspend his account.

The artist tweeted an image combining the Star of David with a swastika, which got removed by the social media service. In its place was a message saying the post violated Twitter Inc.’s rules and a link to its policy page explaining enforcement actions. Since then, the entire account has been suspended, with all of its tweets now obscured. Ye had 32.2 million followers before the suspension.
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Read More: Twitter Is Collapsing, and Nothing Can Replace It

Musk addressed the issue after the post’s initial removal, saying Ye had — not for the first time — breached Twitter’s rule against incitement to violence and his account would be suspended. It’s the most high-profile test yet of Musk’s avowed policy of making Twitter a home for free speech, even where it offends, so long as it’s not in breach of the law.

Two weeks earlier, the social network’s new owner welcomed Ye back from his Twitter exodus, at the same time as he restored former US president Donald Trump’s access. Ye had left Twitter after the service took action on his posts that it deemed antisemitic.

The cordial relations between the two men did not seem to last long, however, as Ye’s most recent tweet, which he labeled his last, featured an unflattering image of a shirtless Musk on vacation. Musk responded to that post with the words “That is fine.” He also replied to the tweet containing the removed image with “This is not.”

In a cultural moment shaped by countless challenges, Pantone’s color of the year for 2023 is a bold shade of red that speaks to the strength and vitality needed for forging a more positive future. PANTONE 18-1750 Viva Magenta, a vibrant and nuanced shade of crimson red, is a study in balances: drawing on both warm and cool tones, the color’s origins are grounded in nature with an electrifying hue that can be found in both the physical and virtual spheres, speaking to the diversity of our contemporary world.

Now in its 23rd year of selecting the an annual color, The Pantone Institute considered the onslaught of challenges that people have faced in recent years, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they have shaped perspective, values, and attitudes in finding a color for 2023.
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“We chose this color because we felt that it was an unconventional shade for an unconventional time, something that could present us with a new vision,” Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the institute, tells TIME. Viva Magenta, Esieman notes, communicates power—but in an assertive, not aggressive way. “It’s a color that really vibrates with vim and vigor, that demonstrates a new signal of strength, which is something we all need for a more optimistic future.”

Eiseman, who described Viva Magenta as an “animated red, pulsating with movement,” points to nature as one of the main inspirations for the color selection this year, namely the cochineal dyes derived from insects, that have been used since as early as the second century BC to imbue rich red hues on fabrics and paper. With the increasing influence of technology in our contemporary world, which was strongly reflected in the touchscreen-inspired shade of last year’s color of the year, the dynamic periwinkle blue, Very Peri, having a reminder of the primordial world with a shade like Viva Magenta is a chance to revisit, honor, and reconnect with history, while imagining a brighter future.

Read more: Why Pantone Created a Whole New Color for the 2022 Color of the Year

“We’re hoping that the symbolism in this color will create a dynamic world that encourages experimentation,” Eiseman says. “One that leverages the virtual within the physical realm and emboldens our spirit to explore groundbreaking possibilities.”

While the color has deep connections to both the past and the present, the institute wants to be clear that it’s also a color that’s undeniably fitting for the present, a shade that encourages all people to live life boldly in the moment.

“The name of the color itself tells you this is a color to celebrate with, an exuberant color that promotes optimism and joy,” Eiseman said. “It’s what we call a boundless shade, a real standout statement. There’s no way you’re going to walk into a room if you’re wearing this color and not have attention go to you. It’s audacious. It’s witty and inclusive—it welcomes anyone and everyone with the same rebellious spirit.”

“I want that uncomplicated, Rachel McAdams love,” Sabi Mehboob declares in the opening scene of the Canadian dramedy Sort Of’s second season. What they mean is that someone who seems as perfect as McAdams—talented, successful, beautiful in all the most conventional ways—must bring minimal baggage to every kind of relationship, be it a romance or a friendship or a familial bond. Regardless of whether their assumption about the actress is accurate (I’m going to go ahead and guess that her life is plenty complex), the question of whether Sabi and other characters should simplify themselves in order to satisfy the most important people in their lives reverberates throughout a season as big-hearted and introspective as its wonderful predecessor.
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Now streaming on HBO Max, it’s a season about love in general but family in particular, and what it means to be part of one when you, like everyone, are no Rachel McAdams. Sabi (Sort Of co-creator Bilal Baig), a nonbinary 20-something searching for purpose, and, yes, love in Toronto, finally has to face their traditional, Pakistani Muslim father Imran (Dhirendra) after his return from a long stint abroad. The path of least resistance would be to appease Imran while he’s in town by forgoing feminine clothing and makeup in his presence; certainly, Sabi doesn’t always correct him when he misgenders them. But what they want is for their father to love the person they really are—which necessitates honest self-presentation and harder conversations. It also makes Imran’s visit tougher on Sabi’s newly independent mother Raffo (Ellora Patnaik) and sister Aqsa (Supinder Wraich), who resents Sabi for dominating their parents’ attention.

The Mehboobs have a mirror of sorts in the Kaneko-Bauers, an upper-middle-class family whose two mostly-grown-up children Sabi nannies. Comatose following a bike accident for most of the show’s first season, matriarch Bessy (Grace Lynn Kung) is now awake and slowly recovering with Sabi’s help. But her ordeal has exposed secrets and rifts within her marriage to Paul (Gray Powell), which is further endangered when Bessy, who is queer and Asian, emerges from her near-death experience resolved to liberate herself from this straight, white man. As the kids struggle to make sense of what’s happening to their parents, Sabi becomes crucial to keeping the Kaneko-Bauers from falling apart. And like Imran, Paul discovers what it feels like to be an outsider in your own family—an experience with which Sabi is already intimately familiar.

Meanwhile, the search for romance doubles as a search for chosen family. As Sabi’s love interests proliferate, the limitations of their fling with Olympia (Cassandra James), a glamorous trans woman they clearly idolize, grow increasingly apparent. Olympia is great when she deigns to drop by, but she won’t let Sabi become part of her life. And so a more organic, McAdams-like option presents itself. The connection between family and romance is more explicit for Sabi’s brash best friend 7ven (Amanda Cordner), who dives into a relationship with a frivolous, narcissistic influencer named Arrow (Heath V. Salazar). What 7ven sees in this person is utterly incomprehensible, until we meet 7ven’s frivolous, narcissistic mom Gaia (Amanda Brugel).

New episodes of Sort Of, with its empathetic eye and sensitive soul, would be a gift at any time of year. (The fact that each full season runs about as long as one Marvel movie doesn’t hurt, either.) But it feels serendipitous that this batch arrives, with two new episodes rolling out every Thursday beginning Dec. 1, at this moment between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when family is top of mind. Because what gets lost amid the bland, tinsel-strewn seasonal fluff dispensed by Hallmark Channel and its copycats is the singular nature of each family that gathers around the tree, the menorah, or whatever object best symbolizes the love that binds together imperfect people with unused vacation days to burn before the end of the year.

“All I want is just someone who gets me,” Sabi laments at one point. “Someone who gets me the way I want to be got.” It’s about as close to universal as sentiments about interpersonal relationships get. You don’t have to be Sabi (or Imran, or Paul, or 7ven) to baffle the parents who raised you, to feel like a stranger among people you’ve known for your entire life, to struggle with tension between who you are and who you’re expected to be, or to wish that falling in love could be simpler. Not even Rachel McAdams is immune to being misunderstood. As difficult as it can be to make other people genuinely see us, Sort Of affirms, we all deserve to be recognized and loved for the messy, complicated people we are.

Few things in life are certain: coffee, taxes, and the glut of cheesy Christmas movies that arrives on Netflix each December. And this year is no exception: Scrooge: A Christmas Carol is an animated retelling of Charles Dickens’ timeless classic. In The Boss Baby: Christmas Bonus, the Boss Baby accidentally swaps places with one of Santa’s elves. I Believe in Santa begs the question: What happens when your dream partner turns out to be obsessed with Christmas?

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International offerings—and there plenty of them—lean toward deadpan and quirky, with a dash of heartfelt and feel-good. In Delivery by Christmas (Polish), a courier has to race to return Christmas presents to their intended recipients. I Hate Christmas (Italian) sees a single nurse frantically search for a partner to bring home for the holidays. And How to Ruin Christmas: The Baby Shower (South African) picks back up with the Sello and Twala families amidst the holiday chaos.

Here’s everything coming to Netflix in December 2022—and what’s leaving.

Here are the Netflix originals coming in December 2022

Available December 1

Dead End

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean: Season 1, Episodes 25-38: The Final Episodes

The Masked Scammer

Qala

Troll

Available December 2

Big Brother: Season 10

Big Brother: Season 14

Firefly Lane: Season 2, Part 1

Hot Skull

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

My Unorthodox Life: Season 2

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol

“Sr.”

Warriors of Future

Available December 5

Mighty Express: Mighty Trains Race

Available December 6

The Boss Baby: Christmas Bonus

Delivery by Christmas

Sebastian Maniscalco: Is It Me?

Available December 7

Burning Patience

I Hate Christmas

The Marriage App

The Most Beautiful Flower

Smiley

Too Hot to Handle: Season 4

Available December 8

The Elephant Whisperers

In Broad Daylight: The Narvarte Case

Lookism

Available December 9

CAT

Dragon Age: Absolution

Dream Home Makeover: Season 4

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

How to Ruin Christmas: The Baby Shower

Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, Part 2

Available December 10

Alchemy of Souls: Season 1, Part 2

Available December 13

Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure

Last Chance U: Basketball: Season 2

Single’s Inferno: Season 2

Tom Papa: What a Day!

Available December 14

Don’t Pick Up the Phone

Glitter

I Believe in Santa

Kangaroo Valley

Available December 15

The Big 4

Sonic Prime

Violet Evergarden: Recollections

Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery

Available December 16

A Storm For Christmas

BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

Cook at all Costs

Dance Monsters

Far From Home

Paradise PD: Part 4

Private Lesson

The Recruit

Summer Job

The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari

Available December 19

Trolley

Available December 20

A Not So Merry Christmas

The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh, Part 1

Available December 21

Disconnect: The Wedding Planner

Emily in Paris: Season 3

I AM A KILLER: Season 4

Available December 22

Alice in Borderland: Season 2

Mathieu Dufour at Bell Centre

Available December 23

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Piñata Masters!

Available December 25

Daughters From Another Mother: Season 3

Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical

Time Hustler

The Witcher: Blood Origin

Vir Das: Landing

Available December 26

Treason

Available December 27

Chelsea Handler: Revolution

Available December 28

7 Women and a Murder

A Night at the Kindergarten

The Circle: Season 5

Stuck with You

Available December 29

Brown and Friends

Rise of Empires: Ottoman: Season 2

Available December 30

Alpha Males

Chicago Party Aunt: Part 2

Secrets of Summer: Season 2

White Noise

Available December 31

Best of Stand Up 2022

Here are the TV shows and movies coming to Netflix in December 2022

Available December 1

21 Jump Street

Basketball Wives: Season 1

Basketball Wives: Season 2

Coach Carter

Forged in Fire: Knife or Death: Season 1

Hachi: A Dog’s Tale

The Happytime Murders

LEGO Friends: Holiday Special

Love Island USA: Season 3

Meekah: Season 1

My Girl

Peppermint

Troy

Available December 2

Supermodel Me: Revolution: Season 1

Available December 3

The Best of Me

Bullet Train

Available December 4

The Amazing Race: Season 17

The Amazing Race: Season 31

Available December 7

Emily the Criminal

Available December 10

Prisoners

Available December 15

The Hills: Season 1

The Hills: Season 2

Available December 18

Side Effects

Available December 19

Trolls

Available December 25

After Ever Happy

Available December 26

No Escape

Here’s what’s leaving Netflix in December 2022

Leaving December 9

The Shack

Leaving December 10

Fast Color

Leaving December 11

Manhunt: Unabomber

Leaving December 14

Black Ink Crew New York: Seasons 3-4

The Challenge: Season 12

The Challenge: Season 25

Merlin: Seasons 1-5

Teen Mom 2: Seasons 3-4

Leaving December 15

The Danish Girl

Leaving December 27

Instant Hotel: Season 1

Leaving December 28

Shrek the Musical

Leaving December 31

1BR

A Cinderella Story

A Clockwork Orange

A Little Princess

Blood Diamond

Blow

Blue Jasmine

Casino Royale

Chocolat

Eyes Wide Shut

I Love You, Man

Life as We Know It

Men in Black

Men in Black II

Men in Black 3

National Lampoon’s European Vacation

National Lampoon’s Vacation

New York Minute

Point Break

Police Academy

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie

NEW YORK — Christine McVie, the British-born Fleetwood Mac vocalist, songwriter and keyboard player whose cool, soulful contralto helped define such classics as “You Make Loving Fun,” “Everywhere” and “Don’t Stop,” has died at age 79.

Her death was announced Wednesday on the band’s social media accounts. No cause of death or other details were immediately provided, but a family statement said she “passed away peacefully at hospital this morning” with family around her after a “short illness.”

“She was truly one-of-a-kind, special and talented beyond measure,” the band’s statement reads in part.

McVie was a steady presence and personality in a band known for its frequent lineup changes and volatile personalities—notably fellow singer-songwriters Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.
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Fleetwood Mac started out as a London blues band in the 1960s, and evolved into one of the defining makers of 1970s California pop-rock, with the combined talents of McVie, Nicks, and Buckingham anchored by the rhythm section of founder Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass.

During its peak commercial years, from 1975-80, the band sold tens of millions of records and was an ongoing source of fascination for fans as it transformed personal battles into melodic, compelling songs. McVie herself had been married to John McVie, and their breakup—along with the split of Nicks and Buckingham—was famously documented on the 1977 release Rumours, among the bestselling albums of all time.

Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. The group’s many other hit singles included Nicks’ “Dreams,” Buckingham’s “Go Your Own Way” and McVie’s “Little Lies.” One of McVie’s most beloved works, the thoughtful ballad “Songbird,” was a showcase for her in concert and covered by Willie Nelson, among others.

McVie, born Christine Perfect in Bouth, Lancashire, had been playing piano since childhood, but set aside her classical training once she heard early rock records by Fats Domino and others.

While studying at the Moseley School of Art, she befriended various members of Britain’s emerging blues scene and, in her 20s, joined the band Chicken Shack as a singer and piano player. Among the rival bands she admired was Fleetwood Mac, which then featured the talents of blues guitarist Peter Green along with the rhythm section of Fleetwood and McVie. By 1970, she had joined the group and married John McVie.

Few bands succeeded so well as Fleetwood Mac, against such long odds. Green was among the many performers who left the group, and at various times Fleetwood Mac seemed on the verge of ending, or fading away. More recently, Buckingham was kicked out, replaced on tour by Mike Campbell and Neil Finn.

McVie herself left for years, only to return for good in 2014.

Trigger warning: This story contains mentions of child sexual abuse

Casey Anthony’s trial in 2011 for the murder of her daughter Caylee Anthony was one of the most closely-watched trials in years, maybe even decades. One of the TV news reports from the time noted that there hadn’t been fervor for a case like this since the O.J. Simpson trial in the mid-1990s. And Anthony’s trial ended the same way: with an acquittal. Peacock’s new three-part docuseries, Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies, brings the trial to a new generation of viewers and marks the first time Anthony has spoken out at length about the death of her daughter since she was found not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child in July 2011.
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The new series, which begins streaming today, reveals that shortly after the verdict (which did find her guilty of providing false information to law enforcement), Anthony, now 36, went into hiding after she and her legal team received death threats. Despite the verdict, the court of public opinion had already decided that she had murdered her daughter for a few reasons: First, her daughter had been missing for 31 days before Casey’s mother, Cindy, called the police. Second, the media had published photos of Casey partying, allegedly taken while her daughter was missing. And third, she didn’t appear to be grieving in the ways people expected a mother to grieve, leading people to deem her a psychopath. (An independent psychologist determined that she was not a psychopath.)

Read More: Timeline: The Casey Anthony Saga, Spanning Three Years, Comes to a Close

More than a decade later, many are still convinced of Anthony’s guilt and are expressing strong reactions to Peacock’s new docuseries. An overwhelming majority of the tweets following the release came from people criticizing the streamer for giving her a platform to promote her innocence and introduce evidence that points to another suspect. Many said they either stopped watching early on because they felt that Anthony was lying or said they didn’t watch at all, advising others to do the same. “Shame on peacock for letting Casey Anthony create another fictional sob story in attempt to sway public opinion,” one tweet reads. “Nobody believes you and there’s a special place in hell for you.”

Another user wrote, “Casey Anthony is truly a narcissist, not reporting your daughter missing for almost a month and now coming out with a documentary? We all know what she did I still can’t believe she got away with it, should have been an open-and-shut case for that pathological liar.”

The docuseries’ director, Alexandra Dean, told USA Today that she wanted to revisit the case because Anthony had come to understand a lot after years of therapy and wanted to share her side now, and that Dean believes the investigation left many stones unturned, particularly when it came to Casey’s father. Viewers may come away from the docuseries with differing opinions on Anthony’s innocence or guilt in the case. Either way, it’s a difficult foray into a tragic case. Here’s what to know about the revelations and insights presented in Where the Truth Lies.

Caylee’s last day

In the documentary, Casey says that the last day she saw Caylee was June 16, 2008. She says she was at home with Caylee and her father when she decided to nap with Caylee in bed. Casey noted that Caylee would never leave the room without talking to her first. Casey remembers being shaken and woken up by her father, asking her where Caylee was. “I immediately start looking for her,” she says in the second episode. Casey recalls continuing to look for her, and “by the time I came back around the left side of the house, I came back towards the front porch, and [her father] is standing there with her.” Casey recalls that her daughter was “soaking wet.” At this point, Casey says she still believed her daughter was alive. Caylee would go missing later that day, according to the docuseries.

During her trial, Casey’s defense attorney suggested that it might have been possible that Caylee drowned in the pool, but in the docuseries, Casey says that wasn’t possible because the ladder wasn’t in the pool. Because it was an above-ground pool, Caylee wouldn’t have been able to climb in. When asked why the defense made this suggestion, even though Casey knew it wasn’t true, she said that her team couldn’t present the jury with nothing, so they floated the idea around. Casey also said that Caylee may have been kidnapped by a babysitter, though her lawyer later admitted she fabricated this accusation.

Casey and her father didn’t rush to call the police, and Casey said her father assured her that everything would be OK. At that point, she didn’t believe her daughter was dead and thought there was still a chance that she was alive.

Allegations against Casey’s father

In the docuseries, Casey talks at length about the sexual abuse that she says she faced at the hands of her father, George, and her brother, Lee (both of whom have denied all claims). She details her father’s alleged abuse, which she says happened when she was between the ages of 8 and 12, and said that he would come into her room at night and molest her, and if she tried to resist, he would smother her with a pillow until she was unconscious.

Casey says in the second episode that she had suspicions that her father might have been doing the same thing to her daughter and expressed regret for not saying anything. Multiple people interviewed in the docuseries corroborated Casey’s claim against her father: her former fiancé Jesse (whom she told about allegedly being abused by her brother), a friend she wrote a letter to from jail, and Robin Adams—a mitigation specialist working on her case in 2009. It offers a fuller context as to what might have happened to Caylee and why Casey did not appear to be grieving her daughter.

As Adams says in the docuseries, “When you’ve been a victim of sexual abuse, you pretend that nothing is wrong—it’s the separation of the mind from the actions. That’s how Casey could show up as if she had no troubles in the world during the 31 days.” Even after she was arrested, she explains, Casey believed Caylee was still alive because her dad kept reassuring her and making her believe that Caylee was just missing until it was reported that her body was found in December 2008.

Read More: Why Are Americans So Obsessed With the Casey Anthony Trial?

The Anthonys’ dead pets and the case against George

During the trial, Casey’s brother, Lee, called her defense team, saying he had something to tell them. He said that when he and Casey were young, and their pets would die, their father would bury the pets, and there was a striking similarity in how Caylee’s body was found and how their pets were buried. One of Casey’s team members recalled Lee saying, “When our family pets would die, Dad would wrap the puppy in a blanket, put it in a trash bag, duct-tape the trash bag, and we would bury them.” This is the same way that Caylee’s body was found— wrapped in a Winnie the Pooh blanket from her bed. Patrick McKenna, one of the investigators on Casey’s defense team says in the docuseries that “George had something to do with something.”

George’s actions during this time were not inspected as much as Casey’s

The docuseries posits that while Casey’s every move during the three years between Caylee’s death and the trial was plastered all over news outlets, her father, George, was presented as a hero, and his actions were not as thoroughly inspected. Investigators say in the documentary that they noticed that George did not seem emotional when they first spoke to them; in the second episode, McKenna says things already felt off when he met George and Cindy. As he’s being introduced, Cindy is booking interviews with daytime television shows like the Today Show, and another man in the house was boasting about raising $27,000 for their foundation to help other parents find their missing kids—all of which took place after Caylee’s remains were found.

McKenna says in the documentary that he came back the next weekend to talk to Cindy. She came late to their meeting because they were out all day on a new bass boat that they were towing. It was “totally tricked-out, freshly painted, with the words ‘Call 1-800-Missing-Kids’ on the side of it,” McKenna recalls. A clip shows George saying that the boat was called the “S.S. Caylee Marie” in honor of his granddaughter. McKenna noted that it didn’t make much sense that George and Cindy bought a boat to go look for other missing kids.

The docuseries also alleges that George had an affair during the trial. The woman he allegedly had an affair with took the stand during the trial and said that he “unburdened himself” to her, saying out of nowhere, “it was an accident that snowballed out of control”—presumably talking about Caylee’s death.

Casey also says that George made comments about Caylee that made her uncomfortable. In a speech during Caylee’s funeral, he described in detail the smell of her hair and how a hug from a child “gets him excited like no other.” He took the stand and remembered exactly what Caylee was wearing the day she disappeared, but not what Casey or his wife were wearing.

An investigator revisits the case

John Allen, who was a sergeant at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office during the time of Caylee’s case and supervised the investigation, is adamant about Casey’s guilt throughout the entirety of the series. His reasons include that she lied about who had Caylee at the time of her disappearance and where she worked, but also because the evidence was stacked against her. “I think she killed her daughter, and I think she didn’t want to get caught,” Allen says.

Throughout the docuseries, the audience is presented with evidence and accusations that overwhelmingly point a finger at George, who is a former police officer. In the last episode, Allen states that he believes George “had nothing to do with [Caylee’s death].” The interviewer then asks if George had ever lied to Allen, to which he responds, “Yeah, at different points and times.” Then he adds, seemingly forgetting about his reaction to Casey’s lies, “But being a liar doesn’t make somebody a murderer.”

What could happen next?

With the docuseries seeming to point a finger at George Anthony, viewers may come away wondering whether the case could be reopened. According to a legal website, Florida does not have a statute of limitations for murder. Many, including those who believe in Casey’s innocence, like her former boyfriend’s roommate Tony Lazzaro, as well as those who believe she is guilty, would like to see the case reopened.

The streaming gold rush couldn’t last forever. From a business perspective, TV has had a pretty rough year, from Netflix’s financial woes to Warner Bros. Discovery’s post-merger growing pains to this month’s shocking news that former Disney CEO Bob Iger had replaced his successor Bob Chapek at the company’s helm, following the revelation that Disney+ was gaining a lot of subscribers but losing a lot of money. Like many other tech-driven niches, from digital media to rideshare apps, streaming seems to be seeing the price tag of rapid expansion exceed the revenue generated by even the most auspicious uptick in users. The dilemma of how to cut costs without hemorrhaging subscribers remains unsolved, and may indeed be unsolvable.
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Of course, for those of us who care more about TV as an art form than we do about its revolving door of executives and growth strategies, the most urgent question at the end of 2022 is: What’s going to happen to the shows I love? The short answer is that it could take years before what we see on our screens fully reflects the fallout of the past several months’ streaming shakeups. But it’s also true that platforms were preparing for a wholly predictable contraction in an overcrowded streaming landscape long before Netflix released its Q2 report. In that sense, this year’s unprecedented glut of expensive genre spectacles and prestige-branded docudramas might well herald an era when every greenlit project must justify its existence with blockbuster viewership numbers or the potential for multiple Emmy nominations. So much for the long tail.

You won’t find much from either dominant category among my favorite series of 2022. It probably isn’t a coincidence that what you will find are more shows that ended their runs than shows that debuted this year. While that doesn’t make me especially optimistic going into 2023, I’d be remiss not to acknowledge that great, idiosyncratic, sui generis television is still getting made—and that, in fact, two of the year’s three best shows turned out to be new titles based on original ideas. As long as fresh concepts are being pitched and writers’ rooms are being assembled, there will be hope for TV, no matter who’s sitting on any corporation’s Iron Throne.

10. Rap Sh!t (HBO Max)

Since soaring to the entertainment-industry stratosphere with Insecure, Issa Rae has become one of TV’s most in-demand creators. Her new, Miami-set hip-hop comedy Rap Sh!t proves she doesn’t have to be on screen to make something great. Relative newcomers Aida Osman and KaMillion shine as high school friends whose mismatched lives become intertwined again after a late-night freestyle propels them to fame as a rap duo. The influence of Miami rappers City Girls, who are among the series’ executive producers, is palpable in its regional details, realistic portrait of the contemporary music business, and radio-ready original songs. And the show brings art and nuance to thorny subjects from social media to sex work. Like Insecure, it’s smart, sexy, attuned to the vicissitudes of friendship and the struggles of the ambitious yet broke. But it’s also entirely its own thing—a comedy as fresh, sharp, and inspired as its heroines’ rhymes.

9. Made for Love (HBO Max)

In this, the year crypto crashed, stocks burned, and the richest man in the world gave new meaning to the phrase “tweeting through it,” no satire of an industry torched by its own hubris hit as hard as Made for Love. Enjoyable but a tad timid in its first season, co-creator Alissa Nutting’s adaptation of her own taboo-busting 2017 novel got smarter, weirder, and many shades darker in a second season set mostly within the invisible cage of multibillionaire Gogol Industries CEO Byron Gogol’s (Billy Magnussen) corporate-HQ-slash-dream-home-slash-prison, the Hub. Antiheroine Hazel (Cristin Milioti) has returned to Byron, the ex-husband she fled in season 1 after he planted spyware in her brain, in exchange for a potentially life-saving cancer treatment for her father Herbert (Ray Romano), whom she has to actively trick into receiving it. The setup escalated into a witty, trenchant, and depressingly timely allegory for the tech sphere’s dangerous conflation of connection and control that was, sadly, canceled before it could offer a third season’s worth of commentary. Here’s looking at you, looking at us, Elon.

8. Derry Girls (Netflix)

A gloriously lifelike 30-foot mural of Derry Girls‘ teen protagonists presides over the Northern Irish city, where Bloody Sunday unfolded in 1972 and the Troubles dominated the 20th century. It’s not even a paid advertisement. Such is the affection the local community—and the world—developed for these four Catholic school girls (and one girl’s tag-along male cousin) over the course of three ’90s-set seasons inspired by creator Lisa McGee’s own Derry adolescence. You can see why. While the political context, glimpsed in TV news footage and alluded to in casual conversation, is wrenching, the juxtaposition of a world-historical conflict with the bubbly self-involvement of high schoolers makes for one of the funniest comedies you’ll ever see. Spanning just 19 episodes, the show had precisely zero weak moments. But this year’s final season was a particular stunner, filled with road-trip misadventures and A-list guest stars and first love. It all led up to the fateful Good Friday Agreement referendum, in a perfect series finale that had me doubled over with laughter one second and reaching for the Kleenex the next.

7. Atlanta Season 4 (FX)

It’s been a strange 2022 for Atlanta, which took a four-year, COVID-extended hiatus after its second season and then returned to close out its run with two full seasons that aired this spring and fall. Because half of the already-legendary series’ total episodes were squished into nine months, the unevenness of season 3’s European hijinks and standalone parables featuring zero regular cast members might’ve made some viewers less eager to dig into its fourth and final season. But I’m telling you: don’t miss it. Season 4 brought creator and star Donald Glover’s Earn, his rapper cousin Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry), his daughter’s mom Van (Zazie Beetz), and their stoner buddy Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) back to their hometown with money to burn. In episodes that ranged from an acerbic mockumentary about a fictional Black Disney CEO to a camping-trip romance that could make you tear up, Atlanta took its wild ride to the intersection of Blackness, wealth, fame, and art making. Along with Glover’s typical keen social commentary and surreal humor, the season did right by the show’s central characters, yielding precisely the thoughtful and moving, if not necessarily happily-ever-after, resolutions they deserved.

6. Better Things (FX)

An auteur’s magnum opus. A first-time TV creator’s laboratory. A very funny comedy. An art film for the small screen. An unflinching portrait of the artist, or one version of her, as a middle-aged woman. A sharp commentary on Hollywood misogyny and ageism. The best show ever made about single motherhood. Pamela Adlon’s Better Things was all of this, sometimes all at once, throughout its five seasons (which might explain its conspicuously vague title). Just as her alter ego Sam Fox was always juggling work, parenting three kids, and intermittent attempts at post-divorce romance, Adlon juggled her characters’ internal lives, holding space for each perspective in every scene. That convergence gave the show its own surprising sense of balance; half an hour with the Foxes could feel as refreshing as meditation. In streaming’s era of peak redundancy, it’s a shame as well as a compliment that there’s nothing else like it on TV.

5. This Is Going to Hurt (AMC+)

True to its title, this British import starring the great Ben Whishaw as an overworked OB-GYN in a public hospital lands several punches to the gut. But its unvarnished depiction of economic inequality in healthcare, for providers and patients alike, brings rare honesty to a cliché-ridden medical-drama genre that celebrates individual doctors’ extraordinary feats at the expense of telling the truth about their exhausted real-life counterparts’ often-dangerous working conditions. This Is Going to Hurt isn’t all misery; it preserves the biting humor of its source material, a memoir by physician turned author Adam Kay, and Whishaw’s disappearance into the role of a brash, prickly, young gay man with one foot out of the closet is a pleasure to behold. When the show does ultimately break our hearts, the pain is well worth the epiphanies that come with it.

4. Reservation Dogs (FX on Hulu)

Sterling Harjo and Taika Waititi’s groundbreaking dramedy about teens growing up on an Oklahoma reservation in the wake of their lifelong friend’s suicide couldn’t have gotten off to a stronger start last year. Even so, the show improved by leaps and bounds in its sophomore season, using viewers’ familiarity with the Rez Dogs, their families, and other local characters to expand its funny, poignant portrait of the community. Showrunner Harjo and his writers spend one episode following Zahn McClarnon’s beleaguered cop on a psychedelic misadventure and another with a cohort of middle-aged women known as “the Aunties” as they cut loose (or try to) at the annual Indian Health Services conference. Yet the show never loses sight of its central characters, four young people on the verge of adulthood whose hopes, fears, frustrations, and mourning converged in a stunning season finale written by the Kumeyaay poet Tommy Pico.

3. Severance (Apple TV+)

Between the recent proliferation of superhero spinoffs, fantasy epics, and space operas and the streaming-era renaissance of the miniseries and various anthology formats, the future of grounded, original, multi-season TV drama has begun to look pretty bleak. Severance, conceived by first-time creator Dan Erickson and directed, marvelously, by Ben Stiller, isn’t just the year’s best new narrative show; it’s also the year’s best argument that it’s still possible to make a serious, serialized drama that is populated by authentic characters, addresses real social issues, and isn’t adapted from pre-existing intellectual property. So what if that show—which follows employees at a dystopian megacorp who agree to have their consciousnesses surgically bifurcated, “severing” the people they are at the office from the people they are outside of it—also happens to have a chilling sci-fi premise?

Instead of relying on elaborate virtual-production setups and other trendy tech, Severance is a triumph of good old-fashioned writing, directing, and acting. From icons like Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, and Christopher Walken to comedy pros like Adam Scott and Zak Cherry to breakout Britt Lower, who’s riveting as a new recruit who can’t forgive her “outie” self for consigning her to a life of indentured labor, the performances are essentially flawless. Stiller’s direction sets a tone that’s equal parts absurdist and tragic. It’s all tied together, and tethered to work-life realities as many of us know them, by writing that resonates on the level of individual lines of dialogue but soars thanks to the intricate plot architecture Erickson put in place.

2. The Rehearsal (HBO)

Watch the first episode of Nathan Fielder’s follow up to Nathan for You, the Comedy Central series that deployed the creator as a deranged consultant to struggling small businesses, and you’ll find a kinder variation on that predecessor. Fielder explains that his social-engineering comedy had led him to rehearse a wide range of uncomfortable interactions so that he’d be prepared for every possible response to his bonkers marketing ideas. In The Rehearsal, he sets out to use that technique for good, helping regular people rehearse tough confessions and big life decisions. The relatively self-contained premiere finds him training a teacher to confess to a friend that he deceived their whole bar-trivia crew into believing he had a master’s degree.

Then things get messy, in a way that simultaneously calls into question the extent of Fielder’s behind-the-scenes manipulations, how acclimated viewers have become to the routine deceptions of reality TV, and whether it’s possible to game out the risks of your own life without harming the people you enlist in that project. The experiment grows more philosophically convoluted and introspective with each episode. Meanwhile, The Rehearsal captures difficult truths about American life in 2022, from pandemic-era loneliness to unapologetic antisemitism.

Much of the chatter around the show has centered around attempts to classify Fielder as either “cruel and arrogant” or an intrepid explorer of the human psyche. While I’m firmly in the latter camp, I also think his personality is beside the point. Like all television, the show establishes a rapport with the viewer—but instead of immersing us in a fantasy, it’s designed to make us hyper-aware of our responses to the images it presents. Not since Twin Peaks: The Return has the medium so insightfully mirrored our fraught relationships to the entertainment we consume.

1. Better Call Saul (AMC)

One of TV’s greatest sagas came to an end (for now, at least) this past summer, when creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould wrapped up Better Call Saul after six unforgettable seasons. Way back in the winter of 2008, just months after Mad Men premiered as its first original drama series, AMC rolled out Gilligan’s cinematic crime drama Breaking Bad, about a milquetoast chemistry teacher whose terminal cancer diagnosis unlocked a limitless potential for cruelty and violence. More than a decade later, that series’ unlikely conscience, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), returned in El Camino, a feature film that gave him the action-hero ending he deserved.

But in the final accounting, Saul—a spin-off that most Breaking Bad fans, myself included, feared would be terrible—is the epochal masterpiece of the bunch. A prequel and a sequel, it literally bookends the saga, offsetting Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston) morally black-and-white descent into evil with the more ambiguous tale of two characters trying to be good people who can’t find a way to be good together. Initially a flailing public defender, Bob Odenkirk’s Jimmy McGill is a supposedly rehabilitated delinquent who slowly devolves into a walking mockery of the justice system named Saul Goodman. The love of his life, Rhea Seehorn’s Kim Wexler, has an internal sense of justice too keen to abide either the legally sanctioned cruelty of corporate law or the violence and malice of Saul’s work in Albuquerque’s criminal demimonde.

Gilligan and Gould never missed an opportunity to give their lawyer show about the inevitable perversion of justice another layer of meaning. At the same time, they made one of the most visually gorgeous, carefully plotted, and emotionally involving shows in the history of TV. Their vision came to life thanks to tremendous performances by Odenkirk and Seehorn, along with co-stars Michael Mando, Jonathan Banks, Giancarlo Esposito, Michael McKean, and too many other cast members to list. Intelligent to the core, Better Call Saul was also, for all its blood and death, the most fundamentally humanistic drama of its time. Months later, I’m still marveling at how it found a way, in the end, to celebrate Kim and Jimmy without letting Saul off the hook.

Honorable mentions: Abbott Elementary (ABC), Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire (AMC), Barry (HBO), Conversations With Friends (Hulu), The Girl From Plainville (Hulu), Irma Vep (HBO Max), Search Party (HBO Max), Sort Of (HBO Max), What We Do in the Shadows (FX)

Promising shows whose new seasons I couldn’t screen in full: Kindred (FX), The White Lotus (HBO)

LOS ANGELES — Kim Kardashian and Ye have reached a settlement in their divorce, averting a trial that had been set for next month, court documents filed Tuesday showed.

The former couple and their attorneys filed documents asking for a judge’s approval of terms they have agreed on, including $200,000 per month child support payments from Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, to Kardashian.

The two will have joint custody, and neither will pay the other spousal support, according to the documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The judge declared the two legally single at Kardashian’s request in March, ending their eight-year marriage, but issues of property and custody remained that were to be worked out in a trial starting Dec. 14.
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The two have four children whose ages range from 3 to 9 years old.

Kardashian and Ye will equally split the expenses for the kids’ private security and private school, including college, according to the settlement proposal.

They will also each pay their own debts the settlement said. The two had a pre-nuptial agreement and kept their property largely separate.

The couple began dating in 2012 and had their first child in 2013. West proposed later that year using the giant screen at the empty waterfront ballpark of the San Francisco Giants, and the two married May 24, 2014, in a ceremony at a Renaissance fortress in Florence, Italy.

The two appeared to be headed for a cordial split with agreed-upon terms when Kardashian first filed for divorce in February of 2021. Neither discussed the split publicly until early this year, when Ye started lashing out on social media against Kardashian, her family, and then-boyfriend Pete Davidson. Among his complaints were that he was not being allowed to make major parenting decisions and was been excluded from birthday parties and other events for their children.

Read More: The Kanye West Fallout Will Cost Adidas At Least $250 Million This Year

Ye, who has fired two lawyers since the divorce filing, also raised several technical issues and demands, including seeking the right to question any new husband of Kardashian’s under oath, which Judge Steve Cochran promptly rejected.

The settlement comes soon after several companies have cut ties with Ye over offensive and antisemitic remarks that have further eroded an already withering public image.

His latest lawyer, Nicholas Salick, did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the settlement.

It was the third marriage for Kardashian, the reality TV superstar, businesswoman and influencer, and the first marriage for the rap and fashion mogul Ye. Theirs was one of the most closely followed celebrity unions in recent decades.

The Christmas specials seem to arrive earlier each year, as cable and streaming services start stuffing sleighfuls of formulaic holiday cheer down our chimneys the minute the trick-or-treaters stop knocking. That means, come November, it can be hard to find something novel on TV that is not a kiddie Santa-fest, an HGTV roundup of houses with elaborate seasonal lighting, or a snowy romance in which a lonely, workaholic businesswoman reluctantly returns to her childhood hometown to abandon all pretense of ambition and smooch her ruggedly handsome high school sweetheart under the mistletoe. Well, it wasn’t easy, but I did it: I dug up five decent-to-great series that premiered this past month to please even the Grinchiest of viewers. Brace yourself—December will be even worse.
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The Big Brunch (HBO Max)

If you’ve finally given up on the declining Great British Bake Off—or you simply can’t get enough of big-hearted cooking contests—then you’ll want to add this brunch-focused offering from Schitt’s Creek mastermind Dan Levy to your queue immediately. The format is nothing you haven’t seen before: 10 chefs compete in episodic elimination challenges for a cash prize that could help make their wildest professional dreams a reality. What separates the show from dozens of similar streaming titles is its cast. The contestants are kind, talented, articulate, and humble; representing the wide variety of cultural hybrids that make up American cuisine, they’re eager to support and learn from one another. And the panel of judges is as perfectly balanced as a great Bloody Mary. Levy brings the self-deprecating humor, and Eleven Madison Park restaurateur Will Guidara the sweetness. But chef, food writer, and YouTube star Sohla El-Waylly is the show’s MVP, dispensing blunt, pithy, yet never nasty feedback that reflects her own high culinary standards rather than any desire to humiliate the lovable cast.

The English (Amazon)

Written and directed by Hugo Blick, the creator of sophisticated, politically engaged British dramas like The Honorable Woman, this insightful Amazon-BBC co-production opens with a chance encounter. Upon arriving at a dusty hotel in the desolate Kansas of 1890, Lady Cornelia Locke (Emily Blunt) finds a badly beaten man, Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer), chained to a post. She’s an English aristocrat on a mission to kill the man who killed her son. He’s a newly retired Pawnee scout traveling to Nebraska to claim land he’s owed under the Homestead Act but—despite and because his ancestors made their homes in the same area—will likely have to take by force. She saves him, then he saves her. They’re strangers, but unlike other strangers who cross paths on these eerily empty plains, they’ve earned each other’s trust. [Read the full review.]

Mood (BBC America/AMC+)

For a young artist with dreams of conquering the world, the gulf between aspiration and reality can seem unbridgeable. In fact, it usually is. So how is a person supposed to make a life for herself when she’s talented but also broke, lonely, self-destructive, decidedly unfamous, and the only career path that appeals is to somehow become the next Beyoncé? Mood, a six-part British musical drama, is executive producer, writer, and star Nicôle Lecky’s inventive and empathetic attempt to chart a course. [Read the full review.]

Spector (Showtime)

Yes, it’s yet another documentary series about a brilliant, violent, egomaniacal artist. And in all honesty, it probably would not have made this list in a more competitive month for new shows. But if you still have the emotional bandwidth for another account of real women’s suffering at the hands of a powerful man, this studiously non-sleazy Phil Spector doc from directors Sheena M. Joyce and Don Argott (Framing John DeLorean) might be worth your time. While its focal point is, unsurprisingly, the pop megaproducer’s murder of actress Lana Clarkson in 2003, the filmmakers contextualize the crime within Spector’s checkered biography, enlisting former friends, collaborators, journalists, and even his daughter Nicole to offer genuine insight into his particular combination of genius, madness, and misogyny. They also give Clarkson her due. Often mischaracterized, in life and after her death, as a B-movie bimbo, she’s revealed to be an intelligent, savvy performer whose career was hitting an upswing when she connected with the fading Wall of Sound innovator. It’s more than fair to question the need for one more retelling of an already well-documented life story, two years after its subject died in prison. Still, Spector paints a thoughtful and responsible portrait of a figure whose name many of us could do with never hearing uttered again.

Welcome to Chippendales (Hulu)

Welcome to Chippendales has all the elements of a great workplace comedy—a charismatic cast led by Kumail Nanjiani, offbeat characters, an unconventional setting. But the show is actually a true-crime docudrama based on a book called Deadly Dance: The Chippendales Murders by K. Scott Macdonald and Patrick MontesDeOca. That complicates things, resulting in a romp through 1980s L.A. nightlife that makes you feel a bit guilty for enjoying it so much. [Read the full review.]

For a growing number of European citizens, coming of age now has the added perk of hundreds of euros to spend on culture—be that highbrow opera performances or action-packed comic books.

Earlier this month, Germany became the latest European country to announce a culture pass for youth to spend on books, theater trips, music, museums, and movies. All young people in Germany turning 18 in 2023—which is estimated to be around 750,000 people—will be eligible for the €200 ($208) pass. The credit will be available to use over a two-year period and citizens can make purchases via an app or website.
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“My hope is that the KulturPass will make young people go out and experience culture, see how diverse and inspiring it is,” says Germany’s Culture Minister Claudia Roth, who championed the initiative. “They can see a pop concert, go to a museum, or watch a play. All of that is culture.”

Roth says the motivation behind the pass was two-fold. The first was in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which deprived young adults of cultural activities amid waves of lockdowns and school closures. But she says the second—and more long-term reason—is to provide further relief to Germany’s struggling arts sector.

In June 2020, the German government allocated €1 billion ($1.039 billion) in emergency aid for arts and culture as many stayed home because of COVID-19 restrictions, which was then topped up with a further €1 billion in February 2021. The culture pass is the product of an additional €100 million ($103.7 million) investment and could be followed by additional funds for 15- to 17-year-olds, if it proves successful.

“After two years of the pandemic, [and now] Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the implications it’s having on energy prices and inflation here in Germany, a lot of cultural institutions are struggling with empty seats, low numbers of visitors, an audience that is reluctant to come back,” says Roth. Now, she hopes the scheme will “kick start” a return to the cultural landscape and bring new audiences to national institutions.

Read More: Why TIME Devoted an Issue to the Impact of the Pandemic on the Next Generation

But Germany is not the first E.U. country to launch such an initiative.

In March, Spain announced its own €400 ($415) Youth Cultural Bonus for 18-year-olds to spend within a year on events and physical media. Similar to the German initiative, the vouchers aim to inject life back into the creative industries that have suffered under years of funding cuts and then the pandemic.

In a statement sent to TIME, a representative for the Spanish government said that the program seeks to “promote loyalty that generates the habit of consuming cultural products in young people so that, as adults, they continue to consume cultural products regularly.”

As many as 281,557 young Spanish nationals, as well as legal residents and refugees, were eligible for cultural aid at the time the €210 million ($217.7 million) project was launched.

The statement added that “inaugurating autonomy” among its young citizens was a key aspect of the initiative, which allows users to decide—within reason—how they spend the money. It has a €200 euro upper limit on live arts and a €100 cap on purchasing physical or digital products.

Both the German and Spanish culture ministries say they were inspired by the success of France’s culture-fund model, which was established by the nation’s Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak in May 2021. For over a year, French 18-year-olds have been eligible for a culture pass worth €300 ($312) to use within two years via an app that hosts cultural offerings from over 8,000 arts businesses and institutions.

As the New York Times observed, French teenagers were mostly drawn toward Japanese manga. Figures by the organization behind the Culture Pass app recorded that 75% of all purchases went toward books and two-thirds of book purchases were for manga, which is an incredibly popular form of media in France.

Some critics of the French pass dispute how much freedom teenagers should have over what they buy. “A kid from the projects will lean toward what he already knows. I can’t for one moment imagine a kid using the pass to go listen to Baroque opera,” Pierre Ouzoulias, a senator for the French Communist Party, told the New York Times.

But others say the passes, even when they are spent on mass media instead of highbrow arts, have lasting social merit by encouraging young people to have a lifelong relationship with culture. They don’t just “lessen young individuals’ budget constraints in cultural expenditure” but impact broader life “preferences and behaviors,” says Elisabetta Lazzaro, a professor at the University of the Creative Art in London.

Manga purchases might not financially benefit French artists but French users have a €100 cap on online media offerings, which are provided by French companies, and any video games purchased must have a French publisher.

Indirectly, any further spending on culture could help boost one of Europe’s most important sectors. In 2019, the cultural and creative industries contributed €509 billion ($529 billion), or some 5.3%, to the E.U.’s total GDP, according to Culture Action Europe, a leading network of cultural groups.

The slate of new culture passes has precedent in Europe. The U.K. has universal free admission to national museums, while other countries such as Belgium have long boasted free tickets for under 18s and discounted culture tickets for students under 26. Meanwhile, Italy became the first European nation to establish a culture pass in 2016, worth €500 ($519).

Despite reported attempts by Italy’s populist leaders to scrap it in 2018, the fund has been upheld by the culture ministry across changes in government.

The New Orleans set of Queen Sugar is buzzing with energy. It’s a relentlessly humid July day, and creator Ava DuVernay has returned to direct the series finale, which will air on Nov. 29, her first time helming an episode since its debut season, in 2016. DuVernay yells “Cut!” and rises from her chair, moving nimbly through the immaculately decorated living room of the show’s central character, Nova Bordelon (Rutina Wesley). DuVernay converses with camera operators and grips. She positions props to her liking. Her light but authoritative touch is on everything from scripts to wardrobe. She finally stops in front of the couch where Wesley lies under a thick blanket, adjusting it to ensure that the actor’s striking face isn’t obscured. They talk briefly about the scene. “We have an unspoken language,” Wesley tells me later. “Ava would speak to me through her pen, and then I would respond with my work.”

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To watch DuVernay in action is to understand her creative process on a deeper level. Later she will tell me that she likes to film many takes of the same scene—“collecting my toys,” she calls it—so she has options in the editing room. She’s looking for emotive glances, subtle shifts in posture, the “gentle moments” that characterize Queen Sugar’s intimate storytelling. The Juilliard-trained Wesley is a master at this kind of emotional dexterity. She begins delivering the last words Nova Bordelon will ever utter. As the crew looks on, they seem to carry the bittersweet knowledge that the series into which they’ve poured so much is coming to an end after seven seasons.

Queen Sugar, arguably the longest-running African American family drama in history, has revolutionized TV. DuVernay and executive producer Oprah Winfrey charted a path for the show on OWN. It averaged more than a million weekly viewers in its first seasons—a major feat for a boutique cable network during the rise of streaming. African American viewers were hungry for a show that authentically depicted the lives of everyday Black people, that didn’t pathologize them or shroud them under a veil of respectability. The nuanced characters, lighting that celebrated the beauty of melanated skin, and soulful soundtrack galvanized a legion of Twitter fans who shared their commentary using #gimmiesugar. DuVernay and members of the cast and crew joined in, mirroring the type of community the show itself exemplified.

Read more: Ava DuVernay on What Gives Her Hope

Onscreen, the show advanced story lines about labor exploitation and the carceral state; transgender rights and the Movement for Black Lives. Behind the camera, it has been shaped by DuVernay’s inclusive politics of collaboration. She’s created opportunities for hundreds of talented actors, directors, line producers, prop masters, and costume designers, many of them New Orleans natives. Her commitment to partnering with those who’ve historically been marginalized in the industry places her and Winfrey at the vanguard alongside other Black creatives fighting for lasting change in Hollywood.

Queen Sugar the show would not exist without Queen Sugar the novel, and Queen Sugar the novel might never have been put in front of DuVernay if not for Winfrey. And not just casually put in front of her: Winfrey was so determined for DuVernay to read Natalie Baszile’s 2014 book, about a woman who inherits an 800-acre family farm in rural Louisiana, that during the director’s stay at Winfrey’s Maui estate in 2014, the host placed copies of Queen Sugar in Ava’s room, at the kitchen table, on the porch. DuVernay finally devoured it, so inspired that she wrote the treatment for the television show on the flight back to Los Angeles.

When it came time to write the pilot, Winfrey encouraged DuVernay to let the book go and filter what she’d read through her own imagination and her own family’s Southern roots. Taking this note, DuVernay conjured magic, creating the Nova Bordelon character, who didn’t exist in the book but became the show’s spiritual anchor. She fleshed out the fictional milieu of St. Josephine, La. And while this worldmaking allowed DuVernay to tackle salient social issues, at its core, Queen Sugar is a show about the power and possibilities of Black love: familial love, romantic love, and love for one’s community. There is the love story between Darla and Ralph Angel, who piece their lives together after battles with addiction and incarceration. Mature Black women appreciated the May-December romance between Violet Bordelon and her devoted husband Hollywood Desonier. Seeing Nova bring her bourgeois sister Charley and nephew Micah deeper into the Movement for Black Lives acknowledged the rich history of grassroots community activism across the South.

Winfrey unilaterally greenlighted the show for OWN. “I didn’t give it any thought,” she told me over the phone. “All of the great things I’ve ever done have come out of feeling and instinct.” Winfrey had launched OWN in 2011—a peak moment in TV’s golden era—to break new ground and support new talent. This golden age may have been in full swing ever since Tony Soprano took a seat in his therapist’s office, but the vestiges of Jim Crow segregation in the industry made it difficult for Black showrunners and executives to seize the moment. By the 2010s, some had busted through, producing shows across genre—Scandal, Being Mary Jane, Empire, Power, Black-ish—about multi-faceted African American characters who defied stereotypes. Shonda Rhimes, Issa Rae, Donald Glover, Lena Waithe, Kenya Barris, Lee Daniels, Courtney A. Kemp, Mara Brock Akil became voices of the so-called Black TV renaissance.

When Winfrey bet on DuVernay, she was putting her money on an untested creator who had directed only one episode of TV (for Scandal). This was after indie films had established her reputation as a bold storyteller with cinematic vision, but before Oscar nominations for Selma and an Emmy for 13th, before she was a household name. It is virtually unheard-of for a first-time creator to have a project greenlighted from a pilot script, and even rarer that the decision is made without a committee of high-level studio executives. But Winfrey had amassed considerable power, and she leveraged it to open the door for DuVernay.

DuVernay vowed to keep that door open for others. She proposed to Winfrey that they hire only women to direct the show. That one decision established a creative ethos for Queen Sugar while helping transform industry hiring practices. “I give all, all praise to [Ava],” Winfrey says. At the time, women directors—especially Black women and other women of color—who wanted to break into episodic television were stymied by retrograde industry norms that granted men the most prestigious jobs. This created a maddening paradox: women couldn’t get hired if they didn’t have the experience, and they couldn’t gain the experience without getting hired.

Of the 42 women recruited to direct Queen Sugar, 39 had never directed an episodic series in the U.S. “Ava handpicked all of us,” says Shaz Bennett, who has directed, written, and served as the Season 7 showrunner. “From the beginning, [Ava] would say, ‘Watch the show, and get the feeling of it, but I want you to bring your skill to this.’” Each director’s creative bent brought an emotional texture that enhanced what Bennett describes as Queen Sugar’s “beautiful feminine gaze.”

Read more: 24 Essential Works of Black Cinema Recommended by Black Directors

The show counts among its alumnae Victoria Mahoney, Aurora Guerrero, Amanda Marsalis, and DeMane Davis, who’ve all gone on to have stellar careers in TV—Mahoney went on to direct for Lovecraft Country and The Morning Show, Marsalis for Westworld and Ozark—and their successes reflect those of their peers. Pioneering indie filmmaker Julie Dash, who had never directed a scripted series, had her TV career jump-started. “It’s changed the way people look at women directors,” says Bennett. “Now if you don’t have women directors on your roster, it’s like, ‘You haven’t even been looking.’” DuVernay is proud to see the women and people of color who’ve made up Queen Sugar’s production team parlay that big break into other high-profile opportunities. But she told me what matters most to her is being intentional about leveling the playing field.

“Queen Sugar has been my second job for six years,” DuVernay told me when I visited the set. She’s juggled Sugar while directing other projects, including A Wrinkle in Time and When They See Us, while also distributing films by underrepresented directors through her independent production company, ARRAY Filmworks. Now Queen Sugar is ending on her terms. “It feels complete,” she says. I looked around the set at Nova’s bungalow, Aunt Vi’s diner, and the Bordelons’ farmhouse, and realized I was standing in the brick-and-mortar manifestation of DuVernay’s imagination. She had dreamed this world and collaborated with people who could help her make it a reality. More than anything, I could feel the love between cast and crew, and the palpable spirit of creative excellence that captivated viewers week after week. This is Queen Sugar’s greatest legacy.

After numerous game delays and pandemic setbacks, the video game industry finally felt like it was back in full swing in 2022. While the PlayStation 5 still remains largely elusive for many, the year certainly left no shortage of consoles to choose from with Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PCs giving gamers plenty of options. Along that line, a wider variety of highly anticipated titles were released this year than the last. Some of those entries, like Gotham Knights and Sonic Frontiers, didn’t quite live up to expectations, while others, which we’ll get to, exceeded them.
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On the business side, 2022 opened with a boom as Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in January, amid continued allegations of CEO Bobby Kotick’s discrimination, sexual harassment, and creation of a toxic work environment. Later that month, Sony Interactive Entertainment acquired Bungie for a billion, further ensuring that both Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation would continue their attempts to outdo each other with exclusives—good news for gamers, though less so for developers who are now forced to cater to a certain type of gamer. Alongside new partnerships, there were some breakups too. Electronic Arts withdrew its license with FIFA following a 30-year partnership. E3 was also canceled this year, leaving developers and studios to find other outlets to get word of their upcoming games out.

Video game adaptations remain an attractive prospect for the film and television industries, and 2022 definitely highlighted the successes and failures of that effort. Sony’s Uncharted left critics mixed but did respectable numbers worldwide, launching a new franchise for Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg. Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 grossed nearly the same as Sony’s film, with the added superlative of being the highest-grossing domestic video game film. Paramount quickly announced a third film for 2024 along with a Knuckles spin-off limited series for Paramount+. Gran Turismo was greenlit at Sony with Neil Blomkamp, Warner Bros. greenlit Mortal Kombat 2 with Simon McQuoid returning to direct, and Emma Tammi signed on to direct Five Nights at Freddy’s for Blumhouse. Universal released the first trailer for an animated Super Mario Bros. Movie, which aims to replicate Sonic’s success next April.

On the TV side, Netflix’s Resident Evil was canceled after one season despite the rather ingenious idea to set it after the events of the games rather than adapt the games themselves. But all hope is not lost on the small screen. A God of War prequel is in development at Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix will try their hand at a Horizon prequel. If HBO’s The Last of Us sets the high bar its trailer suggests it will, surely more television adaptations will gain traction.

As for the best games of 2022, it seems developers had the apocalypse on their minds. You’ll notice an ongoing theme of world-ending events and post-apocalyptic scenarios. Yet, amidst all of that human-caused wreckage and suffering, there’s hope to be found, as even some of the bleakest adventures highlighted the importance of connections, family, and friendship. While the notion of escapism feels somewhat slighter with so many end-of-the-world stories, it seems that the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the ever-present threat of intolerance and attacks on human rights have encouraged game developers to emphasize the importance of staying connected, and fighting together, whether that be through co-op modes or narrative.

Here are TIME’s favorite games of the year:

10. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Cowabunga! The Heroes in a Half-shell take to the streets in this arcade-style action side-scroller inspired by the 1987 cartoon series. Shredder’s Revenge is a healthy slice of pixelated nostalgia that brings back the voice cast of the cartoon series, while also offering modern updates like a deeper 2D environment and a killer soundtrack. Shredder’s Revenge supports both single player and multiplayer as you choose between Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael, April O’Neil, and Master Splinter and take on the Foot Clan, Bepop, Rocksteady, Krang, and, of course, Shredder. As you battle enemies from the sewers and city streets of New York to Dimension X, picking up health boosts from pizzas along the way, Shredder’s Revenge has just one flaw: it’s over all too quickly. Thankfully, each character has their own playstyle and special skillset, giving it a replay value lacking in most arcade-style games.

Available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, XBOX One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

9. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

All your favorite characters from Anakin to Rey, the battles that thrilled you, and the moments that made you fall in love with Star Wars are lovingly recreated here, in LEGO form. Despite covering the plot of nine movies, The Skywalker Saga is easily digestible and the perfect way to introduce younger gamers to the galaxy far, far away. Of course, that’s not to say adult fans won’t find plenty to enjoy here as well. With a treasure trove of Easter eggs, fun and varied combat, a greater emphasis on exploration, and local co-op, The Skywalker Saga really does marry all the best aspects of the Lego Star Wars games. It refines character movement (keeping in mind that these are block figures), as well as camera positions, allowing for a smoother use of force powers, blaster shots, and of course, lightsaber battles. While many of the games on this list are high-stress and challenging, The Skywalker Saga encourages relaxation and promises a good time.

Available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, XBOX One, XBOX Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

8. Resident Evil Village: Shadows of Rose

Resident Evil Village’s DLC isn’t just bonus content but its own unique story that concludes the Winters saga that began in Resident Evil: Biohazard. Set 16 years after the conclusion of Village, Shadows follows Ethan’s daughter Rose Winters, who enters the mind of a conscious fragment of mold in search of a crystal that will remove the powers that left her a social pariah her entire life. How that works exactly isn’t important—it’s just your typical Resident Evil pseudo-science and dream logic. What is important is the sheer terror Shadows is able to create through this experience, which returns to the third-person perspective the previous two entries broke away from. While players traverse familiar areas from Village, since fallen into disrepair, the horrors found there are all new. The second act ups the ante with a return to House Beneviento that’s so stressful in the way it utilizes…well, better to just let you experience the horror for yourself.

Available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, XBOX One, XBOX Series X/S, and PC. Nintendo Switch cloud version to come in early December.

7. Sifu

In Sifu, you play as the child of a martial-arts master who seeks revenge after the death of his father. A beat-‘em-up-style game inspired by Jackie Chan films, Sifu makes impressive use of its martial arts combat system that really highlights the importance of practice. One of the most novel elements of the game is the fact that each time you die, the character ages, allowing you to utilize more powerful attacks but reducing your overall health, to the point where your character can age beyond the ability to fight, forcing you to restart the level. It adds a whole new layer to risk and reward combat, and along with an emphasis on improvisation, crafting weapons from the environment, and even the option to talk some battles out instead of fighting, Sifu does more than throw wave after wave of enemy at you. It forces you to learn both discipline and adaptation in a way that makes every fight a different game of death.

Available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

6. The Last of Us Part 1

It may be a bit of a cheat, which is why it couldn’t be placed higher in good faith, but Naughty Dog’s third foray into the first installment of The Last of Us justifies itself as its own unique experience worthy of a spot as one of 2022’s best. It’s the same story you already know and love: Joel, a smuggler, escorts a teenage girl, Ellie, across the ruins of the United States, while struggling to stay alive against Cordyceps mutated humans and warring militia factions. From character development to environment design, vocal performances to combat, it’s the height of video gaming. Part 1 isn’t just a PS5 port; it rebuilds the game from scratch with current gen animation and graphics, and enhanced controls, making the experience, whether it’s your first time or a replay, all the more memorable. And it’s the perfect refresher course before HBO’s adaptation of the series debuts in January.

Available on PlayStation 5 and PC.

5. Stray

You play the entirety of Stray as a cat, doing all the things that cats do, including jumping on things, knocking stuff off shelves, scratching up carpets and doors, and meowing…a lot. As a stray who gets separated from his family after falling from the lush greenery of the outside world, you find yourself in a cyberpunk, walled city meant to protect the last remnants of humanity. But humanity has all passed on and left behind only their robot companions, who imitate the lifestyles of their former owners, including the class systems that led to humanity’s downfall. Accompanied by a helpful drone, you work your way from the slums to the upper levels, solving puzzles, performing side quests, and unlocking the history of the world you explore. You’ll find yourself surprised at just how invested you become.

Available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.

4. Elden Ring

No one ever said sword and sorcery would be easy. Directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki of Dark Souls fame, with story and world-building from George R.R. Martin, Elden Ring is the highest of high fantasy experiences. It’s also massive in scope, sometimes to the point of frustration, with so many side quests, areas to explore, armor and weapons to unlock and upgrade, and enemies to combat that you can all too easily find yourself lost from the main quest. That quest sees your custom created character on a mission to repair the Elden Ring and become the new Elden Lord. There’s a lot of trial and error, and in the spirit of Dark Souls, the combat is very demanding and difficult, but it’s also rewarding and encourages players to learn from their missteps. And because it’s an open-world experience, you can often find yourself in battle you’re not nearly ready for. While mileage may vary, the sheer ambition of Elden Ring makes it a standout.

Available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, XBOX One, XBOX Series X/S, and PC.

3. The Quarry

Supermassive’s spiritual follow-up to Until Dawn is another triumph for horror gaming. Paying homage to the summer camp horror movies of the ‘80s, The Quarry features a group of camp counselors who decide to have one last hurrah before packing it in for the summer—only there’s a curse over the lands and a werewolf prowls the night. Featuring a recognizable cast of actors including Brenda Song, Justice Smith, Miles Robbins, and Ariel Winter alongside horror legends Ted Raimi, Lin Shaye, Grace Zabriskie, David Arquette, and Lance Henriksen, The Quarry offers hundreds of decision branches that affect the fates of the characters, their relationships, the places you can hide, the story you witness, and the outcome of the game. With likable characters you want to see survive the night, surprising twists, a co-op option, and great replay value, The Quarry is a dream nightmare scenario.

Available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, XBOX One, XBOX Series X/S, and PC.

2. Horizon: Forbidden West

Post-apocalyptic hunter Alloy returns in this sequel to 2017’s Horizon: Zero Dawn. The wastelands of the western United States are free to roam in this expansive, open-world follow-up that’s twice the size of its predecessor, which means twice as many robots to hunt down, side quests to complete, and upgrades to find. Alloy, along with familiar and new allies, tries to put the world back together by restoring the A.I. Gaia and rebooting the Earth’s biosphere, decimated centuries ago by a human war against the machines. With smooth, intuitive combat and traversal, and graphics that showcase the power of the PS5, Forbidden West is a joy to play. But what makes it linger is its emotional heft, memorable characterization, and strong allegory about what happens when humans put their faith in greedy billionaires whose egos outweigh their technological knowhow.

Available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

1. God of War: Ragnarok

From its myth-shattering storytelling to deft tonal shifts, its emotional character arcs to its bone-breaking action, God of War: Ragnarok is what all action-adventure games should aspire towards. And in a year full of gorgeous games, Ragnarok is such a sight to behold it’ll make you want new glasses to see it all the better. Set three years after the previous installment, Ragnarok once again finds Kratos and his son Atreus attempting to find peace in Midgard, peace that is all too quickly shattered by the Aesir and the coming Ragnarok. While Atreus seeks to uncover his origins, Kratos fears the boy is leading them into a war with Odin that will have insurmountable consequences. As father and son travel across the nine realms with the sage Mimir, they encounter gods and monsters pulled from Norse mythology that test their strength, but more importantly their bond. For Kratos, it’s a story of seeking something more than war. And for Atreus it’s a coming-of-age story in which the consequences of growing determine what kind of god he’ll be. And for players? Well, it’s an epic and emotional saga that stands as the best game of the year.

Available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

NEW YORK — Oscar, Golden Globe and two-time Grammy winning singer-actress Irene Cara, who starred and sang the title cut from the 1980 hit movie “Fame” and then belted out the era-defining hit “Flashdance … What a Feeling” from 1983’s “Flashdance,” has died. She was 63.

Her publicist, Judith A. Moose, announced the news on social media, writing that a cause of death was “currently unknown.” Moose also confirmed the death to an Associated Press reporter on Saturday. Cara died at her home in Florida. The exact day of her death was not disclosed.

“Irene’s family has requested privacy as they process their grief,” Moose wrote. “She was a beautifully gifted soul whose legacy will live forever through her music and films.”
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During her career, Cara had three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Breakdance,” “Out Here On My Own,” “Fame” and “Flashdance … What A Feeling,” which spent six weeks at No. 1. She was behind some of the most joyful, high-energy pop anthems of the early ’80s.

Tributes poured in on Saturday on social media, including from Deborah Cox, who called Cara an inspiration, and Holly Robinson Peete, who recalled seeing Cara perform: “The insane combination of talent and beauty was overwhelming to me. This hurts my heart so much.”

She first came to prominence among the young actors playing performing arts high schoolers in Alan Parker’s “Fame,” with co-stars Debbie Allen, Paul McCrane and Anne Mear. Cara played Coco Hernandez, a striving dancer who endures all manner of deprivations, including a creepy nude photo shoot.

“How bright our spirits go shooting out into space, depends on how much we contributed to the earthly brilliance of this world. And I mean to be a major contributor!” she says in the movie.

Cara sang on the soaring title song with the chorus — “Remember my name/I’m gonna live forever/I’m gonna learn how to fly/I feel it coming together/People will see me and cry” — which would go on to be nominated for an Academy Award for best original song. She also sang on “Out Here on My Own,” “Hot Lunch Jam” and “I Sing the Body Electric.”

Three years later, she and the songwriting team of “Flashdance” — music by Giorgio Moroder, lyrics by Keith Forsey and Cara — was accepting the Oscar for best original song for “Flashdance … What a Feeling.”

The movie starred Jennifer Beals as a steel-town girl who dances in a bar at night and hopes to attend a prestigious dance conservatory. It included the hit song “Maniac,” featuring Beals’ character leaping, spinning, stomping her feet and the slow-burning theme song.

“There aren’t enough words to express my love and my gratitude,” Cara told the Oscar crowd in her thanks. “And last but not least, a very special gentlemen who I guess started it all for me many years ago. To Alan Parker, wherever you may be tonight, I thank him.”

The New York-born Cara began her career on Broadway, with small parts in short-lived shows, although a musical called “The Me Nobody Knows” ran over 300 performances. She toured in the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” as Mary Magdalene in the mid-1990s and a tour of the musical ”Flashdance” toured 2012-14 with her songs.

She also created the all-female band Irene Cara Presents Hot Caramel and put out a double CD with the single “How Can I Make You Luv Me.” Her movie credits include ”Sparkle” and “D.C. Cab.”

The first dressing room I remember was at Hudson’s, a Detroit-based department store where middle-class people in my town went to get things that were “nice.” It was the place where my mother bought me overalls and hair bows, where she bought herself high-heeled shoes displayed like pastries on wooden pedestals.

On those shopping trips, my mother would gather a pile of clothes, hunting and pecking her way through the various women’s departments. We both loved this part. For me, the initial search on a shopping trip is when optimism is at its peak, the time when all the garments on offer might actually fit, when they still might actually look good. It is during the second act of the shopping experience when it all goes awry.

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My mother, always so neat and thoughtful, hung up her garments before changing out of her own clothes. She had once worked in a Hudson’s, and so was aware of all the perpetual folding and steaming that the saleswomen had to do. She unfurled each pair of new pants, stepped inside them, and examined herself in the mirrors.

This was the hard part.

My mom rarely liked clothes once she wore them. The promise she’d seen in each garment on its hanger was dashed once she had buttoned and zipped it onto her body. The hem was revealed to be too long, the waist too wide; the material hugged her too tight. But her language—our language—for what was wrong was never about the clothes. Instead, it was about ourselves. “I’m too short,” she’d say, or, “My arms are too flabby.” And always, always: “My butt is too big.” In other words: The clothes are not flawed. I am.

Read More: Inside the Fight to Take Back the Fitting Room

In addition to all the other tacit work the fashion industry does to define what different body types mean, clothing offers a frank materialization of rightness. Pants are a physical object you can hold in your hands, reminding you that there are parts of your body that literally do not fit. For everything that reveals itself to be too big, or too small, there is the clear indication that somewhere there is a thing that is just right, a body that is in the middle, a body that is correct.

This middle thing is somehow both an ideal and an average, made perfect by not being too much of anything. But what is this middle thing, this normal thing? My mother always said her butt was too big. I often say the same thing. But “too big” compared to what?

“Normal” is an insidious concept—and one that the fashion industry has long tried to define. Bodies are bespoke, yet most clothes made since the 1920s are mass-produced industrial products: when the pants don’t fit, it’s because the proportions of a body don’t match up to the proportions that the clothing companies imagined for it. But the fashion industry isn’t the only entity that has invested in the damaging idea of “normal”—it has long been used by society at large to other and exclude.

Norma’s butt is 29 inches across, from hip bone to hip bone. It’s round and pert and, because it’s made of stone, alarmingly smooth. It is substantial, a handful, but no one would call it big. If it were made of flesh, it would fill out a swimsuit nicely, but I doubt it would elicit a long second look. Norma has the Goldilocks butt, the Goldilocks body. Everything about her, at least according to the people who designed her, is “just right.”

In June 1945, Norma made her first appearance, at an exhibition hall at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. On the other end of the hall stood her male counterpart, Normman. The pair were representations of the “typical” reproductive human adult male and female, and were created by gynecologist Robert Latou Dickinson and artist Abram Belskie.

Norma was not voluptuous and she was not skinny. She was strong, robust, and capable of bearing many children—not too sexy, but clearly fertile. As her name suggests, Norma was not, in any real way, exceptional. She was normal.

But just what did that mean? The statue suggests a very specific concept of normal: she was white, heterosexual (Normman steadfastly stood by her at all times in the exhibition hall to reassure us of that), and able-bodied. She was a little dour, offering none of the seduction of classic statuary, and stood perfectly erect, arms by her sides, posed as if in a scientific drawing. She was appealing (as her name suggests) in her normal-ness—and that was the intent.

Norma and Normman were a project of American eugenics, the racial science invented by Francis Galton that had built on the work of Georges Cuvier and other 19th-century thinkers to create and enforce a hierarchy of human bodies. While one strain of eugenicists in the United States was working hard to eliminate the unfit through sterilization, others were busy encouraging the “right” people to have children. Those involved in this branch of eugenics—called positive eugenics—tried to make it as clear as possible which Americans they thought should be procreating.

Standing in the halls of the most famous natural history museum in America, Norma and Normman exemplified to visitors what kinds of adult bodies, and people, were “fit.” The museum displayed them as singular objects, creations meant to codify the aesthetics of normality in the immediate aftermath of World War II, when normal was what many people very much aspired to be.

In the interests of maintaining a “scientific” approach, Belskie and Dickinson relied on data in the creation of Norma and Normman, rather than subjective preference. The specifications for Normman’s creation had been easy enough to come by: during World War I, the military had measured every drafted U.S. serviceman. There also was data from men who had volunteered to be measured at the Chicago World’s Fair, as well as statistics from the early years of the Ivy League posture studies and insurance company physicals. They just had to be added up, divided, and voilà! The average American man.

Norma’s creation, however, proved to be more difficult. Women didn’t serve in the military at the time, and, at first, there seemed to be no large repository of measurements of the female population. But Belskie and Dickinson were living in an age of metrics, a time when it seemed that all things could and must be measured, managed, and known. Surely the female body was of interest to researchers somewhere.

In 1945, they finally found the data set they were looking for. Five years earlier, a group of researchers had measured thousands of American women at the USDA’s Bureau of Home Economics, one of the only places where female scientists and statisticians could find a home in the first half of the 20th century. The effort had been led by a chemist named Ruth O’Brien, who worked to find a way to create standard sizes for ready-made clothes.

The study, funded by the Works Progress Administration and lasting for one year, sought to discover the girths, lengths, and heights of the American woman in all her difference. To do so, O’Brien sent government-employed measurers to Illinois, Maryland, Arkansas, New Jersey, North Carolina, and California. In municipalities across the country, “measuring squads,” as she called them, recruited volunteers from local women’s clubs. Each was asked to wear cotton measuring shorts and a not-too-tight-fitting bandeau bra and was invited to step onto a measuring platform, where they were weighed using a government-issued scale. Then, the measurer took 58 additional measurements, including “sitting spread girth,” “anterior crotch length,” and “maximum thigh girth.” The squads brought in 15,000 surveys, but O’Brien ultimately only used 10,000. She discarded the other 5,000 for one of three reasons: there had been a gross error, there were too many young people in the data set, or the volunteers weren’t white. The truth was, O’Brien wasn’t interested in data for all American women; she wanted data from all American-born white women.

Read More: Can Gen X Women Love Their Bodies?

In his article about Norma and Normman, “A Portrait of the American People,” which ran in the museum’s magazine in 1945, Harry L. Shapiro, the curator of physical anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, praised the statues for helping to codify the “White American”—a category of person he feared was in danger of being sullied and diminished through racial mixing. Shapiro, who would go on to be the president of the American Eugenics Society, also emphasized how the average could be an ideal. “Norma and Normman, although they were designed to conform with the average adult before the onset of the ravages of age, exhibit a harmony of proportion that seems far indeed from the usual or the average.” Their averageness was notable and, paradoxically, unique. Shapiro said, “Let us state it this way: the average American figure approaches a kind of perfection of bodily form and proportion; the average is excessively rare.”

When I first read Shapiro’s conflation of the word normal with perfection, I found it to be a bit of a stretch. Perfection, after all, suggests an apex rather than a middle, a singular kind of human who is, in some sense, above all others. The way I’d always understood it, a perfect human woman would be smarter, more beautiful, thinner, and more graceful than the rest. She’d be special, not typical.

And yet, Shapiro’s formulation does make intuitive, if not actual, sense. I had often found my own body to be, in some small sense, abnormal. My large butt, my slightly crossed eye, and my poor performance in any and all sports always felt like defects when, in fact, they were characteristics of mine that were surely quite common. And yet, those characteristics never felt normal, because the notion of normal is not about averages or commonly occurring traits, but instead about an unattainable ideal.

The idea of normal, it seems, always comes with some kind of agenda. In the case of Norma, the minds that collated her measurements were enthusiastic eugenicists, motivated by a desire to effectively eradicate insufficiently white, disabled, and queer people. They were openly attempting to engineer a race of perfectly normal Americans, equating full citizenship with having this decisively average, yet demonstrably unattainable, body. By codifying normal, the Norma boosters were also codifying abnormal, which is always the implicit project of the creation of an ideal.

But if the creation of Norma proves anything, it’s that no body actually is normal. Despite all her rigorous measuring, Ruth O’Brien’s study failed—even after measuring thousands of women and crunching and tabulating all the data, there were too many variables for her to create a meaningful set of recommendations for ready-to-wear clothes. She failed to find the superlative normal that she craved, because creating something singular inevitably separates it from the group. Her project couldn’t work because bodies aren’t standard.

It’s tempting to think that we have outgrown Norma, that we have transcended the pernicious fantasy of an empirical and enforceable “normal.” But the truth is that while the material of normalcy is a moving target, the concept of “the normal” is extraordinarily durable, even if there are no scientists and sculptors openly regulating it. It may not be staring us down in a museum of hygiene, but it is always lurking—in dressing rooms, in magazines, in the endless scroll of Instagram.

Copyright © 2022 by Heather Radke. From the forthcoming book BUTTS: A Backstory by Heather Radke to be published by Avid Reader Press, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Printed by permission.

The key to a truly excellent white elephant gift is finding the rare item that is both funny and functional. A good player of the game will bring a gift that surprises and delights; a great player will bring the item that is so novel everyone wants it—the gift that’s never safe from being stolen or swapped.

While shopping for traditional gifts for the folks in your life who love to eat, travel, or host is fairly straightforward, white elephant gift exchanges require an extra bit of creativity. We searched high and low for items that evoked whimsy and humor and rounded up 16 of the quirkiest and most outrageous little gifts that are sure to be a hit at your next holiday party. Best of all, in keeping with most white elephant traditions, at the time of publication, they all clock in at $25 or less.
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World’s smallest Uno game

Price: $4.99

A sure way to please a crowd is taking something that everyone already knows and loves—in this case, the card game Uno—and shrinking it down to a playful miniature size. This mini Uno deck delivers all of the fun of the original but is particularly great for travel, small hands, and people who just love tiny things.

Buy now: $4.99 at Ace Hardware, $7.08 at Amazon

Wish paper

Price: $7.50

Make setting intentions into a fancy ritual with these wish papers. To use them, each participant writes a wish or intention on a piece of paper, rolls it into a cylinder, and sets it on fire. After the paper burns, the ash will float away, releasing the wishes into the universe.

Buy now: $7.50 at Tops Malibu

Doggie ice cube tray

Price: $7.99

This dachshund ice tray would be a wacky yet welcome addition to any white elephant gift pool. Made of flexible silicone for easy removal, the tray turns out adorable ice sculptures that will add a playful touch to any cold beverage.

Buy now: $7.99 at Amazon

Iridescent back scratcher

Price: $8.75

There are few things more satisfying than scratching an itch, and you’ll always be able to do that with this telescoping back scratcher, which can get to all the hard-to-reach spots. The whimsical iridescent finish makes it just unique enough to capture attention.

Buy now: $8.75 at Kikkerland

Mini cake pop maker

Price: $8.99

The dominance of cake pops in popular baking culture has waned, which only makes this at-home cake pop maker a better choice for a white elephant gift exchange. Does anyone really need this? No. But is it just weird—and functional—enough to be a hit? Definitely. The maker has a 350-watt heating system that can turn out sweet treats in minutes.

Buy now: $8.99 at Macy’s, $29.99 at BuyDig

Good luck clover kit

Price: $9.97

Everyone can use a little more luck in their lives—and with this good luck clover seed sprouting kit, they’ll be able to grow it themselves. The package comes with everything a person would need to nurture clover, including a glazed terracotta pot and seeds.

Buy now: $9.97 at Saks Off Fifth, $12.99 at Camp

“No” button

Price: $10

Sometimes, when the answer is a resounding no, your voice alone doesn’t feel emphatic enough to express it. That’s when this useful button comes in: simply press it to let your feelings be known, loud and clear.

Buy now: $10 at Target

Shower beer holder

Price: $11.20

Sometimes you just want a beer in the shower after a long, hard day. But finding a place to put down the can presents a challenge. Enter this handy silicone holder, which can be applied to any smooth and clean shower surface, including tile, porcelain, and glass.

Buy now: $11.20 at Tooletries, $16 at MR PORTER

Nicolas Cage sleeping mask

Price: $15.14

When it’s time to get some sleep, let one of the most prolific actors of the past century keep an eye out for you. This hilarious sleeping mask will allow the lucky recipient channel national treasure Nicolas Cage while they dream.

Buy now: $15.14 at Etsy

Puffer jacket koozie

Price: $15.95

When the temperature drops, keep cold beverages insulated and fingers protected in over-the-top style with this koozie shaped like a tiny parka. This jacket koozie features two layers of insulation and a handy zipper for easy beverage insertion and removal.

Buy now: $15.95 at Williams Sonoma, $15.95 at Sun and Ski

‘Who pooped?’ puzzle

Price: $17

This 3-foot-wide, 100-piece puzzle is both a fun activity and a learning opportunity. After the recipient pieces it together, they can learn about different animals and their droppings from the puzzle’s charming and informative illustrations.

Buy now: $17 at Uncommon Goods

Sparkling maple syrup

Price: $18

Breakfast can now be a glittering affair with this sparkling maple syrup. Made with real, all-natural Vermont maple syrup and a pearlescent, food-grade mica (a mineral that naturally reflects light and is completely flavorless), this syrup will deliver sparkle and shine to the recipient’s next pancake breakfast.

Buy now: $18 at Uncommon Goods

Kombucha kit

Price: $20

Give the funkiest white elephant gift of the season with a kombucha starter kit that allows the recipient to make their own brew at home. Equipped with a kombucha culture and starter liquid, the kit has the essentials to make a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, or a SCOBY, which is responsible for fermenting kombucha.

Buy now: $20 at The Kombucha Shop

Post Malone temporary tattoos

Price: $20

Few public figures have tattoos as distinctive as the rapper Post Malone, whose ink includes multiple face tatts, including the words “always” and “tired” under his eyes. Now, anyone can replicate his edgy look with this set of temporary tattoos. Each pack contains 12 pieces, so there are multiple ways to cosplay Malone.

Buy now: $20 at Momentary Ink

Grapes candle

Price: $24

Fresh fruit has a short shelf life, but this gorgeously rendered wax grape candle is sculpted to last—at least until it melts down. Handmade in Italy by Cereria Introna, a 6th-generation company that’s been making candles since 1840, the grapes candle is made of paraffin wax and a cotton wick for a clean burn.

Buy now: $24 at East Fork

Basketball mug

Price: $25

Start mornings off with a slam dunk with this sporty mug featuring a tiny backboard and hoop on the rim. Basketball devotees and caffeine enthusiasts alike will be charmed by not only the cheeky design, but also the fact that it’s dishwasher safe.

Buy now: $25 at Uncommon Goods