Season 2 Episode 7, "Chikhai Bardo," which aired last Friday on Apple TV+, is Severance at its finest. It is the distillation of everything the show is about, thematically and technically. It is one of the greatest episodes of television I’ve ever seen. 

Dan Fogelman is back! From the mastermind that brought us This is Us (and my personal favorite Crazy, Stupid, Love), Fogelman’s most recent creation has a similar familial bent but set in a whole new world…literally.

AI.

I know everyone has been waiting with bated breath. I know my silence has been deafening. But wait no longer—the time is finally here. I am ready to make my voice heard. 

I’ve always had this weird feeling about the harmonica. In a prophetic way, I feel like I was destined for the instrument. I’m sitting in a county jail cell playing a lonely tune on my pocket harmonica in another life.

Some may call it luck, others may call it a curse, but I have recently read a string of really truly awesome novels. Part of my obsessive nature is to never shut up about the things I crazily consume, so I’ve listed my top four reads of the year for anyone who might be looking for a recommendation. 

So I’ve been rewatching Veep.

I feel as though I am in the sixth grade of my life. Coming hot off the end of elementary school, where I walked down the hallway with my head held high and sported my Case-it binder without a care in the world, I’ve suddenly been thrown into the depths of despair that is middle school.

My mom, an English teacher and writer herself, instilled in me from a young age the importance of reading and studying the world’s great texts: religious scriptures, classic literature, and celebrity gossip magazines.

I let out a very serious groan—frankly, a wail—when I heard the news, which is something I haven’t done over a TV show in years. After watching the season finale many weeks ago, I had a gut feeling that something was awry, but it didn’t even cross my mind that cancellation was a possibility.

Sometimes the ghosts of one-season-wonders or shows canceled before their time come back to haunt me. Shows I obsessed over then forgot about during my insane era of TV watching. Shows I’m convinced nobody else has seen. Logically, I know that’s improbable. Spiritually, I know it’s true. 

Of all the possible stories to tell, it is always the ones about friendship I want to hear. Whether it’s the b-plot of a television show or an alliance between characters in a novel, I will seek out the beats of friendship and cling to them.

I had zero expectations going into The Artful Dodger, so I wasn’t prepared to be completely consumed by it. Starring Thomas Brodie-Sangster (The Queen’s Gambit, Love Actually) and Maia Mitchell (The Fosters, Teen Beach Movie), this Hulu mini-series gives new life to the Charles Dickens character from Oliver Twist.

I listen to music while I work and suddenly, without queuing or expecting it, a song came on that knocked the wind out of me. It was a song I used to listen to every day when I was depressed.

I think it’s time we talk about 2004. Now officially two decades gone, the discussion has become unavoidable. Pay no mind to the fact that I was four-years-old. This is not about me.

I believe, if I was given a calendar and an hour, I could assign a movie to every celebrated holiday (including ones like Labor Day and Mother’s Day). There are very few occasions that don’t warrant a relevant movie.

Have we already watched the last great sitcom?

Sometimes it feels like I was born with rom-coms in my blood. I cannot recall one defining moment or instigating factor that made me fall in love with the genre — it has just always been.

How this got started, I don’t know. One day I woke up and found myself four seasons into HBO’s hit vampire series, True Blood (2008-2014).

The other night, my roommate Chloe and I went through this Hollywood Reporter ranking of the best TV shows of the 21st century. We wanted to see how many we had watched and whether or not we agreed.