The Emotional Education of William Jackson Harper

William Jackson Harper has the ineffable quality that comprises a male romantic lead. The role is a thing of gravitas that cannot be learned or taught, but rather is comprised of an innate, mystical quality that one just has. If it’s contrived, it will buckle under the judicious scrutiny of femme cultural desire. Good looks or, in academic terms, the quality of looking like a “snack,” is but a fraction of what it takes. Although I speak to Harper on Zoom while he holds his cell up in the back of a taxi on the way to a shoot — mask on, glasses on — this particular charisma permeates through screen and spectacles and patchy technology. Even with a slither of face exposed, his eyes do the work of conveying an endearing earnestness, a twinkling self-deprecation. There is a sincerity that all successful romantic leads possess that conjures the notion that you could feasibly meet this man in real life and have the urge to immediately text your group chat to inform them you have possibly met your future husband. Sweet, then, that when this is touched on, Harper becomes almost bashful: “I never saw myself in that light.”And yet, he glows within it.

Our readers probably don’t need to hear this, but, here’s more proof that vaccines work, dammit. Unrelated entirely, here’s a bummer of an addition for this year’s Darwin Awards: man eaten by piranhas after jumping into lake to escape bees. Netflix’s romcom game is getting very Hallmark Channel-y, but we’re not not gonna watch a wintery version of Overboard with Lindsay Lohan and the guy from Glee. We’re also definitely going to watch Hulu’s Von Dutch documentary (bad fashion! bad business! murder!), and there’s a trailer out now. A young women says she met Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy for sex and it turned violent and humiliating (warning: harrowing content). And Tom Hanks continues to be a treasure, shares that he turned down a seat on Bezos’s 11-minute space joyride.

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