Judy Berman
@judyberman.bsky.social
TV critic & union woman @ TIME. Writer & catastrophist @ Brooklyn. Exhausted & bored @ Twitter. Guess I'm here now, too.
Reposted by Judy Berman
A friend working on a 30th anniversary piece on The Score is looking to talk to Haitians/Haitian-Americans, and or Black ppl from NYC and NJ who can reflect on what that album meant to them in the 1990s, please share and/or hit my DMs!
January 6, 2026 at 4:16 PM
A friend working on a 30th anniversary piece on The Score is looking to talk to Haitians/Haitian-Americans, and or Black ppl from NYC and NJ who can reflect on what that album meant to them in the 1990s, please share and/or hit my DMs!
Reposted by Judy Berman
As "Adolescence" continues to sweep every Limited Series award out there, a moment of silence for "Dying for Sex," which told such complex stories so well that it blew me away on approx. a thousand different levels
January 5, 2026 at 3:40 PM
As "Adolescence" continues to sweep every Limited Series award out there, a moment of silence for "Dying for Sex," which told such complex stories so well that it blew me away on approx. a thousand different levels
Bless Meg Stalter for seeing how terrible everything is and granting us all a moment of unmitigated joy
Meg Stalter and Paul W. Downs Hilariously Cosplay as Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet at Critics Choice Awards 2026
At the 2026 Critics Choice Awards, Meg Staltler and Paul W. Downs put their own spin on the orange Chrome Hearts outfits Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner wore to the Los Angeles premiere of 'Marty S...
people.com
January 5, 2026 at 12:40 AM
Bless Meg Stalter for seeing how terrible everything is and granting us all a moment of unmitigated joy
Pretty horrifying! The few times I've shopped at the Wegmans in Brooklyn, it seemed like most customers were Instacart workers—many of whom are already disproportionately vulnerable to surveillance—filling multiple orders for people with the means to avoid doing their own grocery shopping.
NYC Wegmans is storing biometric data on shoppers' eyes, voices and faces
The supermarket chain says it’s a move to ensure shopper safety. Surveillance experts warn of privacy risks.
gothamist.com
January 4, 2026 at 4:28 PM
Pretty horrifying! The few times I've shopped at the Wegmans in Brooklyn, it seemed like most customers were Instacart workers—many of whom are already disproportionately vulnerable to surveillance—filling multiple orders for people with the means to avoid doing their own grocery shopping.
Can’t even peacefully wait out a stomach virus exposure window without being interrupted by a nihilistic act of war anymore
January 3, 2026 at 5:13 PM
Can’t even peacefully wait out a stomach virus exposure window without being interrupted by a nihilistic act of war anymore
Amtrak is getting as bad as rideshare apps with this shit
January 2, 2026 at 11:08 PM
Amtrak is getting as bad as rideshare apps with this shit
I keep writing "2025" instead of "2026" on all my dart boards
January 2, 2026 at 9:56 PM
I keep writing "2025" instead of "2026" on all my dart boards
Reposted by Judy Berman
STRANGER THINGS was tv by fans for fans, and I mean that as negatively as possible.
January 1, 2026 at 9:44 PM
STRANGER THINGS was tv by fans for fans, and I mean that as negatively as possible.
Haven’t watched the Stranger Things finale yet, does Vecna win?
January 1, 2026 at 11:58 PM
Haven’t watched the Stranger Things finale yet, does Vecna win?
I really respect Bernie’s commitment to wearing the puffiest possible parka to every public event between November and March, he looks like a dad who just came in from scraping frost off a windshield in Vermont after a blizzard, and that to me is beautiful
January 1, 2026 at 7:39 PM
I really respect Bernie’s commitment to wearing the puffiest possible parka to every public event between November and March, he looks like a dad who just came in from scraping frost off a windshield in Vermont after a blizzard, and that to me is beautiful
Reading off a phone is A+ Poetry Representation
January 1, 2026 at 7:10 PM
Reading off a phone is A+ Poetry Representation
Nobody told the NYP about after-Xmas sales
January 1, 2026 at 6:46 PM
Nobody told the NYP about after-Xmas sales
Reposted by Judy Berman
My online new years' resolution is to share one (1) new essay I really like or appreciate every day. Today, let's do this piece by @judyberman.bsky.social, which is great, in part, because it thinks about its subject as a text that exists IN TIME! As we all do. HNY! time.com/7341726/stra...
'Stranger Things' Was a Casualty of the Franchise Machine
How the nostalgic, well-made treat we couldn't help devouring amid the traumas of 2016 devolved into a content factory
time.com
January 1, 2026 at 5:57 PM
My online new years' resolution is to share one (1) new essay I really like or appreciate every day. Today, let's do this piece by @judyberman.bsky.social, which is great, in part, because it thinks about its subject as a text that exists IN TIME! As we all do. HNY! time.com/7341726/stra...
Had dinner with old friends, danced to "New York Groove" (Hello version), lucked into the only classic loudmouth cab driver in the city with actually good opinions (and a great punk playlist), watched a video of Mayor Mamdani getting sworn in. It's 2026, the planet is on fire, but NY is maybe back?
January 1, 2026 at 7:49 AM
Had dinner with old friends, danced to "New York Groove" (Hello version), lucked into the only classic loudmouth cab driver in the city with actually good opinions (and a great punk playlist), watched a video of Mayor Mamdani getting sworn in. It's 2026, the planet is on fire, but NY is maybe back?
"If you say anything negative about the mediocre entertainment that is making the most powerful entertainment company in the world richer, you are mean."
OK, I can live with that.
OK, I can live with that.
December 27, 2025 at 12:16 AM
"If you say anything negative about the mediocre entertainment that is making the most powerful entertainment company in the world richer, you are mean."
OK, I can live with that.
OK, I can live with that.
"Let people enjoy things" isn't the populist cri de coeur some people seem to think it is. It's giving everyone who gets rich making entertainment products for mass consumption cover to cater to the lowest common denominator. At least make them put some effort into taking your hard-earned money!
December 26, 2025 at 4:50 PM
"Let people enjoy things" isn't the populist cri de coeur some people seem to think it is. It's giving everyone who gets rich making entertainment products for mass consumption cover to cater to the lowest common denominator. At least make them put some effort into taking your hard-earned money!
Reposted by Judy Berman
The upcoming end of Stranger Things is probably the last television event I'll ever look forward to in my lifetime, and that's more a "me" thing than an "it" thing: in 2016 I was capable of having emotional investment in a television show and I no longer am, so this is a last remnant of a dead world
Stranger Things started out as a fun, clever, well-made little distraction from the hellscape of 2016. Then we all started living full-time in the Upside Down, a franchise-thirsty streamer stretched one season's worth of story into four, and—much like our brains—the show never recovered.
'Stranger Things' Was a Casualty of the Franchise Machine
How the nostalgic, well-made treat we couldn't help devouring amid the traumas of 2016 devolved into a content factory
time.com
December 26, 2025 at 3:42 PM
The upcoming end of Stranger Things is probably the last television event I'll ever look forward to in my lifetime, and that's more a "me" thing than an "it" thing: in 2016 I was capable of having emotional investment in a television show and I no longer am, so this is a last remnant of a dead world
Reposted by Judy Berman
I now reflexively think of Stranger Things as protoslop, the antecedent to AI videos about nonexistent mall McDonaldlands. Judy lays out a timeline of how its relatively innocuous nostalgia bait devolved into content extrusion detached from anything that made anyone care — the slop funnel to a tee.
Stranger Things started out as a fun, clever, well-made little distraction from the hellscape of 2016. Then we all started living full-time in the Upside Down, a franchise-thirsty streamer stretched one season's worth of story into four, and—much like our brains—the show never recovered.
'Stranger Things' Was a Casualty of the Franchise Machine
How the nostalgic, well-made treat we couldn't help devouring amid the traumas of 2016 devolved into a content factory
time.com
December 26, 2025 at 3:37 PM
I now reflexively think of Stranger Things as protoslop, the antecedent to AI videos about nonexistent mall McDonaldlands. Judy lays out a timeline of how its relatively innocuous nostalgia bait devolved into content extrusion detached from anything that made anyone care — the slop funnel to a tee.
Stranger Things started out as a fun, clever, well-made little distraction from the hellscape of 2016. Then we all started living full-time in the Upside Down, a franchise-thirsty streamer stretched one season's worth of story into four, and—much like our brains—the show never recovered.
'Stranger Things' Was a Casualty of the Franchise Machine
How the nostalgic, well-made treat we couldn't help devouring amid the traumas of 2016 devolved into a content factory
time.com
December 26, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Stranger Things started out as a fun, clever, well-made little distraction from the hellscape of 2016. Then we all started living full-time in the Upside Down, a franchise-thirsty streamer stretched one season's worth of story into four, and—much like our brains—the show never recovered.
I have a longer piece on Stranger Things going up tomorrow I think but for now let me just say that this season, like last season, has been unwatchable
December 26, 2025 at 2:17 AM
I have a longer piece on Stranger Things going up tomorrow I think but for now let me just say that this season, like last season, has been unwatchable
One show that keeps popping into my head when I think about Pluribus is The Prisoner. Anyone else?
December 24, 2025 at 11:09 PM
One show that keeps popping into my head when I think about Pluribus is The Prisoner. Anyone else?
Reposted by Judy Berman
There's so many experienced professionals out there suddenly being told how to do their jobs by god tier clowns.
December 24, 2025 at 7:53 PM
There's so many experienced professionals out there suddenly being told how to do their jobs by god tier clowns.
Just detached my Pluribus review from a pedantic quote tweet from a person who understands neither that show nor the impermanent, infinitely resetting nature of comic-book plots, in part bc he doesn't even allow non-followers to respond to his posts, as an early Xmas present to myself.
December 24, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Just detached my Pluribus review from a pedantic quote tweet from a person who understands neither that show nor the impermanent, infinitely resetting nature of comic-book plots, in part bc he doesn't even allow non-followers to respond to his posts, as an early Xmas present to myself.
Reposted by Judy Berman
My spoiler-free review of Pluribus finale: Somewhere, someplace…Chekhov is slow-clapping.
December 24, 2025 at 5:21 PM
My spoiler-free review of Pluribus finale: Somewhere, someplace…Chekhov is slow-clapping.