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Melanie McFarland (page 20)

Melanie McFarland is Salon's award-winning senior culture critic. Follow her on Bluesky: @McTelevision

Danai Gurira in "Great Performances: Richard III" (Courtesy of Joe Sinnott)

Danai Gurira on playing “Richard III” on PBS: “In this Black female body, I can own it”

Melanie McFarland
Nicholas Braun in "Succession" (Macall B. Polay/HBO)

Cousin Greg was the feckless joke of “Succession.” Now he’s the idiot who abets democracy’s fall

Melanie McFarland
News anchor Kurt Loder poses for a portrait at MTV Studios in New York City, New York. (Karjean Levine/Getty Images)

Long ago, younger viewers wanted their MTV News. Can we learn from what it did right in its prime?

Melanie McFarland
Kim Woo-bin as 5-8 in Black Knight (Kim Jin-young/Netflix)

In “Black Knight” the future, however grim, belongs to working-class heroes

Melanie McFarland
Queen Cleopatra (Courtesy of Netflix)

The question isn’t why cast a Black Cleopatra but rather why not profile another African queen?

Melanie McFarland
Lilly Singh, Tahj Mowry and Anders Holm in "The Muppets Mayhem" (Disney/Mitch Haaseth)

Lilly Singh is making “Muppets Mayhem”: “No matter where you are in life, they mean so much”

Melanie McFarland
Matthew Macfadyen, Sarah Snook in "Succession" (Photograph by David Russell/HBO)

Wins, losses and regrets: It’s all part of the game at this “Succession” tailgate party

Melanie McFarland
Jeff Hiller poses in the IMDb Portrait Studio at the 2023 Independent Spirit Awards on March 04, 2023 in Santa Monica, California. (Michael Rowe/Getty Images for IMDb)

Why we all love “Somebody Somewhere” star Jeff Hiller: “Everybody feels like they’re the outsider”

Melanie McFarland
India Amarteifio as Young Queen Charlotte, Corey Mylchreest as Young King George in "Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story" (Liam Daniel/Netflix)

She is very brown: “Queen Charlotte” explains how the integrated ton was won, but what is left out?

Melanie McFarland
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during Wednesday’s March 15, 2023 show. (Scott Kowalchyk/CBS)

What to expect with TV writers on strike: First late night will go dark. Then comes the fall

Melanie McFarland
Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank in "A Small Light" (National Geographic for Disney/Dusan Martincek)

“A Small Light” star Liev Schreiber on playing Anne Frank’s father: “He was defined by his race”

Melanie McFarland
Sarah Snook in "Succession" (Photograph by David Russell/HBO)

On “Succession,” why bother simply surviving when you can fake what it means to be living … plus?

Melanie McFarland
Talk show host Jerry Springer talks to his guests and audience on the set of The Jerry Springer Show. (Ralf-Finn Hestoft/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Jerry Springer, talk TV’s ringmaster, leaves an entertainment legacy we’ll be living with for years

Melanie McFarland
Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

What Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon’s firings say about the impact of episodically dominant figures

Melanie McFarland
American singer Harry Belafonte performing in a recording studio, circa 1957. (Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

“A song of rebellion”: How Harry Belafonte’s dance with fame fed a life of activism

Melanie McFarland
Stephen King, Chrissy Teigen and LeBron James (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images/Twitter)

“What a sad, muddled place this has become”: The madness of Twitter’s blue checkpocalypse

Melanie McFarland
Alexander Skarsgård in "Succession" (Photograph by Courtesy of HBO)

The Roys never had a chance: “Succession” sells Alexander Skarsgård as TV’s finest Viking conqueror

Melanie McFarland
Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) with the Darksaber in "The Mandalorian" (Disney+/Lucasfilm Ltd.)

We salute you Bo-Katan Kryze, but the third season of “The Mandalorian” took on too much

Melanie McFarland
Michael Dorn as Worf, Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher, Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker, Patrick Stewart as Picard and Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi in "Star Trek: Picard" (Trae Patton/Paramount+)

A grand finale for “Star Trek: Picard” establishes why this crew is the greatest generation

Melanie McFarland
Elon Musk (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Elon Musk and “Tucker Carlson Tonight”: A distracting match made in misinformation paradise

Melanie McFarland
Brett in episode 402 of "Love is Blind." (Courtesy of Netflix)

“Love Is Blind” promised a live reunion, only to stand us up. So, what did we learn?

Melanie McFarland
Succession (HBO)

If “Succession” is a competition that ends with a winner, we’d be foolish to count out Marcia

Melanie McFarland
Bill Hader in "Barry" (Merrick Morton/HBO)

Buoyed by Bill Hader’s confident directing, “Barry” saves its best hits for last

Melanie McFarland
A group of public broadcasting supporters gathers in the Hart Senate Office building to lobby lawmakers to keep funding the PBS and NPR on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 (Bill Clark/Roll Call)

“Defund NPR”: As PBS and NPR exit Twitter, which has more value to taxpayers? Hint: not the bird app

Melanie McFarland
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