Watch List – August 5 – 11: I Hated The Closing Ceremony.

Television

That Girl (Peacock)

We’re in the home stretch of this show: Season 5. There’s a new theme song that has lyrics and my brain just can’t wrap myself around this change.

I loved the original theme song. It was a bop, I found myself humming around the house at random times.

This new one though? The words don’t go with the song or the show and it’s just a no from me, dog. I cannot “skip intro” fast enough nowadays.

Two other things happened early in this season that I’d like to discuss:

Thing 1:

Ann Marie got a new hairdo! No more bangs and I think it suits her well. It doesn’t feel like Ann, though. It feels like someone cosplaying 1970s Ann Marie.

Thing 2:

Ann Marie got a new fiance. It is Don Hollandaise and I don’t think it suits her well.

One last thing for now – the score of this season is different than the others. During one of the episodes, I had to pause to let my brain process something.

Then I started singing, “Todaaaay’s the greatest… day I’ve ever known.”

Mickey joined in, so he heard it too.

Then it happened at the end of the same episode and we both sang together.

It was spot on for the opening guitar sounds of “Today” by the Smashing Pumpkins and it blew my mind.

P-Valley (Starz or Amazon Prime)

On Sunday, August 18 at 8pm EST in The EngErotics Community on Facebook, we’ll be watching my favorite episode of season 1: Murda Night.

Well, it might be my favorite one -we’ll see how it goes on this rewatch. My heart felt a lot of things for Episode 7: Last Call for Alcohol when I watched it this week in prep for our discussion.

Also, if you want to catch up on these chats – you can either go back and watch the live videos in the group or listen to each one podcast-style, right here.

Movies

Space Cadet (Amazon Prime)

I watched this movie because of Poppy Liu. I love her in Hacks and I truly think she is a generational talent – along the same lines as Parker Posey or Lisa Kudrow. I see the same thing happening for Megan Statler -whoever is doing the casting for Hacks knows wtf they are doing. Can I be your assistant, please?

Now onto the movie at hand: Space Cadet.

The movie was silly and wholly unbelievable and there was even a pretty strong romance storyline, but I liked it anyways.

And more importantly, it reminded me that plots don’t have to be all convoluted and complex. They can be simple and straightforward. You don’t always have to surprise your viewer (Or reader, in my case).

Let me tell you the plot.

Rex (played by Emma Roberts) lives in Cocoa Beach, Florida. She’s 10 years out of high school, where she graduated with a full ride to Georgia Tech and hopes to become an astronaut.

When her mom gets sick, Rex defers going to college for a year and never goes back. She bartends at a Cocoa Beach bar and parties on the beach and that’s about it.

Through a series of events, Rex ends up applying to be an Astronaut and asks her friend Nadine (Poppy Liu) to edit her submission. Nadine edits it A LOT, because she doesn’t think it will go anywhere.

Well, it does and Rex gets invited to Astronaut training. She goes and… chaos ensues.

It’s sweet, though, in an outlandish way. It somewhat reminds me of Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion in that you have to wholly suspend belief in order to enjoy it.

And sometimes that can be fun.

Oh, and the fashion in this was ACES. It’s got all the things it needs to become a 20-year-later cult classic.

Other

Women’s Floor Exercise Finals

I wanted Rebecca to win Gold and Jordan to win Bronze and that is exactly what happened.

Above is a photo of Jordan’s parents realizing she won an individual bronze medal. She was crying. Her parents were crying. I suspect Laurie Hernandez was crying.

I cried. I am so proud of these girls.

UPDATE:

As of this posting, Monday, August 12, the IOC has asked Jordan Chiles to give her bronze medal back.

FUCK YOOOOU.

The reason for this is because her coach was (according to the officials) four seconds too late to appeal Jordan’s score.

Well, US Gym has RECEIPTS, Y’ALL. They are claiming the appeal was submitted in 47 seconds, within the time limit.

This is a mess, y’all. Olympic medals are rescinded for two reasons typically: cheating and doping, which are one and the same in my mind. Jordan Chiles did neither. Let her keep her medal. She earned it.

I think I read that the Romanian gymnast even offered to share the medal. The IOC said “nah.”

Paris 2024 Olympic Closing Ceremony

I hated this. At first, I thought it might be better than the opening ceremonies, in that it was focused on the crowd in the stadium and not the one watching on television.

But then, it all seemed so disjointed… and poorly planned.

Once again, the announcers were terrible and awful. It seemed like they kept removing them, too? Like in the first hour, Tara Lipinski was contributing to the conversation, but then they went to a commercial break and she was never heard from again.

I liked the hangy-downy fella with the VHS tape cape who played piano in mid-air for a while.

I did not like the jagged, pointy continent stage that looked like it came from an “edgy” Canva designer.

I honestly LOVED H.E.R.’s performance of the National Anthem. I thought she knocked it out of the stadium.

I laughed out loud when the announcers said, “Hmm, next up, it looks like we’ll be having athlete karaoke.”

My guffaw was so loud and pronounced that Mickey had to pause his video game and ask me what was going on.

And then, and then, when it was time for “Athlete Karaoke” all they did was play, like, one song everyone kind of knew, then three songs that, like, two people knew.

And then “We Are the Champions” which everyone knew.

It was weird, it was awkward and it felt like they forgot that they had to fill the time with something, so they just came up with this on the fly.

My favorite part of the Paris 2024 Olympics Closing Ceremony took place during the final medal ceremony.

First off – this was for the Women’s Marathon. Traditionally, the final competition of the Olympics is the Men’s Marathon. This year, Paris switched that up, instead ending with the women.

The marathon course traced the same course as the Women’s March on Versailles in 1789, when women took to the streets protesting the high cost of bread.

That’s cool and all, but it’s not my favorite part.

My favorite part is the gold medal winner, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands.

This wasn’t even her first medal of the games – she previously won bronze in both the 5000- and 10,000-meter races earlier in the games. She a badass, obviously.

What I loved about her gold medal finish was what she wore to accept her medal.

Did you know Paris banned hijabs from the 2024 Olympics?

Well, in the final medal-winning moment of the games, Hassan proudly wore her hijab, as you can see above. It warmed my heart right the fuck up.

Which is good, because there was much more to hate at these closing ceremonies.

WHAT I HATED MORE THAN ANYTHING.

I cannot stress this enough. MORE THAN ANYTHING AT THESE CLOSING CEREMONIES. I HATED THIS.

The handoff to the new host city has always been one of my favorite parts of the Closing Ceremonies. It’s a small bit of two cultures clashing together. You know, cause they kind of have to work together to pull off that section of the closing ceremony.

Not this year. This year, they had all the new host city stuff – in the new host city.

WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF SURPRISE WAS THAT FOR THE ATHLETES THERE AT THE CURRENT OLYMPICS?!

Were they watching along on the jumbotron? What a letdown. What crap.

It felt like the opening ceremonies where they are creating for the people watching on tiny screens and not those that are there – you know, the ones whose accomplishments we are supposed to be celebrating.

Oh and yes, I hated all that Tom Cruise bullshit. I figured y’all knew that already. He reminded me of Jeff Probst at a Survivor Finale he doesn’t care about.