August 31, 2026

Photo: FX

We’re still a week out from Labor Day, and it was damp for much of the weekend. What else was there to do during these dwindling days of August except watch Adults? I feel partially responsible for infecting the mind of Dinner Party’s regular helmswoman, Emily Gould, by raving about the FX hangout sitcom, and now she’s hooked on another fan-fiction kick. All eight episodes of the show’s leveled-up second season dropped Friday, giving us an excuse to speedrun through both a slow-burn romantic arc and the surrounding discourse. I’ve been fascinated by what happens when you condense what could have been several weeks’ worth of discussion over a show into 72 hours. Already I’ve seen memes clipped from out-of-context moments, vaguely incoherent debates about whether it’s okay for characters on sitcoms to know whether they’re telling jokes, meta-debates about the nature of debates about sitcoms, and, thank God, genuinely insightful opinions, such as my colleague Roxana noting that the show gets a lot of its juice from writing about a generation of characters who are “conditioned for toxicity but yearn for sincerity.” Also, all the show’s actors are doing interviews, faux-candid photo shoots, and Twitch streams to try to promote themselves and the show at once — another symptom of a compressed release schedule. The attention economy is a crazy thing. I hope they break out and get more work. At the very least, someone should find another role for that raccoon.

Photo: Xavi Torrent/ Getty Images

Over what was a hot and muggy weekend in Irvine, California, Olivia Rodrigo brought together a massive crowd of fans for the inaugural weekend of her Daisy Chain Fields festival. (A big break for the city of Irvine, which I only knew as that place I went to in middle school for a Latin convention.) Inspired by Lilith Fair, the festival raised $20 million and convened quite a roster of all-female acts. 

“It was healing to see mothers and daughters enjoying the show together,” says Vulture’s Alejandra Gularte, who was on the scene. “The young girls idolize Olivia and the moms have probably been fans of Nicks forever. A beautiful way to pass the torch to the next generation.” Gularte braved the heat and humidity — free suggestion for the next edition: more shade! — to see Nicks and Rodrigo, as well as a hot-pink Doechii and a surprise appearance from Alanis Morissette, who subbed in for Karen O. She sang “Ironic” with Olivia. “My jaw was literally on the ground for the first half of the song,” Gularte tells me.

Photo: Scott Semler

Carroll Gardens was once the nerve center for the Italian American community in New York. But, as Rachel Corbett reports in Curbed, soaring real-estate prices have seen younger generations trading “their family apartments and businesses for bigger houses and paychecks elsewhere.” Now, only a handful of the classic Italian businesses along Court Street remain. The good news is that at least one of them has gotten a makeover: Sam’s is back under new ownership, writes Robert Simonson:  

The dynamics at play resemble the choices faced by other New York institutions: Cash out and take your money to go somewhere like Staten Island, or double down on authenticity and make that part of the rebrand. (Or do both, and have someone else do the rebranding.) Like Barney Greengrass, maybe the rebooted Sam’s should consider getting into the merch game. Anyway, rest assured that Sam’s is getting an updated cocktail menu, but “salads will be served in wooden bowls with metal tongs.” Every decision, says owner Georgia Fulton, has been informed by the same goal: “Getting it as close as possible to the original — but better.”

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A weekly dispatch on the cultural discourse.