(no subject)
Parks and Recreation
ahh, I'm so happy this show is back with new episodes, and this episode was just so delightful!!!!!!!!! I liked both of the two main storylines quite a bit, but I think I actually liked the guys' storyline just the slightest bit more? IT WAS JUST SO SWEET AND HEARTWARMING!!!!!!!!! I enjoyed how each of their bachelor parties was so incredibly perfect and fitting for each character!!!! And it was also just constantly hilarious. I was completely dying at all the drinks at Tom's bar, and the ice cream guy at Jerry's party having a 2nd ice cream cone ready and knowing his name is Gary. And Andy's was so wonderful, I loved him getting to meet Reggie Wade (…or is it Wayne? I DON'T KNOW FOOTBALL STUFF, OK) and telling him he got married in his jersey (THE CASUAL CONTINUITY ON THIS SHOW IS SERIOUSLY MY FAVORITE). OH, AND BEN PLAYING SETTLERS OF CATAN. THAT IS LEGIT A GAME I PLAY REGULARLY WITH MY FRIENDS WHEN WE HANG OUT AND HAVE SINCE WE WERE IN HIGH SCHOOL, SO I WAS UTTERLY DYING. (Pretty much all me and my friends do when we hang out is play board games and they drink. We are exciting people.) I EVEN ACTUALLY, GENUINELY LIKED CHRIS. Like, not even the begrudging "I guess you're a character on this show who has to have storylines sometimes." I GENUINELY LIKED HIM. And Ben setting up him and Shauna at the end!!!! I THINK I COULD BE INTO THIS.
I also enjoyed the Leslie storyline, even if not quite as much as the stuff with the guys. I mean, I'm always a favor of Leslie, Ann, and April teaming up. AND APRIL ENCOURAGING LESLIE TO DO THE RIGHT THING IN THE END (APRIL CARING ABOUT THINGS!!!!!) AND LESLIE COMPLIMENTING HER AND ANN TRYING TO BOND WITH HER ABOUT THE RANDOM COMPLIMENTS!!!!!!! And the Lincoln stripper!!!!!!!!!!!! Such a Leslie thing.
Basically, it was an utterly delightful episode, and I'm super excited the show is back!!!!!!!!
New Girl
I don't think I really cared for the Schmidt/Robbie stuff, mostly just because it was the type of storyline that makes me want to root against Schmidt and Cece getting back together, because he was just being kind of creepy and gross and disrespecting her choices and everything. But that being said, some of the stuff they were coming up with to win her back did have me cracking up a ridiculous amount, like joining the navy and rising in the ranks so they could invite her to the ball or whatever.
I liked the Nick/Jess storyline more, although it also didn't fully work for me for whatever reason. But there were some great moments! Angry Nick is almost as good as drunk Nick, so that was fun, especially the angry plumbing (AND THEN JESS DOING THE ANGRY PLUMBING AT THE END!!!!!!!!!). Also, the "There's more to a father's love than just semen! Ew. Poetic, but ew," had me cracking up a ridiculous amount.
AND THERE WAS SOME CUTE NICK/JESS STUFF. Like "Your eyes are twice the size of normal eyes." !!!!! SO CUTE. I don't know why I found that so cute; maybe because it could've been like… critical? Or sounded more annoyed? But it was actually kind of fond/protective, so it was just adorable. AND OF COURSE "You're not broken." !!!!!! AWWWWWWW. Man I love that they can like… both be this person for the other? That was a super vague sentence. But like, there were episodes where Jess is freaking out and Nick can tell her she's the kind of girl a guy would come back for or whatever, and then there are episodes where she can tell him he's not broken. I JUST REALLY LOVE THEM, IT'S RIDICULOUS.
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
ahhhh the episodes this week!!!! tbh I was a little disappointed at the lack of Darcy on Monday just because I was hoping to get some new Lizzie/Darcy for my birthday (although the preview for Thursday's ep did help), but, BING!!!!! It was so unexpected but great to see him again!!!!! And he seemed so sad and heartbroken still!!!!! I mean, I only feel so much sympathy for him because even if Caroline and Darcy did manipulate things (…it is going to come out at some point that Caroline schemed during that birthday party thing to make it look like Jane was cheating on Bing, right? Because that was always my impression, especially with her tweet about loving when a plan goes off well and Darcy referring to Jane's "indescretion" during the proposal, but we've also not really seen any evidence of anything like that since then, so maybe this is just my own headcanon that is never going to come true, idk.), Bing was not at all blameless in their break up. But I do still feel bad for him because he's clearly not over Jane.
BUT THEN THERE WAS THURSDAY'S EPISODE, WHICH I'M STILL NOT OVER FOR SO MANY REASONS. COSTUME THEATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ACTUALLY DIED WHEN HE CAME BACK WITH THE BOW TIE AND NEWSIE HAT, OMG. Now I just want to know if he, like, those are actually things he wears and thus keeps around his office, or if he was just keeping them around in the off-chance that they would be necessary for Lizzie's videos??? And, backing up for a second, LIZZIE WANDERING THE HALLS AND RUNNING INTO DARCY!!! THE HEIGHT DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVED GETTING TO SEE THEM STANDING NEXT TO EACH OTHER (I SOUND COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY RIDICULOUS). I also hope that they find some way like how they did this to show us makeouts between them in the future!!!!!!!
And then back to the costume theater, because OMG. DARCY WAS WILLING TO DO COSTUME THEATER WITH LIZZIE DESPITE ALL THE TIMES HE HAS BEEN MOCKED VIA COSTUME THEATER IN THE PAST. HE JUST WANTS TO GET ON HER GOOD SIDE, IT'S SO CUTE. Also, how about when she asks him to do the costume theater and she goes on about her… media theory stuff (which I followed none of because I am not a grad student in media studies ok) and he looks intently at her and then continues her thought and HER FACE. MAN SHE WAS TOTALLY INTO HOW HE WAS ABLE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT SHE WAS SAYING AND CONTINUE WITH IT ON HIS OWN. Isn't that something she said in one of the early Q&As about what she looks for in a guy, like… there's something about intelligent discourse (or something to that effect), right? Or am I just making things up. I totally might be. But anyways, whatever, she was so into Darcy for at least a few seconds right there.
AND THEN HER FACE WHEN HE COMES IN WITH THE NEWSIE CAP AND THE BOWTIE, BECAUSE I THINK THAT MIGHT HAVE SURPRISED AND IMPRESSED HER EVEN MORE!!!!!!!!!! I do have to say that I am a little disappointed that they had the two of them do costume theater just as themselves. I WANTED TO SEE DARCY'S TAKE ON SOMEONE ELSE AND BE STIFF AND RIGID AT FIRST BUT THEN GET TOTALLY INTO IT. AND I ALSO WANTED TO SEE THEM DO COSTUME THEATER OF EACH OTHER!!!! But oh well, I'm not going to get too picky here, because what we got was the actual greatest.
I saw some people referring to Bing being clueless about everything for so long being unbelievable or unrealistic or solely for plot purposes, and while it's not something I had actually thought of on my own that much (because tbh Bing and Bing/Jane are pretty low on my list of priorities when it comes to this story), I do think that this episode actually helped address that issue. Obviously Darcy and Caroline have an interest in Bing not watching the videos, and since he's disconnected from the Bennets now, I'm not sure where he would like… come across her videos? Also, he's a med student (supposedly), so that should take some of his attention/time, I would think? idk, honestly, it's not something that bothers me too much. I like a certain degree of realism in this series, but it's not my primary concern.
Also, so, do we have confirmation now that Darcy's been watching the videos even after the proposal/letter????? Because I wasn't sure if he would continue watching or not, but then there was the "The hills are unforgiving," reference last Thursday, which at first I thought meant that Gigi had been trying to convince him to offer Lizzie a ride if he ran into her so they'd have some time together and used that line with him, but now that we have that AND the thing in this episode with Darcy knowing about Lizzie and Charlotte discussing "Darvid" post-letter, that means he's been watching, right??? I HAVE FEELINGS ABOUT THIS BUT I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THEY ARE. Probably mostly just that despite watching through all those videos and suffering a lot of rejection and humiliation, he still loves her enough to want to keep watching even if there's a chance she might continue to talk negatively about him. ALSO I LOVED HOW HE SAID THAT IF HE KNEW A "DARVID," THEN "DARVID" MIGHT CARE, BUT HE DIDN'T; THERE WAS SOMETHING THAT WAS JUST REALLY CUTE ABOUT THAT!!! Oh, and at the end, which him telling her she should ask Bing about his feelings about Jane, man the subtext there was ridiculous. And how he took off the Newsie cap before he said it (making it real)!!!!!!!!!!! AND WHEN HE ASKED LIZZIE IMMEDIATELY AFTER HOW HIS COSTUME THEATER WAS, IF HE HAD DONE IT ALL RIGHT!!!! HE JUST WANTS TO IMPRESS HER SO MUCH, UGHHHH.
Anyways, basically, still crazy obsessed over this show, give me Monday already!!!!!!!!!! Also, on a somewhat unrelated note, there's going to be a new Q&A video soon (Saturday?), and I am hoping to god that there are questions for Darcy and Lizzie feels compelled to pull Darcy in to answer questions (it's what the viewers want!!!! She would never choose to bring him in herself, of course, but she has no choice!!!) and so we get more Lizzie/Darcy there. But I should probably not be getting my hopes up.
So I ended up marathoning Girls over the past couple days and I have some thoughts:
Girls
My reaction to this ended up being a lot different than I expected. I mean, I should preface this to say that I've been pretty negative towards this show since it premiered based on everything I heard about its problematic elements and I decided it wasn't worth checking out. But a lot of people whose taste I trust said that it got better over the course of the season, and it keeps getting nominated for stuff and winning stuff, and even though awards are pretty meaningless, the fact that it's become this thing made me feel like I had to watch it just so I could have an opinion about it that was based on what it actually was and not just me reading other people's opinions about it, you know? I felt like I had to experience it for myself. So I did, and my expectation was that I'd either hate it for all the reasons I had read it was worthy of hate, or that I would enjoy it despite myself.
In actuality, I feel really apathetic towards the show, which is definitely not what I expected. The things other people have talked about in regards to its problematic elements are totally valid and true. The privilege all the girls have with basically zero awareness of it constantly drives me crazy in particular, and of course there is the diversity issue (and, almost more importantly, the people involved in the show's reaction to the diversity issue, which was largely dismissive and insulting). And Lena Dunham has said and done a lot of problematic shit, so I'm still not a fan of her. But there are enjoyable moments. There are parts that hit a little too close to home for me for my comfort. But honestly like… I'm kind of surprised at the critical reception to this show because like… I just don't think it's that great? Like even if you could ignore all the problematic elements, it's just… not that funny of a show to me overall. There are moments I find amusing, but it's really not very laugh-out loud funny for me (or even internal laughing funny), and I don't need to constantly be laughing out loud at comedies for me to enjoy them, but if I don't have that, then I need to connect to the characters and care about them, and that's almost entirely lacking as well because all these characters are pretty horrible self-involved people. And like, honestly, despite my bias against the show when I started, I actually was really expecting to enjoy the show overall while cringing at the problematic stuff, but actually I just… felt mildly entertained at times (while still cringing at the problematic stuff).
Anyways, that's my basic overall reaction to the show. Some random additional specific things:
[-] Man that opening scene of the pilot is WAY too relevant to my life. I'M EVEN 24 NOW. My internal monologue while watching that scene was basically: "Wow it's embarrassing how much I relate to this. I HAVE BEEN OUT OF COLLEGE FOR 2 YEARS NOW. I AM AN ONLY CHILD. I HAVE A JOB BUT NOT ONE I CAN SUPPORT MYSELF ON AND IT'S NOT SOMETHING I WANT TO DO FOREVER. MY PARENTS PAY FOR MY CELL PHONE. OH GOD AM I LENA DUNHAM???????? I hate myself a little right now. This is rude. We're only 5 minutes into this episode." IN MY DEFENSE THOUGH, I do not live in an apartment in New York City that my parents are paying for, I am living at home so there's not much additional expense for my parents there other than food, so. I am not quite that bad. And I am totally and completely aware of my privilege (or at least I do my very best to be aware of it). AND I'M WORKING TO CHANGE THIS SOON, OK.
[-] Like 95% of the guys on this show look and sound exactly the same to me. It's kind of bizarre.
[-] So I was going to say Hannah is the worst, but actually Jessa is just because I am SO bored by all of her storylines, I just. Don't get her purpose on the show at all? She's pretty frequently disconnected from everything else going on and I just really don't care. Shoshanna was probably my favorite, although maybe because she has the least screentime so she has the fewest opportunities to bug me. I also kind of weirdly like Marnie, and I don't even know why.
[-] I stupidly like Adam??? Like he's an idiot and he can be awful and I wouldn't want to date him myself, but. Like, when he got moved at Jessa's wedding!!! And him dancing at that big party where Hannah runs into him!!! And the wall he plastered with "sorry"!!! And when he tells her he loves her!!! Man, idk. I just really enjoy him, idk.
…that's pretty much all I had to say. I mean, as I said, I'm pretty apathetic about the show as a whole, and I tend to only be able to ramble about things I either love or detest, so. I don't really know if I'm going to keep up with this? I might, idk. I do enjoy Donald Glover and Andrew Rannells, so I might keep up with it just as long as they're on. But I guess I'm glad I watched it if only so now I can be annoyed at it being nominated for things.
So it feels like it was a million years ago now, but my birthday was Monday, and it was… fine? It was pretty low key, not that I wanted it to be a huge thing. I was supposed to go shopping with my mom on Saturday, but I woke up with a cold out of nowhere and didn't feel up to it. I did see Zero Dark Thirty on Sunday, though, which I really enjoyed. I don't have a lot to say about it, but I just wanted to say briefly that like… I don't entirely know how I feel about the torture stuff because, I mean, a large part of me feels like we can't really know how true that is because it's too close to the event now, so there are people who would have a vested interest in trying to downplay it. But out of context of all the controversy, it was just an amazingly well-made film that was perfectly paced, and just… gripping from start to end. And of course you can't remove the film entirely from context, which is what's preventing me from giving the film like 5 stars, 10/10, etc., but… yeah, idk, I thought it was very good overall, and it's ridiculous that Kathryn Bigelow wasn't nominated.
The Golden Globes also happened a million years ago, so I feel way too late to really discuss them in depth, but I do have to say that I love that I haven't seen a single negative review of Tina and Amy's hosting job. Which is good, because they really were just wonderful. I'm sure someone somewhere didn't like them because there's nothing that's actually universally loved, but I can't remember any award hosts in recent years who have been this widely praised. Hopefully this means they can host all the things in the future!!!
So I know I mentioned I was going to rewatch Friday Night Lights S3-5, but… that hasn't happened. This is why I shouldn't say I'm going to do things because I never actually do what I say I'm going to. First I watched Girls, and now I've moved on to Hart of Dixie based on Tumblr and a couple people on my flist convincing me that I would ship Zoe/Wade ridiculous amounts. I'm only like 4 episodes in, but I'm already so far gone for them. HE MADE THE GUMBO FOR HER THAT WON 2ND PLACE AND HE DIDN'T EVEN TAKE CREDIT FOR IT. Except more flailing and feelings when I finish marathoning the show!