My first roundup! My blueprint for everything moving forward!
Let’s get into it!
THINGS I LOVED THIS WEEK:
The Floor (airs weekly on Fox, streaming on Hulu) - Good news! The Rob Lowe cinematic game show universe is expanding (If you don’t know, he hosted an ill-fated show called Mental Samurai, which in our house we called Robot Arm Trivia Quiz because it was… a giant robot arm that spun contestants around in the air and then made them answer elementary school age questions). He’s back at it with The Floor, which is a show where 80+ people stand on, you guessed it, the floor, and go head to head with each other based on their expert trivia categories in an attempt to eventually conquer the entire area of the floor. Categories range from Brunch to Political Candidates to Bugs. I am loath to call any of this trivia. All contestants have to do is look at pictures of stuff and identify it faster than the other person. It’s so insidiously simple and entirely absurd I feel myself growing dumber the longer I watch. I cannot recommend it more highly.
The Gentlemen (streaming on Netflix) - Apparently this was a movie, but without knowing that my viewing has not yet suffered (I’m only a handful of episodes in). Although I did have to Google why Theo James is famous (the answer is Divergent), he is stellar as the second son of an noble family who inherits the entire estate (against tradition & his elder brother’s wishes). Aforementioned elder brother is a cocaine addict with a gambling problem, who has got himself in a spot of trouble. But when Edward (Theo James) tries to sell the estate to pay back his brother’s debt, he finds that an illegal marijuana operation is taking place literally underground on the property. Kaya Scodelario (Effie from Skins!!!!!!) plays the daughter of the drug dealer who runs the show and the tension as she cleans up these bumbling brothers’ messes is simply *chef’s kiss*. We love a bad bitch in charge.
The Program (streaming on Netflix) - The “Troubled Teen Industry” (a term that makes me ill even to hear) is having its reckoning. Between Paris Hilton’s push to close the Provo Canyon School where she suffered abuse, the documentary Hell Camp about outdoor wilderness reform programs (spoiler alert, they don’t work), The Program is another horrifying yet necessary addition to the canon. Filmmaker Katherine Kubler set out to make this documentary to prove to her family what happened to her at Ivy Ridge Academy, but left with far more than she bargained for. Filmed on-premise at the now defunct school (and yes, they left behind all the documentation and video footage), this was a difficult watch, but one worth promoting, as these programs still exist to this day, which means children are still being hurt.
Sofreh (75 St Marks Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217) - A restaurant that has been on my list for years, I finally snagged a reservation at Sofreh, a Persian restaurant in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Chef Nasim Alikhani is currently up for Best Chef: New York at the James Beard Awards, and so when a 5:30pm reservation at the communal table downstairs popped up day-of, I jumped on it. Did we unintentionally copy this Eater article order? Yes. Was the meal absolutely perfect? Also yes. It’s still freezing in New York and the food was the perfect combination of comforting and elevated. The entire meal felt like a hug. We will absolutely be returning.
Having Someone Else File My Taxes (Brass Taxes) - It’s tax season. Between W2s, 1099-MISC, 1099-INT, write offs, etc, our taxes are inarguably complicated. I used to be cheap and stubborn, but as I get older, I realize that true luxury and privilege is getting to pay someone else to handle fiscal communication with the government.
Nécessare (The Hand Cream - Barrier Treatment with 5 Ceramides, 5 Peptides + Niacinamide, $25) - Is it dramatic to say a hand cream has changed my life? Probably. Am I going to say it anyway? Yes. If that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is.
The Pod Has Spoken (streaming on Spotify, and probably other podcast places) - After a hyper-binge of the entire series during 2020, I’m now a certified Survivor fan. Tyson Apostol is one of my favorite contestants, (unduly classified as a Villain, in my opinion, just because he’s quippy and not unrelentingly virtuous) and finding out that he hosts a Survivor podcast is simply a delight. I can’t sleep without noise, so now I’m ushered to slumber by the dulcet tones of tactical play by play.
THINGS I HATED THIS WEEK
The Weather - Everyone in New York knows about False Spring (when you get a weekend of perfect weather and then the temperature immediately plummets back to winter) and yet every year I am deeply upset when my parka is still getting use at the end of March. I’ll never forget the time early in my NYC tenure where it snowed in April, and I think that’s why I’m very sensitive to false spring. In the immortal words of Cheryl Frasier from Miss Congeniality, I’m looking forward to April, when “it’s not too hot, not too cold. All you need is a light jacket.”
Racism from Bachelor Nation - The Bachelor is a perfect anthropological experiment, and this season is one of the best since I started watching (it’s incredible what casting an emotionally aware man can do for both the contestants and the audience). But one of the more vicious parts of reality television is putting yourself on display for the audience to judge based on an edit you have no say in, and this year, people have been truly heinous, most notably to twenty-six year old nurse Rachel Nance, who made it to third place. The racist vitriol thrown at her and her family after her hometown date was truly harrowing, and requires a larger conversation about diversity, inclusion, and equity, both from the network and the viewership. This isn’t new, but it is louder, and at long last, people are speaking up rather than suffering in silence with no support.
Social media - I touched on this above, but I have been struggling for months now trying to determine my social media strategy and personal brand identity, and how to infuse joy into my online interactions. I’m hoping this is a start!
Travel for Work - I’ve been fully remote for years now which means I’ve grown far too accustomed to working from my apartment. Traveling isn’t the issue, nor is it getting to meet coworkers in person despite working with some of them for two and a half years. It’s really just the thinking about having to travel and making the accommodations. Once that’s done, it’ll probably actually be fun. Maybe you’ll see that location on the “things I loved this week list” one day…
Irish Wish (streaming on Netflix) - This is only a half hatred, to be honest, because I am thrilled that Lindsay Lohan is back and building a career again. But boy howdy was this a horrible movie. Like, way way worse than the Christmas one she was in with Chord Overstreet (of Glee fame). This movie was poorly plotted, poorly paced, poorly researched (she’s an editor but she doesn’t work for the publisher? she wants to write her own book but she can’t because she’s editing his? the author needs to help her, the editor get an in at the publisher? make it make sense) and I’m fairly certain not a single Irish person was involved in any way shape or form. I love bad movies, but I hated this bad movie. It distressed me.
discontinued holy grain skincare products - RIP Dr. Jart’s Tiger Grass Calming Gel Cream. You were incredible. I desperately need brands to stop reformulating and discontinuing perfectly good products.
And that’s a wrap on opinions no one asked for. See you next week for more love and hate. Until then, remember that while the horrors persist, so will you. x
oh I am so excited to get these thoughts weekly!!