Help keep Salon independent

Melanie McFarland (page 45)

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

Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine (LACEY TERRELL/NETFLIX © 2020)

Trump satirist Sarah Cooper’s new Netflix special is a joyous acknowledgement that we’re not OK

Melanie McFarland
Donald Trump speaks to Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes" (CBSNews/60 MINUTES ©2020CBS Broadcasting Inc.)

“Borat” and Trump’s “60 Minutes” interview show what we’re missing: a sense of shame

Melanie McFarland
The Undoing (HBO)

HBO’s “The Undoing” does the incredible: Make us nostalgic for lifestyles of the rich and bothered

Melanie McFarland
American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself (MTV Documentary Films/SHOWTIME)

Alexandra Pelosi’s unfiltered “American Selfie” gives a complex picture of how we look to each other

Melanie McFarland
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Amazon Studios/EPK)

“Borat 2” makes an America slathered in misogyny and disinformation reckon with itself

Melanie McFarland
Donald Trump and Joe Biden (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Stars of the final presidential debate: Biden laughing at Trump’s BS and the invisible mute button

Melanie McFarland
Jada Harris, Aunjanue Ellis and Jurnee Smollett in "Lovecraft Country" (HBO/Warner Media Group)

An imperfect “Lovecraft Country” redefines Black magic for itself and its fans

Melanie McFarland
Feels Good Man (PBS/Kurt Keppeler)

In PBS’ “Feels Good Man,” Pepe the Frog is the “superhero” who gets vindication

Melanie McFarland
Heidi Schreck in a scene from “What the Constitution Means to Me.” (Joan Marcus/Amazon Studios)

In an Amy Coney Barrett reality, “What the Constitution Means to Me” is even more gutting

Melanie McFarland
Trial Of The Chicago 7 (Niko Tavernise/NETFLIX)

With “The Trial of the Chicago 7” we get a history of civil disobedience that’s very relevant today

Melanie McFarland
Anthony Rapp as Stamets; Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou; Mary Wiseman as Tilly; Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham of the the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: DISCOVERY (CBS)

“Star Trek: Discovery” Season 3 boldly goes where canon never dared to imagine life after disaster

Melanie McFarland
Donald Trump as the NBC logo peacock (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images/NBC/WikiCommons)

Trump’s town hall is just another ratings ploy, which NBC happily obliges

Melanie McFarland
Totally Under Control (Neon)

“Totally Under Control” shows all the ways the Trump administration let a virus win

Melanie McFarland
Chris Rock as Loy Cannon on "Fargo" (Elizabeth Morris/FX)

“I was never going to use the N-word”: “Fargo” seeks to examine our racist past without new injury

Melanie McFarland
Rainn Wilson as Dr. Michael Stearns (Amazon Studios/EPK)

“Utopia” shows the disheartening problems of pandemic TV

Melanie McFarland
Larry Wilmore of "Wilmore" and Amber Ruffin of "The Amber Ruffin Show" (Photo illustration by Salon/Trae Patton/Virginia Sherwood/Peacock/)

We need Larry Wilmore and Amber Ruffin for the hard truths we’re too chickensh*t to tackle

Melanie McFarland
Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence participate in the vice presidential debate at the University of Utah on October 7, 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The vice presidential candidates only meet once to debate before the general election on November 3. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Pence vs. Harris: Amid lies and side-eyes, a garbage pile of a debate attracts a fly

Melanie McFarland
Desus & Mero | Stephen Colbert of The Late Show | Michael Che of Weekend Report (Photo illustration by Salon/Showtime/NBC/Comedy Central)

Science and karma: Late night comedy makes peace with joking about Trump’s COVID diagnosis

Melanie McFarland
The Good Lord Bird (William Gray/SHOWTIME)

“The Good Lord Bird” is a zany, rollicking ride through the mania of abolitionist rebellion

Melanie McFarland
Shepard Smith (CNBC)

Serenity now: Shepard Smith returns as the calm eye of the misery cyclone of news

Melanie McFarland
A picture of Jamal Khashoggi in KINGDOM OF SILENCE (Courtesy of SHOWTIME)

“Kingdom of Silence”: A wrenching look at how Jamal Khashoggi’s life is a story as big as his death

Melanie McFarland
South Park Pandemic Special (Comedy Central)

Vote or die? In its “Pandemic Special,” “South Park” presents a mixed message on the election

Melanie McFarland
U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden participate in the first presidential debate at the Health Education Campus of Case Western Reserve University on September 29, 2020 in Cleveland, Ohio. This is the first of three planned debates between the two candidates in the lead up to the election on November 3. (Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

The traumatizing terror of Trump’s debate performance: We just witnessed an assault on democracy

Melanie McFarland
Chris Rock in "Fargo" (Elizabeth Morris/FX)

In “Fargo,” comedian Chris Rock gets dramatic as a mob boss whose weapon of choice is the monologue

Melanie McFarland
« Previous
Page: 45
Next »