EMMYS WATCH 2025 — Adolescence: Think Pieces and Cultural Dialogue

EMMYS WATCH 2025 — Adolescence: Think Pieces and Cultural Dialogue

‘Emmys Watch 2025’ showcases critical responses to the series nominated for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Comedy, and Outstanding Limited Series at that 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. Contributions to this theme explore critical understandings of some series nominated in these categories. This piece explores the cultural dialogue that has extended from the Netflix limited series, Adolescence.

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The Queen’s Gambit Is Not a Total Win for Women

The Queen’s Gambit Is Not a Total Win for Women

Everyone has been telling you the truth: The Queen’s Gambit is a fabulous time. As you’ve likely heard by now, the show is brilliantly acted, gorgeously shot binge-worthy television. The writing is fluid, the production and costume design impeccable, and the chess depicted in a way that is accessible, suspenseful, and cinematic. And every intelligent woman I know who has watched the show has had a variation on the same response: what a thrill, to watch a smart, ruthless, messy, extravagant woman take on the world—and win. The show is a pleasure. But at risk of holding an unpopular opinion: it isn’t an unadulterated one. The Queen’s Gambit may feel empowering, and in certain ways it is. But the show tells the same, old, cis-male story of exceptionalism that Hollywood has been stuffing down our throats for years. Here it feels empowering; but only because that story has so rarely been told via the body of a woman.

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