News What to Watch What to Watch and Read This Weekend: The Wicked Book Is the Best Merch. The Mac & Cheese Is a Close Second Plus: The curious case of zipper upgrades and Paddington in the Criterion closet. By Molly Templeton | Published on November 14, 2025 Photo: Universal Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: Universal Pictures Last weekend we got Pluribus, this weekend we get The Running Man, and then it’s Wicked o’clock. It feels almost as if November has cleared the decks for the Wicked Witch and her bubble-girl bestie to dominate basically everything for the next few weeks. There are other things to do, though! Like read semi-holiday books, or learn about zippers, or watch every single Criterion Closet video because you watched one and they’re like Pringles; you just can’t stop. Also you can call your reps and decide just how much holiday drama you feel up to participating in this year. Holidays are optional if you want them to be. I feel strongly about this. And also about witches. Wicked-ness Comes For Us All In case you have somehow missed the pink-and-green onslaught of promotion, Wicked: For Good arrives next week. It rolls in on a massive wave of tie-in merchandise that runs from the perfectly average (themed clothes at Her Universe, Lego sets) to the somewhat weird (a pink Swiffer?) to the downright nauseating (mystery color macaroni and cheese cups). No, I did not make that last one up. There are also Crocs, and perfumes and candles and sweatshirts and Stanley tumblers and lions and tigers and bears, oh my!  There’s also, you know, a book. I am in no way suggesting you should read Gregory Maguire’s Wicked in order to know what’s going to happen in Wicked: For Good, because they are not the same. Please do not expect one to be the other; that way lies tears and sadness. That said, if you like things that are heavy and interesting and lead to many sequels and even a spinoff series; if you relate to weird outcast children with sharp teeth and bad manners; if you would like the relevant political themes of the candylike first film to be even more strongly explored—well, you might like Wicked, the book. If you did not like Wicked, the movie, you might still like Wicked, the book. I personally take any available opportunity to talk about it, and this is one of those opportunities. And I will note, not for the first or last time, that there is a really lovely line early in Wicked (the book) where Elphie’s father says that he thinks his daughter will be a singing child. Perhaps the book’s fate was inevitable from the start. Ben Whishaw Goes to the Criterion Closet and We are Blessed Ben Whishaw is probably not a household name in this country, but he should be. He’s the voice of Paddington, after all. He is also Q to Daniel Craig’s Bond; a lovely assassin in Black Doves; the star of the haunting Perfume (though the book is better, I must admit), a rabbi on Fargo (which I guess I now have to go back and watch??), and, most recently, one of the stars of Peter Hujar’s Day. Also there’s London Spy and the emotional powerhouse that is Bright Star. You kind of can’t go wrong with him. If you would like a short moment with Whishaw, though, you could just watch his sweet turn in the Criterion Closet. It is brief, it is mild, it is lovely; his hair is incredible. There is no polish and preparation here, like with some Closet videos; there’s just a guy who likes movies and the people who make them. It’s beyond charming.  Kelly Link’s The Book of Love is a Holiday Book, Sort Of We are inching up on The Holiday Season, which for some people begins the day after Halloween and for some people begins … later. For some of us it barely begins at all, and we like it that way. That said, it occurred to me when I was reading Kelly Link’s The Book of Love last year that it is set in December, and therefore is a very seasonal read as we creep toward the winter solstice. There’s snow! And magic! And teenage shenanigans! And romance novels! No summary of this novel does it justice, but in short: A quartet of teenagers find themselves in a complicated relationship with some supernatural beings. Most of them have died, but it didn’t stick. At least not yet. Link’s novel is sprawling in the best way, encompassing everything about her small, fictional, magical town and its inhabitants. It’s about love in countless forms, among other things. It’s the perfect winter read, if you need one of those.  Did Zippers Need an Upgrade, Though? I’m absolutely fascinated with this piece at Wired: “The Zipper Is Getting Its First Major Upgrade in 100 Years.” Did zippers need an upgrade? Was there a great clamor among zipper users, asking for it to be further streamlined? Did I just miss all of that? At any rate, the Japanese zipper company YKK has upgraded the zipper, and now it can make them without the fabric tape along the edges. It just looks like a string of weird-toothed metal. I don’t understand how it connects to anything. But apparently it “produces less greenhouse gas emissions during production.” It also requires a special sewing machine to use, which means that your average home sewer isn’t likely to start working with these things any time soon. Everyone in the comments on Wired has questions. I don’t really have that many questions; I just keep staring at that weird zipper. If your zippers start looking weird someday, here’s one possible reason why.[end-mark] The post What to Watch and Read This Weekend: The <i>Wicked</i> Book Is the Best Merch. The Mac & Cheese Is a Close Second appeared first on Reactor.