ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY AND AWARD NEWS  AUGUST 28, 2019 TV Asks: What’s Wrong With Florida? Why is the Sunshine State such an irresistible place to set a television series, be it dark comedy or contemplative drama? Vanity Fair critic and native Tampanian Sonia Saraiya wrestles with that very question in a wide-ranging survey of a new crop of shows, all set among orange groves, gators, and “Sunshine” laws—which enforce a remarkable degree of transparency when it comes to public records, and may be to blame for the enduring “Florida Man” meme. From On Becoming a God in Central Florida to Florida Girls to David Makes Man, “All three consider what it means to be a Floridian—and each carries some anguish about belonging to this particular place,” she writes. “These are stories about trying to forge an identity and a sense of belonging amid a statewide narrative of lowered expectations.... You’d be hard-pressed to find a happy, stable, healthy Floridian in any one of them. The ones that are, invariably, turn into villains.” Elsewhere in HWD, Laura Bradley ponders what 13 Reasons Why is really trying to say in its over-the-top third season; contributor Paul Chi catches up with Jessica Chastain and Bill Hader at the red carpet premiere of It: Chapter Two; Yohana Desta learns the secrets of dressing Beyoncé in a conversation with the singer’s Emmy-nominated Homecoming costumers; and Dave Chappelle tries to stoke controversy, but mostly provokes yawns, in his new Netflix special.

The Florida Project Growing up, our critic was hungry for TV set in her native state, but all she could find was The Golden Girls. Now, three new and very different shows aim to illuminate the almost mythically strange place that Homer Simpson once called “America’s wang.” READ MORE » The Kids Aren’t All Right For three seasons, Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why has offered a harrowing portrayal of teenage life—but who, if anyone, is this story actually meant to enlighten? READ MORE » Bloody Show Jessica Chastain talks being covered in fake gore for It: Chapter Two, while Xavier Dolan defends the film’s opening scene, which depicts a brutal hate crime. READ MORE » Best Dressed The stylists and designers who helped assemble hundreds of costumes for Beyoncé’s groundbreaking Coachella performance—captured in Netflix’s Homecoming—take us inside the formation of that Emmy-nominated wardrobe. READ MORE » Agent Provocateur Dave Chappelle aims to shock with material about Michael Jackson and Louis C.K. in a new special—but isn’t this sort of material getting old? READ MORE »