Nina Metz
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ninametz.bsky.social
Nina Metz
@ninametz.bsky.social
15K followers 570 following 9K posts
TV and film critic for the Chicago Tribune
https://www.chicagotribune.com/author/nina-metz/

Newsletter: Nina Watches Everything
https://buttondown.com/NinaWatchesEverything
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ninametz.bsky.social
Remember Millennial pink?

That was a good color
A color swatch of Millennial pink, which The Guardian once described as “sort of a grapefruit shade of apricotty salmon”
November 16, 2025 at 1:01 AM
ninametz.bsky.social
It’s fascinating to see theater critics grapple with the phenomenon of thematically empty shows about the wealthy and their dubious ogle-but-critique qualities when this has been de rigueur on our screens!

Via Vulture

www.vulture.com/article/thea...
I'm not being nasty, at least not intentionally so. If a critic's job is to say what you saw and how it made you feel, then right now I feel smacked around, and something smells fishy. Based on the 2012 documentary by Lauren Greenfield-about Jackie and David Siegel, Florida timeshare billionaires whose plans to "build the biggest house in America" were scuppered by the 2008 financial crisis-The Queen of Versailles swerves and overcorrects like a drunk driver. Tonally, it's all over the map. Ethically, it would like to have its cake and also tell the peasants to eat it. It is the confused, contorted product of a set of absolutely incompatible impulses: to ogle, even lionize the Über-rich but also to critique them; to revel in conspicuous consumption and also to satirize it. Ultimately spineless, it ends up wedged in the middle, its highs shiny and hollow and whatever values it aspires to more performed than profound, like a kid rolling his eyes while writing "I must not engage in wanton acts of commercialism" 50 times on the blackboard.
November 16, 2025 at 12:41 AM
ninametz.bsky.social
“you can't really articulate anything [without it being misconstrued]” is a 🥴 line of reasoning for someone whose makes lotsa money talking on stage!

(The is an interview with Jim Gaffigan)

variety.com/2025/tv/news...

Lotsa dodging and evasion from celebs! I got into it in last wk’s newsletter 👇
Oh, absolutely. I've always liked the fact that at my shows, a lesbian couple could sit next to a Mormon family and enjoy the stand-up I'm doing. But I do find politics fascinating. We live in an age where you can't really articulate anything [without it being misconstrued]. My best friend from childhood was furious that I did the Al Smith Dinner. He said, "I can't believe you didn't destroy Trump." And I'm like, "I know it's not going to change anything." And the task was to attack both sides — in a setting where you're surrounded by billionaires.
November 15, 2025 at 12:50 AM
ninametz.bsky.social
I literally quote the creator of “Breaking Bad” on this very subject 🤷🏻‍♀️

buttondown.com/NinaWatchesE...
After years of antihero stories dominating our screens, writer-producer Vince Gilligan (creator of "Breaking Bad," “Better Call Saul" and "Pluribus") gave a speech back in March challenging the viability of this trend: "We are living in an era where bad guys, the real-life kind, are running amuck." He urged his fellow screenwriters to reconsider valorizing "bad guys who make their own rules, bad guys who, no matter what they tell you, are only out for themselves." Bad guys can be fun characters! And I think that's also why heroes get a corny rep — they want to ruin the good time of the antiheroes. When a story does take heroes seriously, it's because they have extra powers, as cops or superheroes, whereas normies are left on the sidelines, waiting to be saved.
November 14, 2025 at 8:55 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
Related: From my colleague Tess Kenny in today’s paper

“West Chicago brothers are on the front lines against ‘Operation Midway Blitz.’ And they’re only teenagers”

“galvanized into action”

Gift 🔗 www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/14/c...
Their efforts in the vast resistance movement against the Trump administration's mass deportation operation in Chicago, represent the wave of youth activists who have been galvanized into action by Midway Operation Blitz, following a long tradition paved around the world by young activists, experts say. From Students of a Democratic Society protesting the Vietnam War to today's Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg, the sense of injustice draws young people to act. "We know in these moments... where there is deep distrust toward political institutions - where individuals and particularly young people are feeling quite dissatisfied with both political parties — that young people actually do engage in politics quite passionately," said Matthew Nelsen, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Miami who also works as a research consultant for the University of Chicago's GenForward Survey.
November 14, 2025 at 5:39 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
So what is galvanizing people? Videos on social media capturing the horror and brutality of immigration raids: Here’s what happened when a guy “saw what’s become an all-too-familiar scene unfold outside his window. 2 Customs and Border Patrol agents tackling a man to the ground on his front yard”
He didn't have time to even put on shoes or change his clothing — he was barefoot and wearing a sweatshirt and brightly colored Chicago Blackhawks pajama pants at the time, "drawing jeers from one of the agents as he screamed 'Nazis!' and 'Gestapo!' at the agents." Those Blackhawks pajamas were a detail many of us noticed in the videos that were shared online. By day, he's an attorney who likely wears a suit. But in this moment, he was an everyman in pajama pants bearing the logo of the local NHL team. Like I said, sometimes you need to see something play out to help your brain start asking: What would I do?
November 14, 2025 at 4:28 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
Korea always has us beat on this this btw

I talk a little about a 2017 film called “A Taxi Driver” (free on Tubi!!) which is a comedy, at least initially, set in 1980 about the anti-authoritarian Gwanju Uprising … and the cabbie from Seoul who drives a German journalist there to cover the events
It's the story of strangers who come together - the cabbie, the journalist, plus some student protesters, as well as the cabbies of Gwangju — to establish a shaky trust and stand up for one another in order to do something meaningful in the face of something terrifying.
November 14, 2025 at 4:21 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
I was thinking about this, because I am always thinking about this!

Because storytelling— the right kind of storytelling — CAN have a galvanizing effect. Sometimes, seeing something play out in a fictional context can prompt your brain start asking: What would I do?

buttondown.com/NinaWatchesE...
It's striking how consistent Hollywood has been on this equation, in terms of where the storytelling energy lands. Even the idea that anyone could throw a wrench into the status quo of "terrible things/no consequences" is apparently considered so unrealistic, or laughable, or just, I dunno, embarrassingly earnest moralizing as to be ignored entirely.
November 14, 2025 at 4:16 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
bioengineer.org/neurological...
While the respiratory symptoms of COVID-19 have dominated the early narratives of the disease, it has become increasingly clear that the virus's impact stretches far beyond the lungs. The pediatric population, once thought to be relatively spared from severe outcomes, has presented with significant neurological manifestations that raise concerns about the short- and long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the developing nervous system. These neurological symptoms range from subtle cognitive disturbances to severe inflammatory processes that affect brain function, reflecting a complex neurobiological response to viral infection and the host immune reaction.
November 13, 2025 at 8:50 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
People will see the last name and have questions. A statement from the governor’s spokesperson given to the Tribune’s political newsletter ‘19

Gift 🔗

www.chicagotribune.com/2019/08/12/t...
Statement from the governor's office today: “Gov. Pritzker is rarely in touch with this side of the family, and he was not aware if his cousin even knew Jeffrey Epstein," spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh wrote in an emailed statement. "The governor himself has never had any contact with Epstein. The governor condemns the sexual exploitation and abuse of young girls and is disgusted by the allegations against Epstein."
November 13, 2025 at 10:48 AM
ninametz.bsky.social
This speaks to the Epstein stuff too
I have a theory about the limitations that exist when we rely on power brokers to hold one another accountable. You can't rise to these exalted positions without buying into the system itself. Which means, regardless of gender or race or disability or religion or socioeconomic background, individuals at the top are rarely radically-minded people. They operate in exclusive spaces and speak a shared language and are attuned to protecting all that they've accumulated, be it wealth or influence or all of the above.
November 13, 2025 at 2:53 AM
ninametz.bsky.social
When I asked Nick Offerman about his facial hair in the minutes 😂

“Ariana Grande can sing like an angel; for me, it's growing facial hair”

Gift 🔗
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/15/n...
Q: Perhaps there was a slight cushion with the mutton chops that Arthur sports. I always assume everything is fake, so maybe those were applied to you each morning, but you seem like someone who would want to grow your own! A: Those are fully my own facial hair. The only time I would use fake facial hair is if I need a big beard and I don't have time to grow it. But 95% of the whiskers I have in my career are my own. Ariana Grande can sing like an angel; for me, it's growing facial hair.
November 13, 2025 at 12:22 AM
ninametz.bsky.social
“We need something old fashioned in our lives, it’s all moving so fast” What does this even mean lol?

Was “family” ever really an old-fashioned idea, outside of the most hardcore counterculture types of the late 60s? Goldie, you’re talking to middle America here!
November 12, 2025 at 11:28 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
Just thinking about this absolutely surreal song+narration from Goldie Hawn’s 1978 TV special
November 12, 2025 at 11:24 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
"(Mr. Summers is a contributing writer for The New York Times Opinion section.)"

Just pop that into a parenthetical, nothing to see here

Real clown shit from both him and the newspaper itself
The newly released conversations between the two men took place years after Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution-related charges. Many of the exchanges occurred after an investigation by The Miami Herald about a secret plea deal, bringing Mr. Epstein back into the spotlight. Mr. Summers declined to comment on Wednesday beyond referring to previous remarks in which he acknowledged “regretting my past associations with Mr. Epstein.” (Mr. Summers is a contributing writer for The New York Times Opinion section.)
November 12, 2025 at 11:00 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
Gift 🔗

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...
Jeffrey Epstein and Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary, corresponded regularly, sometimes multiple times a day, emails released on Wednesday show. The exchanges at times revolved around Mr. Summers’s relationship with a woman, as Mr. Epstein offered advice and feedback. The correspondence, which took place in 2017, 2018 and 2019, suggests a far cozier and more intimate relationship between the two men than was previously known. The emails were released by House Republicans along with more than 20,000 pages of documents. President Trump was also a frequent topic. Mr. Epstein described him in December 2018 as “borderline insane.” But many of the emails centered on Mr. Summers’s conversations and interactions with a woman living in London. In some exchanges, Mr. Epstein referred to Mr. Summers’s interactions with her as though they were a sport.
November 12, 2025 at 10:57 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
With alt txt
A four panel cartoon. Panel 1: Two people (one blue, one green) stand over a pedestal that has a large red button on it. The green person says: "Pushing this button will begin the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Trump ..." Panel 2: Blue person starts hitting the button as the Green person continues "... But! Bill Clinton must also ..." Panel 3: Blue person conitnues hitting the button as the green man begins to visibly sweat. Panel 4: Green man is now crying and tries to hold blue man back while saying "Dude" as the blue man continuously hits the button
November 12, 2025 at 6:03 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
Depressing to see one giant media co gobbling up another in the UK, mirroring what's happening in the US: "Scale itself isn’t the answer. The entertainment business isn’t the same as making widgets"

And TY to Rick for mentioning my newsletter!

(You can read it here buttondown.com/NinaWatchesE...)
CELEBRITIES WILL NOT SAVE US TV critic Nina Metz has a very thoughtful piece on the differences between celebrities of earlier eras vs. those of today. Most of whom are engaged in this PR dance where they try and portray concern without actually expressing an opinion
November 10, 2025 at 6:27 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
lolololol
Is Nuremberg a hoot? Can we make a trial of the century and guys hangout movie, A Few Good Men, Independence Day, and Schindlers List? These were the grand philosophical questions asked by nobody that ended up on the cutting floor until a brisk wind took them out the window and into the sewer where they eventually merged with a strange ooze to become this blob of a movie.
November 8, 2025 at 5:59 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
“Characteristically, people stay and help each other”
Prof Clifford Stott, a specialist in the psychology of crowds and group identity at Keele University, agreed. Modern research, he said, showed "bystander apathy" was a myth. Instead, strangers often work together in emergency situations with highly sophisticated unity. "What modern research shows is that the public are very good at protecting themselves and that the heroic actions that hit the headlines are actually underlying, natural tendencies in all of us." That, he said, revealed something very positive about the human condition - but it also indicated that society would benefit from fostering and harnessing this natural capability by helping people to feel empowered to take control during emergencies.
November 8, 2025 at 5:49 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
I’m one of the few people left cold by this show, but it’s always good when a a person with clout in Hollywood is blunt about their concerns with AI

variety.com/2025/tv/news...
Regardless of whether his own feelings seeped into the show, Gilligan has been a vocal skeptic of artificial intelligence. Tucked away in the "Pluribus" credits, it reads, "This show was made by humans." It's an important reminder as Big Tech continues to infiltrate Hollywood, and the trillion-dollar companies behind shows like “Pluribus" are also driving the future of Al. "I hate AI," Gilligan says with a chuckle. "AI is the world's most expensive and energy-intensive plagiarism machine. I think there's a very high possibility that this is all a bunch of horseshit. It's basically a bunch of centibillionaires whose greatest life goal is to become the world's first trillionaires. I think they're selling a bag of vapor."
November 8, 2025 at 12:55 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
“Right now, the city of Chicago does not feel safe for anyone, no matter their status”
Right now, the city of Chicago does not feel safe for anyone, no matter their status. We've seen people being arrested without a warrant, tear gas released near schools, people knocked down and car windows smashed. Make no mistake. These tactics threaten all of us. When one person's right to due process is taken away, all of us have lost that foundational right. Our Constitution ensures that our laws and legal system operate with equity and fairness and apply to everyone who is on U.S. soil. We are seeing the consequences of actions that sow fear in real time, and this trauma will be with our communities for years.
November 8, 2025 at 12:14 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
The community sprung into action. Two parents at the school, Audra Wunder and Erin Tobes, who have been leading safety efforts through the PTO began asking basic questions. “Doe she need food? Does she need clothing?” Tobes recalled. “People immediately (responded), how can we help? How can we help? We set up a GoFundMe knowing we will have legal fees…We were able to collect groceries, diapers, wipes.”
November 7, 2025 at 7:07 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
And then there’s this, which I didn’t know about when I wrote this week’s newsletter

Jeremy Renner Accused Of Threatening & Sexually Harassing Former Girlfriend & Collaborator

(And allegedly said he’d report her to ICE)

screenrant.com/jeremy-renner-scandal-sexual-harassment-ice-threat-yi-zhou/
The interview also includes screenshots of the text messages she had sent, as well as a photo she had taken the day of the alleged incident. Zhou also opened up about how she had confronted Renner when he had sent explicit photos, which led to him threatning her to call ICE on the filmmaker. One screenshot from Renner reads, “Immigration will be notified of your -" before the rest is cut off.
November 7, 2025 at 5:27 PM
ninametz.bsky.social
This screenshot is quoting Jennifer Lawrence

buttondown.com/NinaWatchesE...
November 7, 2025 at 4:28 PM