The Take The Roost

Being in your 30s used to mean that your life, finances, and job felt stable -- but things are often quite different nowadays. Movies & TV love showing the more secure side of things, but in recent years we've begun to see more characters on screen working to survive their very unstable 30s. Sometimes the lives of characters on screen in their 30s on screen can feel hilariously out of reach, but thankfully in recent years we’ve also started to get many more films and shows that are willing to get honest about what it’s like to be in your 30s now (the good *and* the less than stellar…) So what do movies and tv get right and wrong about life and finances in your 30s today?

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Amy Winehouse was a one-in-a-generation talent plagued by inner demons and tabloid-splashed controversy, but who through it all brought a spark of life and joy to the world and filled the airwaves with her incomparable voice and witty lyrics. The new biopic of the star, Back to Black, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and starring Marisa Abela was an opportunity to take a deeper examination of Amy’s inner life and her work, but instead seems mostly interested with a more surface level (and, in many cases, sanded down) look at the star’s life. So what did the film get right and wrong about Amy’s life and story? And why does it, in the end, totally fall flat as a biopic of such a larger than life, interesting person?

From always having to look picture perfect even during the literal apocalypse, to “smartphone face” – aka actors who just look too modern to fit into period settings, to the rise of plastic surgery and other cosmetic procedures leading to so many people we see on screen starting to have nearly identical features, the effect of aesthetic trends has become more and more talked about in recent years. And while the expectation certainly isn’t that everything on screen has to be exactly true to real life all of the time – it is entertainment after all – it is interesting to take a deeper look at what drives these kinds of societal trends. The judgment is usually placed on the actresses themselves, but there is much more at play here. So let’s take a deeper look at the truth about these on screen trends, how they alter our viewing experiences, and can even affect how we see ourselves.

The O.C.’s Seth Cohen is an iconic heartthrob of the early 2000s. He was cute and awkward and always had a hilarious quip ready to go. But as the show celebrates the 20th anniversary of the end of its mega-hit first season, we can look back and realize that Seth was actually… wrong about a lot. His mindset hindered him in so many ways – but many of his faults were also what made him so relatable to many at the time. So let’s take a look back at Seth Cohen, what he got wrong about life, and why his growth was so important for him and us.

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Friends' Rachel Green, Monica Geller, and Phoebe Buffay are all beautiful – but the show singled out only one as *the* "hot one". For a long time, there was a trend on screen where, within any group of female friends – regardless of what any of them looked like – one was always upheld as the hot friend (pretty much always because she was the main love object of the story.) But this trope split off from other ‘hot girl’ tropes for one key reason: her friendships. So where did the ‘hot one’ trope even come from, and how did Rachel (with the help of Monica and Phoebe) change it for the better? (And have we *finally* gotten rid of it altogether?) Let’s take a deeper look at the ‘hot one’ trope!

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Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes is one of the most iconic and hilarious characters of the 90s – played by the comedy legend, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She stood out for being the only woman of the friend group, but also because she was (at least at first) also less cynical than her friends. Her confidence and unapologetic attitude were refreshing and radical, and her character opened the door for so many of our faves that followed after. So let’s turn back the clock and analyze what made Elaine so different, why she became such an iconic and beloved character, and how, even if she wasn’t always a great person, she still managed to be a new kind of role model.