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Jen Chaney

TV Critic
@chaneyj
[email protected]

Vulture and New York TV critic Jen Chaney previously worked for the Washington Post and has bylines at the New York Times and Vanity Fair. She also wrote As If: The Complete Oral History of Clueless.

  1. tv review
    Grown-ish Still Has Some Growing to DoThe Black-ish spinoff has potential, but like most college students, it’s trying to find itself.
  2. The Debut Episode of 9-1-1 Is SensationalRyan Murphy’s Fox series about first responders is engrossing, intense, and stars some great actors as lifesavers.
  3. Black Mirror’s New Season Is a Little Light, Until It Gets Darker Than EverExcept for a strong episode directed by Jodie Foster, the season is too gratuitous and too gimmicky.
  4. vulture lists
    19 Great Christmas Sitcom Episodes to Stream Right NowFrom The Office, Black-ish, Friends, and more.
  5. The Most Surreal TV Moments of 2017This year had a ton of WTF moments, including what we watched on TV.
  6. Why Holly Hunter’s Performance in Broadcast News Resonates 30 Years LaterOne of the greatest rom-coms of all time is especially fascinating to rewatch in 2017, thanks to its powerhouse of a female lead.
  7. tv review
    Gunpowder Is Not at All ExplosiveDespite the presence of Kit Harington, this HBO mini-series about the Gunpowder Plot is dull.
  8. a christmas story live
    The Highs and Lows of A Christmas Story Live!The good, the bad, and the leg lamp of Fox’s live musical.
  9. In Defense of Hayden Christensen’s Performance in the Star Wars Prequels#JusticeforHayden
  10. In 2017, Netflix Officially Became the Best Network for Scripted TVWhat really struck me about Netflix this year was how often its releases genuinely surprised me.
  11. The 10 Best New TV Shows of 2017The Handmaid’s Tale, Big Little Lies, and more.
  12. The Surprises and Snubs of the 2018 Golden Globe NominationsNo Jordan Peele or Julia Louis-Dreyfus? If you say so, Globes.
  13. Which Shows Will Be Nominated for the 2018 Golden Globes?Game of Thrones, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Big Little Lies are safe bets.
  14. The Crown’s Second Season Is Essential TVSettle in for some sumptuous, instructive royal watching.
  15. Jen Chaney’s 10 Best TV Shows of 2017Big Little Lies was the most invigorating series I watched all year.
  16. The Kennedy Center Honors Were a Happy, Trump-less CelebrationIt was the first time a president has missed the occasion in 23 years.
  17. Netflix’s Dark Is Like Stranger Things, But Also Nothing Like Stranger ThingsA mystery-box show complete with secrets, twists, and enticing cliffhangers.
  18. This Is Us Has Gotten Darker This Season, and It’s Better Because of ItFinally, the tearjerker has gotten more authentically sad.
  19. Can We Talk About How Charming The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Is?Amy Sherman-Palladino’s latest will feel familiar to Gilmore Girls fans.
  20. The Crown and Other Shows to Watch on ThanksgivingIt is our solemn duty to eat too much food, collapse onto a sofa, then binge-watch television in a tryptophan-induced haze.
  21. Godless Is So Good, You’ll Like It Even If You Don’t Like WesternsIn many ways, it’s like your grandfather’s Western. But it also speaks to your mom and your sister and your best girlfriend.
  22. Charles Manson Is Dead, But Pop Culture Is Keeping Him AliveIn American Horror Story, Search Party, and other projects, Manson is still a frightening cultural force.
  23. tv review
    Marvel’s Runaways Isn’t Quite a Teenage DreamThe latest superhero show has potential as a high-school drama, but requires some patience.
  24. American Horror Story: Cult Was a Missed OpportunityIt was a bold idea, but AHS: Cult didn’t tell us anything substantive about the Trump era.
  25. close reads
    What Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters Bring to American Horror Story: CultBy embracing over-the-top drama, they saved AHS: Cult from itself.
  26. The Amazon Fall 2017 Pilots, ReviewedSea Oak, starring Glenn Close, is the strongest out of the gate.
  27. close reads
    On TV, a Girl’s First Period As a Mark of Female PowerBlack-ish, Alias Grace, and Big Mouth use the rite of passage as a gateway to female empowerment.
  28. The Duffer Brothers Recap Stranger Things 2, ‘Chapter 9: The Gate’The Snow Ball kissing scene, the Upside Down cliffhanger, and what to expect in Stranger Things 3.
  29. The Controversial Episode of Louie That Now Plays Like a ConfessionalEven before the allegations against Louis C.K. went public, “Pamela Part 1” raised eyebrows.
  30. The Duffer Brothers Recap Stranger Things 2, ‘Chapter Eight: The Mind Flayer’On that thing that happens to Bob: “It was one of the toughest, toughest scenes, emotionally, for everybody.”
  31. Talking Puberty With Big Mouth’s Jessi Klein and Andrew Goldberg“I remember very clearly getting my first period, which, for the record, was on Yom Kippur at my grandmother’s house.”
  32. The Duffer Brothers Recap Stranger Things 2, ‘Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister’“We actually did toy with pulling the episode completely.”
  33. The Duffer Brothers Recap Stranger Things 2, ‘Chapter Six: The Spy’“That sequence in the junkyard is one of my favorite things. It’s everything I want the show to be.”
  34. The Duffer Brothers Recap Stranger Things 2, ‘Chapter Five: Dig Dug’“A lot of the stuff in the tunnels is very Indiana Jones.”
  35. SMILF Is Almost GreatFrankie Shaw’s Showtime series has promise in its initial episodes that it almost fulfills.
  36. close reads
    On The Good Place, You Can’t Escape the PastThe NBC comedy tells us that important facts can’t just be deleted, denied, or avoided.
  37. tv review
    Alias Grace Is Another Gripping Margaret Atwood–Inspired TV ShowIt’s tonally different from The Handmaid’s Tale, but just as timely.
  38. The Duffer Brothers Recap Stranger Things 2, ‘Chapter 4: Will the Wise’“Listen, we’re never going to have Joyce trash her house again. We’ve done it twice. We’re done.”
  39. Sean Astin Almost Had a Very Different Story Line in Stranger Things 2The Duffer Brothers loved Bob so much, they wrote him a bigger role.
  40. The Duffer Brothers Recap Stranger Things 2, ‘Chapter Three: The Pollywog’“That’s our Gremlins episode.”
  41. The Duffer Brothers Recap Stranger Things 2, ‘Chapter 2: Trick or Treat, Freak’“We’re very pro-Three Musketeers.”
  42. The Duffer Brothers Recap Stranger Things 2, ‘Chapter One: MadMax’Matt and Ross Duffer explain how they made ‘Madmax,’ the first episode of Stranger Things season two.
  43. The Best TV Shows of 2017 (So Far)Big Little Lies, Master of None, Twin Peaks, and more.
  44. A Salute to Bob Newby, the Best Character on Stranger Things 2Bob the Brain makes everything easy peasy.
  45. witch week
    The Witches of Eastwick Is a Fascinating Movie to Watch Post-WeinsteinThirty years later, its take on gender politics is just as messy as the current conversation.
  46. Noah Schnapp Is the MVP of Stranger Things 2Will Byers disappeared in season one, but he’s utterly essential now.
  47. oral history
    The Oral History of Seinfeld’s ‘The Contest’Larry David & Co. remember when the sitcom mastered its domain.
  48. Stranger Things 2 Was Worth the WaitThe second season of the Netflix sci-fi hit is just as good as the first.
  49. What Happened When David Letterman Was Honored at the Kennedy CenterThe Mark Twain Prize ceremony refused to be about how great he is.
  50. Why the Sex in That Outlander Episode Was So Damn GoodAnyone else need a cold shower?
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