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Melanie McFarland (page 5)

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

Trevor Noah speaks during the 67th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

The 67th annual Grammy Awards distinguished itself with great winners. Its host? Not so much

Melanie McFarland
Common Side Effects (Adult Swim/Warner Bros.)

“Common Side Effects” animates the dream of a cure-all and the reality of Big Pharma’s corruption

Melanie McFarland
Tramell Tillman in "Severance" (Apple TV+)

“Severance” star Tramell Tillman demystifies Mr. Milchick, the enigmatic “othered” middle manager

Melanie McFarland
Jim Acosta speaks at The Common Good, American Spirit Awards at The Plaza on November 21, 2024 in New York City (Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

Jim Acosta officially signs off from CNN: “Don‘t give in to the lies. Don‘t give in to the fear”

Melanie McFarland
E-Reader on a bookshelf (Getty Images/onurdongel)

Bookshop.org enters the e-book arena, giving indie stores a new way to compete with Amazon

Melanie McFarland
Sean "Diddy" Combs attends Black Tie Affair For Quality Control's CEO Pierre "Pee" Thomas at Fox Theater on June 02, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)

“The Fall of Diddy” chronicles decades’ worth of failures to hold a powerful monster accountable

Melanie McFarland
Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou and Omari Hardwick as Alok of "Section 31" (Jan Thijs/Paramount+)

The makers of “Star Trek: Section 31” had a difficult mission, so they decided to make it fun

Melanie McFarland
Rachel Maddow, Host of "The Rachel Maddow Show" (Art Streiber/MSNBC)

“The Rachel Maddow Show” has begun its 100-day watch. Let’s hope the host can bring us through this

Melanie McFarland
Ben Frisone in "The Joe Schmo Show" (Courtesy of TBS and Warner Bros. Discovery)

“The Joe Schmo Show” returns with a charming, skeptical mark forged in the age of disinformation

Melanie McFarland
Let's not watch the Presidential inauguration this time (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Turn the channel on the inauguration with these counterprogramming suggestions

Melanie McFarland, Hanh Nguyen, Kelly McClure, Mary Elizabeth Williams, Nardos Haile, Nicholas Liu, Amanda Marcotte
Tramell Tillman and Britt Lower in “Severance." (Apple TV+)

How do we define Lynchian? Look to some of the most audacious TV — you’ll know it when you see it

Melanie McFarland
Britt Lower and Adam Scott in "Severance" (Apple TV+)

It’s been a minute, but “Severance” returns to work with a weird wonder of a second season

Melanie McFarland
A shot of the Control Room in "SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night" (Peacock)

“SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night,” like its inspiration, is pleasant, uneven and occasionally inspired

Melanie McFarland
Laci Mosley in "Scam Goddess" (Disney)

Con-gregation, be seated: “Scam Goddess” is a better podcast than it manifests on TV

Melanie McFarland
Bill Maher: Is Anyone Else Seeing This? (Greg Endries/HBO)

The lazy comedy of “Bill Maher: Is Anyone Else Seeing This?” coasts on complaints instead of jokes

Melanie McFarland
Alan Cumming in "The Traitors" (Euan Cherry/Peacock)

Long live “The Traitors,” a killer distillation of American reality TV psychological games

Melanie McFarland
Quinta Brunson and Kaitlin Olson on "Abbott Elementary" (Disney/Gilles Mingasson)

We can all learn something from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” visiting “Abbott Elementary”

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

“Fights, Camera, Action”: How Jerry Springer exposed the beginning of America’s decline

Melanie McFarland
Nikki Glaser during the 82nd Annual Golden Globes held at The Beverly Hilton on January 05, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. (Rich Polk/GG2025/Penske Media via Getty Images)

Nikki Glaser triumphs as the host of a revived 82nd Golden Globes

Melanie McFarland
T.O.P. as Thanos in "Squid Game 2" (Netflix)

“Give me the green light”: All hail the “Squid Game” manosphere mascot

Melanie McFarland
Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall (Clifton Prescod/Netflix)

Can we move past anti-trans jokes? Michelle Buteau and other comics sound the call that it’s time

Melanie McFarland
The Boys (Prime Video)

“Fascism that cloaks itself in patriotism”: “The Boys” boss on dangers of strongmen and superheroes

Melanie McFarland
Cristin Milioti in "The Penguin" (Macall Polay/HBO)

9 unforgettable moments that made TV great in 2024

Melanie McFarland
Squid Game (Netflix)

“Squid Game 2” fittingly plays a different and still very relevant game for its return

Melanie McFarland
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