Salon

2 days ago | salon.com | Melanie McFarland

The second season of “Andor” is a ticking clock counting down to the Galactic Civil War that launched “Star Wars.” At 12 episodes, it leaves a person yearning for more time with Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor while appreciating that the best TV series are insistently finite. Besides, since the story leads directly into the events of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” it’s really a 13-episode season with a spectacularly tragic finish.

3 days ago | salon.com | Melanie McFarland

HBO’s strained and curious relationship with fathers dates back to 1999, when we witnessed Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) reconcile his dueling identities of mob boss and family man on “The Sopranos.” Tony strives to be a present father and dutiful son to a bitter mother he blames for driving away his sainted father Johnny (Joseph Siravo).

3 days ago | salon.com | Heather Digby Parton

I know it may be impossible to accept, but it turns out that a weekend cable news host with a long record of personal misconduct may not actually be capable of leading the most powerful military on earth after all. Unfortunately, it does appear that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not living up to what the president and the entire Republican Party apparently believed was his vast potential based upon his "central casting" good looks and white supremacist tattoos.

3 days ago | salon.com | Amanda Marcotte

There is so much jaw-dropping weirdness in the Wall Street Journal report about Elon Musk's apparent baby-making fetish. Musk reached out to random women he's never met, and asked to impregnate them. He bribed women to have babies with hints of massive paydays, but then reneged on the deal when they asked for normal father behavior, like acknowledging paternity. He demanded one baby mama have a C-section, because he thinks vaginal delivery shrinks baby brains.

4 days ago | salon.com | Melanie McFarland

Centering "The Rehearsal" is the ongoing punchline that every elaborate, unnecessary vision Nathan Fielder places before us is the result of HBO allegedly giving the actor carte blanche to do whatever he wants. In its first season, under the guise of helping a teacher come clean to his bar trivia team about a lie, Nathan constructs a detailed replica of the bar where he and his subject endlessly role-play as many possible turns an upcoming awkward conversation could take.