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Shrill Season 2 Review: Weight Is Barely a Topic—and That's a Good Thing


Coincidence is a good word to describe the dynamic between narrative and body type in Shrill‘s second season. Annie’s weight is only really alluded to twice, and both times the storylines are nuanced. In one, Annie takes her boyfriend, Ryan (Luka Jones), to meet her parents for the first time; instead of the night centering on that, though, it becomes about her mom’s obsession with food. Annie tries to steer the conversation toward other topics, but her mom keeps on—which, in turn, makes Annie second-guess all the self-confidence she’s built.

“I think that is how a lot of fat people experience the world in a lot of ways,” Bryant says. “Where someone else’s experience of food or their own body or their own clothes comes to reflect on you in some way.”

She cites a wedding toast she once heard as an example: “In the toast they were saying, ‘Oh, this night we felt so thin and that was so good!’ I remember feeling like they were saying, in their minds, the best night of their life was the night they looked nothing like me.”

Bryant’s real-life anecdote, in a nutshell, reveals the main issue in Shrill‘s next chapter: How do fat people who love their bodies go about navigating a world that constantly tells them they’re wrong? “I think that is part of what we were trying to circle around [in season two],” Bryant says. “Annie feels better about herself, but everyone around her is still stuck in that dark mentality that she was in at the beginning of season one.”

Shrill isn’t presenting an idealized world. It doesn’t gloss over the fact that living life as a fat person can be difficult, regardless of self-confidence. The season, in subtle ways, explores the push and pull of being body-positive in a culture that actively works against plus-size women (and men).



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Sex Education Season Two: We've Seen Sexual Assault on TV Before—But Never Like This


She continues, “Unless it is rape, [many of us] feel like we can’t really talk about it or that we have to take it in our stride and even laugh about it. We’ve turned them into little funny anecdotes rather than actually dealing with the fact that might have traumatized us on some level.” It’s like society has given us a hierarchy of sexual assault, she explains. “If you’re somewhere near the top then it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s OK. You’re allowed to be upset by this one.’ But anything lower you feel like maybe you’re a bit of a drama queen.”

TV shows have shown sexual assault before, of course, but this Sex Education storyline is new: Rarely does a series take an incident that isn’t rape and spend so much time over the course of a season unraveling the emotional layers that follow. Aimee’s experience isn’t relegated to a one-episode arc. Instead, the whole rest of the season checks in on her well-being and healing after the incident. It sends a clear message: Whatever the circumstances, any sexual assault is traumatic.

“It’s about what happens when you suppress that trauma and you don’t deal with it,” Wood says. “And it’s about women coming together and being that support system as Maeve, Ola, and many of the others do for Aimee at the end. Sometimes you need people to give weight to your problems and to give you permission to feel the damage of something. Sometimes you just need someone to go, ‘You’re allowed to feel shit about this.'”

Sam Taylor/Netflix

The way that Aimee’s boyfriend, Steve, responds is also key. She has trouble being intimate with him—even cuddling is hard—but he never pressures her and invites her to open up when she’s ready, on her terms. That support only makes their relationship stronger, Wood says.

“Even though it’s such an unfortunate way to grow, it’s a huge turning point in her life,” she explains. “Much like what she learnt in season one by taking ownership of her body and that masturbation montage, this does the same, even though it stems from an awful situation. She becomes so much more empowered because of it…but it takes a long time.”

After season one, Wood says women would often come up to her to talk about the female orgasm and masturbation. Now, she’s ready to hear from women who have buried their own trauma. “I’m so grateful we’re telling this story,” she says. “The conversations that I’ve had with young women is just so incredible. I’ve had so many conversations, even with my friends, that I would never have had if not for this show. We never spoke about [these things]. And now we do.”

Season two of Sex Education is now streaming on Netflix. Jessica Radloff is the Glamour West Coast editor.



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Sex Education Season 2 Review: The Netflix Series Is Even Better


When Sex Education—Netflix’s highly binge-worthy comedy about, you guessed it, sex and relationships—premiered last year, it was such a hit that the streaming service says more than 40 million households watched it within the first four weeks. Naturally, a season two had to happen, and it finally premieres today, January 17. Yes, Sex Education is back for an eight-episode run that’s even funnier and more awkward than the last.

“There were a lot of elements for season one that we loved, but when we came into season two, we really tried to empower all the different departments across the show—from wardrobe to the script department—to be as bold as possible,” executive producer Jaime Campbell tells Glamour. “I think that’s reflected.”

Jean Milburn (Gillian Anderson)

Sam Taylor/Netflix

Campbell points to more air time for the adults as one way the show will be expanded this season. You’ll see more of Jean Milburn (Gillian Anderson) and her relationship with Jakob (Mikael Persbrandt), and Mr. and Mrs. Groff’s relationship (Alistair Petrie, Samantha Spiro) will “come under more scrutiny,” according to Campbell. That’s a good thing, the producer adds, because “in a show like this, you can often forget the adults and how incompetent they are. We’re really doubling down on their incompetence this season.”

It’s a development the younger cast is happy about, too. Patricia Allison, who plays Ola, Otis’s girlfriend, thinks it’s important to feature the sex lives of the parents. “I don’t think we get to see enough of that,” she says. “Older women who get to actually be like, ‘This is what I want.'” One example of how that plays out: Mrs. Groff, the headmaster’s wife and Adam’s mother, will start her own journey of self-discovery. “She’s in this kind of loveless marriage and feels like she doesn’t have a voice in it,” Allison says, “but then she forms a really lovely friendship with Jean and goes to a vagina workshop which allows her to explore her own sexuality.”

While we loved season one of Sex Education for shedding a light on topics that are usually glossed over on other shows (masturbation and the female orgasm, just to start), season two will go even further. “Our creator and writer, Laurie Nunn, came up with an explosive storyline that has two particular female characters intersect, and I think fans are going to absolutely love it,” Campbell says. As to which two characters Campbell is talking about, Netflix has that plot development on its do-not-spoil list, so mum’s the word for now.



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This Is Us Season 4, Episode 10 Recap: All Your Questions From the Midseason Premiere, Answered


Glamour: How prepared are you for the onslaught of fans worried for Randall?

Isaac Aptaker: I don’t know. [Laughs] We’re never quite prepared, but we sort of knew what we were getting when we had our beloved family man face to face with an intruder holding a knife in his kitchen, so yeah, I think we’re as prepared as we can be!

Did you ever think about having this episode be the fall finale? Because talk about a cliffhanger.

IA: No, I think that would be a little too long to wait [to find out what happens] to someone in mortal danger. We never want to be cruel, so I think a week is the perfect amount of time.

How soon into the next episode will we find out what happens with Randall and this man in his house?

IA: It’s not going to be a waiting game. This is our most to-be-continued direct pick-up that we’ve ever done, so we’re going to jump back in next week right where we left off and find out what happens to Randall. And we’re launching into a trilogy of episodes [starting next week], which we haven’t done since season two, where the next three episodes will be about a different sibling, following them over the same week in time. So Randall is first up, and we’ll see right away what happens to him and that intruder.

Sterling K. Brown said we will examine more of Randall’s struggle to maintain his mental health, but obviously a situation like this—no matter what the outcome is—won’t help. What more can you say?

IA: I think that intruder is coming into his house at a time where Randall’s plate and brain are so fully loaded, on top of having the crazy job and what’s going on in his immediate family, he now has Rebecca and her well-being and he takes that so seriously. That L.A. trip is so important to him. He’s returning home from Los Angeles after having gotten this really confusing and ambiguous, but not positive, news about his mom. And then this is just the last thing he needs on his plate, this very physical menace.

Switching gears, let’s talk about Kate and Toby. Will we meet Cara, otherwise known as Lady Krptonite?

IA: Maybe! I don’t want to give anything away, but I know that’s something people are eager to find out who is this woman.

Is she still a threat? It seems like Toby has done his best to distance himself from her, but obviously she sounds very into him.

IA: Yeah, I’d like to think we should believe Toby. He’s a trustworthy guy and he really loves Kate. That said, there’s always that lingering doubt and a little bit of trust issues that something like that brings up—when you find out that your partner is talking about you behind your back to a group of people, including this woman, who is eager to rush to his aid.

NBC/Ron Batzdorff





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Inside The Bachelor Season 24, Episode 2: What a Bachelor Group Date With Peter Weber Is Really Like


It’s late September, and Peter Weber is now in his second week on The Bachelor. ABC has invited me along to a group date—a shopping spree and fashion show for Revolve clothing—with guest judges Carson Kressley, Janice Dickenson, and Raissa Gerona. Everything seems normal at first—I mean, it’s only the second week—but, as I soon learn, that’s not the case.

For one, Hannah Brown has just returned to great dramatic effect. (Is she really only there to give Peter his wings? Does she want Chris Harrison’s job? I need to know if it’s for the right reasons, people!) But when I sit down with Peter during a break in between filming, he makes no mention of his ex’s return. In fact, it’s not until I see the first Bachelor promo months later that I even know she makes an appearance. Whether she’s on Peter’s mind this afternoon or not, he’s not saying. For all I know, the only focus is on the women on his group date—and his own turn on the runway.

Eric McCandless

Still, Peter confides that it’s been a rough road already even though he’s grateful for the opportunity. “I know everyone says this, but it’s tough knowing there is going to be disappointment and heartbreak, and I’m going to be the one causing that,” he says. “I was on the opposite side of that last time. But all that means is that I just get one step closer to finding her at the end.”

He says he hates drama (um, does he know what show he signed up for?), but he’s trying to be very understanding of what the women are feeling. “It’s not normal to date one person along with 20-some-odd other people,” he says, just like every other Bachelor and Bachelorette before him. But it’s clear on this date that he’s already developing strong feelings for several of the women, including Hannah Ann (who got his first impression rose) and Victoria F.

Of the women, Peter says, “Hannah Ann made a very strong effort to make sure I saw her and that she was there for me. She just has this Southern belle-type adorableness and charm, and I just was very drawn to her. She brought me this beautiful painting the first night. I’m just very drawn to her, and I’m very excited.”

It’s not what I’m expecting to hear. I’m prepared for generic soundbites about how great all the women are, but here’s Peter genuinely opening up about where he’s at in the process. I’m into it.



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Penn Badgley Just Debunked This Popular You Season 2 Fan Theory


This post contains spoilers for You season 2. Enter at your own risk.

Every episode of You season 2 on Netflix is basically a roller coaster ride. But the final episodes really packed in the twists and turns. In the final hours, viewers learned that Joe/Will’s latest Los Angeles obsession, the appropriately-named Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), is actually just as murderous as Joe himself—willing to slit the throats of people she sees as a threat to those she cares about.

In the closing scenes, we see Joe (Penn Badgley) and a visibly pregnant Love moving into a nice house where he soon wanders out to the backyard and spots his next door neighbor sitting by the pool reading. “This is just the beginning, because this is where I had to be. Exactly where I had to be to meet you. There you were with your books and your sunshine. So close, but worlds away. I will figure out a way: a way to get to you. See you soon, neighbor,” he narrates. Yep, Joe’s found a new obsession.

Netflix

Fans theorized that the woman is actually Joe’s mother, who we met in flashbacks throughout the latest season. “Why are some people confused about the last scene? that woman/neighbor was definitely joe’s mom. the hands were a dead give away… #YouNetflix,” one tweeted. And, honestly, it sounded like a solid theory.

But Badgley just debunked it in a new interview. “She’s definitely not his mom,” he told Bustle. “I can say that.” Welp, we guess that’s that.

However, it does raise the question of who this woman really is. She could be someone from Joe’s past—are we totally, 100% sure that Beck is actually dead? The show brought back Candace, so we know they’re not afraid to look to Joe’s life before we met him. Or she could simply be a new character who has no idea what sort of creepy killers have moved in next door.

The third season of You hasn’t been officially confirmed yet by Netflix, but all signs are pointing to yes on that front.



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