Jeff Bezos' brief trip to space was met with effusive and breathless praise on TV, but it felt more depressing than inspiring

Variety

"Sure, it makes sense that these business owners would want to take a turn on their zero gravity rollercoasters," Caroline Framke says of the Amazon founder's Blue Origin launch this morning. "But watching so many ostensible journalists unequivocally herald these literal flights of fancy felt like watching a feed from another reality completely untethered to our own. As our world quite literally burns and crumbles around us, these men pushing the limits of the planet in their (unavoidably, symbolically phallic) rocket ships, simply because they can, is less inspiring than it is completely depressing. As human beings, we will always have some fascination with the richest class of people who manage to make the world work for them. There’s something inherently juicy and intriguing about the sheer fact of excess, let alone someone who unapologetically owns it. Watching Bezos and his compatriots shake that champagne for the grandest effect, I thought back to all the other moments on television that mirrored this one’s wholehearted embrace of material gain: the Beverly Hillbillies discovering oil, the bored drama of wealthy Real Housewives on Bravo and Dynasty alike, the love letter to indulgence that is Gossip Girl. If the new season of Succession features Kendall Roy rocketing into the stratosphere, I wouldn’t blink an eye."