Thankfully, though, there is good news out there. Slate relies on advertising to support our journalism. He begins each episode by recapping SGN’s popularity, calling attention to copycats and the fan art it’s inspired in tones of self-deprecating astonishment. | The Jump, Lord Jamar on R Kelly Getting Hit with 11 New Charges: He’s Paying for Past Nuts! Some Good News is wholesome and canny coronavirus counterprogramming that’s also wholesome and canny career management. In this Nov. 29, 2018 file photo, John Krasinski poses at the premiere of the film "Mary Poppins Returns." You’ve run out of free articles. And you'll never see this message again. John Krasinski highlights some good news from around the world, including an interview with Steve Carell to mark the 15thanniversary of THE OFFICE, as well as John… Krasinski struggled for years to figure out what to do next—his directorial debut was based on a David Foster Wallace book, and he was a runner-up for Captain America—but he slowly steered in a more macho direction, first with a Michael Bay movie and then with Amazon’s Jack Ryan, the sort of meat-and-potatoes American exceptionalist action fare that two-thirds of the extended family at Thanksgiving has seen. They blur together, and you go numb. It’s right there in the title: The amount of good news out there is only some. The mission of John Krasinski’s quarantine response series is right there in the title: delivering Some Good News at a moment when it is in unprecedentedly short supply. In retrospect, though, Krasinski was well positioned to deliver this kind of uplift. He’s wearing Red Sox boxers, a tutu, a dress, a bathing suit, etc., It’s a dad joke. All rights reserved. And John Krasinski, known for his roles in NBC’s “The Office” and Amazon Prime’s “Jack Ryan,” is compiling it all in one place. It doesn’t always work. “Joy not only echoed across the globe—it echoed its way right out of this world” Krasinski exclaimed during one segment, as he cut to the astronauts at the International Space Station holding up SGN signs. That’s why we view every news story through the lens of faith. All that to say: just like the first episode, this one is definitely worth watching. Celebrity is what he can bring to the table, so he’s going to bring it—it’s the least he can do. Early in the quarantine, when Gal Gadot enlisted dozens of celebrities to sing along to “Imagine,” the participants accidentally revealed that they believed a celebrity’s mere presence—however cheesy and ineffectual—to be an uplifting gift. But it takes a lot of hard work, time, and money to do what we do. He narrates nurses doing dance numbers, a husband crooning to his wife through the window of a nursing home, a man leaving toilet paper on his porch for delivery people to take, cities around the world clapping for essential workers, and a family doing a trick golf shot off the roof of their house. His enthusiasm—look how big his little show has gotten!—masks the essential self-congratulation. There are plenty of no-fun news stories going around about how long this coronavirus shutdown might last and too many heartbreaking articles about lives lost to the infection. In each episode, Krasinski narrates dozens of viral clips demonstrating humanity’s resilience and passion for choreographed dance routines, spotlights heartwarming Americans, and facilitates interactions between said Americans and well-meaning celebrities. With SGN, Krasinski is doing more than that.