Television
Of all the sexual misconduct stories that have come out of Hollywood since the Weinstein debacle, I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I was most disappointed to read about Aziz Ansari. It’s not just because I think he’s funny and I like his work — it’s because he is a person who has consistently presented himself as an ally to women. He has repeatedly self-identified as a feminist, and he doesn’t just talk the talk; with his success, he’s certainly done his part to boost the careers and voices of the women around him.
Ansari’s willingness to help women tell their stories is a huge part of what makes his alleged behavior so surprising and frustrating. It feels like a personal betrayal to so many of us who have loved his work, who’ve been following and rooting for him all along the way because he’s one of the few male voices we felt we could trust to tell our stories as well as his own. If we can’t trust someone like Aziz to understand consent in its complexity, the road ahead of us is even more difficult than we thought.
(Spoilers for Master of None after the cut.)
TV Recaps
Kelli: Hello, and welcome back to another week of The Bachelor, sponsored by The Golden Bachelor. This week, Mary joins me again to give points to Emily’s team, because my team is dead. Take it away, Mary.
Mary: Here we are in Tulum, the most romantic place. Well, not too romantic for Joey at the beginning of the episode. Instead, he’s feeling weepy about his experience on The Bachelorette with Charity. It was hard for him to feel so connected to Charity, then heartbroken to be sent home. I mean, I get it, it would be hard, but also… should you put all your eggs in the Bach basket? They know each other for like, two weeks, right? I don’t know I’d bet my life on that.
Kelli: Hello and welcome to another late recap of Joey’s season of The Bachelor! We’ve reached HOMETOWNS, which is famously the most boring episode of every season. Today, in Emily’s stead, I am joined by Mary. Mary, how has this season been treating you? Who’s your pick for the win?
Mary: You know, I didn’t expect to like Joey as much as I do. He didn’t really leave an impression on me in Charity’s season, but now he’s a bit more charming. That said, there’s something off-putting to me about his Extreme Direct Eye Contact. And how he says “thank you for sharing” to everything anyone says.
I’ve been enjoying the season so far, but I’ve been a little irked at all the Maria drama. It’s really not that serious! My pick to win is probably Daisy, but Kelsey has made some strides recently too.
Emily: Welcome back, Bachelor fans. The week before hometowns always creeps up on us. One minute we have a bajillion prospective fiancées, and then suddenly we’re down to four. But to get there, first we have to journey to the beautiful Jasper, Canada, and by all appearances, this seems like the kind of place where you might actually get to ride a moose. Too bad Lea has to miss it.
Kelli: RIP.
Emily: I have to say for once, the tourism propaganda is really working on me. I had no idea where Jasper, Canada was before this, but now I suddenly have to go. I mean! The mountains! The trees! The rainbows!
Kelli: Hello and welcome to another recap of The Bachelor. This week our goal is to get back on track after ABC threw us off with a random two night event last week. I still haven’t forgiven them.
Emily: We’re slowly inching our way towards posting on-time recaps. But you know, better late than never, friends. Better late than never.
Emily: Yes, we’re back, everyone, with another (belated) Bachelor recap, but the important part is we’re here, and we’re getting it done. And we have two episodes to get through this week. Eek! So let’s just dive in because there’s a lot of drama to break down from last week’s episodes.
We finally made it! And so there is no suspense throughout this post: yes, Mary did win our family Survivor Fantasy league, and she will be treated to a dinner out on the rest of us...at an appropriate time. Still, we have more to talk about! Is Tony the GOAT? Is Michele a goat? Did Ben basically just give up, and how do we feel about him now? What about Natalie? She was there! And Lacina (which is how we should all refer to her from now on)! And why didn’t Jeff play the entirety of the Winners at War theme song? Can you hear the people sing, Jeff? Ya better be ready...they’re coming...for you! Let’s get into it!
Well, we’re here, the quote unquote “penultimate step of the war.” I gotta say, it feels like this war has been about to start for most of the season, but here we are yet again. In our fantasy league, Mary is still winning, and Todd is still in second place, but here in the real game, the player that nobody picked, Tony (along with Wendell), is still in the game and is still making moves, and he seems to be in a pretty good position moving into this final, although that could all change depending on who comes back from the Edge. Without further ado, let’s break down what happened last night.
Hello from quarantine! Todd and I have been dutifully watching Survivor each week while self isolating, and I have been dutifully winning our family fantasy league each week. (Todd here, and look, I have tried to win, but I am clearly not as good as Mary. Them’s the facts.)
This week, we thought we’d try something a little different.
Hello, everyone! We hope you are staying safe and inside during these difficult times, as you might have heard in a commercial during this week’s episode of Survivor: Winners at War. To get it out of the way up front, Mary is still absolutely dominating the Survivor Fantasy League, and Todd is in no way upset about it. Nope. Not at all. Here’s the real question for this week: did you cry? Because this episode really wanted you to cry. Jeff didn’t even make the contestants compete to meet with their loved ones (including kids!), and the Edge-ians also got to meet their loved ones. There may or may not have been some tears shed when Mary and Todd were watching. Don’t ask who shed them; it doesn’t matter. Anyway, is there dust in this room? Let’s get on to the recap!
Hello, all! While time has become even more of an illusion than usual, we need things to anchor us during the week. Maybe you look forward to watching your church service from bed on Sunday mornings, or you are watching Devs (the next Othersode) and you can’t wait for each Thursday, or maybe you are a big fan of Jeff Probst and those wacky castaways, and so each Wednesday you sit down to watch Survivor. Well then welcome, because we are here to recap this episode, which was especially wild, even by Survivor’s standards.
Vulnerability. It's a quality that is intangible and yet become so important in these final weeks of competition on So You Think You Can Dance. At this point, several (if not all) of the top four are on equal footing when it comes to dance ability, so whether the audience is able to view the dancers as "vulnerable" or not can win or lose the season for these contestants. Often, a far superior dancer will go home because of this perceived lack of vulnerability, which is what I guess happened here and why we have landed ourselves with this top 4. They certainly aren't the best dancers of the season, but they are perhaps the most vulnerable? Who knows? Who can argue with that?
In this episode, Vanessa Hudgens says, "being vulnerable is the connective tissue of your soul." Do you know what that means? Because I don't. This is probably why I don't have what it takes to be a contestant on this show. That's probably the only reason. Right?
Anyhow. On to the performances.
It’s already time for the finale next week, guys. My head is spinning. How did this happen so quickly? Who even are these people? Why does it feel like the auditions were twice as long as the live show? Can FOX stop the madness? Even Nigel pleaded with FOX this week to bring back the Top 20, so what do we have to do to make that happen? Like, if we’re gonna do this show. Let’s do it RIGHT, right?
Anyhow, here’s how everything went down.
And the number of dancers continues to dwindle ever so quickly before we even have a sense of what these dancers can do. How is the American public supposed to feel inclined to pick up the phone and vote for people they barely know? This is why starting with 20 is so important. Or one of the many reasons. In my frustration, I searched the Internet for some sort of justification for WHY they've cut the beginning number of dancers in half, and this article on Dance Network was the best argument I could find.
But I still disagree. Yes, keeping the numbers down to 10 rather than 20 means we're getting much more skilled dancers right off the bat. But the show has never been about finding America's BEST dancer. The wording of the show clearly says America's FAVORITE dancer. Part of what makes someone a "favorite" is the journey, rather than the end result. We want to see dancers falter and get better after receiving feedback. We want to root for the underdog and watch them grow and get better. Cutting the show down to a Top 10 doesn't give space for growth. And the show happens so quickly now that the dancers that are on the show are simply proving how good they are now, rather than getting an opportunity to become even better.
But on with the show, I guess. Sigh.
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.
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…
Ooooh… things are getting good, friends. We’re already down to only three more episodes of His Dark Materials (after this one). And we’ve finally got the subtle knife!
I’m pretty dang excited, so let’s just hop right in to the recap.
His Dark Materials recaps are back. I hope you hadn’t forgotten about them! I definitely meant to post a recap last week, but I’m human and life got the best of me. If you know me personally, then you know that the end of November is a difficult time for me every year. And with everything else that’s going on in 2020, this year was just especially hard. I watched the show last week, I had my notes, but I just couldn’t find the time or the energy to sit down and actually write the thing. And that’s just the honest truth.
But one week is not the end of the world, right? It just means this week I have two episodes to recap for you, the one from last Monday and the one that aired this past Monday. For my sanity (and yours) I won’t cover everything that happened in these two episodes because who wants to read all of that? So we’ll be doing things a little bit differently this week. I’ll highlight some of the more notable things that happened in these two episodes and offer my thoughts on them. And then next week it will be back to recaps as normal.
His Dark Materials fans, I hope that’s okay with you, and I hope you’ll forgive me! I am loving this show so much.
With how strange 2020 has been, it’s hard to believe it’s only been a year since I was here recapping season 1 of His Dark Materials. And yet here we are, reaching the end of one hellish year, and we’re rewarded with quite the pleasant surprise. Or it was a surprise for me. This season really crept up on me. I didn’t realize it was happening until it was almost here, and yes, I am very excited it is here.
As I mentioned last time I did these recaps, please note that I’m writing from the perspective of someone who has read the books, but I will not spoil anything in the books that hasn’t yet happened in the show. If something happens differently in the show than it happens in the books, however, I may bring it up. Because I’m that person. Now let’s do this.
His Dark Materials picked a hell of a time to air its final episode of the season.
I mean… the week of Christmas? They expected me to go to this dark place when I was already having to deal with my relatives and traveling and food comas? Well. I didn’t watch this episode last week because of all of the aforementioned reasons, so I apologize that this final recap of the final episode is coming a week late. This one is going to be less of a recap of this episode and more of a reflection of this first season. With, yes, many thoughts about the final episode. Our journey has been a long one. Let’s wrap up season 1.
It’s time for a bear battle! Are you ready?
That’s right. The genre for this episode is BEAR BATTLE. But first, some other stuff happens. Let’s talk through it all and see how Lyra and friends are doing in this, the second to last episode of the season. That’s right, we’re already here.
I am about to get emotional, because this is the last episode of Season 8 of Are You the One!
So much happened on this, the last episode of the season. Pies were thrown. People got naked. Last minute hook-ups were had. Love was found. BUT DID THEY WIN THE MONEY? Read on to find out. I’m not here to spoil the final episode of this wonderful show without your consent.
It’s baaaaack!
After waiting two weeks to find out of we can keep shipping Jax or if our Max and Justin ship has been sunk, this week we got our answer. And I’m not going to wait any longer to let you know the answer. Max and Justin are officially not a match, which means Paige and Jenna and Danny and Kai are a match.
Let’s take a minute to let this sink in while Max melts into a pool of tears and crushed dreams. We now know five of the eight matches: Brandon and Aasha, Jonathan and Basit, Jasmine and Nour, Danny and Kai, and Paige and Jenna.
Episode 10. We return to our friends in Are You the One? land once again in the aftermath of another disappointing Match Up Ceremony.
Kylie says it sucks to see three beams in Week 7, especially since one of those beams is already a confirmed match. So really, they only got two new beams.
After Kai drunkenly told Jenna he’s still in love with her, Jasmine has decided she’s over Kai. Sorry if that was a lot of confusing pronouns. Basically, Jasmine doesn’t want to be second for anyone, so she’s seeing herself out of this toxic Kai situation.
Nour also seems to be ready to put aside the Kai drama. She asks Jasmine if they should talk about the fight they had at the Under the Sea Party. Jasmine’s like, nah girl. She doesn’t feel like there’s a need to talk through it, because she plans on just getting over it. They toast to their newfound friendship? “Cheers to going on our rollercoaster ride!”
Heads Up: I’m irritated with Are You the One? this week.
Did they give us a lot of drama? Sure. Was it a lot of the same stuff we’ve already seen? Yes. On top of that, this was just a continuation of last week. So we get the end of the Under the Sea party and we go into the Match Up Ceremony and that’s really all there was to this episode. So with that in mind, rather than bringing you your regularly scheduled recap, let’s just cover everything that’s STILL going on in this episode of Are You the One?
Things are heating up in Are You the One? land on Monday nights.
Who could have predicted there was going to be so much drama at semi-nude Under the Sea party? And we’re gonna get there and talk about. But let’s take it from the top.
Latest Posts in Television
Emily: Welcome back, Bachelor fans. The week before hometowns always creeps up on us. One minute we have a bajillion prospective fiancées, and then suddenly we’re down to four. But to get there, first we have to journey to the beautiful Jasper, Canada, and by all appearances, this seems like the kind of place where you might actually get to ride a moose. Too bad Lea has to miss it.
Kelli: RIP.
Emily: I have to say for once, the tourism propaganda is really working on me. I had no idea where Jasper, Canada was before this, but now I suddenly have to go. I mean! The mountains! The trees! The rainbows!
From Paradise Lost to The Powerpuff Girls to The Binding of Isaac to Cuphead, the devil has always been one of the most interesting characters in media. Every grad student has a lightbulb moment when they realize Satan is the best part of Milton, and from there on, he just keeps popping up to make stories more interesting. And if Lucifer is so interesting, what’s the rest of Hell like?
Emily: Better late than never, right? We’re here with your Fantasy Suites recap, although it seems like they’re rebranding and calling these dates “Overnights” more than they’re calling them “Fantasy Suites,” which… is a choice. They’re in Fiji, which is also where Love Island US is this year. How amazing would it be if we could one day get a Bachelor/Love Island crossover? I know it would never happen, but it could be fun!
Bonnie: Send some of the discarded men to the villa!!! Send John to the villaaaaaaaa!!!
Emily: Well, somehow we managed to stay awake during this boring hometowns episode, and we have a recap for you! Hooray! But before we get to that, we need to acknowledge the most important news to come out of Bachelor Nation this past week: former Bachelorette Gabby Windey has a girlfriend! And she’s writer and comedian Robby Hoffman! We are so happy for Gabby!
Bonnie: So happy for Gabby!!!! She’s one of the few people from this franchise that I follow on social media, and she continues to just be such a joy and delight. Love, love, love this news!!!
Emily: And now onto the recap? Let’s see what happens in these hometown dates.
Emily: Welcome back to The Bachelorette! This week, the gang is in New Orleans, which means this season is really just a tour of all of the places I have lived (or am currently living). Very exciting for me, but I would guess less exciting for the viewers at large. And way less exciting for Charity and her men. LET THESE PEOPLE TRAVEL INTERNATIONALLY! GIVE US THE FANTASY!
Bonnie: I’m upset Charity has been robbed of non stop world travel, yet Zach and Clayton got to hop all over the place. RUDE.
Emily: Hello, friends. It’s week 4, and by the end of this episode, we’ll already be down to 6 guys. I can’t believe it. What a short season. And I think at this point, we can be pretty confident about who the final four are going to be. But we’ll get to that later.
Before we get started, another oops on the points from last week. We forgot to give out rose ceremony points, so just to back it up for a second, 3 points for Aaron B for getting the first rose. 3 points to Tanner for getting the final rose.
On that note, let’s get into this episode. They’re in Washington! Which is where I live! How exciting! They’re all acting very excited about Washington. Brayden says being in Washington is a vibe and he loves hiking. This is accurate. All people do in Washington is hike or talk about hiking.
Emily: We’re back, and Charity has fewer guys than ever before. Fourteen to be exact. Quick housekeeping: I guess Bonnie lost a Caleb last week and we forgot to make a note of it. So that’s one down for Team Drama Queenz. Meanwhile, I lost, like, half my team last week, but who’s counting? I guess we’ll see how it all shakes out this week. I’m scared.
Bonnie: Lol that neither of us noticed we were down one more Caleb. I think your team is still in pole position with Xavier and Aaron. You’ve lost the weak links. Your team is only getting stronger!
Emily: It’s week 2 of The Bachelorette, and here’s where the season really starts in earnest. We get our first dates. We get our first real drama. We get our first makeouts. We get our first Speedos. And most importantly, our players get to start scoring points for our teams (and we’ll reveal our team names at the end of this recap, so sit tight.
So we’re down to nineteen men at the start of this episode. Charity says she’s ready for the journey and that she’s here to find love and all the things that Bachelorettes normally say at this point in the competition. In other words, she hasn’t been broken yet.
I also noticed at the beginning of this episode that Aaron B. is still pretending his coin is real.
Sorry, world, but now Bill Gothard is everyone’s problem. More accurately, his cult—and I do mean to say cult here—is now the topic of Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, and the dangerous teachings of the IBLP (Institute in Basic Life Principles) are making national headlines in the wake of the high-profile documentary.
If you’ve been a listener of our podcast for a while, you know that we usually do an annual episode where we each list our three favorite pieces of media from the past year. We decided to do things a little differently this year and enter 2023 as haters (check out our Colleen Hoover Hatepisode for more on that), but that doesn’t mean we don’t still love stuff! Read on for our faves of 2022 — and let us know yours, too.
You may have noticed that this year, BSG did not publish our annual guide to the Oscars. After three consecutive years of correctly predicting less than half of the attempted categories, I’ve decided to throw in the towel. Predictions: I’m just not good at them!
Instead, I’ve decided to share some thoughts on the best and worst moments of the night — just in case you aren’t already completely exhausted by everyone on the entire internet having a take.
Emily: Welcome to the blog friends, and welcome to another blog post in which Susan and Emily talk thrillers. We love it here. Susan and I both read (and LIKED) The Woman in the Window, and yes, we do know it’s problematic. So we were excited about discussing the Netflix film The Woman in the Window, which was bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. And so now we’re coming around full circle to chat about The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, which is a Netflix series spoofing domestic thrillers. But let’s be real. It’s mostly a spoof of The Woman in the Window, which is fair, because that’s a story that’s pretty easy to make fun of. Oh, and this series stars my queen, Kristen Bell.
So how was this series? Was it funny? Was it thrilling? Did Kristen Bell crush it, as always? That’s what we’re here to chat about.
Anyway, spoilers to follow.
Mary: Welcome to the much anticipated (by us) discussion of Season 1 of The Wheel of Time TV show! I started reading the series back in 2018, and felt moved to write a defense of how it “doesn’t suck.” Now, I’m still halfway through the 14 book series and feeling the worst effects of the dreaded Slog. BUT, we’re not here to talk about the novels. No, instead, Todd and I are going to be discussing the Amazon Prime TV adaptation of the novels. Weirdly, we’ve been anticipating this show for a long time, as we both keep tabs on showrunner Rafe Judkins (who previously starred on a season of Survivor). It’s a small world, and basically the same 5 people are in every reality show. But I digress.
Todd, kick us off by talking about how the show is choosing to adapt what you have called “unfilmable.”
If you are a regular listener to our podcast you probably know that BSG stans Mike Flanagan. We are #FlanaganHive. Just check out our episodes on The Haunting of Bly Manor and Doctor Sleep if you don’t believe me. Anyway, knowing this, you might have been wondering if we were going to talk about Midnight Mass. Herein lies your answer: I, Kelli, am going to be talking about Midnight Mass all by myself, because it’s November already and I can no longer wait for the other members of this operation to catch up with me. I watched this show the weekend it came out, and I have been thinking about it ever since.
(Very minor spoilers to follow)
There are so, so many takes about The White Lotus on the internet right now that I did ask myself if I should even bother writing about it. In case you haven’t watched it and aren’t on Twitter: the show, created entirely by Mike White, follows the events over the course of six days at The White Lotus resort in Hawaii. From the show’s first moments, we know that by the end, someone will be dead. The White Lotus is exploring a lot of ideas, and while there is a lot of debate about whether it can be a successful satire of white privilege and a condemnation of colonialism while also centering its white characters… that is not what I’m going to be talking about in this blog post. No, I’m here to talk about Armond.
(Spoilers for The White Lotus to follow. Big ones.)
What a ride, readers. We basically got three episodes in one for this finale, and it was full of emotional whiplash, profound declarations of love, incorrect word definitions, and fantastic outfits (from Tayshia and Kaitlyn). Read on to find out who won Katie’s heart, and more importantly, who got the most points this season!
Hello guys and ghouls—it’s me, GG. If you thought this Halloween episode would feature anything remotely spooky, you’re in for a trick. Everyone knows celebrities only dress up as other celebrities on this hallowed occasion, and that the scariest thing you’ll find at Hulaween 2020 is an ill-advised Chuck Bass costume. Read on and discover what continues to haunt us from the latest episode of HBO Max’s Gossip Girl.
It’s that time of the season! It’s the MEN TELL ALL! That episode where the men tell some things, yell at each other, and remind us of who they are before we see them again on the beaches in Bachelor in Paradise. Are you ready for this?
Well, you gotta wait. Because first we have to deal with some Michael drama.
It’s getting real, people. Hometowns are next week, which means all these dudes’ families are quarantining nearby. Will Greg’s second one-on-one seal his fate as the frontrunner? Will Mike P. cuddle his way into Katie’s heart before it’s too late? Will Blake insult an artist’s self portrait of her vagina right to her face? Read on to find out!
SPOTTED: A group of high school teachers who look to be the same age as their students, if not younger. It’s parent-teacher conference time, Upper East Siders. And for some reason I, Gossip Girl, care about parent-teacher conferences. Could it be because I am a teacher? That’s one secret I’ll never tell. You know you love me. XOXO Kate Keller. I mean Gossip Girl.
Emily: So as we get into the second episode of this Gossip Girl reboot, I think we’re getting a better idea of what this show is and isn’t going to be. And that would be a great thing to explore this week on the blog. The first episode sets up the show, its characters, and the storylines. But the second episode starts to set our expectations. We’re learning the rules of this world and how the characters are going to exist in it. We’re learning about what’s important to these people. I for one feel like I have a firmer grasp on the show’s trajectory. At least for now. If this series is anything like the original, it will go off the rails sooner rather than later.
What’s hotter than a day in the New Mexican desert? Trying not to touch yourself for a whole week while you live in close quarters with 10 other people! Oh, and a “roast”—those are heated too, right? Read on to find out if this week’s episode had us all hot and bothered or just left us feeling like we need to throw up in the middle of a group date. Let’s go!
Hey Upper Eastsiders. Gossip Girl here. You thought I was gone, didn’t you? Well… I’m back. And I’m now publishing exclusively on BSG. It’s where all of the cool rich teens hang out. It’s basically the Dumbo of the internet.
Just kidding. We know that was a really convincing impression of the voice and general essence of THE Gossip Girl, but it’s actually just Emily and Kelli here to provide you with recaps of HBO Max’s Gossip Girl, a reboot of/sequel to the original show, which aired on the CW from 2007 to 2012 for six godforsaken seasons. If you’re thinking, there’s a Gossip Girl reboot/refresh/sequel?, fear not. We’re here to get you all caught up.
(Spoilers for episode one to follow, as well as spoilers for the original GG.)
This week had departures, arrivals, truths, and dares! It had hot peppers, Lunchables, carbs, and giant ears! All of this and only one group date? How, you ask? Because ABC can make literally anything last two hours. Let’s see how the teams did this week.
Sorry for the delay on the recap this week, Bachelorette fans! Susan and Emily needed extra time to recover from this particularly emotional episode. But we’re here, and we’re ready to cry all over again.
Please note trigger warnings for sexual assault, cancer, alcoholism… it’s quite an episode, but we’re here to guide you through.
Ah, it’s good to be back. It’s good to see Tayshia and Kaitlyn blessing our screens again. It’s good to be racking up points for things like sob stories and hot makeout sessions. Let’s see which team starts out on top this season.
Kelli: Shadow and Bone is the new(ish) and long-awaited Netflix adaptation of Leigh Bardugo’s bestselling Grishaverse novels. Technically, this show is based on both the original Grisha trilogy and the Six of Crows duology, though from what I understand, the events of this first season actually serve as a prequel to Six of Crows. Of course, I’ve never read the books, and it is very possible that Wikipedia is leading me astray.
Emily: Yeah, full disclaimer that neither of us have read these books.
(Some spoilers for Season 1 of Shadow and Bone ahead!)
I recently jumped into Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, an anime I’ve heard about for a long time but had never given a chance. I knew two things about it going in.
First, it’s an action show in the tradition of Shonen Jump manga. Most episodes feature elaborate fights and lots of screaming and naming of one’s attacks. Secondly, I knew that the internet deemed many of the characters of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure queer icons with audacious fashion taste. I had to watch it.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure does a few things very well, but it has a ways to go in a couple of areas. I’m going to break it down in this handy dandy list of things you need to know about, what else, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
Allen v. Farrow is a four-part documentary series on HBO which covers the abuse allegations against Woody Allen by Dylan Farrow, his adopted daughter, who was seven years old at the time. The allegations and subsequent custody trial were highly-publicized when they took place in the 1990s, but Allen was never formally charged because experts were concerned that a trial re: abuse allegations would be too traumatizing for Dylan. Thus, Allen has continued to enjoy great success in Hollywood. This documentary aims, in part, to correct that.
Sometimes it seems like every late night show is the same these days: a bland white guy tells jokes, celebrities Zoom in from their magnificent houses but only show a boring white wall, and then it’s all over. Sure, occasionally a show will feature a not-white, not-man, but that still seems to be the exception more than the rule. If you love comedy and are looking for a show to break you out of your funk, then look no further than The Amber Ruffin Show (streaming weekly on Peacock!).
The Bachelor franchise has been embroiled in accusations of racism in recent weeks. Calls for season 25 frontrunner Rachael Kirkconnell to address her history of racially insensitive Instagram activity led to an explosive interview between Chris Harrison and former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay that has many viewers and Bachelor Nation alumni calling for ABC to fire Harrison. If you’re a regular viewer of the Bachelor, you know that discussion of the show’s racism is not new. Yesterday, current Bachelor Matt James made a statement condemning the show’s failure to address this issue for years.
Around two years ago, at the onset of spooky season, I decided it was about time that I sit down and watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time.
I’d been told by countless people that it was a phenomenal show and that it was right up my alley, but even with all of the hype and expectation, I was still surprised by the effect this show had on me. As many people will tell you, BTVS takes a little while to work its magic. I was enjoying it well enough, but it wasn’t until around the third season that I realized, quite suddenly, that I’d fallen in love with this show. By the time I reached season 7, almost every episode made me cry. I think I’d gotten the idea that by not watching Buffy while it was on television, I would never be able to connect to it in the right way. Obviously, I was wrong.
For a while, I’ve been planning to write a blog post about this show. There is a lot of excellent writing out there about BTVS already, and I became obsessed with figuring out a unique perspective to present. What is there about this show that people haven’t considered and written about ten thousand times before? Should I write about how the trio in BTVS presents a perfect parallel to the trio in the Harry Potter series? How about an examination of the loneliness of the ‘chosen one?’ A listicle about Buffy’s trench coats? There were a lot of different angles I considered, some of them more ambitious than others, but ultimately I decided that sometimes the best place to start is the simplest.
So, without further ado, I present: Seven Lessons Buffy the Vampire Slayer Can Teach You, Even as an Adult Woman in 2018. (There are seven because the show has seven seasons, but I didn’t correlate each lesson to a season because what do I look like, a professional? Cut me some slack, guys.)