Watching Alex Trebek’s Last ‘Jeopardy!’ as America Crumbles

Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. [View in Browser]( [Subscribe]( [Image] with Kevin Fallon Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. This Week: - A poignant time for the last Trebek episode to air. - Give her an Oscar. - Did not expect that Britney Spears twist… - One actually nice thing that happened!!! - Taylor Swift is back, again. Goodbye to Alex Trebek, and to Civility On Friday evening, the last episode of Jeopardy! [hosted by Alex Trebek]( airs. His final time will be his 8,260th turn as quizmaster, a role he’s taken from a TV gig to somewhat of a calling since his first outing in 1984. Before [his death Nov. 8 at age 80]( after a battle with pancreatic cancer, he spent 37 seasons as America’s favorite host and, by nature of the game show he was emceeing, its most trusted figure. [Alternate text] According to [Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards](, Trebek didn’t know that the taping of Friday’s episode would be his last. It was filmed 10 days before his death. The episode, then, will feel like a regular episode of the show as fans have known it 8,259 times before. As such, it will end the way it always has, with Trebek turning to the camera and saying “see you next time.” Just so you’re emotionally prepared... Much has been made lately about how remarkable it is for a person and show to not only enjoy that long of a run and remain so beloved, but also for it to become, arguably, [more popular than it’s ever been]( in recent years. Some of that was owed to rule changes that allowed for astounding runs of record-breaking win totals from a handful of contestants that garnered that kind of fan thrills and captive attention reserved for a NBA team on a postseason streak. Part of it was due to the devastating knowledge that there wasn’t much time left with Trebek. But a lot of it was owed to the world we live in now, and its opposition to the world that Jeopardy! represented. At a time when “misinformation” and scandal rule everything—the news, primetime, our collective consciousness—here was a series about facts and stability. It was about certainty, and there was a comfort in that, especially in uncertain times. That might sound cutesy, but I promise you it’s been profound. Until I watched Trebek’s final episodes this week, I’m not sure it had struck me just how profound. On Monday, the start of one of the most deeply upsetting newsweeks in my lifetime—the pandemic continuing to escalate its tragic death tolls and the violent insurrection at the Capitol, dual examples of the most shameful, darkest times in this country’s history—Trebek opened with a rare address to the audience. He called for a “gentler, kinder society,” one that he knew we could build together if “we all just pitch in a little bit.” I’ve included most of the speech below, because it is striking to me that he had the divine wisdom to make it the moment he did, just before he passed, and airing when we need to hear it the most: You recall that about a month ago, I asked you to take a moment to give thanks for all of the blessings that you enjoy in your lives. Now, today a different kind of message. This is the season of giving. I know you want to be generous with your family, your friends, your loved ones. But today, I'd like you to go one step further. I'd like you to open up your hands and open up your heart to those who are still suffering because of COVID-19 people who are suffering through no fault of their own. We're trying to build a gentler, kinder society, and if we all pitch in just a little bit, we're going to get there. That speech matters to me because it’s a testament to just how much Trebek knew that his legacy isn’t just as a television personality. He felt a responsibility for upholding the values of an entire world he helped build: where truth is unimpeachable, seriousness can be fun and silly, and, even in a game of unintelligence, there was no such thing as elitism or ego. We were all invited into this world of comfort, of safety, of enjoyment, and, as he said in that message, of kindness. If people were going to look up to Trebek for wisdom and authority, he was going to use the platform to make sure we care for each other. I realized this week that I have been watching him host this show my entire life. It is quite possible that is literally true. My parents were fans, and liked to keep it on after the news. I would watch with my grandparents as a kid. I’ve spoken about this before but, in New York, Jeopardy! airs on two different stations: one at 7 pm and one at 7:30 pm. My grandmother used to watch at 7 on one channel, and then again with my grandfather at 7:30 on another, stunning him by knowing all the answers. My brother and I would laugh hysterically. It was on while I did homework before dinner. It was on when I came home for visits from college. It was on while I cooked dinner in my own apartment. In this last year of the pandemic, it was somewhat of a solace: after years of hustle and exhaustion in the city, there was now reason to stop and have a routine. We were stressed about the world around us, but every night at 7, we ate dinner and watched Jeopardy!. [Alternate text] On Wednesday, like everyone, I was glued to the TV, mouth agape at what I was watching happen at the Capitol. It felt removed from the reality that I had once known. There’s not much to say about it: I was shocked, embarrassed, furious, devastated. Weren’t we all? Then at 7 pm, when I needed to break for dinner and couldn’t take watching what was happening anymore, I turned on ABC. There, even on that horrible day, was Trebek hosting Jeopardy! It sounds so hokey to talk about how much comfort there was in being able to count on that, on him and that world being there. The stability meant something. It means something. It always will. This year has been hard. It’s been hard to be anxious, angry, scared, and thinking about death all the time. My sanity has unraveled. My personal life has exploded. On Wednesday night, apparently not that long after that episode of Jeopardy! aired, my grandfather, who I had mentioned earlier, passed away, about a year and a half after my grandmother. As I write this, my family is currently grappling with how to mourn him while all apart in a pandemic. I’m used to being a very emotional person. I cry when people I love are hurt or upset. I cry at movies. I only half-joke that I once cried at a particularly poignant toilet paper commercial. But I used to also be happy a lot. I used to just feel things. What I hate about this year is that it has turned me into a sad person. I’m no longer “emotional.” I’m just sad, all the time. I don’t like this about myself now, and I’m not enough of a narcissist to think I’m alone. I also can’t be alone in realizing this isn’t a “I’m here if you need to talk” feeling, one that can be lifted up by a “sending good vibes” platitude. There are too many people losing who they are, what they believed in, or what made them bright because of the incessant nature of the world’s bleakness. There are never-ending trap doors opening below us, plummeting us to a new rock bottom. How is a person supposed to be a person—a good and hopeful person—when they can’t even trust that the floor is the floor? It’s a lot to put “the only semblance left of normalcy, truth, and good” on the back of a syndicated game show and its beloved host. But we’re already seeing the ways in which nothing will be the same again. It doesn’t need to be said that it’s true of the world we live in, weathering a pandemic and facing the most grotesque affront on democracy in my lifetime. But it’s also true of that one little thing that was nice, that was stable. Of evenings spent with Trebek and Jeopardy! It’s painful to feel like you’re losing your grip on that: on stability, certainty, or sanity, as you watch the madness of the world escalate around you. When you lose the thing you were holding onto, even just symbolically and even if you didn’t know you were, it makes you feel like you’re in freefall. Will Jeopardy! be the same [with a new host](? I’d argue there is no way. And that’s what makes me sad. Vanessa Kirby Should Win an Oscar The opening sequence to [Pieces of a Woman](, which was released on Netflix Thursday, is devastating, to the point that there is a swath of its potential audience that might not be able to watch. It’s really that upsetting. That said, it’s also astounding, directed by Kornél Mundruczó and with stunning acting work from Vanessa Kirby (the [former Princess Margaret in The Crown]() and [Shia LaBeouf](. It is one take that lasts 30 minutes, capturing the homebirth of a couple played by Kirby and LaBeouf. Something goes wrong, and they lose the baby. [Alternate text] It is absolutely gutting, of course, but almost transformatively so because of the length and the intimacy of that jaw-dropping single take, building through the excitement to the panic to the horror as you watch, unable to escape the tragedy of what’s going on. What stands out about Pieces of a Woman, which I expect will be a divisive movie, is that what could seem like a cinematic stunt doesn’t suck up the air of the broader story that follows. It’s a film about how this couple navigates this loss, a loss no one knows how to talk about, rationalize, or properly mourn. It fractures the couple. Her grief paralyzes her into a depression, which itself no one in her life knows how to navigate. She’s pressured by her family to sue the midwife, an assumption that assigning blame will be healing. But what Kirby so masterfully captures is that healing can’t be earned, achieved, or manufactured. She plays a woman whose feet are stuck in the mud, who can’t lift her spirit out of her sadness but who must still attempt to live her days. For all the flashiness of that opening scene and the escalating peaks of excitement and then anguish, the stagnance of her malaise is in sharp relief. It’s an incredibly difficult performance, and one that Kirby for which should be up for every acting award. After its premiere at the (virtual) fall festival circuit, she even emerged as a Best Actress frontrunner. But now she’s in a familiar position that plagues female performers in Hollywood: overshadowed by the shittiness of her co-star. LaBeouf has been scrubbed by all of Netflix’s awards FYC ads and recent press materials for the film following [the allegations made against him]( of a cycle of abuse by his former romantic partners. It puts Netflix and Kirby in a difficult place. The discussion surrounding LaBeouf threatens to dominate praise for the film. And a typical press tour that an awards hopeful like Kirby would go on would be derailed by media interest in her thoughts about LaBeouf. It is the typical narrative that we’ve seen since the #MeToo movement started, that the women who are in the films with the bad men are peppered with questions about them, in some cases even asked to speak for them. It’s a terrible pattern. I bring this up because I hope this doesn’t become the case with Kirby. I can’t urge you to watch Pieces of a Woman because, again, it’s very upsetting. But if you do, even if you’re not a fan of the narrative in general, I guarantee you’ll find her work in it to be exceptional. I Can’t Believe There’s a Britney Connection... [According to Twitter](, “Britney Spears’ ex fiancé for 55 hours was one of the insurrectionists who invaded the U.S. Capitol yesterday.” You can see their evidence below. [Alternate text] I would be lying if I said I had any idea what to say about that information. But it is information. I did gasp “oh my god!” when I saw it, and now here we are with the knowledge that apparently Britney Spears’ ex fiancé for 55 hours was one of the insurrectionists who invaded the U.S. Capitol yesterday. Ratatouille Made Me Smile Something nice happened this week! Really it, did. Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical [raised over $1 million for the Actors Fund]( in its three days of streaming. “What is Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical?” you may ask, as I did when my friends were all talking about it. I, a person who hears the word “TikTok” and then screams “get off my lawn!” and runs away, was woefully ignorant. [Alternate text] The simple explanation is that it’s an original music adaptation of the beloved Pixar movie that began as seeds of an idea on the social media platform and eventually got so many people involved and became so popular that creative artists from all across the country banded together to compose and film a taped version, featuring original songs performed remotely by its cast. I watched it! It was nice! That was a nice, brief feeling. More Taylor Swift! Yay? [Alternate text] Taylor Swift released more songs from the deluxe edition of her second quarantine album, evermore, this week—you know, should you want to be any sadder. [Here’s the link](! [Alternate text] - Pieces of a Woman: It’s not an easy watch, or for everyone. But I thought it was excellent. (Now on Netflix) - Tiger: Tiger Woods gets The Last Dance treatment...and it is juicy. (Sunday on HBO) - Dickinson: Season two of the Horny Emily Dickinson series. If that’s for you, you’ll know by reading that description. (Friday on Apple TV+) [Alternate text] - Call Your Mother: It brings me no pleasure to report that Chief Brenda Johnson, The Closer’s Kyra Sedwick herself, is now in an ABC multi-cam sitcom called Call Your Mother. (Wednesday on ABC) Advertisement [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( © Copyright 2021 The Daily Beast Company LLC 555 W. 18th Street, New York NY 10011 [Privacy Policy]( If you are on a mobile device or cannot view the images in this message, [click here]( to view this email in your browser. To ensure delivery of these emails, please add emails@thedailybeast.com to your address book. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, or think you have received this message in error, you can [safely unsubscribe](.