Meredith Blake

1 month ago | contrarian.substack.com | Meredith Blake

Are you looking for something to amuse, inspire, enlighten, or maybe just distract you from… well, everything? Each week, The Contrarian will share our culture picks—the best things to watch, read, listen to, follow, or go see right now. Adolescence,a four-part series now streaming on Netflix, opens early in the morning on a residential street somewhere in the north of England. Two police officers make chit-chat in their car before springing into action.

1 month ago | contrarian.substack.com | Meredith Blake

On Monday, Donald Trump paid his first visit to the Kennedy Center since installing himself as chairman last month. Days after staging a Tesla infomercial on the White House lawn, he used the nation’s premier performing arts venue to convene the board of trustees in what felt like a reboot of The Apprentice. He sat at a long table in the venue’s opera house, flanked by his allies on the board (including second lady Usha Vance), and bemoaned the supposedly diminished state of the Kennedy Center.

1 month ago | contrarian.substack.com | Meredith Blake

Anyone who wants to understand the growing political gender gap in young people—and the crisis this poses for American democracy—should consider watching the latest season of Love is Blind. ‘Love is Blind? You mean that show where people talk to each other through a wall and get engaged without seeing each other?’ Yes, that’s the one. As unhinged as it often is, the Netflix dating show, which is set in a different city each season, is also a strangely precise cultural barometer.

1 month ago | contrarian.substack.com | Meredith Blake

After weeks of speculation, Andrew Cuomo recently entered the race for New York mayor. In a slickly produced 17-minute video highlighting his accomplishments as governor, he positioned himself as a pragmatic liberal in the tradition of F.D.R., Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. He even extended an olive branch to his one-time nemesis, Donald Trump. Cuomo briefly alluded to unspecified past mistakes.

1 month ago | contrarian.substack.com | Meredith Blake

Wearing pink is great for a lot of things: winning an Oscar, going to a Taylor Swift concert, cheering yourself up on a gray Wednesday in March. But as an act of resistance against creeping authoritarianism, wearing pink is—to paraphrase the great Selina Meyer—about as effective as using a croissant as a dildo.