kayti burt

This sucks SO HARD, and I am so sad to lose my criticism-writing home of nearly a decade. Solidarity to all my fellow Paste TV alumni!

Today, Paste Magazine shuttered all its non-music verticals, a choice I am both professionally and personally heartbroken about. Sadly, I am once again looking for a place that wants to let me write about Books and TV on the regular, so hit me up if that’s you or anyone you know.

thank you for all the support; the statement from our union is now live here with some more reporting.

now that this is public I can confirm that the majority of today’s layoffs were women of color. there are no longer any Black women working at Teen Vogue.

I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day.

certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.

Q&A with the production team of The First Night with the Duke Director Lee Woong-hee and screenwriter Jeon Sun-young answer our questions about the isekai web novel adaptation starring Taecyeon and Seohyun

We talk to the PD and writer of #TheFirstNightwiththeDuke about the challenges and pleasures of adaptation, why we’ve fallen in love with isekai stories lately, and what it’s like to work with stars Taecyeon and Seohyun: open.substack.com/pub/dramasov...

Highlights of the #KpopDemonHunters interview:

😈 👩‍🎤 Insight into Korean folklore that informed #SajaBoys & #Huntrix
⚔️🔪✨ A breakdown of Huntr/x's weapons and characters (yes, there was more Mira & Zoey backstory)
🚦Lorde's song that inspired "What It Sounds Like"
💞The inspiration for Romance Saja

'Squid Game' Season 3 Review: The Netflix hit gets a twisted, poetic ending (that also teases a new beginning) What Lee Jung-jae has accomplished this season, and throughout Squid Game’s entire run, is one of the greatest television performances of all-time.

I think I'm probably in the minority of really liking the third and final season of SQUID GAME, partially because I'm a sucker for the "Battle Royale" genre and partially because Lee Jung-jae's whole run as Gi-hun is one of the all-time great TV performances. decider.com/2025/06/27/s...

i love this show so much. i even started reading the light novels... and then stopped because i didn't want to spoil the show.

Assemble!

Its title? Teeth. 😅

He really seems like a cool guy/creator. I wonder how much Netflix had to pay him to do these second and third seasons (which are really just one season). He seemed to *really* not want to do another one. I hope he and his team were able to make a lot of money, and he can do something else next.

‘My journey to get aid in Gaza was like Squid Game’ Going to the US-backed aid distribution centre was the hardest day of my life. I’ve never felt humiliation like that

‘My journey to get aid in Gaza was like Squid Game’ - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/my-journey-aid-gaza-like-squid-game

Breaking Down the Ending of ‘Squid Game’ Squid Game ends on a brutal but hopeful note with Season 3.

Also, and I may be in the minority on this, I thought the ending was pretty solid. There is no happy ending for us under capitalism. time.com/7298202/squi...

A screenshot of the article reads: For the Squid Game creator, the VIPs' more active Season 3 role stems from his real-world observations. “In the past, those that really controlled the system and maintained power, they were hidden behind the curtain, almost like this big unseen conspiracy. However, it's no longer the case, especially in America," Hwang says. "We talk a lot about oligarchy these days, but these so-called big tech owners, they step up, telling everyone who they're backing with their money. The people who really control the power and the system, they no longer hide behind a curtain. They willingly take their masks off, almost as if to declare, ‘We're the ones running everything. We're the ones in control.’"

If we were living in a better timeline, Hwang Dong-hyuk would have had less inspiration for the final seasons of Squid Game: time.com/7298235/squi...

YouTube video by Kim Taeri - Topic Life goes on

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g58G...

Netflix's Lost in Starlight: Korea Makes an Animated Sci-Fi Romance for Adults Netflix’s slice-of-life sci-fi love story is a visually stunning animation about human connection.

if you need me this weekend, i'll be listening to the lost in starlight ost. www.denofgeek.com/movies/netfl...

anyway here's the email I sent to jim bankoff last week. i'm still heartbroken. I have been insanely, destructively angry for weeks, and I think I will be for a long time.

That sucks, Sean. And you're right--ethical labor conditions cannot come down to individual choice or scenario, it needs to be systemic. Would you be up for chatting sometime? I'd like to hear about your experiences.

I've really been getting a lot out of these exit interviews Pete has been doing with the laid-off Polygon staff, including this piece, in which copy editor Kallie talks about the immense work and skill that goes into games/entertainment journalism.

<3

An integral part of the Doctor Who Fan Experience.

I celebrate!

[Week 5] The Colors Within For the final installment in our Yamada series, we watched The Colors Within (2024).

Here's the extremely delayed fifth and final week of my blog series on Naoko Yamada, covering her latest film The Colors Within (2024). The upside of this being so late is that the movie is now on demand and I highly recommend you watch it, it's so good!

As you may have guessed from the average speed of my text responses, I am not so great at posting frequently. 😂

John Wick’s director breaks down how he got to design action on Lazarus, ‘the funnest job’ he’s ever done Here’s the story behind one of the year’s most exciting (and surprising) collaborations

my final piece for Polygon is now live: part two of my interview with Chad Stahelski about Lazarus www.polygon.com/anime/552380...

The Fan-Journalist Tightrope — Fansplaining Low pay, minimal worker protections, and pushback from both publicists and fellow fans. Is covering the thing you love even worth it?

If you'd like to read more of my thoughts on life as an entertainment journalism, a relevant 2024 piece, written for @fansplaining.bsky.social : www.fansplaining.com/articles/the...

As freelancers, we make up the foundation of entertainment journalism's workforce. We can't rely on the salaried workers within this industry to fight for fair working conditions. Their power is limited. Their exploitation is tied up in our own. We are in this together & we must fight together.

Donate to Support Polygon Workers and the Vox Media Union, organized by Ashok Selvam On Thursday, May 1, Vox Media announced the sale of beloved video game s… Ashok Selvam needs your support for Support Polygon Workers and the Vox Media Union

If you have any questions about the form, process, fees, et al., please reach out to me directly. I would be happy to tell you more.
And, if you are financially able to, contribute to the Go Fund Me for the laid off Polygon workers: www.gofundme.com/f/support-po...

If you're in this industry, I encourage you to join the NWU and, if applicable, the Freelance Solidarity Project division that is a part of it (a box you click in the registration form linked). I honestly don't know if we will have an industry to save if we don't organize together. nwu.org/join-now/

If you're not in it, it's hard to describe just how bad the working conditions in entertainment journalism are—both for staff writers and editors who still have jobs and for the increasingly large pool of freelancers fighting for increasingly tiny budgets. But @fspnwu.bsky.social is trying.