For the uninitiated, LANewGirl isn't a reboot of the Zooey Deschanel sitcom. It’s a boutique digital media brand—part analysis, part criticism, part hangout—that has carved out a niche by treating popular media as a legitimate academic discipline, but with the pacing of a late-night conversation at a Silver Lake wine bar. And for the past six weeks, their flagship video series has been “Dylan Moore: Deep Cut,” a segment that has quietly become appointment viewing for the terminally online and the culturally curious.
LANewGirl Exclusive: Dylan Moore on the Algorithm, Authenticity, and the Art of the Pop Culture Deep Dive
“I didn’t want another ‘thumbs up or down’ guy,” Nakamura explained in a recent behind-the-scenes vlog. “I wanted someone who could explain why a scene from a 2007 rom-com is suddenly trending on TikTok, or how a rejected Mad Men subplot ended up as a plot point in a prestige podcast. Dylan is that forensic nerd.”
The most recent episode, “Episode 8: The Algorithm’s Ghost,” is a masterclass in this approach. The premise: Moore spends 72 hours consuming only media recommended to him by a single, unfiltered TikTok algorithm—no outside searches, no friends’ suggestions, no conscious browsing.
Dylan Moore isn’t a pundit. He’s a former film development assistant turned freelance critic, known for a viral Twitter thread deconstructing the sound design of Succession . LANewGirl creator and host, Jess Nakamura, brought him on not to review the latest blockbuster, but to map the hidden infrastructure of what we watch, listen to, and scroll past.
In the episode’s most informative segment, Moore pauses the screen and pulls up a live data graph.
LANewGirl ’s Dylan Moore episodes have become required viewing for industry insiders, media students, and anyone feeling exhausted by the firehose of content. They don’t tell you what to like. They show you what liking does .