NYC's Mayoral Race Proves the "Post WWII Consensus is Fracturing," Marvel's Latest Show Shouldn't Be a Lightning Rod, Data Shows Dating Apps are Ending? (The Five for 07/02/25)
Plus, Prime Video's best military show gets a spinoff that looks amazing. Zach Bryan drops three new songs.
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter, but don’t always make the front page.
Two notes before we dive in.
A). Friday (July 4th) I’ll drop the “Best of 2025…So Far.” This is a recap of the top movies, TV, music, podcasts and books of the second quarter of 2025.
B). Heck with it…I need a deadline.
I’ll release my debut novel, The Deere Pipeline: A Midwestern Prairie Tale of Opioids, Murder…and Farm Equipment in August.
It’s been 1/3 done since 2022. You’ll be able to download it for free from Dropbox, or pay $1 on Amazon. You don’t know if I’m good at fiction or not, so there’s no reason to spend much (or any) to give it a try.
This is partially an experiment on producing a top-notch book with the assistance of AI (not WRITTEN by AI) in 30 days.
Want an audiobook? I’ll release that this fall after I self-record.
With that being said, let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
Well, Marvel is finally good again…but there’s so much emotion around the Disney-owned IP, that the project got review bombed on Rotten Tomatoes hours BEFORE it hit streaming…so the people giving it negative (and positive, to offset the negative) reviews hadn’t seen the show.
(I’m pulling an excerpt here, but the whole thing is worth a read).
From the moment Ironheart was announced, featuring Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams—a young Black woman taking on the technological legacy of Tony Stark—the series became a lightning rod for cultural anxieties that have little to do with quality storytelling. The show's reception was essentially predetermined, divided into three distinct camps that formed before anyone had seen a single frame of the actual series.1
The first group consists of those who have made a conscious decision to dislike anything Marvel produces for Disney+, particularly content that centers characters of color or women. For these folks, rain on a day they hoped for sunshine and tacos when they craved hamburgers is “woke.” Though these viewers have constructed elaborate justifications for their opposition, it’s just racism by another name. Their rejection of Ironheart isn't based on the show's narrative merits, pacing, or character development—it's based on what the show represents in their minds: a departure from what they consider the "authentic" Marvel universe, which implicitly centers white, male protagonists.
The second group, though close to the first, represents those who actively oppose content they perceive as politically progressive, particularly when it features women and minorities in leading roles. This demographic has consistently review-bombed Marvel projects starring people of color, from Ms. Marvel to The Marvels, often before the content is even available to view. For this audience, Ironheart's failure or success becomes a cultural victory or defeat rather than an artistic evaluation.
The third group, meanwhile, approaches the series with positive intentions but carries its own slightly problematic assumptions. These viewers feel compelled to support Ironheart primarily because it features a Black woman protagonist and is produced by Ryan Coogler, the acclaimed director behind Black Panther and Sinners. While their intentions are admirable, and I support them this approach, it can reduce the show to its representational value rather than evaluating it as a work of art on its own terms.2
I (mostly) agree with Sean here, at least on the first and third points. There are people who will hate something with a minority lead, who are in fact racists finding a semi-acceptable outlet to channel their hatred. And there are people who will make a minority led show their whole personality, even if it’s garbage.
My point of disagreement comes with the idea that people are “angry” at “politically progressive” content.
Nope. People just don’t like politics in entertainment. We have an example on the other side—the unpopular attempt by the Daily Wire to be the “conservative” movie studio. With two exceptions, everything DW has done is garbage. (Full coverage of that story here).
Marvel tried to push politics over story post-Avengers Endgame, and got hung out to dry for it.
Regardless, it’s a shame that Marvel is back on track, only to become a lightning rod for politics. We need points of commonality (like sports, music and TV) to create connections between people…and when those are torn down, anger and divisiveness rises.
Plus, it’s actually good, probably mostly because of Ryan Coogler (CREED, SINNERS), who produces projects that are masterclasses on storytelling.
[two]
“There is nothing more radicalizing than a fear of falling. … New York is a city for people who have everything and people who have nothing. For now you are neither, but the voice in your head says, Not for long, and repeats it every day, because you know things can always get worse—there is no middle without a bottom. One day the constellations on the ceiling will come crashing down with the plaster, and so will you, another middle-class star cast out of heaven.”
“I was among the young professional managerial class. When you hear about the laptop class—the people with AirPods, college degrees, and ‘good’ jobs that require them to have three roommates in their thirties—this is them. They’re the most privileged class of workers ever produced by capitalism, and they want to end it. Voting for Mamdani won’t do that, but it at least shows you’re trying.”
Zohran’s primary victory party was pretty obviously, very much the managerial class…and white. A group of people that the Free Press claims have been stuck in “permanent anxiety” and jealousy of those above them since COVID 19.
“If the Great Recession, Covid-19, and the specter of an artificial intelligence-assisted ‘white collar bloodbath’ has taught the professional class anything, it is that their credentials cannot save them. This insecurity, compounded by the outrageous cost of living in many large cities, has pushed the PMC’s anxieties to the breaking point.”
“Fear of falling pushed the PMC into Reaganism. Now, at least in New York, it’s pushing them out of capitalism altogether. … Even members of the right-wing commentariat, like podcaster and tech founder David Sacks, can’t help but notice that the old world is over, writing of Mamdani’s primary victory, ‘Socialism beats neoliberalism in the new Democratic Party, just as nationalism beats neoconservatism in the new Republican Party. Those are your choices for the future. Globalism is on its way out.’”
Zohran flirts with the two demons of the 20th century that tore the world apart—Communism and Nazism. On the Communist side, Zohran wants to “seize the means of production” (which terrifies Cuban refugees, who have lived under Communism) and wants the housing in New York (like all of it) to be government owned.
On the Nazi side, Mamdami’s call to “globalize the Intifada” (kill all Jews, worldwide), a phrase the presumed mayor has refused to back down from using (three times in a row on Meet the Press) sounds a heck of a lot like Hitler’s “final solution.”
“Hitler can’t be the devil forever. … the post‑WW2 consensus is fracturing.”
-Jonathan Pageau
Eastern Orthodox artist and TouTuber Jonathan Pageau explains it well….we’re now far enough away from WWII and the 100 million dead from Nazis and Commies…that people are falling back in love with horrible ideas, like this isn’t the world those ideas created.
God help us all.
[three]
Are layoffs at a popular dating app the sign of in-person relationships returning?
From journalist Suzy Weiss:
Bumble is laying off 30% of its employees, so that's around 240 people. We might be seeing the end of dating apps, and I think that's a good thing. Dating apps in general have degraded our understanding of dating. The next best person might be a few more swipes away, so you can never really be present.
Encourages things like ghosting, breadcrumbing. All of these horribly unhygienic social behaviors that we've come to expect. While some people were obviously able to find connections, I think for a lot of people it, it made them feel a little degraded, and I think it also hampered their ability to hit on someone.
In real life. In real life, there's all these variables and risks that you can't account for, and. Because we haven't exercised this muscle of being rejected. We're more and more afraid of it, and it's sort of atrophied. People should be way more open to approaching other people in real life, and I think people should be more open to being approached.
It won't be as bad as you think it is.
I hope we look back on dating apps and think, what were we doing? We were not in our right minds.
Here’s my only concern—we’re talking about interpersonal skills that most people learn as teenagers (flirting, talking to strangers) that many in their twenties and early thirties never developed…even for friendships.
The current generation of young adults grew up in hyper-organized childhoods, with a lot of parental overreach (trust me—I taught college) and struggle with basic interactions.
So…is the downfall of dating apps:
A). a return to the real world—and if so, why isn’t social media use dipping as well?
or
B). A sign people are just giving up altogether?
[four]
Well, didn’t see this coming. Apple is getting into live, in-person events and artist recording, with a new studio in LA.
A central feature of the Apple Music L.A. studio is a 4,000-square-foot soundstage for live performances, multicam shoots, fan events and screenings. The facility has “two advanced radio studios” with immersive Spatial Audio playback and adaptable setups for “live interviews, casual chats, or impromptu performances.” There’s a dedicated Spatial Audio mixing room outfitted with a 9.2.4 PMC speaker system as well as a photo and social media lab, edit room and green room.
In addition, the L.A. studio has “private isolation booths” for songwriting, podcasting, and one-on-one interviews. The building also has “The A-List Corridor” and “Archive Corridor,” showcasing images and artwork of “unforgettable moments from Apple Music’s past and present.”
According to the company, the new L.A. studio will “anchor” a global network of Apple Music’s creative hubs already active in locations including New York, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris and Nashville, with additional studios “coming soon.”
Music consumption is actually down, with more people never leaving the podcast/youtube world…anything that helps us feel again, I’m down for.
[five]
[movies] Well, it’s been a good summer for movies, but not a good 4th of July weekend. Whatever the latest Jurassic World movie is called is getting terrible reviews, as is the The Old Guard 2, a follow up to one of Netflix’s most successful originals. || Ballerina: From the World of John Wick (terrible title, allegedly great film) is on PVOD if you’re looking for a rental.
[shows] Hulu’s The Bear is getting a season 5. || Jennifer Aniston will lead an Apple TV+ series based on the memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died from comedian Jenny McCreedy, who unpacks a complicated relationship with her “overbearing, domineering” mother.
The Terminal List is a top 10 TV show for me after just one season, so of course I’m down for the spinoff. Dark Wolf follows Taylor Kitsch’s (Friday Night Lights, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) character we met in the Chris Pratt led main show as a special forces operative.
Streaming 08/27. Can’t wait.
It’s The Hunger Games meets The Purge? This 80’s remake is set in a Dystopian future where a father (Glen Powell of Twisters fame) must survive 30 days on the run for 30 days while assassins work to take him out. Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Last Night in Soho) is in the director’s chair on this one…so I’m down. Streaming 11/07.
[new music]
Well, that “hiatus” didn’t last long. After Zach Bryan announced he was moving to Paris for grad school and not writing or releasing any music for a couple of years…he’s already reversed course. There’s a subtle shift in sonics here, as the opening track features a Memphis/Stax records style horn section.
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music
Tyler Childers is a mainstay in the country music scene mostly for his first couple of albums (which stay on the billboard charts, thanks to crazy high streaming numbers). I was an early adopter back in 2017, but haven’t enjoyed much of his output since then.
His latest single feels like a return to form. Very cool.
Until the next one,
-sth
I disagree with "people dislike politics in entertainment." People dislike opposing politics in entertainment. We are fine with our politics in entertainment.