In this series, Team FC scours the best of the internet every week to bring you a list of great reads, watches and more, from the world of film and entertainment.
The reboot of the beloved TV series Gossip Girl premieres next month on HBO Max. A lengthy article in Vulture examines how efforts are now being made to ensure the show (which will follow new characters, but still be narrated by the unseen titular character, voiced by Kristen Bell) features a more racially diverse cast. You can read the essay here.
When Sarah Paulson was cast as Linda Tripp in American Crime Story, there was some talk about how she was being made to wear a 'fat suit' to appear plumper than she was. This essay examines the culture of fat suits, and of casting skinny people in fat roles, thereby (perhaps) perpetuating stereotypes of the ideal body. You can read it here.
This mammoth list corrals together an impressive group of Western TV's most sensitively depicted queer characters, from Sophia Burset in Orange is the New Black to Judy Hale in Dead to Me. You can read it here.
In the latest edition of the IIF podcast, critics Tanul Thakur, Uday Bhatia and Film Companion's own Rahul Desai discuss Sherni, what they liked, what they didn't and how it compares to Newton. You can listen to it here.
This essay by Anu Kumar examines the similarities and differences between Rabindranath Tagore's novel Ghare Baire (The Home and the World) and Satyajit Ray's seminal 1984 film adaptation of the same name. Both tackle the two pioneer's enduring preoccupations: freedom and nationalism. You can read the essay here.