Empathy for Unlikable Characters

This week, Julia Turner and Dana Stevens are joined by Slate’s own Rebecca Onion to discuss The Devil Wears Prada 2, BEEF season 2, and the NYT’s best living songwriters package with Slate’s music critic Carl Wilson. 

Twenty years on, we return to the world of The Devil Wears Prada. In the sequel, Andy, Anne Hathaway’s character, must save Runway Magazine from the forces of capital, who are selling the Vogue-analogue for parts, as Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly struggles to hang on to her own power. The movie has a lot to say about the state of journalism and media with plot lines seemingly ripped from the gossip pages, but does it all come together in the edit? We discuss. 

Then, the second season of A24’s anthology series BEEF stars Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan as a volatile millennial couple who enter into a feud with a younger couple, played by Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton. Set at a rich Californian golf resort and its environs, the show satirizes class and generational resentments as the characters scramble to claim the scraps of their betters at the expense of everyone else. The characters are mostly unlikeable, and the premise might be a little less original than the first season, but given BEEF’s stacked cast and pedigree, does the show sizzle? 

Finally we’re joined by Carl Wilson, Slate’s music critic and author of the newsletter “Crritic!” to discuss the New York Times package: The 30 Greatest Living Songwriters. Carl submitted a ballot for the list, and the polished version isn’t too far from his submission. He gets into his picks and discusses what the list is saying about the field of songwriting and the idea of a songwriter as it’s been expanded to include non-traditional instrumentation and digital composition. But like all lists it has sparked debate about the inclusions (Carole King, Stevie Wonder) the exclusions (Randy Newman, Liz Phair, David Byrne) and whether Taylor Swift’s inclusion was solely to get an interview. Together with Carl, we try and make sense of the list and talk about our favorites. 

As promised, here is Carl’s full ballot (The asterisks indicate people who Carl voted for but who have since died):

Willie Nelson

Smokey Robinson 

Bobby Braddock 

*Brian Wilson

Bob Dylan

Carole King

Randy Newman

Dolly Parton

Stevie Wonder

*Sly Stone

The Flatlanders (Butch Hancock/Jimmie Dale Gilmore/*Joe Ely)

Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan

Nile Rodgers

David Byrne

Mark Eitzel

Chuck D & the Bomb Squad

Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis

Stephin Merritt

Liz Phair

John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats)

Missy Elliott & Timbaland

The Love Junkies (Hillary Lindsey/Lori McKenna/Liz Rose)

Outkast (Big Boi/Andre 3000)

Josh Osborne/Brandy Clark/Shane McAnally

Phoebe Bridgers

Endorsements: 

Julia: The SNL sketch featuring Teana Taylor, Grandpa At The Wedding.

Rebecca: The new Lord Of The Flies adaptation on Netflix. 

Dana: The article in Vogue: Meryl Streep and Anna Wintour on Power, Fashion, and Acting the Part by Chloe Malle.

Email us your thoughts at culturefest@slate.com. 

Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch.

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