Television
The Oscars (Hulu)
Here are my picks and here are my thoughts.
Did they trot out the accountants this year? I don’t recall seeing them. Fun fact: I once considered being an accountant to get the job of tabulating the Oscar votes. Then I realized I do not like math.
Conan was a fabulous host. The producers clearly love the art of movie-making. The musical numbers were lush and incredibly choreographed.
I thought the writing in the presenter bits was kind of bland and uninspired, except for the ones where the nominees were addressed directly. Robert Downey Jr. did this the best, by far. Some others were pretty obvious that the presenters were reading from a teleprompter.
As far as the winners? The most important thing (aside from Challengers somehow winning Best Score in a write-in upset) happened, and that is that Flow won for Best Animated Feature. I yelped and I cried.
I am happy Anora won Best Picture and Best Director. I was really worried The Brutalist would take both. I feel like the Academy voters are susceptible to manipulation, and The Brutalist was little more than that.
Adrien Brody’s speech was interminable and unnecessary. Last night, Sean Baker won four awards for Anora. Although his speeches were not as long as Brody’s, each one had a clear point, while Brody’s rambling mess seemed to have zero other than praising himself.
It was a gross win and I didn’t want it.
Most of the others were deserved though.
Sean Baker included. He set a record, even! He won the most Oscars in one night, tying Walt Disney. However, unlike Disney, Baker won all four of his awards for the same movie… the first person to accomplish this feat.
None more than Flow. It’s a delightful animated film. If you haven’t watched it, it’s available on Max.
The fashion was aces this year. I took some pics of my favorite looks on the red carpet (I watched the AP red carpet, which had no interviews, just fashion… and a bunch of photographers yelling “DEMI OVER YOUR SHOULDER!”), and I will share them here.
I don’t know who some of these people are. If you do, let me know!
Severance – S2E7 (AppleTV+)
Sometimes television is art. And this is one of those times.
I started this episode taking notes and here they are:
Mark & Gemma meeting giving blood.
Then I wrote down as many of the names on the doors as I could:
- Allentown
- Cairns
- Siena
- Loveland
- Wellington (Dentist)
- Rhodes
- Cold Harbor
Then, once I realized what this show was doing, I stopped taking notes, because I knew I would watch it again.
This episode was astonishly beautiful. The quality of light throughout was simply breathtaking. And the acting was perfection.
I don’t have many detailed thoughts about this episode yet, but I wanted to mention two things that might not be obvious to everyone.
In the flashbacks, Mark is constantly chewing on pen caps. When he gives Helly R. the supply closet he says soething like, “This is where we keep the extra pen caps.”
Also, I think Cold Harbor is some sort of drowning death. They are gonna test to see if the innie could die and the outie would still be alive. I can see how this would be valuable to rich folks and those in power.
The Traitors – S3E10 (Peacock)
I’m basically only here for Tom Sandoval and Gabby now. Let’s hope we keep them both this week!
- ugh how boring. Danielle and Britney as Traitors.
- And now they are shit-talking Carolyn, yech. Boring.
- I like Dylan, too. I think he will be smarter than these Traitors.
- Oooh, boy it’s time for the fashion show.
- Yech, I do not like the way Danielle is playing.
- I have to keep an eye on the way I phrase things, cause I don’t know Danielle personally, so I can’t truly know if I like her or not. But I DO NOT like how she is playing.
- Gabby is safe and she looks fabulous.
- I’m so sad. Tom Sandoval is gone.
- I guess Danielle is doing a good job of fooling people. But idk, it is very mean-spirited feeling. I don’t think it has to be.
- If Danielle gets rid of Gabby, I will be so sad. GET A SHIELD, GIRL. You’re the only one left that I care about!
- A challenge! yay!
- Deja Vu? This feels very Amazing Race-y.
- The Seer can earn the power of learning one player’s identity. Eh.
- I kind of like this game. It’s creative and creepy.
- Dylan’s doll is the creepiest by far.
- Bleh. Don’t gun for Gabby!
- I’m so worried for Gabby.
- Gabby is a stone cold smarty. What is she from? I might watch it. Oh! The Bachelor. Maybe not.
- Don’t let me down, Dylan.
- OKAY DYLAN.
- A tie!
The White Lotus – S3E3 (MAX)
This one deserves it’s own post, so here it is. Prolly won’t be up til later today, though.
Mythic Quest S4E6 (AppleTV+)
This episode opened like an episode of Community and it kept that energy the entire time. I kept expecting to see the rest of the study group show up.
Here is something about Mythic Quest that you might not know. The show was created by Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day and one more person: Megan Ganz. Now, you might not be familiar with that name, but that single name (Megan Ganz) is the entire reason I kept an eye on the development of this show so early.
Megan was a writer on two of my favorite shows of all time, Community and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. She’s responsible for some pretty epic episodes on both series.
Her most iconic episode of Community was “Documentary Filmmaking: Redux”, which was an spot on, incredibly crafted send up of the Apocolypse Now documentary Hearts of Darkness. This is one of the best episodes of the series, IMO. She was credited as writer on 6 Community episodes from season 2 -4.
She worked similar magic on Always Sunny. First up, she has been an execuitve producer since season 13. And she’s directed a few later-season episodes as well. My favorite episodes that she’s written are “Time’s Up for the Gang”, which focuses on sexual harrassment in the workplace. She also wrote one of the most emptional episodes of the show, “The Gang Carries a Corpse Up a Mountain.”
I am very drawn to her writing and brain, in general. So the instant I heard that she was developing Mythic Quest, I started the countdown. And this show was the reason I subscribed in the first place. She does an incredible job of presenting flawed people wholly, with no judgement.
And that’s what I appreciates about her. And that’s what I appreciates about this show.
Abbott Elementary (Hulu)
Using Telenovelas to teach Spanish is brilliant.
Ava gave Barb a makeover and the jeans she put her in are a sensory nightmare.
Ava and the IT fella are a couple for the ages. I can’t wait to see Ava’s wedding, because I feel like this is her settling down man. We’ll see, I guess.
Pop Culture Jeopardy (Amazon Prime)
We get the finals next week and I’m curious to see how many games makes it up! 3, is my guess. Yeah, yeah, I know I could go look it up.
Australian Survivor Season 12: Brains vs. Brawn 2 E4-6
Me and Logan are still watching and talking. Listen to us talk about it here.
Dimension 20: Fantasy High (Dropout TV)
I can’t believe I am so into this. This is so magical, y’all. We have started their Sophomore Year, which actually seems to be taking place at Spring Break in their Freshman Year
Make Some Noise (Dropout TV)
We tried to watch this in order after we finished Game Changer the first time, but it was too much to watch like that. We’ve started using it as filler before bedtime. It’s a great 30-40 minute bop filled with people who love each other.
It makes me happy.
