Lady Gaga Has Reentered the Chat

Plus: Reactions to Meghan ̶M̶a̶r̶k̶l̶e̶ ̶ Sussex's show and other things to watch

Mar 10, 2025

There is so much to watch right now!

Mother Monster is back. And not a moment too soon!

I don’t want to overstate the situation, but I absolutely will: We are, as a society, in cardiac arrest, and Lady Gaga walked in with a defibrillator labeled DANCE-POP and restored our EKG back to Thumping With Life!1

Let me set the scene of my emotional headspace last week: I think we can all agree that globally, there’s been some tough stuff in the news lately. And on a personal level, my family got some tough health news about my mom a few weeks ago. So, several nights ago, I set Spotify to a private session because my next decision was between me and God [and now all of you] and typed “sad millennial indie folk”2 into the search bar.

There’s something so utterly comforting about the music of my college years, which for me were also the years when both hope and angst were much closer to the surface — when I was much more interested, or perhaps free, to contend with my emotions daily and allow them to be part of who I was with less judgment.3 The music from that very specific time is so evocative to me now. I queued up some sort of “Decemberists/Death Cab for Cutie/Band of Horses/Iron & Wine” radio and hit shuffle. I wanted to feel comfort and also tap into something that often goes numbed now.4

And then the NEXT DAY, as if reading my mind [because I know she’s thinking about me personally], Lady Gaga dropped an album that time-traveled me straight back to college. Her new album, “Mayhem,” has been lauded as a return to the dance-floor beats of her 2008 debut and a rebirth of what her fans first fell in love with.

In short: Lady Gaga is bringing back my inner ~~child~~ college sophomore.

My friend Darrell sent me an audio message that said what I’m trying to say — but more elegantly:

“Mayhem” is everything to me in this moment. You know what it feels like? You remember when Steve from Blue’s Clues came back during the pandemic? And we hadn’t seen him as a generation in 20 years and something unlocked and broke inside of us? It was like the hug that we needed. We needed someone who saw us then to see us again now and speak to the anxieties and mourning that we were doing at the time and even now. And I feel very similarly with this new Gaga album.

My question for the readers this week: What’s your “awakens my inner young-adult” music? No embarrassing answers because another spiral I went on last week was a TikTok playing that JT song “Mirrors”!? Remember how we felt when that song came out, Fellow Millennials?!

Is Duchess Meghan’s Show Cringe-Bad, Cringe-Neutral, or Cringe-Good? Or not Cringe at all?

I had dinner with friends Saturday, and we came up with a new “Alignment System.” Instead of Lawful Good/Evil, Neutral Good/Evil, Chaotic Good/Evil: Cringe Good, Cringe Neutral, Cringe Bad.

A few examples we threw out:

Cringe Good: Andrew Garfield; Anne Hathaway [she is Cringe Neutral/Bad to me, but I’m alone in the world on that one]; Taylor Swift; When you receive a compliment in front of a lot of people.
Cringe Neutral: Anna Kendrick; Bradley Cooper; 72-year-old Bill Belichick’s 24-year-old girlfriend who is trying to “speak for the fishermen who have no voice”; Millennials saying “adulting.”
Cringe Bad: Brittany Mahomes; Jake and Logan Paul; Adrien Brody’s world-record-length Oscars acceptance speech; The entire runtime of Emilia Pérez.

Another example: Someone who has spent their career traveling back and forth from cringe-good to cringe-neutral to cringe-bad is Blake Lively.

Got any other examples?

All that to say, the internet is split on Meghan Sussex née Markle’s new homemaking show “With Love, Meghan.” The battle lines are drawn between the show being absolute trash or an absolute delight.

But why can’t it just be a little bit good and a little bit bad and a lot cringe?

To me, “With Love, Meghan” is like one of those white noise apps set to a beautiful bubbling brook sound, but with one tiny discordant note repeating on loop and making you wonder if you’re going crazy. It’s also a little bit like watching paint dry, but the paint is so pretty you don’t mind that much.

Did I find it cringe? Yes! Do I find Meghan cringe? Often! In the same way that I find Gwyneth Paltrow and Martha Stewart and most celebrity homemaking endeavors cringe!

But it’s wild the level of vitriol people reserve for Meghan. And the only reason they seem to be able to give is because she *checks notes* annoys them!? Can she live!? Find something better to do with your one God-given life, maybe!

That said, the best episode I watched was the Mindy Kaling episode because Mindy has a grasp on what makes good television [a little bit of friction], and she somehow brings an authentic energy that Meghan, swathed in her Jenni Kayne sweaters, does not.5 For example, at one point, Meghan asks Mindy if she goes all-out for her kids’ birthday parties: “The woman I hire does!” Mindy quips, not trying to be anything but the rich celeb she is. Or another: Meghan calls Harry “my husband,” and Mindy just calls him “Harry” like a regular person.

Meghan is rich, beautiful, smart, talented, earnest, and kind. She is also, perhaps, trying to be too much — relatably affordable but also high-end, glitteringly gorgeous but intimately accessible — and it doesn’t quite all fit together. People have a nose for that inconsistency. Mindy seems to understand Meghan’s unattainable brand better than Meghan does herself, and she plays it up with some gentle, friendly ribbing. [“Are you Tinkerbell??”]

Anyway, I’m certainly NOT the target audience of “With Love, Meghan” because I make cake from the box, and I would rather die than craft. But I will say that people seem to have a whole lot of hate for Meghan doing the same exact things that every other celebrity does on their homemaking shows.

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Running Point: Everything I love in a good Mindy Kaling show: A relatably flawed but gold-hearted lead + quippy dialogue chock-full of pop culture references + hilarious and talented supporting cast + 30-minute runtime + a couple of hot men! Highly recommend!
White Lotus Season 3: I’ve only watched the pilot but those three blonde women are giving suppressed female rage in human form. Excellent.
Severance Season 2: THE GEMMA EPISODE.
The Traitors: Messy! Bitchy! Catty! Campy! Stategery! J’adore!! This season was far and away the best so far. Gabby is the new ringleader of the Internet, Zac Efron’s brother is all our brother, and Boston Rob is our collective daddy.
All the Jennifer Hudson “Spirit Tunnel” walks, but especially Keke Palmer [I wish I could walk into every room like her!], Aaron Pierre [such sexy walking in a hallway!], and of course, the original viral one of Ariana Grande’s boyfriend Ethan Slater [it’s giving Hilary Clinton in that East Harlem kitchen].

More Gaga Mayhem

If 2024 was for pop girlies, 2025 is for (little) monsters. In 2024, Taylor Swift sang on a mossy cabin roof, and Sabrina Carpenter winked and shimmied and giggled through the summer. In 2025, Lady Gaga twists and screams and delivers pulsing gay anthems with gutteral yells.

My favorite tracks are:

Garden of Eden
Killah (feat. Gesaffelstein)
How Bad Do U Want Me

Gaga on Saturday Night Live Highlights

She was game! She was willing! She was self-deprecating! The sketches, though, were mostly not my taste: They went with their weirdest ideas for Gaga, and I guess I’m just not that weird, folks!

Highlights: 1) Gaga’s self-deprecating monologue, 2) “No More Slay,” 3) “Mascara Commercial,” 4) Both of her musical performances, “Killah” and “Abracadabra.”

Listening: The Interview with Lady Gaga

A few takeaways I loved from this interview:

Asked about how her music celebrates difference: “I think people that are different are part of what reminds us all how to love and how to be strong.”
About being the only artist at the Grammys who spoke about trans rights: “I’m not interested in being famous to stand for nothing at all… I’m in awe of the trans community, I’m in awe of the LGBTQ+ community, and I have been since I was very young.”
About kindness: “It’s not just about what you put on your Instagram; it's about how you live your life. It’s about how you have conversations with people and who you make an effort to be friends with to understand the stories of others. It’s about in your business, whatever your business is, how do you make sure that all these systems that are around you are operating in kind ways, in inclusive ways, ways that celebrate people.”
She says she sees music in her head as a wall of colors. As she experiments with songs and instrumentation, something will suddenly make the wall of colors look complete, and she knows that’s the right version of the song.

That’s all for this week, folks! I’d love to hear your favorite tracks, your favorite shows right now, your thoughts on Meghan’s show, or whatever you’re enjoying as spring makes its slow arrival.

I just watched an episode of The Pitt, I apologize.

It’s really just the fact I typed “millennial” that I was embarrassed by. But the heart wants what it wants.

Let me cut you off there: Yes, I AM getting a therapist.

I believe I speak for all of us except Enneagram 4s.

Mindy Kaling, to me, a biased superfan who follows her on Instagram, is Cringe-Good.

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