Are You The One S7|E1&2: I'm The Bottle & She's The Club. She Needs Me.
Move over, Love Island and Bachelor in Paradise. The true star of summer reality dating shows has arrived, and it's not here to make friends. After all, it's Are You the One, not Are You My Friend? (Did you like that? I just came up with that). Mtv's Are You the One? is back for the summer, back in Hawaii, back with TWO EPISODES in the first night, and most notably, back with some big changes.
Phew. My head is spinning. Let's just get the party started.
Read moreThe Radium Girls and the Believability of Women's Pain
Image via NPR.org
As a child, losing teeth was a common occurrence.
There was a distinctly unusual feeling, I'm sure you remember, of a tooth coming loose. Held on by a string of nerve or sinew (not a dentist, here). You could wiggle your tongue in the space between your gum and the tooth, pushing it out of its gap.
Then, one day — snap. It would come loose. And for a split second, there was that feeling of panic. Yes, you knew losing your baby-tooth was just a normal process, but for the briefest of moments your mind went: this is not supposed to be here.
For anyone who had that feeling, or can imagine remembering that feeling, that panic when you think something is wrong with you followed by the swift relief remembering it isn't, The Radium Girls will be a tough read.
In fact, it is flat out impossible to read The Radium Girls without crying.
Read moreSo You Think You Can Dance: And Then There Were Eight
It’s the second week of the live show, and I’m still unsure of what’s going on with this new format, not gonna lie. So we got rid of two people this week, and at this rate, how many live shows will we have? Like, two more? Are we almost to the finals? I miss the good old days of the Top 20. I know there are probably financial and logistical reasons for this shift, but I would give up, like, ALL of the audition episodes if we could just get more of these live shows. I just don’t get it.
Anyhow, on with the show. Obviously, there will be spoilers about who left the show after the cut.
Read moreTiny Jane is a Tiny Problem for The Bold Type
Freeform’s television show about three young women tackling life and love in New York City has just finished its second season to little fanfare. Sure, the premise of the show sounds familiar enough (comparisons to Sex in the City are built into the plot and referenced by the characters themselves), but what it lacks in original plot it makes up for in the way it handles the tricky position of being of being a former “family” channel. Where The Bold Type pushes boundaries in many ways--it has a lesbian couple! A woman in a hijab!--it sometimes ventures into the realm of afterschool specials, with special episodes on pregnancy, gun control, and sexual harassment. Still, these themes are handled in new, and somewhat realistic ways; the pregnancy episode centers on one characters decision to freeze her eggs because of her cancer risk, while the gun control episode frames the gun debate in light of recent mass shootings.
While I do have some personal attachment to the show, I objectively think that it--at the very least--attempts to discuss issues that are important to real young people in a respectful way. It has a diverse cast (and acknowledges when it’s lacking diversity), and it features a group of young women who genuinely support each other--no catty backhanded compliments, no gossip.
But there’s one problem. Jane. Tiny Jane, as they call her.
YA Book Club in Paradise: Three Dark Crowns
Hola! Grab yourself a cuppa coffee and sit down to read our review of Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake. It's finally here. Please ignore Emily's grubby fingerprints on the picture above. She just really wanted to show off her teacup from the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London. Points to your house if you can tell me what character inspired this teacup. Anyway, onto the book, amiright?
Spoilers ahead.
Read moreSo You Think You Can Dance: Meet the Top 10 Dancers, America!
The live shows are here! We’re finally through the extremely long process of auditions that lasts as many weeks as the live shows themselves for some reason. So here I am, attempting to recap this show for the first time.
There is so much I love about this show, which is why I enthusiastically watch it every summer. I love how unlike most reality television, SYTYCD seems like a genuinely supportive environment. Sure, there is some emphasis on character storylines because that’s how you get people to pick up the phone and vote for their favorite dancers; however, the main focus of the show isn’t about creating manufactured drama. It’s about dancing and genuinely fostering an environment where these talented people can push themselves to become even better. The judging, for all of its faults (which I will get into a lot this season, probably), is constructive. These judges really want to see these dancers improve and grow from this experience. What’s more, it seems like a good majority of the people who get on this show go on to have successful careers in dance following this process. That’s a lot more than I can say for many other reality TV shows (-cough- ANTM -cough-).
But there’s also a lot that annoys me about this show…
Read moreWhy 'People Who Eat Darkness' Is the Best True Crime Book I've Ever Read
Roppongi at night
There are the tried and true staples of true crime, like Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry’s Helter Skelter and Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. Most crime aficionados have read these, or at least heard of them. They’re the books that made the deadly crimes they cover household knowledge. They successfully weave a specific kind of cultural narrative around the gruesome events at their centers.
Read moreFeatured Bookstore: Murder By The Book
On a hot summer day in Houston, Texas, my friends and I found ourselves wandering into a very special bookstore called Murder By The Book. Why is this bookstore so special, you're wondering? Well, the most obvious reason is that they're a delightful independent bookstore that specializes in all things mystery. But there's so much more to love about this bookstore, and I'm here to tell you all about it.
Read moreLate to the Game: Hollow Knight
Look at that lil bug.
Welcome to Late to the Game, a blog post series where I explore games that I have played long after everyone else has finished them! This week, we’re looking at Hollow Knight, a 2017 platformer by Team Cherry.