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This is the Take. It's where you come to understand more about your favorite movies, shows and culture. Our video essays make the story worlds you enter richer and deeper. Think: Endings Explained, Character Studies, Hidden Messages and Symbols Revealed, Actor and Director Profiles, and more. We want to share our love of visual culture with the world. So here's our Take.
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Go to http://zocdoc.com/THETAKE to download the Zocdoc app for free and book a top-rated doctor today. Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes is one of the most iconic and hilarious characters of the 90s – played by the comedy legend, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She stood out for being the only woman of the friend group, but also because she was (at least at first) also…
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Go to http://factormeals.com/thetake50 and use code thetake50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next box. Workaholism and hustle culture are certainly nothing new, but now it’s not just about being efficient at work, but reworking *every aspect* of your entire life to be “productive.” There’s a pervasive feeling that nothing in life i…
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Go to http://zocdoc.com/THETAKE to download the Zocdoc app for free and book a top-rated doctor today. Netflix’s new hit adaptation 3 Body Problem is filled with symbolism, but what does it all really mean? The book on which the show is based is famous for leaning hard into the science aspect of sci-fi, creating an engaging but incredibly dense wor…
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From shows like Emily in Paris and You to movies like Not Okay and Ingrid Goes West, influencers and content creators of all kinds have begun popping up more and more as they become a larger part of our everyday lives. And just like their real-life counterparts, these on-screen influencers can give us some pretty unrealistic ideas about what it’s l…
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So many film and tv characters have jobs that seem to be almost no work and all pay, pretty much the exact opposite of how things are in their careers in real life. From freelance writers somehow managing to live the high life, to public school teachers who seem to be financially secure and have so much free time, to lawyers who spend more time enj…
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The Romantic Grand Gesture is one major romance trope that film and TV just can't get enough of. From filling a room with candles or bouquets of flowers to orchestrating a flash mob proposal, there are some wild romantic gestures in media that are so unrealistic they’re almost laughable, but... we love them nonetheless! Let’s take a minute to zoom …
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From real life Horse Girls like Bella Hadid and TikTok #HorseGirls to book and tv icons like The Saddle Club, Horse Girls are everywhere. It's long been a trope both on screen and in real life – you probably knew a Horse Girl growing up, or maybe you were the Horse Girl. The trope often splits in two directions: the bratty rich-girl equestrian and …
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Bradley Cooper spent years perfecting his performance (plus writing and directing) in hopes of securing an Oscar for Maestro, but instead, his performance was seemingly overshadowed by his "desperation" to win, and the Oscar for Best Actor instead went to quiet frontrunner Cillian Murphy. Cooper’s Oscar’s journey actually highlights an interesting …
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'Poor Little Rich Kids' like Succession's Kendall, Shiv, and Roman and Gossip Girl's Blair Waldorf seem to have everything, and yet… they’re still miserable. Hearing the old adage “money can’t buy happiness” can be grating, especially in financial times like these – but there is a kernel of truth in it. So to get a better understanding of this trop…
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Film and TV love to show partly-relatable, partly-aspirational lifestyles that… actually don’t make a whole lot of sense when you really think about them. Of course, we’re not always watching movies and shows just to see real life, and it can sometimes work well when media choses to let go of realism a little bit to have more fun. But this can also…
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Go to https://www.expressvpn.com/thetake and find out how you can get 3 months of ExpressVPN free! Feud: Capote vs The Swans follows the downfall of arguably the most famous American mid-century writer, Truman Capote. His best seller In Cold Blood catapulted him to stardom, and with his natural magnetism and inclination for spectacle catapulted him…
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Go to http://factormeals.com/thetake50 and use code thetake50 to get 50% off. Dune: Part 2, starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and a host of other stars, has become a huge hit – crossing $80 million in only its first weekend at the box office. It’s no surprise that people love the second installment in Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of the 1965 Fr…
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Go to http://zocdoc.com/THETAKE to download the Zocdoc app for free and book a top-rated doctor today. The Office is a beautifully crafted comedy that manages to bring the laughs, tug on our heart strings, and make us appreciate the magic of or everyday, ordinary lives. Over it's 9 seasons, we watched the characters stumble and grow, rooting for th…
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30 Rock’s Jenna Maroney still managed to stand out in a sea of hilarious characters. She was unbelievably vain, shallow, manipulative, unstable, thin-skinned… but instead of being annoying and unlikable, she became one of the most entertaining, iconic characters of modern television. So, how did Jenna manage to capture that ‘beloved star’ status th…
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Moms can be many things, but on screen if they’re hot they also often happen to be kind of evil – or, if not outright evil, still pretty bad. From The Graduate's Mrs. Robinson and Mad Men's Betty Draper to The O.C.'s Julie Cooper and Regina's Mom in Mean Girls and beyond, this trope pops up all over film and television. Thankfully this is finally s…
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The Big Bang Theory’s Bernadette's (Melissa Rauch) tiny stature and high pitched voice might make her seem unthreatening at first, but one wrong move and you’ll quickly learn that she's not afraid of anyone or anything. But, instead of making her hated, her willingness to stand up for herself and speak her mind actually made her beloved – both on t…
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Gilmore Girls’ Paris Geller is many things: hyper-intelligent, laser focused, extremely intense… but she became a beloved character because as the show went on we got to peel back the layers and see Paris as less of a looming threat and more as a real person. While things always seemed to turn out great for Rory Gilmore no matter what (at least for…
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At first glance, The O.C.’s Marissa Cooper might seem like the epitome of the ‘poor little rich girl’ trope – she’s gorgeous, lives in a mansion in southern California, and never seems to be having a good time. But the show gave us a chance to see beyond the outer facade of Marissa’s seemingly-perfect life and into the darkness hiding beneath that …
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Love bombing has been a huge topic of conversation in recent years, and if we take a closer look, we might start to notice that the TV and movie characters who we thought were so lovable and charming are actually doing this too – from self-identified “nice guys” like How I Met Your Mother’s Ted Mosby to full on bad guys like Chuck Bass from Gossip …
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Nathan Fielder uses his brand of awkward, uncomfortable humor (and a hint of darkness) to flip the script on contemporary TV’s obsession with reality. From creating cringe comedy that’s achieved cult status on his shows Nathan For You and The Rehearsal to his latest hyper-real horror show with Benny Safdie, The Curse, he shines a light back on the …
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Boy Meets World's Angela Moore (Trina McGee) quickly became one of the most influential Black teen sitcom characters of the 1990s when she joined the cast in season 5 and became one half of the show's best power couple with on-again-off-again boyfriend Shawn Hunter. But as beloved as she was, she still ran into a number of problems both on screen a…
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Annoying overachievers seem to somehow be doing everything, perfectly, all of the time which, while great for their resume, can get a little old for the more “average” people around them. But while they might make being perfect look easy, oftentimes a peek below the surface shows us that there are complex motivations that drive these ambitious figu…
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Gilmore Girls, the early 2000s hit following Lorelai, Rory, and their town full of quirky friends, is one of our favorite shows. We've done several videos digging into specific aspects of the show, but today we're taking a look back at the whole thing. So whether you're a long time fan who wants to enjoy a bit of nostalgia or someone who's never wa…
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Poor Things, the new Yorgos Lanthimos film starring Emma Stone, has been racking up nominations and wins on this year’s award circuit. But it also sparked a bit of controversy thanks to one major feature of its plot… So what is the film actually about, and is it empowering or exploitative? Here’s what you need to know about Poor Things, those scene…
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We’ve pulled together some of our favorite releases from this year across film and TV! This is definitely not an exhaustive list, but we wanted to share some things we loved this year with you (and hope that you'll share your favorites with us, too!) We’ve split them into ten categories, from the best performances, to the best zany comedies, to the…
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In the world of Succession, Logan Roy was a larger-than-life captain of industry that clawed his way to the top with no remorse and reveled in keeping an iron grip on that power until the very end. So how did Logan grow beyond this initial sprout of real world connection and develop into one of the most iconic antiheroes of the modern era?…
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