“Beef,” “The Drama,” and the New Marriage Plot

“Beef,” “The Drama,” and the New Marriage Plot

From Critics at Large | The New Yorker by The New Yorker

April 16, 2026 · 49 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the decline in marriage rates and how cultural works reflect changing attitudes towards matrimony.

In 2019, marriage rates in the United States hit their lowest point in a hundred and forty years. They still haven’t rebounded. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz consider how recent cultural offerings mirror this increasing dissatisfaction with matrimony. They discuss the new season of the Netflix anthology show “Beef,” which centers on two couples locked in a feud that gradually exposes the cracks in each relationship, and the A24 film “The Drama,” about a wedding that goes off the rails in spectacular fashion. They also consider real-life examples, including Lindy West’s recent memoir, “Adult Braces,” which has sparked a flurry of discourse about polyamory and open marriages. As such alternative ways of organizing our love lives enter the mainstream, the narrative around one of our oldest institutions is shifting, too. “I think we’re in a place where we’re trying to make marriage seem more like a positive choice, rather than an obvious obligation,” Schwartz says. “It’s a fascinating fiction that those who get married subscribe to, hoping that the fiction becomes true.” Read, watch, and listen with the critics: “Beef”…

People in this episode

Host: Vinson Cunningham

Guests: Naomi Fry, Alexandra Schwartz

Topics covered

  • marriage
  • cultural commentary
  • relationships
  • polyamory
  • media analysis

Keywords

  • marriage rates
  • cultural offerings
  • Beef
  • The Drama
  • polyamory
  • open marriages
  • Lindy West

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Netflix, A24

Books & works: Beef, The Drama, Adult Braces, The White Lotus, Strangers, A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides, Madame Bovary, Parallel Lives

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