| The Take | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website | the-take | |||||||||
| YouTube information | ||||||||||
| Channel | ||||||||||
| Years active | 2016–present | |||||||||
| Genre | Video essay | |||||||||
| Subscribers | 1.5 million [1] | |||||||||
| Views | 457.5 million [1] | |||||||||
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Last updated: 1 July 2025 | ||||||||||
The Take (previously named ScreenPrism) is a YouTube channel and media company. Co-founded and hosted by Yale University alumni Susannah McCullough and Debra Minoff, The Take produces video essays analyzing film, television and popular culture at large. [2] [3] [4] As of July 2025, The Take's Youtube channel has over 1.5 million subscribers and over 457 million video views. [5]
The Take is known for its "All the Tropes" series, a collection of video essays dissecting character tropes including the "cool girl", the "smart girl", the child prodigy, the white savior and the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] The Take has also created the video series The Takeaway with Amazon Prime Video, the series Take Two in collaboration with Netflix, and produced a series of Oscar videos for Entertainment Weekly . [11] [12] [13] [14]
The Take's video on Breaking Bad's Walter White was listed by Film School Rejects as one of 2018's best video essays. [15] "Parasite, Ending Explained: Stairway to Nowhere" was named among the top video essays of 2020 by No Film School. [16] The Take’s video essays have also received coverage from The Mary Sue, Bustle and The A.V. Club. [17] [18] [7]