Arts
'All My Babies' Mamas' Drama
Last month, the cable channel Oxygen came under fire for one of its shows in development. Titled "All My Babies' Mamas," the show follows rapper Shawty Lo and his ten "baby mamas," with whom he has a total of 11 children.
Fact, Fiction, and Freedom in 'Zero Dark Thirty'
Leaving aside completely its moral reprehensibility, it is now widely accepted by many in the federal government that torture—including so-called "advanced interrogation techniques" such as sensory deprivation and waterboarding—does not provide accurate intelligence. Despite this, "Zero Dark Thirty" shows a crucial piece of intelligence, the identity of bin Laden's courier, being obtained only after a subject is beaten, starved, shackled to the ceiling, imprisoned in a tiny box, waterboarded, and sexually humiliated.
Five Books to Look Forward To in 2013
George Saunders, "Tenth of December," January 8
'Girls,' Season Two: We Just Want To Have Fun
Twenty-nothing life would be more appropriate; the show is as bleak as it is witty. Dunham's depiction of New York City presents a stark contrast to the glittery, urban playground of "Sex and the City"—these girls are more likely to pregame with PBR than with 10 dollar cosmopolitans. The maelstrom of criticism and praise that has surrounded the show, impressively, makes the obsessive navel-gazing of its characters look like normal introspection by comparison.
