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Meryl Williams

    About Me

    Meryl Williams is an Ohio writer who loves Rilo Kiley and roller derby. Sign up for her awesome TinyLetter.

    Latest Stories

    13 Thanksgiving Movies and TV Shows to Stream This Week
    Featuring classics, new favorites, and more to watch with your friends and family.
    Meryl Williams
    Nov 21, 2022
    5 Things Netflix’s ‘Tuca & Bertie’ Gets Right About Renting
    The show gives a surprisingly detailed, real representation of renting in a city.
    Meryl Williams
    Jul 29, 2020
    MTV’s New ‘Daria’ Spinoff Was Announced—and More Could Be on the Way
    Last summer, MTV hinted that they were interested in more stories from the Daria universe, and now we know what’s finally coming: A spin-off about Jodie Landon, Daria’s best friend, who will be voiced by “Black-ish’s” Tracee Ellis Ross. “Jodie” will take place years after high school and will follow the title character’s career at a start-up.
    Meryl Williams
    Jun 17, 2019
    “The Good Place” Has Me Imagining What My Afterlife House Would Look Like
    In case you missed it, NBC’s The Good Place wrapped up its first season last week with a pretty unexpected finale. If you’ve been sleeping on this new comedy, now’s the time to catch up—even if it’s just to check out the set design. Come for the aesthetics, stay for the surprisingly solid philosophy jokes! The Good Place is about Eleanor (Kristen Bell), a bad person who’s mistakenly sent to a section of the afterlife intended only for humanity’s best.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    Fantasy Real Estate: Questions I Have About the Homes in Big Little Lies
    Have you caught up on Big Little Lies, the seven-part HBO miniseries everyone from your mom to your hair stylist is talking about? The one starring Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley, even though she seems a little too young to play the mother of a first grader? If so, let’s dish, and if not, maybe bookmark this for later – this contains mild spoilers.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    What the Homes In Stranger Things 2 Tell Us About Their Inhabitants
    If you’ve already binge-watched Stranger Things 2, then you know the new season gives its audience a wider view of the inner lives of some of the characters, which didn’t see so much of back in season one. If you remember, the first season centered mostly around the homes of Will Byers and Mike Wheeler, despite the fact that Will is largely absent throughout the entire original run.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Has Mid-Century Style In Spades
    If you’ve been missing the on-point mid-century aesthetics of shows like Mad Men and Good Girls Revolt, you might want to watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel strictly for that. The new Amazon show from Amy Sherman-Palladino takes place in the late ’50s and shows us the best apartments the Upper West Side had to offer at the time.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    I Watched Netflix’s Latest Holiday Movie, Christmas Inheritance, and Here’s What I Thought
    Netflix quietly handed us all another gift in the form of Christmas Inheritance, their latest original holiday movie, starring Eliza Taylor (The 100) and Jake Lacy (Carol, Obvious Child). If you were pleasantly surprised by last month’s so-bad-it’s-good A Christmas Prince, you might be able to get into the spirit of Inheritance. Taylor plays Ellen Langford, the daughter of a wealthy retail owner (What do they sell? Gifts. There’s no need to be any more specific than that).
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    Stream Golden Globe-Winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel This Weekend – Even if you Don’t Have Amazon Prime
    Amazon’s new original series darling, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, just took home two Golden Globes, and this weekend, you can watch the accoladed series for free – with our without an Amazon Prime membership. Per the retail and streaming giant, anyone can watch the series at no cost starting this Friday at 12:01 a.m. local time, right up until 11:59 p.m. local time Monday.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    Hulu Released The Handmaid’s Tale Season Two Trailer, And Things Are Looking Grim
    The show that just took home the Golden Globe for Best Drama TV Series doesn’t come back until April, but Hulu recently dropped a teaser trailer for season two of The Handmaid’s Tale. Here’s a breakdown of what might be to come for Offred and company in season two, based on a cruel, less-than-90-seconds of footage. As is to be expected, below are spoilers for season one.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    Zach Braff Returns to TV in a Show Based on a Podcast
    It’s almost time for mid-season replacements, that wonderful time of year when all the second-string sitcoms sub in for the ones that got cancelled already. Over at ABC, they’re taking a chance on Alex, Inc., a show based on a podcast. The whole thing may sound very meta, but get used to the small screen borrowing from its increasingly popular audible cousin. After all, 2 Dope Queens just landed a series of HBO specials. Alex, Inc.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    The House In ‘Winchester’ Is a Real Place, And It’s Gigantic
    A new Helen Mirren movie about a rich heiress who builds a strange mansion is based on real events. While it sounds like the real house it centers around was less about ghost stories than Hollywood makes it out to be, the place is still imposing. Winchester’s trailer shows Sarah Winchester, the widow of rifle magnate William Wirt Winchester, as she builds room after room onto her mansion, trapping inside each of them the ghosts of those who died as a result of her husband’s firearms.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    Owning a Famous Property Has Its Downsides: American Horror Story House Owners Suing Over Tourists
    Have you ever thought how cool it would be to own a famous house recognizable from popular culture? Maybe think again. The current owners of the L.A.-located Rosenheim Mansion, AKA the famous haunted house featured in the initial season of American Horror Story, are way over the novelty. In fact, they’re suing the previous owners for not giving them a heads up about how often the house is visited by fans of the horror anthology.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    Stream these Women-Led Shows to Celebrate International Women’s Day
    March 8 is International Women’s Day, and it’s a great opportunity to support an organization that helps women, such as Kiva, WAGGGS, or another great non-profit. Once you’ve done your part, relax with some women-led TV. While the Oscar winners this year were still pretty dude-heavy, you can lift up women’s profiles in TV by streaming and supporting women-helmed projects. Cinematography work by women is amazing, but rare.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    If You Love Renovations and Mysteries, These Hallmark Movies Are For You
    Did you know one of America’s most loved 90s pop icons is at the helm of her own Hallmark Channel movie franchise? Jewel, who continues to successfully pull off going only by her first name despite transitioning into an acting career, is the lead in her third Fixer Upper Mystery, which premiered this month, following two previous 2017 movies in the series.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    Explain It All: Why Was it So Easy for Sam to Climb into Clarissa’s Window?
    By now, you already know that Melissa Joan Hart and company are in talks to reboot Nickelodeon’s 90s hit, Clarissa Explains It All. As the Hollywood Reporter said of the project, the new show would see former star Melissa Joan Hart reprise her role as Clarissa Darling, but this time, she’d play the mom of the family. How very Girl Meets World of them!
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    Can You Make It Through The Scariest Movie on Netflix?
    Netflix can be pretty tight-lipped on their viewer data (with the exception of occasionally trolling its users on Twitter), but now they are reporting that there’s one horror movie on the streaming platform that many viewers are just too scared to finish. The 2017 horror movie Veronica is one of the scariest movies on Netflix. Set in 1991 Madrid, Veronica is about a teen girl who finds herself besieged by an evil supernatural force after she plays Ouija with two classmates.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    A New Trailer For The Handmaid’s Tale Hints At What Happens After The Book Ends
    If you haven’t yet caught up on Hulu’s original series The Handmaid’s Tale, you’ve got a couple weeks to check it out – season two starts April 25, when the first two episodes of the 13-episode season will drop. Episodes will air weekly after that, just like season one did. Because the new season takes place after the original source material—Margaret Atwood’s 1989 book—ends, we don’t know what’s outside of Gilead.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    The 5 Best Marvel Movie Interiors That We’d Move Right Into
    The Avengers are reuniting one more time on April 27 for Avengers: Infinity War, the fourth installment of the franchise, which has been going strong now for almost a decade. In preparation, it’s not a bad time to rewatch some of your favorites from the series, which encompasses three movies each about Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor, on top of a dozen others, including the record-breaking Black Panther from earlier this year.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    Before Twitter, What Did TV Fans Do To Save Their Favorite Shows?
    The recent saga around Brooklyn 99, FOX’s critically-acclaimed darling about a New York City police precinct, felt like a roller coaster for fans. The network cancelled it in advance of its sixth season, only for it to be scooped up at the 11th hour by rival network NBC. Fans rejoiced on Twitter, the platform on which they’d been cursing FOX for days prior. It’s a story with a happy ending (PS, NBC, can you resuscitate Happy Endings while you’re at it?).
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    Disney’s Gravity Falls Put So Much Detail Into The Mystery Shack
    One of the most intricate, continuity-conscious series out there is a former Disney Channel cartoon disguised as a children’s show. Gravity Falls ran for two perfect seasons between 2012 and 2016, centering around a fictional Oregon town with twin siblings, Mabel and Dipper Pines, and their great-uncle Stan.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    Sharp Objects’ Pristine Victorian Mansion Belies Its Spooky Secrets
    If you dig shows and movies like Big Little Lies, Gone Girl, and even Buffy The Vampire Slayer, you need to be watching HBO’s Sharp Objects. The eight-episode miniseries is based on Gillian Flynn’s debut novel and is centered around Camille Preaker (Amy Adams), a St. Louis-based journalist who is sent back to her hometown in the southern part of the state to report on the year-old death of one young girl and the recent disappearance of a second.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    But Really, Will There Ever Be More Gilmore Girls Episodes?
    The long-awaited Gilmore Girls revival came out on Netflix almost two years ago, but from the minute that national binge-watched happened over Thanksgiving weekend, rumors have been flying about getting even more time with our favorite Connecticut brunettes. In July, the latest official Netflix comment on more Gilmore Girls came from the Television Critics Association when Cindy Holland, VP of Original Content, said the streaming giant is still a big fan of Stars Hollow.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    Netflix’s Halloween Calendar Delivers a Different Scary Movie Every Day
    Netflix knows that their users want to be scared throughout October—in fact, there’s a nearly 50 percent increase in horror viewing during the month. To help meet this need, they’ve made a terrifying calendar of nightmarish movies to get you through to Halloween. The calendar highlights new and classic titles coming to the streaming platform, including old favorites like The Shining, The Sixth Sense, The Conjuring, and more.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    All “The Office” Christmas Episodes, Ranked from Worst to Best
    While “Bob’s Burgers” and “Friends” maintains the monopoly on Thanksgiving stories, other shows crafted and perfected the sitcom holiday episode. Chief among them may be NBC’s “The Office,” which ran for nine seasons and celebrated Christmas for seven of them. It’s true that this show has not aged well since it aired.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    The Best Rom-Com Heroine Apartments, Ranked
    It’s one thing to go down the line of your classic romantic comedies and pick your favorite couples, but what about the great debate over who had the best digs? Here to settle the score is the definitive ranking of romantic comedy heroine’s apartments. From Bridget Jones to Vivian Ward, here’s who decorated it best.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019
    “The Simpsons” Has Been On TV for 30 Years—Here Are the Best Homes
    “The Simpsons” is in its 30th season—and now holds the title of the longest-running primetime scripted series. Over three decades, we’ve seen hundreds of versions of the opening theme, ending with the family together on the couch, in a home most Americans would probably recognize. That said, Springfield (and its surrounding areas) has some other pretty awesome places to live. So here’s a selection of the coolest pads in “The Simpsons” universe.
    Meryl Williams
    May 3, 2019