003. THE POP-CULTURE UPDATE & THOUGHTS ON MAF's - part one
reflections on current music choices and hot takes on shows to add to 'watch now'
Sometimes I feel like my mind races ahead of my own vision. Do you ever feel that? It’s like you have this preconception on what’s to come that when it actually takes place, you’re already waiting with a bitch-face or a face full of anticipation. It’s no wonder why I love crime shows and cult documentaries to quench my overthinking. And why most of the time, peers are asking me if I’m ok. I’ve really got to train these facial features of mine, but subtlety really hasn’t got anyone anywhere who craved just plain honesty. On that note, welcome to a little update on everything I’ve been consuming and quite simply loving and hating.
Let’s put the spotlight on a few faves!
Let’s talk shows.
Limited series ‘The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping’ just released on Netflix is wild. Think kids who are deemed out of control menaces and parents orchestrating kidnappings of their own children so they can be taken to a behaviour modification programme. Dehumanization, manipulation, violence, abuse, brainwashing - it’s a billion dollar industry that’s still operating today and all I can say is that this was wild. In this three part series, you’ll see behind the scenes of Ivy Ridge, which is where all the kids reside after being so-called abducted, and survivors re-telling the horror of their time spent, and a childhood robbed. It’s an easy watch but a hard one and one that took me back to Paris Hilton’s documentary on her time spent at a similar facility: Provo Canyon school. It’s the same shit really. These kids are steamrolled and stretched and exploited and damaged beyond repair. A must-watch.
Limited Series Trailer: The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping
If there is any ‘reality’ tv show that would leave me with my jaw dropped and a fury like no tomorrow for that one gaslighting tool of a man, then it’s this show. It’s the return of a favourite that time and time again has the whole office talking. For those not familiar, it’s a show on individuals looking for love, getting married at the altar after first sight and being exposed to all their partner’s quirks and pet hates. Its a crash course where the crashing takes center-stage and we’re all here for the tea. Let’s just unpack what’s happened recently:
We have Ben and Ellie above - Ben who is pretty much non-existent and irrelevant in all forms of actual human communication, comes back after disappearing for hours because he was apparently thinking about Ellie’s words on the couch and her need for a man who actually cared and wasn’t manipulating the narrative. She wrote ‘leave’, he wrote ‘stay’ but then flitted away whilst Ellie walked around aimlessly trying to figure out where the fuck her husband was. Lo and behold, he turns up at their apartment, guitar in hand, wants to have a chat and then proceeds to say: "She wants real, she wants honest, here I am,". Ten minutes later, he sings a song about their relationship and lists all the things he doesn’t like about his own wife. This dick. Oh and here’s his reasons below:
- Didn't like that she wears makeup.
- Didn't like that she was 32 and he was 39 (he thinks there is a generational gap).
- Didn't like that she was from the Gold Coast.
- Didn't like that she was sensitive and emotional.
- Didn't like that there was no good conversation from her.
I honestly can’t. Ben deserves more than a bitch fit.
HE’S DELUSIONAL.
Anyways, I’m about to watch the fourth dinner party tonight and I can foresee DRAMA on the horizon. Has there ever been a normal dinner party with all the couples? In my opinion, the dinners are my Roman Empire.
OK QUICK UPDATE. OMG I HAVE JUST WATCHED THE FOURTH DINNER PARTY.
JESUS CHRIST. GUYS. THERE WAS SO MUCH YELLING.
Quick recap: Mr Manbun (aka Jayden) decides to tell Timothy’s wife Lucinda that she was shortchanged by ending up with Timothy - of course Timothy hears it and is actually fuming at the dinner table. Like head bulging, veins on show fuming. He confronts Jayden, slams his fist down on the table, Lucinda manages to calm him down and all is good for 5.25 seconds before Tori makes a comment about him looking smug. It was like she was picking at a scab she couldn’t quite lift and it was icky to watch. That girl’s ugly side came out big time when another wife Cassandra told her straight up that she was fishing for drama and Tori lost it. These actual words came out of her mouth:
"There's a fucking food chain here and you're not at the top" — Tori
Then her ‘muzzle ya wife’ husband tries to calm her down but meanwhile she now has a vendetta against the one quiet girl in the group who’s just telling it like it is. Oh and let’s not forget about Ellie and Ben, Ben can’t deal with the confrontation from the group so decides to call him and Ellie’s relationship now a friendship even though in the confessionals he claimed he was starting afresh by giving her the list of dislikes and that he felt there was still a future and sent her a gift just before the dinner. THIS MAN IS CONFUSING AF.
Reow. We love the drama.
ITS THE OG SHOW WHERE SOMETIMES THE ENDINGS DON’T MAKE FUCKING SENSE BUT THEY STILL WORK.
I’ve downloaded the theme song as my ringtone, and I’m now well versed in all forms of evidence, betrayal, lies and courtroom ethics. I’m re-watching all the episodes and between this and MAFs, my Virgo mind is at an all time calm.
Call me Olivia Benson.
Listen to me babe.
I think my iPhone 11 is getting close to collapsing. I’m having to restart my phone constantly that when I’m hopping into the car to listen to my emo tunes and it freezes, it’s an instant mood killer. In amongst the anxiousness, I’ve managed to relive my love for the All American Rejects and Tyson Ritter’s chiseled model-like jawline.
Then vs now.
JESUS. It’s too late to fight. It ends tonight.
Tyson explains that since having been in The All-American Rejects since the age of sixteen, its not likely that the band will release another record. He quotes Joni Mitchell and says, “as an artist or as a songwriter you need to know when to stop.”
Dude that sentence resonates with me like no tomorrow. They’ll be a time when I feel like my views will change on this whole idea of Bookstagram - the content creation, the dedication, the social upkeep, the insights, the judgey comments. I think about it daily. What it would be like to not have this online presence and to rewind the clock back to its humble beginnings - reading on public transport, devouring one book after another, reading without tabbing or annotating pages - just PURE, uninhabited reading.
Ok I’m overthinking now.
Leaving this here. Over and out.