Brow Beat

The Week in Culture, “Whither the Frat Bro” Edition

Seth Rogen in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising.
Seth Rogen in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising.

Good Universe

Though the new Captain America movie was probably the official kickoff, Neighbors 2 feels like the real start of the summer movie season, at least for those of us who are partial to comedies. So it’s exciting to see that the movie is getting positive reviews: Slate’s Katy Waldman zeroed in on Zac Efron as the best part of the movie, a frat bro in a post–frat-bro world. And Jeffrey Bloomer wrote about the ways the movie aims to correct the homophobia of earlier bro movies and ingeniously turns the bromance on its head.

This time of year also means early rumblings about the song of the summer. Drake finally achieved his first No. 1 with “One Dance,” prompting Chris Molanphy to point out the song’s underlying sadness and ask if that’s the direction in which pop music is headed. But that might not be the thing that dooms “One Dance” in the song-of-summer game: Step aside for Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” a song with more than a few things in common with, and seemingly looking to duplicate the success of, Pharrell’s “Happy.” If there were any justice in the world, though, the album of the summer would be Chance the Rappers’ Coloring Book, which Jack Hamilton called the first true gospel-rap masterpiece.

It’s also the season for TV debuts. (It’s pretty much always the season for TV debuts.) Willa Paskin thinks AMC’s Preacher, based on the series of comic books, deserves to be as big as The Walking Dead. Paskin also loved Netflix’s new Maria Bamford comedy, Lady Dynamite, “a show that feels like nothing else on TV, a cult classic that, in the age of Netflix, may appeal to a horde.” And Julian Fellowes Presents Doctor Thorne may not be reinventing the Downton Abbey script, but it shows that Fellowes is coming for the PBS throne. When Paskin isn’t watching TV for Slate, she’s doing her summer reading; book-club with her this summer by joining Slate Plus, where My Ántonia, a book about nostalgia, longing, and the Nebraska prairie, is the next a Year of Great Books pick.

A few more highs and lows from the week in culture: