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MOST RECENT ARTICLES BY:

Roxana Hadadi

TV Critic
@roxana_hadadi
roxana.hadadi@vulture.com

Roxana Hadadi is a TV critic who also writes about film and pop culture, with the closed captions on and motion smoothing off.

  1. summer preview
    What Summer TV Experience Are You Looking for?Return to the ’80s, fly alongside a dragon, or travel to the cosmos — your couch plans are set with summer’s new and returning series.
  2. fact or fiction?
    The Staircase Uncovers New Questions Within Tired True-Crime TheoriesThe HBO Max miniseries uses the freedom of fiction to explore the mysteries surrounding Kathleen Peterson’s death.
  3. tv review
    Angelyne Is the Total PackagePeacock’s miniseries about L.A.’s “Billboard Queen” is not just aware of the limitations of the biopic. It relishes disrupting them.
  4. the pg-13 multiverse
    Sam Raimi Exploding Superheroes’ Heads in ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Is Good, ActuallyThe MCU has always been about death as an abstract form of entertainment, but Multiverse of Madness gets darkly, and thrillingly, literal.
  5. tv review
    Candy Leaves a Sour AftertasteHulu’s weightless true-crime miniseries has little sense of what it wants to say about the 1978 axe murder of Betty Gore, or why it should say it.
  6. chat room
    Moon Knight’s May Calamawy on Layla’s Future and Love of Marshmallows“I’m going to fight to tell a true story and a true woman, and what comes with it.”
  7. best of 2022
    The Best TV of the Year (So Far)A freshman series firing on all cylinders, an auteurist comedy returning in peak form, and a highly original thriller are among 2022’s best offerings.
  8. tv review
    Let’s Hear It 4 Girls5eva’s Triumphant Second ActAn unabashedly silly yet satisfying new season digs back into everything that made season one so amusing and then some.
  9. exit interview
    Soo Hugh’s Pachinko Confronts the Present With the PastThe Apple TV+ showrunner adapted Min Jin Lee’s sprawling, multigenerational epic novel with an eye for intimacy.
  10. hair flair
    Which Alexander Skarsgård Hairdo from The Northman Is Right for You?Charting Amleth’s character arc through the vengeful prince’s pageboy, bowl cut, and ‘90s boy-band bob.
  11. tv review
    The Offer’s Exhausting Self-Congratulation Makes The Godfather Into GabagoolDespite some strong performances, the overlong miniseries is an incurious bit of nostalgia bait.
  12. close reads
    Let’s Unpack That Diabolical Incest Scene in The NorthmanA prince creates an unalterable image of his mother and takes it with him into her bedchamber — where she destroys it.
  13. movie review
    Hit the Road Treads Softly Between Trespass and TransformationThere is a sparseness to Hit the Road that reveals the ways fear, paranoia, and loss turn us into people we might not like.
  14. let’s do it again
    An Emergency Discussion of Blade Runner 2049 in 2022What a five-year-old movie can tell us about the future of franchises and whether movies are moving backward.
  15. let’s do it again
    The 101 Best Movie Sequels of All TimeWhether they come after, before, or between their predecessors, these films have created their own indelible legacies.
  16. tv review
    The Man Who Fell to Earth Doesn’t Know Where to LandUnsteady writing muddles a compelling premise in Showtime’s serial adaptation of the 1963 Walter Tevis novel and 1976 David Bowie–starring film.
  17. tv review
    Gaslit Has No Use for HeroesWhen it avoids the sway of its own hyperbole, Starz’s compellingly grimy Watergate miniseries illuminates the coldness and crassness of complicity.
  18. character study
    How Alan Zaveri’s Humanity Became His Superpower in Russian DollCharlie Barnett used a character inspired by himself to reveal some deep truths about the nature of existence (and grow an exquisite mustache).
  19. small stories
    The Diamond Desk, Surveillance Shots, and 7 Other Stories About Making SeveranceVoices from onscreen and behind the scenes break down the small details shading in the series’ enigmatic world.
  20. tv review
    Killing It Sneaks Sharp Insight Into Its Snake-Hunt ShenanigansThe new Peacock comedy’s focus on the insurmountable gap between predator and prey is both consistent and darkly amusing.
  21. chat room
    Stephanie Hsu on Singing ‘Barbie Girl’ With Michelle YeohThe Everything Everywhere All at Once star on what got cut, including a “Barbie Girl” sing-along, and Jenny Slate as a piece of macaroni.
  22. emergency discussion
    Why Are We Still Watching Law & Order?Halfway through its 21st season, the revived crime procedural is missing something. Could it be a genuine reason to come back in the first place?
  23. a long talk
    Mira Nair on Making Mississippi Masala a Radical Act of LoveThirty years after Mississippi Masala, the director looks back on kiss scenes, falling in love, and the real-life events that inspired her story.
  24. chat room
    Severance’s Britt Lower on Helly’s ‘Worst Nightmare’“I have seen the enemy, and it is me.”
  25. severance
    What Is Lumon Industries Up to on Severance?What do brain surgery and baby goats have to do with serving Kier? Allow us to theorize.
  26. close read
    The Dropout Revealed Its Truths via Needle DropMusical moments are used so effectively throughout the miniseries that even their absence in the finale is illuminating.
  27. it’s coming
    Erika Christensen Answers Every Question We Have About SwimfanOn the appeal of bunny boilers, which teen star got unnecessarily waxed for pool shoots, and the possibility of a sequel.
  28. tv review
    Ken Watanabe Kicks the Slow-Moving Tokyo Vice Into High GearDespite its Ansel Elgort–centric marketing, the HBO Max crime series is at its most captivating when focused on its Japanese characters.
  29. movie review
    Nitram Dares You Not to Look AwayViolence is its own form of language in filmmaker Justin Kurzel’s portrait of an Australian mass shooter.
  30. tv review
    Moon Knight’s Compelling Weirdness Feels Incompatible With the MCUA pulpy atmosphere and two Oscar Isaacs serving rakish Tomb Raider cosplay make this miniseries a distinctively odd, unpredictable experience.
  31. backstories
    Behind the Scenes of Severance’s ‘Very Creepy’ Office Dance PartyStrobe lighting, soldier-marching, and a blood-splotched cashmere sweater: How “Defiant Jazz” captured the chill inherent in corporate-mandated joy.
  32. oscar villains
    Against Every 2022 Oscars MovieIf you’re still not sure what to root for this year, at least you can come up with something to root against.
  33. all about that face
    Halo Lets Us See Pablo Schreiber’s Face, Thank GodIt’s a good face.
  34. taika on tv
    What Makes a Taika Waititi TV Series a Taika Waititi TV Series?‘Our Flag Means Death’ cements Waititi’s commitment to the idea that home isn’t a fixed location and family isn’t a static concept.
  35. tv review
    Halo Hasn’t Unlocked Its Full PotentialInitially bogged down by world-building and its own source material, this adaptation of the video-game phenomenon is still figuring itself out.
  36. role call
    Sam Richardson Answers All Our Questions About Veep“The rhythm I tried to find was, Information, information, information … side note.”
  37. chat room
    Winning Time’s Adrien Brody on Destroying Pat Riley’s Garage“They were very nervous with me on the roof with the chain saw, and I was like, ‘No, I got it.’”
  38. the snail trail
    What’s Up With the Snails in Deep Water?The snails aren’t for eating, but they are a hallmark of Patricia Highsmith’s psychological horror.
  39. tv review
    WeCrashed Disrupts NothingThis tedious series’ top-down, voyeuristic focus on the notorious couple behind WeWork is impressively ill conceived.
  40. extreme thirst
    Thank You, The Batman, for Bringing Horniness Back to Gotham CityBatman is looking respectfully from Catwoman’s dominatrix-y knee-high PVC boots up to her face, but there’s a hunger there, too.
  41. winning time
    Jason Clarke Is ‘Letting It All Hang Out’ As the Man Behind the NBA Logo“Jerry’s, in a way, out of his mind. He doesn’t know how to stop himself.”
  42. endings
    Pam & Tommy’s Misplaced ForgivenessIn giving unearned absolution to Rand Gauthier, the miniseries also provides it for itself.
  43. tv review
    Renée Zellweger Makes The Thing About Pam InexplicableWhatever it is this miniseries is trying to accomplish via its fictionalized extension of existing true-crime IP, Zellweger is a distraction.
  44. vulture movie club
    The Time Has Come to Appreciate John Carter As the Goofy Throwback Epic It IsThe colossal bomb that lost Disney $200 million now seems far from the creative disaster it was dismissed as back in 2012.
  45. emergency discussion
    Does Winning Time Really Need to Look Like That?A constant-motion visual offense makes sense for this story, but whether it elevates or undermines the viewing experience is up for debate.
  46. a painted smile
    About That Cameo at the End of The Batman“Gotham loves a comeback story.” Does it, though?
  47. chat room
    The Dropout’s Naveen Andrews Saw Sunny Balwani As Lady Macbeth“I always felt that there was this huge void of insecurity in Sunny, and what made him interesting was I don’t think he was aware of it.”
  48. chat room
    Euphoria’s Angus Cloud Recommends a Good Cry“I’ll be having other stuff I want to cry about that I ain’t cried about yet, and then I watch a sad-ass kids’ movie, like Coco or some shit.”
  49. lingering questions
    All the Things We’re Still Waiting for Euphoria to AddressAn unevenly paced season full of dangerous and dramatic moments ended by letting several subplots disappear into the ether.
  50. spoilers
    We Need to Talk About FezcoAnd the Euphoria cliffhanger involving our softest neighborhood drug dealer.
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