The Case for Postponing Must-See TV
Entertainment musts from Maya Chung This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Welcome back to The Dailys Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer reveals whats keeping them entertained. Todays special guest is Maya Chung , an associate editor on the Books team and a frequent contributor to our Books Briefing newsletter . Lately, Maya has been enjoying the style and ambience of the French novelist Maylis de Kerangal, is still thinking about a recent exhibition of work by the surrealist 20th-century artist Meret Oppenheim, and is enjoying post-hype-cycle prestige TV, which includes the fourth and final season of Succession . First, here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic : The Culture Survey: Maya Chung The upcoming event Im most looking forward to: I really hope to see the Shakespeare in the Park production of Hamlet in New Yorks Central Park this summer. The early pandemic made me realize how much Id taken for granted living in a city with such incredible theater, so Ive been cherishing the experience of seeing live theater this past year. And theres nothing like Shakespeare in the Parkwhatever the play, its a totally enchanting experience. This year its a contemporary Hamlet directed by the celebrated Kenny Leon, who also did this seasons Tony-winning revival of Topdog/Underdog on Broadway. Setting Shakespeare in the modern day can sometimes be gimmicky, but when its done right, it captures the magic of his work, and how enduring it remains. [Related: All of Shakespeares plays are about race. ] The television show Im most enjoying right now: I dont love watching shows when theyre at the height of their popularity, because when theres a ton of chatter, I have a hard time figuring out what my actual, original thoughts are (and if I have any!). So I just finally started watching the fourth season of Succession . Avoiding spoilers while working on the Culture desk here has been nearly impossible, and some of the big bombshells did slip through. But Im still savoring all of the delicious drama and insult-hurling. [Related: The Succession plot that explained the whole series ] Im even more behind on The Handmaids Tale , which I also just started watching a couple weekends ago. The show came out in 2017, which wasnt that long ago, but it has been really fascinating to watch it with a little bit of distance, especially given the political climate in which it premiered. Also, the performances are spectacular, and its visually gorgeous. [Related: The visceral, woman-centric horror of The Handmaids Tale ] Best novel Ive recently read, and the best work of nonfiction: I read Maylis de Kerangals short novella Eastbound earlier this year, which is about a young Russian conscript who, once aboard the Trans-Siberian rail, decides to desert and meets a French woman who helps him. I havent stopped thinking about it. I then read de Kerangals book The Heart , a similarly tense novel about the events and characters involved in a heart transplantincluding the young man who dies in an accident, the woman who receives his heart, and the doctors and bureaucrats who make the transplant possible. In recent years Ive sought out books for style and ambience rather than plot, perhaps because of my fickle attention span or perhaps after reading one too many plodding books. But de Kerangal reminded me how transportive it is when an author successfully creates that itching desire to know what happens nextwithout forgoing an ounce of style. As for nonfiction, Ive loved Christina Sharpes Ordinary Notes , a book of fragmentary noteswhich include memoir, theory, photos, and poetic musingsabout Black life in America. Ive been reading the book in blips and spurts over the past couple of months, which in some ways has felt like the best way to read it, because its meant Ive been carrying Sharpes intelligent, lyrical voice around with me. An author I will read anything by: For a long time I didnt have an answer to this, but as a books editor, you get asked this, or a version of this question, a lot. Though my answer will likely change, right now, its Rachel Cusk and Rachel Ingalls. Two very different writers, both completely enrapturing and honest and intricate. [Related: Rachel Cusk wont stay still. ] The last museum or gallery show that I loved: I loved seeing Meret Oppenheims work at the Museum of Modern Art earlier this year. I was previously uninitiated in her work but came away from the show entranced by her bleakness and her whimsy. My favorite part came near the end, where, across opposite walls on large sheets of paper, Oppenheim had made a blueprint for a retrospective of her work in Bern. For this, she drew tiny reproductions of her works so that the curators could see what order they should be displayed in. It made me strangely sad to see the artists career captured two-dimensionally, in such miniature. But thats probably the wrong way to look at it; its likely that Oppenheim was proudly looking back at her lifes work, taking control of how exactly it should be consumed. The last thing that made me snort with laughter: Even the title of Nicole Holofceners new movie, You Hurt My Feelings , made me snortI love a literal title. (When I encountered the similarly prosaic book title Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home , by the biologist Rupert Sheldrake, in this lovely profile of his son, the mycologist Merlin Sheldrake, I knew I had to get my hands on a copy.) In the movie, a woman falls apart when she overhears her husband admitting that he doesnt like her new book. Im an editor, not a writer, so I was able to laugh heartily at this premise. But I could imagine that for my writer colleagues, this one might hit a little too close to home. [Related: You Hurt My Feelings is a hilarious anxiety spiral. ] The Week Ahead More in Culture Catch up on The Atlantic Photo Album Scroll through winners of the 2023 BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition. Isabel Fattal contributed to this newsletter.