Netflix Archives - Public Seminar

Netflix Revives the Genre of the “Blaxploitation” Film to Attract Black Subscribers

They Cloned Tyrone tries to turn the colonization of Black Americans into a LOL comedy

December 18, 2023 • by Zenzelé Soa-Clarke

As a genre, Blaxploitation films were often morally ambiguous: though made for and by Black filmmakers and audiences, and sometimes depicting a kind of dead-end domestic colonialism, the films often normalized misogynistic treatment of Black women and uncritical ideals of Black capitalism....

Netflix Revives the Genre of the “Blaxploitation” Film to Attract Black Subscribers

Past Present

Netflix’s “Love Is Blind” and the History of TV Dating Shows

Past Present Podcast, Episode 318

March 22, 2022 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The second season of Love Is Blindis the latest in a long history of TV dating shows to capture the attention of the American public. Natalia recommended the podcast This Is Datingand referred to this Vox essay on and this ...

Netflix’s “Love Is Blind” and the History of TV Dating Shows

Film & Performing Arts

Faculty TeeVee

In the Netflix series The Chair, Sandra Oh is charged with a Sisyphean task: an English department faculty in decline. Spoiler alerts!

August 20, 2021 • by Claire Potter

_____ It’s such a setup, and one of Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim’s colleagues knows it. As Dr. Kim settles into her office as the first woman—the first woman of color, no less—to chair the English department at the fictional Pembroke University, a package awaits her. It is a nameplate for her desk which ...

Politics

A Better Way to Do Corporate Giveaways

How legislation would put a stop to the most senseless of senseless state competitions

March 8, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

_____ The debate around corporate tax breaks usually centers on a specific giveaway. Should Virginia have given hundreds of millions of dollars to Amazon for its so-called HQ2? Does Netflix really need $24 million, plus an undisclosed amount of property tax reductions, from New Mexico? But playing whack-a-mole and attempting to ...

Media

Hallmark Christmas Movies

Past Present Podcast, Episode 260

December 22, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The Hallmark Christmas movie is a bona fide super-genre. Niki referred to this New Yorker article about how the form took over cable television, and Natalia drew on this piece at The Lily about the tradition of hate-watching the films. In ...

Past Present

The Queen’s Gambit

Past Present Podcast, Episode 258

December 9, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit has become the pandemic’s latest must-see TV. Niki referred to the role of African-American character Jolene, discussed in this Bitch article, and to her own piece on female leads for CNN. Neil cited this ...

Past Present

“Emily in Paris” and American Francophilia

Past Present Podcast, Episode 252

October 27, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Emily in Paris is a hit on Netflix, perhaps due in equal parts to escapism and hate-watching. Natalia referenced her Well + Good roundup of Parisian fitness, and the show Younger. Niki discussed the novel The Ugly American. Neil referred ...

Multi Media

The Controversy over “Cuties”

Past Present Podcast, Episode 247

September 23, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Cuties, a French independent film released in the United States has inspired opposition. Niki referred to the connection between the critics’ fear of perversion and the current furor over pedophilia among some on the Right, discussed in Rolling Stone. In our ...

Past Present

Larry Kramer, Playwright and AIDS Activist

Past Present Podcast, Episode 233

June 16, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Pioneering AIDS activist Larry Kramer died this month. Natalia referred to this Vulture interview about Kramer’s legacy. Neil commented on Kramer’s autobiographical play, The Normal Heart. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia recommended the Netflix documentary, Crip Camp: A ...

Uncategorized

The Weirdness of U.S. vs. AT&T

An important debate over media mergers, or just another attack on CNN?

March 23, 2018 • by David Lieberman

The first thing to recognize about the antitrust trial over AT&T’s $85 billion plan to buy Time Warner -- which begins this week at the U.S. District Court in D.C. – is how fundamentally weird the whole thing is. Few really understand why the Justice Department decided to challenge the deal ...