The Take

Download the DraftKings app and sign up with code THETAKE. New players can get $100 instantly in casino credits with just a $1 wager. From The Bold Type's Jane to SATC's Carrie to Desperate Housewives' Susan to OITNB's Piper to HIMYM's Ted to... *so many* others, main characters are the ones that pull us into a show or movie, the eyes through which we experience the story, and sometimes, and much as we may love them… they’re really annoying. We’re not talking about real baddies here – but instead just the characters that are almost good people, but just seem to somehow make the worst choice at every turn. Sometimes we only really realize how annoying they were in hindsight, other times we’re yelling at the TV every episode. But there are actually a lot of different reasons that stories choose to have someone a little grating at the center of their narrative – and also some surprising reasons behind why we love to watch them so much, even when they drive us up the wall. So let’s take a deeper look at the Annoying Main Character Trope. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

22 Jul 202413min

Friends' Phoebe Buffay and How I Met Your Mother's Robin Scherbatsky both encounter a particularly difficult quirk of friendship dynamics: being the New Friend in the group. Being the newest friend working your way into an already existing friend group can be difficult, and leave you feeling like no matter how well you’ve integrated into the group, they’ll always choose each other over you. Sometimes the New Friend is able to overcome this hurdle and truly become an equal friend with everyone else in the group, but others get left feeling like they’ll always be second best no matter what. So, let’s take a deeper look at this trope, how Friends' Phoebe Buffay and How I Met Your Mother's Robin Scherbatsky exemplify the good and bad side of the New Friend dilemma, and what it all tells us about the power of friendship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

19 Jul 202410min

Curly hair, like hair colors, is often used to represent something specific about a character on screen. Sometimes curly hair is a positive signifier – like of an untamable strength within a character – but for a long time curly hair was used as an indication that something about a character needed to be changed and, well, straightened out. In recent years, things have begun evolving as we’ve seen more and more characters come to love their hair (and themselves) as is, following on the back of real world movements to do the same. So let’s unpack the different tropes that have sprung up around curly hair on screen (good and bad) and how we’re finally bouncing past those into a much more positive, accepting place. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

17 Jul 202410min

Clueless' Cher Horowitz at first might seem like just another character stuck in the 'dumb blonde' trope, but when we look closer, we realize that she was actually right about a lot of things! She definitely doesn't get everything right, but she is quite astute - and, importantly, willing to fight for what she wants (*and* admit when she's wrong.) So let's take a deeper look at the lessons Cher can teach us about life, love, and friendship! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

15 Jul 202410min

Go to http://rocketmoney.com/thetake to cancel your unwanted subscriptions with Rocket Money! Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods is an iconic beacon of optimism and thinking pink, and one of her defining characteristics is her confidence. It can often be hard to find confidence within ourselves when it seems like the whole world is trying to put us down, and Elle certainly has her own moments of wavering belief in herself. But no matter how many times she gets knocked down, she always figures out a way to get back up. And so she provides us a great guide on how to believe in ourselves, even when no one else does! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

14 Jul 202412min

Euphoria’s Nate Jacobs at first seems like he has it all, so you’d think he’d be a pretty happy guy. But a happy guy Nate Jacobs most certainly is not. He’s a dangerous and spiteful presence, his anger and intensity fusing to form something much darker than your run of the mill teen meanness. So why is Nate so miserable – and so prone to taking his misery out on everyone else? Let’s take a deeper look at Nate’s story to analyze what’s really going on behind all of that anger – and what the true takeaway of his story really is. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

13 Jul 202413min

Download Opera for free using https://opr.as/Opera-browser-thetake Thanks Opera for sponsoring this video! A Quiet Place: Day One, a prequel to the original films, takes the quiet action out of the small town of the first two films and into one of the noisiest cities in the country. While Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn have been universally praised for their takes on their characters, audiences’ responses to the film as a whole have been quite a bit more split. So what works, and what doesn’t? And what is this film actually trying to say? Let’s analyze all of that and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

11 Jul 202411min

Go to http://zocdoc.com/THETAKE to download the Zocdoc app for free and book a top-rated doctor today! The Bikeriders, the new film starring Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, and Tom Hardy as members of a growing and splintering motorcycle club initially had a lot of buzz, but since its release, it's been getting some pretty mixed reviews because to some viewers, it feels like… nothing much really happens. The film is (very loosely) based on the real life story of a Chicago motorcycle club, and so many went in expecting a bit more action. And the movie has raised a lot of questions – how much of it, exactly, is true to life, what was made up, and… what’s up with those accents? Let’s unpack all of that, plus take a deeper look at what the film was actually trying to say. (No worries, no major spoilers for the film until the final chapter!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

10 Jul 202411min