The death toll from flooding in central Texas is unimaginable. The latest reports say 95 people are dead, including 27 children. Horrific. As they continue to search for victims–and brace for more rising water–journalists are asking questions about the efficacy of flood-warning systems as politicians urge people to avoid partisan bickering. But the matter of climate change must be addressed, writes Esquire's political columnist Charles P. Pierce. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is a climate-change denier, despite his state's mounting natural disasters. How much suffering must his people endure before the very real threat of a warming planet is taken seriously? Read Pierce's latest column here. – Michael Sebastian, editor-in-chief Plus: |
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Republican governors don't seem to realize that their actions—or lack thereof—have devastating consequences. |
During his tenure as governor of Texas, Greg Abbott has seen a catastrophic hurricane in 2017, a catastrophic ice storm in 2021, and now, a catastrophic flash flood that has drowned up to 100 people, including children at a Christian summer camp. How many of these have to happen before Abbott, a denier of man-made climate change, pays a price for them? At the very least, he is complicit in politics that hand-waves the climate crisis out of which these disasters are derived. And that's at the very least. Does barbed wire in a river on the border really count for more politically than twenty seven drowned children? The mind, she boggles. I'm concentrating a bit more on the state's reaction because the national reaction to the tragedy already has been bent by performative politics. |
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This wasn't born from some dramatic rock-bottom moment with technology. I wasn't doomscrolling myself into despair. But as a law student at the University of Michigan preparing for finals, I'd noticed something unsettling: Even after deleting Instagram and removing social apps from my iPhone 13, I was still burning through hours of daily screen time. YouTube videos about subjects I had a passing interest in. Compulsive news checking. The endless, algorithmic pull of just one more thing. My breaking point was quite mundane. I tried to focus on reading for class, and there was this itch in the back of my mind. My friend had run a marathon, and I wanted to check Strava right then to see how he did. It wasn't urgent information I needed, but that itch became overwhelming. Inevitably, I opened my phone for one thing and found myself scrolling through ten others, pulled along by the notification cascade. So I made the switch. The TCL flip phone felt like time travel. Suddenly I was dragging music files from my computer like I did as a kid, planning routes ahead of time, and carrying actual books and a point-and-shoot camera. |
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Do you ever actually look at the Billboard charts? On the album side, you find some surprises—in recent weeks, Sleep Token, Ateez, and Brandon Lake shot into the Top Ten. But on the singles side, other than Sabrina Carpenter's undeniable "Manchild," things are mostly frozen—how is it possible that "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," "Lose Control," and (good lord) "Die with a Smile" are still running things? None of the fine range of releases below is looking at that kind of dominance—the best any of the singles Lorde put out ahead of her new album did was Number 36 for "What Was That" and as good as Addison Rae's album is, it plummeted from Number 4 to Number 39 in a week. But from psychedelic hip-hop to cranky folk, from 20-something to damn near 80, from Sheffield to New Zealand, there was a whole lot of music to enjoy as spring turned to summer. |
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 Everyone Is Wrong About The Bear |
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Morning, folks. I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend. I spent some time in Maryland with my fiancée's family boiling and cracking crab legs, which I now have down to a perfect science. (Pro tip: Split the leg at the joint and then pull.) All that food prep—and extra time to catch up on TV—kept my mind on The Bear's season 4 finale, which I still feel is wildly misunderstood. There's no rhyme or reason to The Bear season 4's critical reception. Some critics feel that the FX series is treading water and it's time for the series to end completely. Others argue that season 4 finally showed the characters putting in emotional work—something that fans complained wasn't happening in season 3. If you'd like a more measured take, Esquire's senior entertainment editor, Brady Langmann, wrote that he loved season 4's finale—even if the journey there was a bit rocky. Here's the thing: season 4 is anti-TV. What do I mean by that? Most characters in The Bear do not match our expectations of how TV characters are supposed to act. And that season 4 finale, when Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) decides to leave the restaurant? Audiences are not accustomed to such levels of plot derailment. It's as if Dr. Robby in The Pitt quit medicine and took up knitting, or Coach Taylor in Friday Night lights put down his whistle and started an accounting job. When our favorite characters forfeit their identity entirely, our first reaction is to meet it with derision. But take a step back and think about Carmen's decision from another angle. What is he supposed to do? He's destined to work in the kitchen, according to Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) and Ritchie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). He's a goddamn rock star in there, after all. Carmy doing his thing in the kitchen is the whole crux of The Bear. Keeping Carmy married to the stove is the TV thing to do. But the season 4 finale is anti-TV. Carmy comes to a natural conclusion: The only way to find the space to heal is to step away from an environment that is clearly unhealthy for him… which is a very human way to deal with his mental health. It might not make for saucy TV, but it is entirely believable. Now, it's possible that Carmy returns to the kitchen next season. TV shows often try to lure away their main protagonists from what they love, only to bring them right back to the site of the chaos. For a recent example: Janine Teagues (Quinta Brunson) briefly leaving her teaching gig to join the school district staff in Abbott Elementary. But those arcs never usually last long before our characters are right back where they started. Carmy threatening to derail everything that audiences love about The Bear—i.e., the crazy kitchen and dysfunctional family bickering—is diabolical, anti-TV work. If the best part of The Bear is how human and real the show feels, there's nothing more honest than a character virtually agreeing with the audience that his life is not sustainable. Even The Pitt, which was praised for its accurate depiction of emergency healthcare work, couldn't help but veer into a fantasy realm where the Pittsburgh medical center became a microcosm for all of America's problems in just one fifteen-hour shift. That's not a dig on the HBO drama's amazing first season—that's just TV. Sure, The Bear often features outsized monologues and award-worthy acting as much as any Emmy-contending TV drama. If The Bear wasn't interested in entertaining you, it'd be a humorless slog. But Carmy's decision to leave the kitchen at the end of season 4 doesn't feel like a gimmick designed to whet your palette for season 5. If series creator Chris Storer wanted to do that, he would've just locked Carmy in the kitchen again. At the heart of all the Berzatto family craziness and Michelin star-chasing antics is a deeply human story about how we process grief. We can bicker all day about how much plot needs to happen per episode for people to feel like a TV show is moving at the right pace, but some of the most celebrated episodes of The Bear—"Fishes," "Napkins," "Forks"—are also the ones that slowed down the chaos of the kitchen for a break. If you found yourself screaming at the TV in season 3 for Carmen to put in the work, well, he's certainly doing it now. He's just not sorting out his problems in a way we're used to seeing from our TV characters. Usually, characters come to miraculous revelations about their life after just one therapy session. A wise, old relative may help them see the light like they're The Oracle in The Matrix. Hell, characters on Ted Lasso worked through their problems in half-hour installments as if it was as simple as flipping a switch in their brain. The Bear is certainly capable of this kind of schmaltz—especially in season 4. (I'm looking at you, Sugar and Francie Fak.) I won't pretend like it's a perfect TV show. But The Bear is at its best when it ignores those cliché TV flourishes. So, as someone who also went through a crisis of falling out of love with their career and then moving on to find that passion in another field (fun fact: I used to be an audio engineer), I very much resonated with Carmy's inner turmoil. Maybe he would be better off as a culinary professor, or something else entirely. Take it from me: it is possible to change, even if it feels like it's not what you're supposed to do. Jeremy Allen White is supposed to be in the kitchen. That's The Bear. Well, the season 4 finale reminds us that there's more to a character than the plot of the show, because there's more to a person than where they work. For TV, that's entirely new territory. And it's damn exciting. |
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Jeremy Allen White in The Bear season 4 / FX |
The New York Times's "100 Best Movies of the 21st Century" list was the talk of the town last week, as readers shared screenshots of their picks for their top 10 films of the past twenty-five years. Film critic Chris Nashawaty wrote a piece for Esquire about the films that he felt were snubbed by the Times's list, among them Casino Royale, In Bruges, Master and Commander. Check out Nashawaty's picks here, as well as my personal Top 10 films of the 21st Century below: |
What are your favorite films of the past twenty-five years? Let me know your picks at josh.rosenberg@hearst.com.
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The Continuing Adventures of the Esquire Entertainment Desk |
Who will be the next James Bond? Jacob Elordi, Tom Holland, and Harris Dickinson enter the race, as director Denis Villeneuve searches for his leading star. Eric Francisco breaks down the top contenders so far. >> Looking for some new music this summer? Alan Light ranks sixteen of his favorite albums of 2025 so far, including records by Sharon Van Etten, Lorde, Sault, and Neil Young. Check out the list here. >> Josh Holloway has some feelings about that Duster finale twist. The Lost alum retraces the tread marks of his HBO Max series—and where the show is headed next. Read the interview by Eric Francisco. >> |
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Josh Holloway in Duster / HBO Max |
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The Cliff-Hanger's Winners and Losers of the Week |
Loser: The Cast of Love Island USA Why is everyone so mean this season?! After a disastrous airing of grievances from the whole cast on Tuesday night, only one or two of the remaining islanders have any real fan support heading into the finale on Sunday. This year's contestants may not have come to Love Island to make friends, but they certainly came to make some enemies. (I'm allowed to have a guilty pleasure too, okay?) Winner: David Dastmalchian I've always enjoyed Dastmalchian's creepy and clever acting style, but it's not often that he's able to bring his talents to the right roles. According to Deadline, that's about to change. Dastmalchian is set to star as the lead villain M. Bison in the upcoming Street Fighter movie. I hope he's ready for those massive shoulder pads. Loser: Travis Kelce While talking about his appearance on SNL, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end stated that the whole experience was difficult because he "can't really read that well." He added: "It was kind of a f**ked situation," Kelce told podcaster Taylor Lewan. "I'm more of an Audible, more of an audio guy." Maybe that's why Kelce hosted the Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? spin-off for celebrities? Loser: The Marvel Cinematic Universe The superhero franchise finally introduced the character that fans have been clamoring about for half a decade: the devilish Mephisto. The only problem? Mephisto (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) appeared in the critically panned season finale of Ironheart. They say you're never too late to the party, but I wouldn't be surprised if Mephisto becomes yet another character from a post-credits tease who never returns. Winner: Keith David How about a heartwarming start to the week? Watch this sweet video of Keith David finding out that he earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The actor set up a camera to record his reactions to the list of honorees, not knowing that he was among them. It's a beautiful surprise. Well deserved, Mr. David! |
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