Cultural Commentary

On the Netflix series The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,Laura Dern plays Wendy Hebert, a woman who is inexplicably in love with Richard Wayne Gary Wayne (Jon Hamm), a charismatic sociopath serving time for kidnapping and enslaving four women, including the eponymous character, who is his ex-wife. Wendy is sweet, beautiful, and …

Watching the Democratic National Convention, it was striking how many times grief came up throughout the four nights of speeches. At some points, it was addressed directly — when Joe Biden talked about the experience of losing his wife and infant daughter in a car accident in 1972, then his …