Rich Text

When a dating reality show called “MILF Manor” was announced not long ago, the reaction was immediate and unanimous: Wasn’t that a fake show on “30 Rock”? It does seem like a desperate TV exec, over a decade after the “MILF Island” episode of “30 Rock,” cribbed the concept of a reality show about hot moms for their own pitch. But in practice, “MILF Manor” is somehow more tawdry than its fictional...

Let’s just be up front: we are by no means royal obsessives or enthusiasts. But we do live online, and the online chatter about Prince Harry and his buzzy new memoir “Spare,” which sold 1.5 million copies on its first day of publication, has been *loud.* The more we thought about it, the more it seemed like the Windsor family’s cultural resonance was worth discussing. Like so many middle/elder mil...

In three seasons and less than a year in the life of Emily Cooper, our plucky Chicago girlboss’s Parisian adventures in love and marketing have somehow gone from infuriatingly absurd to deflatingly dull. Season three revolves around endless workplace furniture-moving that ultimately leaves our core Savoir team almost exactly where they began; on the romantic front, Emily, Mindy, and Sylvie all fin...

“The White Lotus” is one of those shows that sticks with you. Mike White’s masterful series, which follows a new group of wealthy Americans (and locals) each season as they travel to a different White Lotus hotel, wrapped its second season in mid-December, but we’ve both been thinking about it ever since. So by popular demand, we finally got our act together to podcast about it. White loves a Big...

The idea of love as the perfect Christmas gift from Santa – whisked down the chimney and tucked underneath a fragrant, be-tinseled Scotch pine, “all my own in a big red bow” as Britney Spears memorably envisioned – is at the heart of most holiday romantic comedies. And yet, we’d argue, most don’t go far enough in bringing Britney’s vision to life. What sort of man actually can be produced from San...

Why is it so hard to make a decent holiday rom-com that centers Jews? That is the topic we are exploring on this week’s podcast as we dive into the absolute student-film-esque mayhem of Hulu’s “Menorah In The Middle.” This Hanukkah romantic comedy follows Sarah (Lucy DeVito, daughter of Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman), as she returns to her hometown of Sol Viejo, California for Hanukkah with her go...

Another week, another Netflix holiday movie with two dead moms, a daughter who desperately longs for her hot dad to find her a new mom, a privileged princess who learns to be domestic stepmother goddess material… and a former teen idol playing a starring role. In “Falling for Christmas,” Lindsay Lohan swept us off our feet, reminding us why she was a star to begin with. In “Christmas With You,” ex...

The Lohanaissance has arrived and it feels so good. For the two of us, Lindsay Lohan was synonymous with the best parts of girlhood when we were growing up. Her bright red hair and visible freckles were icons in their own right. She was there with us navigating sibling relationships (“The Parent Trap”), parental relationships (“Freaky Friday”), and friendships (“Mean Girls”). We grew up alongside...

“Love Is Blind” came to a crashing conclusion on Wednesday, with a dramatic finale and a still-more dramatic reunion. Some people said no, some people said yes; some couples showed up to the reunion looking relaxed and happy while others showed up with more of a “blink twice if you need help” vibe. Accusations were made about clementines and lies. Deleted footage was aired out. The Cole and Zanab...

It’s the (not quite) end of the road for the couples of “Love Is Blind” season 3. Episodes 8, 9 and 10 follow our five couples through the last 10 days leading up to their weddings. It’s always fascinating to watch how the Love Is Blind relationships often find an equilibrium at this point. The couples have been together for a month. They know what they love about their partners and what annoys th...

Happy Halloween, beloveds! Gather round the campfire, because we sure have a spooky story for you: a tale of a sweet, naive college freshman who stumbles into an entanglement with the wrong man. A man with a dark past and a penchant for seduction. A man so addicted to fucking around, he’s driving his life straight into a ditch. In short, we both ripped through Hulu’s sordid series “Tell Me Lies,”...

Toto, we’re not in Malibu anymore! That’s right y’all, it’s time for our 5 (moderately) happy, newly-engaged couples to head back to Dallas, move into their show-appointed neutrally-decorated apartments, and commence the grueling labor of coupledom. This week’s batch of episodes was so meaty that we found it difficult to discuss them in a concise and coherent manner. Some scenes felt like they nee...

We love a pod love pod here at Rich Text, so we were ready as hell for season 3 of “Love Is Blind” to kick off this week and we’re already back on our bullshit (making pods about pods). Season 3: Dallas edition, which is dropping just a month after the season 2 “Love Is Blind: After the Altar” special and associated divorce announcements proved the Chicago experiment a bust, hopes to restore our f...

If you are a geriatric or middle-aged millennial woman who loved Scholastic book fairs, you probably have core memories of “Catherine Called Birdy.” The 1994 historical fiction Y.A. novel by Karen Cushman was certainly formative for both of us. The book follows spirited 14-year-old Birdy, the daughter of a country knight in 1290 England. Her father has decided that it is time to marry her off to t...

We’re back with more answers to more questions! Last week, we published a free episode with our responses to some of the wonderful questions you all sent us about work and work-adjacent topics. Today, in our usual subscribers-only episode, we’re answering some of the more personal and personal-adjacent questions. How do you make friends in your thirties? How do you stay friends when some of you ar...

This is the free edition of Rich Text, a newsletter about cultural obsessions from your Internet BFFs Emma and Claire. If you like what you see and hear, consider  becoming a paid subscriber . Part 2 of this series will be released for paid subscribers on Monday. Rich Text is a reader-supported project — no ads or sponsors! We asked you, our beloved audience, for questions a few days ago thinking...

Planning a family reunion can be stressful, because there are so many ways it can go wrong. Someone gets too drunk. Someone gossips loudly about something they shouldn’t. A few key family members simply opt out altogether which gives everyone even more to gossip about! You know the kind of family we’re talking about… the one where everyone dates everyone else, and then some of them get engaged sig...

As Netflix has turned its hand to mass-producing romantic comedies, there have been some truly delightful successes — movies that capture the sweetness, humor, brightness and sizzle of a ‘90s or ‘00s classic (“Always Be My Maybe,” “Set It Up,” and “Wedding Season” are among our favorites). But many of the platform’s romcoms are aiming more for the Hallmark Channel audience than the cinematic relea...

“Selling the O.C.” almost has it all. It has the Oppenheim twins. Brittany Snow’s hot husband. Double-digit listings with infinity pools. Acres of cleavage sheathed in bandage dresses. But it does lack a few key things — a protagonist, for example. Deliriously fun fashion. Any overt mention of the MAGA energy dripping from several of its main cast members. A clear and compelling narrative arc behi...

Nothing scratches that romcom itch for us better than a slightly absurd but well-executed comedy about two hotties who are just pretending to date… or are they? And while “Marry Me” fell completely flat, and “I Want You Back” was delightful but sizzle-free, Netflix has a new movie that truly delivers on the promise of a fake relationship romance: “Wedding Season.” The premise, in brief: microfinan...

True Jane-heads know that “Persuasion,” though not one of her flashiest, best-known works, is nevertheless among her finest. Like “Pride and Prejudice,” it takes as its subject the question of how minds and judgments are changed through new information or perspective. But where Lizzy Bennet is a young, bold, headstrong woman who has never made a mistake worth losing sleep over before, Anne Elliot...

Where all else falter, “FBoy Island” delivers. Season 2 started strong, with three impeccably cast leads — all of them charming, beautiful, and completely up to the task of handling male shenanigans — sorting through an outrageous cast of peacocking fboys and soft-spoken nice guys. The last two episodes, from the Mansplain to the final decision night, stuck the landing. They stuck the landing so w...

Ah, to be washed up once more on the shores of “FBoy Island”: what a perfect summer escape. The frothy tropical dating show, hosted by Nikki Glaser and dreamed up by former “Bachelor” producer Elan Gale, whisks us away to a mysterious, sun-drenched island populated by three women looking for love, 13 fuckboys in need of reform, and 13 nice guys (self-proclaimed). We recapped season 1 for Love to S...

Opinions vary, but personally, we believe there’s room for a lot more high-concept fantasy in reality dating. More eerie entrances, more mystical moments, more —let’s just go with it — smoke machines. Why can’t a reality series inject a bit more “Brigadoon” into our “Bachelor”? This is what we crave, and it’s what “The One That Got Away” delivers. Since leaving “The Bachelor,” producer Elan Gale h...

Quick reminder: We’re having a virtual live show with Moment House on Sunday, July 10! We’ll be recapping the premiere episode of Kaitlyn and Britt’s (briefly) two-Bachelorette season. Plus, there will be exclusive merch, and we’ll be using the tipping function on Moment House to raise money for The Brigid Alliance , a fantastic organization that provides people with the money and support they nee...