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coralinnii · 7 months

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Hi....If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

If I’m being honest, I have been more into just listening to music during my free time more than anything and while I read a lot of manga, my goldfish brain would blank out if someone were to ask me anything about it. However, I will tell you my list of definite rewatch/reread series though some of them are pretty old or obscure.

My Top 10 (in no particular order)

Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-Kun (manga/anime)

At first, I watched it mainly for the fun aesthetics (cute colourful characters with spooky backgrounds) but I fell in love with the characters and world-building of this series. The whole cast, be it main or supporting, are absolutely amazing and capable of running a story arc of their own even without the main cast which is seriously impressive. And while the anime only just scratched the surface, the author really built the setting of this series with great thought, with its own politics, history, systems, and culture that impacts the story well. No random fact is without purpose and I love it.

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. (manga/anime)

I’ve been watching anime since I was 4 so I can confidently say that I’m familiar with many classic anime tropes and cliches. This series is like a kudos to longtime anime fans with its jokes and jabs as it follows a strong psychic boy being absolutely done with the insanity of his life as he tries to keep his powers a secret from his schoolmates like a sports anime jock, a shojou girl, delinquent gone good, etc. The comedy coming from this deadpan omnipotent high school student is just an absolute delight. I kin Saiki so much

Nope (movie)

I’m a real fan of horror movies, especially those with undertones that bring a critical element to humanity. While I love all of Jordan Peele’s current works, Nope has got to be one of my favourite movies overall. I’ve heard of some of the criticisms people had with the film (pretty ironic ones too) but I personally love the pacing and suspense of the film. While it’s fun to watch monsters and killers get crazy from the get-go (that’s why Saw movies and slasher films were popular) but Nope touched on that all-too-real fear of not knowing what’s going to happen. That fear where you’re afraid but you’re not sure of what yet.

Petshop of Horrors (manga/anime) and the sequel Neo Petshop of Horrors (manga)

Speaking of horror with critical undertones, I was obsessed with this manga series that came out in the late 90s. I would try so hard to find a way to read this series every chance I could growing up. It’s a sorta episodic style story that stars a mysterious petshop owner that often becomes a suspect in the deaths of people who have bought animals from his shop. I love the philosophy of each new story that touches on humanity and how different (or similar) we are to animals. It questions our societal norms, expectations, base desires, mythology, what it means to live, and what is “acceptable” in our world. Unfortunately, the series was never fully translated and only published fewer copies than typical manga series due to reasons I’m not too sure of (possibly conflicts with ownership and company copyrights at the time, think Baccano situation). The series had an anime but even that anime only had 4 episodes (I still highly recommend it however). I’ve managed to get a few volumes for myself and I know people are selling certain volumes online but I have to save for essentials so collecting them is unfortunately a lower priority now.

Pokémon (video game/manga/anime)

Is this a cop-out? Nah. To this day, I would still have to physically fight myself to not buy plushies and games when I’m already broke af. Pokémon might be one of the first animes I have ever seen (I have seen both sub and dub because my brother found a way) and I would still on occasion go back to rewatch literally any season and any movie of theirs, Nintendo really hit the marketing jackpot with this franchise. The creativity and design are so iconic and memorable that it’s so easy and fun to get into the fantasy of going on an adventure with your favourite Pokémon. There’s of course some nostalgia at play since I loved the moments where my older brother would watch the movies with me and my cousin and I would collect the figurines together.

One Piece (manga/anime)

Is this also a cop-out? Don’t care. I LOVE ONE PIECE! I will sacrifice my time and tears for this series. I have legitimately managed to rewatch this 4 times in my life (granted I started when it only had 400+ episodes so I had an easier time) and I would willingly cry over a flashback, a whale, even a boat over and over again. The action and story-telling of this series just keeps me running back for more even if I keep meeting dumb gatekeepers (yea, people don’t believe me when I tell them I’m a One Piece fan, what are ya gonna do?) I haven’t watch the Netflix live action yet but I probably will once I get my friends to watch with me (I like to fangirl with friends~)

Forget my Husband, I’ll Go Make Money (manhwa)

Despite my blog probably being best known for the villain/ess series, the banner of my blog is not an isekai villainess story but a fantasy series where a woman who can see the past, present, and future tries to make money while being married to a foreign prince before expecting a divorce (because she assumed he rather marry for love than for political reasons). Fun fact, this series was actually one of the foundations when I was writing the villain/ess story for Leona. The art and main couple are just absolutely delightful, I can’t help but reread it as it returns for a new season. Not only is the art just gorgeous, the main couple is just so gosh darn entertaining with their conversations, personal dynamics, and hilarious misunderstandings. Just beautiful.

Hotel Del Luna (K-drama)

Leave it to my interest in horror to love a romance drama with ghosts in it. It’s funny, it’s cute, and some of the ghost’s backstory is heartbreaking as well. This is a great story to just have a nice cry out. I love the story, I love the music, but most importantly, I love IU! She is my queen and every scene she is in, she kills me with her fashion, her haughty character, and her tragic backstory. She and the male lead was such a fun twist of the typical k-drama relationship where she was the powerful but broken character who ended up being healed by the kind, hardworking character. I've watched this 3 times at this point, but I still cry Every. Single. Time. No exceptions.

Hell Girl (anime/manga)

If I haven’t sold you on how I was probably that kid with creepy interests, maybe this will convince you. This was my go-to show back when I was in middle school. There is no excuse, I just really love the psychological horror of this series. In the show, there is a website you can access at midnight where you can ask Ai or Hell Girl to send your most hated person to hell, with the price that you will go there too when you die. While there was a linear storyline in the background, the episodes were always new people who requested Ai’s help with different cases of their own hell on earth. It touches on some really heavy real-life topics but what made it memorable to me was how sometimes I would feel saddened by the choices the people in the show made. Sometimes, they’re in the situation where all they can do is curse someone to hell but then was it really worth losing your chance at a happier afterlife? I watched this show with some of my friends who either saw Ai as a villain for sending people to hell, or a saviour who helped these people find an escape from their torturer, and that honestly made me think about what it means to have that much hate in you. I always wondered if I was ever in that situation, what would I do if given the chance?

Big Hero 6 (movie)

Arguably the first Marvel-Disney movie since Disney bought Marvel, I remembered people having weird thoughts on the usually cartoony company taking over the superhero franchise but I fell in love with everything that was this movie. It had Marvel-style action mixed with classic Disney wholesomeness and gut-wrenching emotional moments. I loved the message and warmth that was in this movie. Having an older brother myself, I couldn’t imagine how I could go on if I lose him but watching Hiro being so well supported by Baymax and his friends cemented within me the importance of helping others and that supporting those in pain can be as powerful as stopping bad guys (sappy, I know but hey I’m now learning to be a preschool teacher so this really stuck with me). Tadashi’s recorded message brings me so much comfort that I didn’t realize I needed. He may have been the closest thing to a Disney crush for me.

#coralinnii answers

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trelkez · 1 year

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Ah, Ted Lasso. This episode was 90% mess, but that 10% sure does know how to hook me.

I wish I could go back in time to the self who went into Ted Lasso thinking it was tightly plotted, top tier stuff and say, "this is a ridiculous show, but you should watch it anyway. You'll love the characters. You will get so much found family. Just don't get too attached to any plotlines or expect anything to make sense ever, and you'll be fine." That would be a reasonable expectation for this show! Unfortunately for me, we're down to the final three episodes, so it's a bit late for me to recalibrate at this point. I am, alas, still invested in the plotlines.

So let's get into 3.10, because … wow, is there a lot to get into.

I'm rewatching the episode as I write this (just in case I forget any of the batshit turns it took and/or parts of it turn out to have been a fever dream), so I'm going to tackle it roughly in order.

1. Richmond's ten game winning streak

Where are we at in the season? Does anyone know?

Remember when this show had season arcs organized around some kind of football-related goal? Avoid relegation, make it back into the Premier League. It seemed logical that the goal of this season would be to win the league, but I guess we're going to get there by putting the team on cheat mode in the background and then shoehorning in some "will they or won't they" football drama at the end, which is actually very in keeping with the overall theme of this episode.

2. Nate quit West Ham off-screen

I'm so glad the guy in the apartment on the other side of my living room wall was out for the night, because I literally shrieked "WHAT?????? WHAT???????" when that "Nate Shelley Out at West Ham" graphic went up.

I didn't get to Nate in my 3.09 writeup, and it's just as well, because anything I wrote before that graphic would have been immediately rendered pointless. Nate quit West Ham off-screen. He quit off-screen.

I am going to reach way, way back to the Nate Shelley I liked in season one and say: that Nate did not deserve this shit.

It has been obvious throughout this entire season that the writers weren't interested in telling the story that season two set up. They didn't especially want to dwell on or in the toxicity that bottomed Nate out last season; they didn't want to do the harder narrative work of actually building back an unlikeable character through a slow but steady redemption arc, even though they've spent entire seasons doing exactly that with Jamie. Instead, they said, "yeah, but Nate isn't really That Guy."

Does the show regret what it did? It sure feels that way. It feels like, in the pursuit of telling a story about a good guy on an ego-fueled descent, the show went way further than it meant to and has now decided to backtrack on that by treating the whole thing like a guy waking up from a bender and going, "I did what last night? Why did I do that?" That wasn't really Nate who did those things, that was Drunk Nate! He did five shots of narcissism and got blackout drunk on jealousy, and he woke up in the morning with a new job. What wild shenanigans will ensue?

So, sure. The only way any of it makes sense is if none of it meant anything. Fine. Even then, what was the point of sending Nate to West Ham and throwing all of Rupert's smothering, menacing glitz at him only for NATE QUITTING HIS JOB AND WALKING AWAY FROM RUPERT AND WEST HAM to happen OFF-SCREEN so they can CATCH US UP ON IT via FAKE SPORTS NEWS INFOGRAPHIC??

If they didn't show it because they felt the real rejection was in Nate going home to his girlfriend, that is very poor storytelling in a season that started out with the most literal Rupert is Palpatine visual parallels imaginable. If they're trying to say that the real climax of Nate's story isn't in rejecting Rupert, but in the amends he makes with the people he hurt, then why did they drag the West Ham stuff out until the tenth episode??? Why is all of this being left for the end, when none of the West Ham stuff has ultimately mattered at all, and pulling the plug on it earlier on could've left a lot of room for handling Nate's healing process at a slower, more organic pace?

Ultimately, this is a story about a good guy who lost his way a little and wound up hanging out with a bad crowd, and now he has to apologize his way back into the hearts of his real friends. The storytelling along the way has been wildly incoherent and had brutally terrible pacing, but if you completely disregard how we got here and pretend season one Nate just woke up from a West Ham bender, there's still time to enjoy the endgame.

3. Isaac is team captain again!

So – Isaac went into the crowd and wasn't banned for the remainder of the season? Let's close our eyes for a moment and imagine that the football gods looked upon Isaac's actions and said, "yeah, that seems legit, let's give him the smallest possible set of consequences." He was sent off with a red card. For assault. But the football gods are treating punching a fan like having a go at an opposing player! Cool. That's still, what, three games?

So even if we assume he only got a three-game ban, and keeping in mind that Richmond isn't in the Champions or Europa leagues and the FA Cup is just – not happening, I guess? So they probably don't have a ton of midweek games, which means that it's been … weeks.

But wasn't the win streak at eight games last week? So – did Isaac just – not get a ban? At all?

Nope. No. Self, you are a Ted Lasso Doylist now, remember? Nothing that happened last week was actually about Isaac in any way, so why would there be ongoing consequences for him from that storyline? Deep breaths.

Isaac is one of my favorite characters in this show, and I'm not particularly interested in there being ongoing consequences for him from whatever that was last week, so – this is fine. Don't question it. We float on an ocean of vibes. Everything is great.

4. Why?

Why did we just take a beat for microaggression with Ted being shocked Bumbercatch is Swiss? Is this really where we're at these days, comedy-wise?

I'm genuinely not sure that anyone involved here knows how to write Ted without making him completely exhausting to be around, anymore. Is that on purpose? Let's pretend it's on purpose.

5. Do we think Nate is capable of being involved in something like that?

"Nah." – the writers, who are pretending they haven't seen season two

6. Jade

I like her so much, but I am 99.95% sure that's because she is being written to be likable, with no other discernible qualities. Who is she? What motivates her? In a season full of long episodes, was there really no time to show her existing when Nate isn't in the room? Did no one in the writer's room stop to wonder, "hey, is it at all dicey if that woman in the restaurant who dislikes Nate suddenly falls in love with him so he can be healed by the power of love?" Did no one say that out loud and hear how it sounds?

Anyway. Jade. Big fan. Looking forward to hearing all about her hobbies and backstory in the ample time remaining.

7. Dani vs. Van Damme

I have a feeling this completely random side adventure into our purest angel having an asshole hypercompetitive side isn't going to land for everyone, but you know what? Sure. Why not. There are epic tales out there of teammates facing each other in the Olympics, the World Cup, etc. and trying to destroy each other and then going home like none of it ever happened. I'm totally onboard for this kind of plot in theory! They took it a little too far with Dani breaking Van Damme's nose, but as we've established, "they took it a little too far" is the story of this entire show.

You know what would have improved this a lot? If it had happened near the beginning of the season and kicked off a recurring storyline in which someone else now has to face Dani on a spring international break. Shoved in at the end of the season (and probably the end of the series), it loses a lot of its potential, so the placement is … strange. Instead of being an ongoing character trait they could slowly build up and make funnier in the re-telling, it comes out of nowhere and immediately goes to 11. But otherwise, why not.

8. Beard gets it

Beard is the only one who watched season two. He gets it.

It would explain a lot about Beard and this entire season if Beard used to be a time traveler, so he's the only one in Richmond immune to changes in the timeline. Maybe somewhere just out of sight there's a genre show about time travel happening, and this football team just happens to exist in that universe – so the world of Ted Lasso is constantly being rewritten, but no one notices. Ted Lasso as a Doctor Who spin-off in which no one has ever met or heard of The Doctor.

No one but Beard, anyway. Is Beard also the only one who remembers that Isaac went into the crowd last week?

9. Uncle's Day

10/10, no notes. Every time I think I'm out, this show uses Jamie Tartt to drag me right back in.

(Actually, no, one note: Jamie was joking about Isaac being his best friend, right? That was just to screw with Roy? I'm going to assume Isaac was the choice for that line because it's so obviously unlikely given how rarely they interact, and not because the writers think Jamie and Isaac are still BFFs. It would be very in keeping with this season for them to think Jamie and Isaac's friendship is just running on cheat mode in the background, but like – I'm going to assume. For my sanity. That it's just a joke.)

The funniest part of this scene winds up being that they accidentally made it look like Phoebe was having an "oh. oh" moment about Roy and Jamie. I had to rewind that twice to figure out that she was spelling it out in her head, and not like, catching on.

I would've understood if she had caught on. Roy stares at Jamie for 10.6 seconds before he says "I love it."

10. Super League? In this economy?

+10 points to Leslie for "I hate to break it to you, Rebecca, but those children are dead."

Unfortunately, -10 points to Leslie for "who cares why Rupert invited you?" Historically speaking, Rebecca should care. Rebecca is totally justified in wondering why Rupert invited her!

Why would Richmond be invited into talks about a Super League at all? Richmond? Recently promoted Richmond? Complete lack of international play Richmond? It's sus as hell. If I were Rebecca, I would absolutely assume this was some strange plot by my evil ex-husband.

(I'm not convinced it wasn't, in fact, a strange plot by her evil ex-husband. Something is going on there.)

Super League is about the richest teams banding together to shake off the chaff. As a Spurs fan, I fully, completely understand the concept of a team that isn't actually rich and successful trying to buy into an exclusive club – yes, Spurs were involved in Super League drama; no, you shouldn't ask me about their season or we'll still be here next week while I cry on you – and we are definitely already outside the tethers of reality when West Ham is at the table, but it, truly it makes no sense.

(And even if Rupert weren't the one extending the offer, "go check it out, what's the worst that could happen?" is naive at best. What's the worst that could happen? The media finds out that Rebecca was at a Super League meeting and now Richmond is being dragged into a shitstorm, whether Rebecca decided to buy in or not. Girl, do not go in there! If you don't want to join, don't join! Why is any of this happening! Get Keeley back in the building before someone runs into a PR problem they truly cannot back out of!)

11. Is the psychic's prophecy still a thing?

So … is the show going Tedbecca? After that weird flirty moment she had with Sam earlier, the matchbook almost calls back to Sam more than Ted, but the show did make a point of having Ted pull out that matchbook a few episodes ago, and here it's directly paired with his toy soldier.

(Honestly, slow clap for everyone who did those green matchbook / green soldier gif sets earlier this season, I thought you guys were reaching straight into outer space with that one and apparently I was dead wrong!)

Ted and Rebecca have barely even talked to each other in the back half of the season. Every week I log on here and see shippers shriveling into dust, their crops unwatered. Is the matchbook/soldier thing a misdirect, or are they going to cram a significant relationship change into the final two episodes of the season after largely ignoring them in the lead-up?

I have no idea which way this is going to swing, and that's kind of terrible, because there are only two episodes left. There isn't time left to do any kind of meaningful build. There's only time for a sudden last-minute rush of drama.

When I put it like that, I think they probably are going to shove it into the endgame. Either that, or the houseboat guy suddenly shows back up out of nowhere. Whatever happens, it is going to have a "bet you didn't see that coming" flavor, because there isn't time for anything else.

12. Roy has an epiphany

What the fuck even is this?

Listen. It never made sense for Roy to have broken up with Keeley. It was clearly something they did as a way to inject some new drama. THAT SAID, they did it, and they committed to it for almost an entire fucking season, and TEN EPISODES ON a teacher with a crush on Roy makes a way-too-personal comment about how she hopes his mess hasn't caused any damage, and THAT'S what makes him suddenly realize he needs to apologize to Keeley? THAT? Just like. Boom. Realization sets in. Lightbulb visibly goes off overhead as he mutters "fuuuuuuck" to himself. A fully illustrated epiphany!

What the fuck does this show think it's doing having Roy suddenly realize that he probably hurt Keeley and needs to apologize?

In episode ten?????

I don't know how much time has passed, because in Ted Lasso season three time is an illusion, but at minimum – months. Months later, he suddenly realizes he might have hurt his girlfriend when he broke up with her??? That isn't character growth. That is completely fucking absurd. They needed Roy and Keeley to get back together and pushed it too close to the last minute, so they did some schoolteacher deus ex machina. Of all the abrupt plot turns in this episode, this might be the second worst.

(There's a clear winner and this isn't it, but second place? It's a contender.)

13. What happened to the corporate pixie dream girl?

So the overall implication here, between this and Trent's rumor of West Ham workplace misbehavior, is that Rupert is probably headed for some workplace harassment trouble, right? If withholding the mystery of it all turns out to be why they didn't show Nate quitting in this episode, I'm going to scream. I will literally shriek with the frustration of a thousand bad plot decisions.

14. Nate's nostalgia journey

This is, sincerely, great stuff with the photo albums and the music and the journey into the attic. There is still time to enjoy the endgame!! Disregard how we got here!!

15. Rebecca vs. Super League

Just watching this scene made me feel like I've now put in enough time on Ted Lasso to be allowed by contract to take some PTO. Ted Lasso needs to pay me for my time while I recover on a tiny island in the Outer Banks. I've earned it.

So – they thought – having Rebecca scoldingly yell "what do you think you're doing? Just stop it!" while picturing aging rich men as little boys was, like … feminist? Someone involved in this process thought, wouldn't it be great if we empowered Rebecca by making her everyone's scolding mother, and no one along the way went, wait, what?

But then it keeps going so that we can humanize Rupert, which – what? Why is this happening? Why do I know Rupert's humanizing backstory when to my knowledge, Jade was born inside Taste of Athens?

This is the most I have ever seen Rebecca care about football. It's a lovely speech, but where is it coming from? Since when is she this invested? The only thing that rings true about this is that Super League is an ugly money grab and many, many owners do not give a single shit about their team's fans. Someone wanted to write a speech about that, so we're getting it through Rebecca, just like we got that speech about deleting your camera roll through Isaac.

Also – the food: I know that the food is a continuation of Edwin Akufo's whole thing with Sam, but it is a weird fucking choice to put so much emphasis on Ghanian food and then reduce it to slop thrown at Rebecca.

Beginning to end, we could've done without this entire Super League story and been just fine. It isn't like this 63-minute episode required extra filler.

16. 24

10/10, no notes. They really do pull me back in with Jamie every time. He revealed that 24 and I, like Roy Kent talking to a schoolteacher, suddenly realized that I ship it. Jamie wore Sam's number?? I'm going to vid this so hard.

17. Nate's dad

I did say there was a clear winner for the episode's worst plot turn.

Nate is sad at home for one episode and suddenly his dad does a complete turnaround after almost three entire seasons? It isn't like we heard a story one time about Nate's dad and now we're getting a reveal on what actually happened there – we've seen him a lot! Nate's entire motivation set is built on his dad and their relationship!

"I pushed you to succeed so you would have more opportunities than I did" is a completely legitimate story to tell, but this has been almost three seasons of disapproval so thick that it threw toxic sludge across the entire show. Nothing Nate has done has ever been good enough. Now we're at the end, and they want to heal it so that Nate can grow, so all of that is being retconned into, "I never cared if you were successful, I just want you to be happy," and suddenly his dad is a completely different person. Boom, fixed! Definitely not the kind of thing you have to heal from over time!

I say again: Nate's story deserved better than this. By pushing this all the way to the end, they've run out of room to take their time with it, so it's just being dropped in. What a mess this season is.

18. Rebecca, do NOT do it

This season is, in fact, such a mess that for a minute there, I believed that Rebecca might actually go for it with Rupert.

I think, more than anything, I'm puzzled by the perceived necessity of this closure on Rebecca and Rupert. I get that they wanted to give us a taste of what brought Rupert and Rebecca together in the first place – to have Rebecca to see him in that old light again before taking a step back, so she could acknowledge the past in a way that helped her finally make a clean break. I get it. But … why? Was this really something lingering out there for her to overcome?

Rebecca's entire season-long conflict with Rupert has felt like intentional backsliding for the purposes of The Drama. If you imagine that she came into this season still very fired up and insecure about her ex-husband, the arc from "I want Zava so Rupert can't have him" to "I don't care about beating Rupert anymore" is fine. But … did she? Is that really where we left her in season two?

And why did an episode in which Nate quits West Ham spend so much time breaking up Rupert and Rebecca, who were already broken up, while Nate quit off-screen?

19. What's left?

Two episodes to go! That's so much time in which to accomplish so many things!

I said to someone last week: you know, I thought this was headed for a "Nate takes over as Richmond's head coach" place, but there isn't enough time left in the season for them to do that, so I guess he's just going to be staying at West Ham?

Turns out they can do anything, because they're just going to drop in whatever at the last minute. Nothing means anything! We exist in a world without the constraints of plot and continuity! Everything is on the table.

So, what's left to shoehorn in?

- Manchester City has been inevitable all season (ask Arsenal how that feels), and we're probably going to get some stuff with Jamie's dad there. Jamie has been one of the only characters they've consistently done right by, so my fingers are crossed they don't screw that up at the finish line.

- Will Trent ever come out to the Diamond Dogs? Maybe being out in the workplace isn't his thing, but it feels like a missed avenue of storytelling to have Trent be right there in the coaching offices, in on all the gossip and sharing and advice, and not have whatever he has going on be a part of it. That would have been such an easy way to integrate queer identity into everyday conversation over a decent chunk of the season, instead of playing it almost exclusively for drama the way they have been.

- Still on Nate's apology list: Colin and Ted? If apologizing to Ted doesn't involve the believe sign somehow, I really don't know anything about this show anymore.

- Is Ted staying in London or going back to Kansas? A lot of people seem resigned to the idea that he's going back, and a lot of Tumblr is hoping he stays for Rebecca, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's some secret third thing. Two whole episodes! There's still plenty of time for them to drop a surprise twist on us. (If he goes back to Michelle, it won't be a surprise twist, but I will turn this car around.)

- Are we ever going to learn what was up with Baz's friend who got kicked out of the pub? I really thought we were headed for some bigger integration of Colin's story, wherein it turned out that was Baz's secret boyfriend or something, but … … …?

- Is anything going to come of Trent's book? I have $5 on there being an epilogue time skip in which we fast forward to the book release and see what the characters are up to (aka the "no seriously, this is it, the show is over" ending) and another $5 on the show ending on Ted in the airport and the book not ultimately meaning anything.

Two weeks until we find out!

#ted lasso #ted lasso meta #episode reactions #we float on an ocean of vibes #everything is fine

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typingtess · 16 days

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NCIS: Los Angeles Season 14 Rewatch: “Flesh & Blood”

The basics: Investigate a Navy wife fleeing the scene of her husband’s murder.

Written by: Chad Mazero co-wrote “Internal Affairs”, “Revenge Deferred”, “Where Everybody Knows Your Name”, “The Noble Maidens” and “Pandora’s Box”. Wrote “Tidings We Bring”, “Can I Get a Witness”, “All Is Bright”, “Diamond in the Rough”, “High Society”, “Murder of Crows”, "Overdue" and "Sorry for Your Loss".

Directed by: Daniela Ruah directed “Russia, Russia, Russia”, “Lost Sailor Down”, “Pandora’s Box” (co-written by Chad Mazero) and “Live Free or Die Standing”.

Guest stars of note: Pamela Reed returns from season 11’s “High Society” as Roberta Deeks, Bar Paly returns from “Of Value” as Anastasia “Anna” Kolcheck, Natalia Del Riego is back from “Game of Drones” as Rosa Reyes, Kavi Ramachandran Ladnier is back from the previous episode “Dead Stick” as NCIS Reserve Agent Shyla Dahr, Marnee Carpenter as Alice Morgan, Lauren "Lolo" Spencer as Ella and Rif Hutton as Navy Commander Albert Burns

Our heroes: Work with an abused wife to find some explosives while working through some home issues.

What important things did we learn about:

Callen: Waiting for Hetty to get married. Sam: Worried that Callen is avoiding getting married. Kensi: Feels like she’s not prepared for motherhood. Deeks: Bad baseball game in June of 1990. Fatima: Absent. Rountree: Looking to put his Beale bucks to good use. Kilbride: Not pleased with Deeks’s attitude about the Navy spousal abuse response.

What not so important things did we learn about:

Callen: Orphan. Sam: Once again looking for a caretaker for Raymond. Kensi: Hanging with Bertie, buying cleats with Rosa at the mall and negotiating teen angst. Deeks: Owes Kensi for hanging with Bertie. Fatima: Not around. Rountree: Called “Shark Tank” by Shyla. Kilbride: Not pleased with the Navy’s spousal abuse response in the cut scenes.

Where in the world is Henrietta Lange? Don’t know but Anna wants her found so she can marry Callen.

Who's down with OTP: Anna and Callen are trying to negotiate their way around a wedding date. Kensi and Deeks are trying to negotiate their way around Bertie.

Who's down with BrOTP: With the teams mixing and matching all episode, not a lot of BrOTP time but Shyla worked well with all.

Fashion review: Callen starts the episode in a black running shirt and black shorts. Wears a button down medium blue shirt for the rest of the episode. Sam has a wine colored long-sleeve tee-shirt. Kensi is in a white tee-shirt with thin blue stripes. Cornflower blue long-sleeve tee for Deeks. Rountree is wearing a light brown long-sleeve tee. Kilbride is in his civilian uniform with a medium blue three-piece suit, pale blue dress-shirt, blue tie.

Music: Not today.

Any notable cut scene: Finally! As Rountree is packing up for the day, Shyla asks him if he wants to go out for some tacos. He can’t – he’s meeting with his friend David Packer about his investment money. Shyla asks him not to. Understanding that she may be overstepping, she knows Rountree has a real fire inside after what happened with Jordyn and the LAPD. The person Rountree needs to invest in is himself.

As they leave, Sam is find a caretaker for his Dad. The Admiral says that gets Sam a good night’s sleep. The Admiral also thinks Alice Morgan deserved better. The Admiral thinks maybe they should blow up the whole damn book on abuse cases. Then promises to if Sam tells anyone he said that, the Admiral would make sure Sam didn’t get a good night’s sleep ever again.

Quote: Deeks: So it's, uh... June 30, 1990. And my mom decides she wants to take me to watch the Dodgers play the Cardinals. And I will never forget that day.” Alice: “I don't care about sports.” Deeks: “That's funny, 'cause I don't care about sports either. No, the reason I remember it is because it was so hot. Like, L.A. had been coming off this massive heat wave and I can still see the ice cream cone melting as it's being passed down the row.” Alice: “Now you want to talk about weather?” Deeks: “Actually, I do, because...that is the other thing that I can still see from that day, is my mom. And she's sitting next to me in this 90-degree heat, except for the fact that she is wearing...she's wearing jeans and a long-sleeve turtleneck. And she was covered up like that the whole entire summer. Not that it matters, because she couldn't cover the bruises on her face.” Alice: “Did he spare you, at least?” Deeks: “No. I mean, but I was a kid, right? Kids are supposed to have bruises. I'd just tell the teachers that, um...I got another fight in the playground. What do you tell people?” Alice: “I don't have anyone left to tell. He made me push everyone away.” Deeks: “Yeah, they do that.”

Runner up: Rountree: “Was all that true? About your dad?” Deeks: “Every word of it.”

Anything else: At night in a suburban neighborhood, a woman is frantically packing her things. She gets a phone call from her father and tries to blow him off. Seeing her in a mirror, her clothes are covered with blood. Her father is recommending a Tom Hanks movie as she is trying to get him off the phone. She tells her father she loves him as she tries to leave the house. A man’s dead body is making it hard to open the door. But she succeeds.

Callen arrives home with two smoothies. He’s worn out which surprises Anna. She ran for six-miles, he “bailed” after two. Since the bagel place didn’t have bagels, he brought smoothies. Anna wanted bagels before her job interview that day. She also wants to pick a wedding date. Every time of the year Anna mentions, Callen has a reason not to get married at that time. She offers him an out when it comes to getting married. He wants to get married, Callen assures her, just find the right time to do it.

At the Blye-Deeks home, everyone is running around as the day starts. Rosa is missing her backpack. When Kensi tosses it, Deeks walks right into the tossed backpack. Rosa and Deeks review her latest assignment as they hustle to leave. Deeks gets a phone call – it’s Bertie. She’s been on the road for six months of “eat, pray and loving” her way across the country. Deeks thinks this is all TMI. After seeing “Nomadland”, Bertie rented out her apartment so she is going to crash at the Blye-Deeks residence. She needs someone to be there to let her in. Rosa really needs to leave for school so they are going to figure something out.

Walking near the gym, Shyla hears Rountree working out and quoting “300”. He’s working on an ancient martial arts technique to strengthen his grip and arms. When Rountree gets a text, he asks Shyla to look at his phone – they could have a case. Instead, Rountree has a text from “Packer” who is talking about his pants being on fire. Packer is a friend of Rountree’s from Quantico. Packer is starting a clothing line and Rountree is a possible investor. He’s looking to grow some of the money Eric left them all last year. After what happened to Rountree and Jordyn, he's looking to invest that money into a growing business. Shyla would have taken the Eric money and spent some time in Tokyo.

Sam has a call and so does the Admiral. Both are unhappy with their calls. Sam lost another caretaker for Raymond, NCIS is making Kilbride go through another round of approvals for expenses. Cranky men in Ops alert.

The Admiral looks around an empty Ops and wonders where is everyone. On the screen is the dead man blocking the door from the opening scenes. He is Lt. Jeff Morgan, an intelligence officer working out of a DoD Task Force. Morgan was stabbed several times. There are real concerns because Morgan was part of a team developing software to integrate intelligence gathered by all branches of the armed services. If an outsider or foreign government got access to that software, they’d have access all U.S. military intelligence. Sam asks if there are any suspects – China, Russia, Iran or Alice Morgan, Jeff’s wife. She’s was seen leaving the house at the estimated time of death.

In the office driveway, Kensi and Deeks are arguing about who is going to help Bertie unpack. Deeks is owed a favor by Kensi and he’s calling it in. She’s not interested in helping unpack all of Mama Deeks’s Michael Bublé fannish things. Besides, Deeks should help his mother. Callen arrives but isn’t interested in hearing any of this – he’s an orphan. Deeks says that funny, Callen doesn’t agree.

Sam joins the trio, the most we’ve seen of this foursome together in a while. He's been working since 8AM and everyone else just arrived. Callen and Sam are off to the boatshed to meet with Morgan’s CO, Sam would like Kensi and Deeks to join Rountree at the crime scene. Sighing Kensi mentions she has some accrued leave Kilbride wants her to take so she’ll help Roberta, get Rosa from school and Rosa can meet Bertie. Deeks tells Kensi he owes her.

At the house Morgan household, Rountree found a locked laptop – Shyla is getting a warrant to get in. Deeks is looking through some magazines while Rountree picks up the Morgans’s mail. One magazine has expensive furniture. Speaking of money, LAPD found a Rolex on Morgan’s wrist and a Lexus in the garage – this wasn’t a robbery gone bad. Rountree is confused – a junior officer like Morgan doesn’t make Rolex money.

Deeks flips through Morgan’s credit card bills – they are big. Since Alice Morgan didn’t have a job, the only way they could afford their lifestyle was if Jeff Morgan was selling military secrets. Deeks sees that the credit card bills include electronic toll charges – an EZ Pass. They can find Alice Morgan’s location that way.

In the boat shed, Morgan’s CO, Commander Burns, is not thrilled to be there. There are cellphones for meetings like this. He should be in his office dealing with the fallout from the tragedy of Morgan being killed and not sitting in the boatshed – a “Bubba Gump’s”.

Sam asks about the software. According to Burns, it tracks everything from emails between intelligence offices to weapons and ordnance use and supplies. Morgan was doing data analytics for the team but a month ago, he started visiting weapon manufacturers to make sure their software would work the with military’s new software. Burns really didn’t have much of an opinion of Morgan except he was a good kid. With hundreds of men under his command, he really didn’t know much about him. He remembers Alice Morgan was quiet and unfriendly. Burns is done with Callen and Sam. He’ll answer any other questions by phone – he has work to do. Callen and Sam want to check into Morgan’s travel vouchers to see where he went and who he saw.

In Ops, Shyla was able to get into the locked laptop but most accounts were logged out. She was able to get into Alice Morgan’s text messages – the laptop and Alice’s phones were synced up. There was a confirmation code for a company called Home Connection – discrete vacation rentals. Shyla finds Alice Morgan booked a home on Larchmont an hour after she was seen leaving her home the night before.

In Larchmont, Rountree is really impressed with the area. Good investments homes, water views – Rountree is talking about investments when Deeks says “Alice Morgan” who he sees leaving the rental house. Rountree says “Alice Morgan” which has the same effect of yelling “federal agents” since Alice starts to run. After she throws a branch cutter at Deeks, Rountree gets her to stop as she’s climbing a fence. She is armed but surrenders.

In interrogation, Deeks is on the right side of the table while Rountree is in the corner. Deeks is rattling on about the “Chose Your Adventures” books when Rountree says they have witnesses who saw her flee the scene of a murder. Rountree and Deeks can sit with Alice in interrogation all day or they can help her. Alice wonders where they were six months ago when she asked for help. Deeks wants to know what happened six months ago. Alice says she talked and talked and talked and nobody wanted to help. She moves in her chair, making sure her jacket and long sleeves cover her arms. An obviously bothered Deeks wants to take a break. He’s getting everyone coffee.

Callen and Sam return to the office. Cheryl, Raymond’s latest caretaker who is very into birds according to Callen, quit when Raymond started talking about war pigeons. Mentioning that Raymond’s previous caretaker quit when he wouldn’t ride in her Mazda – Raymond likes American-made cars – Callen thinks Sam is avoiding the real issue. Sam loves this conversation because Callen is all about avoiding issues…like his wedding date. Sam is sure Anna will understand whatever is holding Callen back. The Admiral walks by – everyone to Ops.

Shyla tells an arriving Callen and Sam that Alice Morgan isn’t talking. Commander Burns sent over Morgan’s travel vouchers. Comparing the travel vouchers to Morgan’s EZ-Pass charges, “something is rotten in Denmark” according to Shyla. Morgan visited a number of companies that made high-grade military explosives. After every meeting, he would go someplace 20-miles past his home. Using Kaleidoscope, Morgan is seen driving into a storage facility in El Monte two-days before he was killed. Sam gets a call from the caretaker agency. He’s taking it outside of Ops.

Deeks returns alone to interrogation with a cup of coffee for Alice. He explains it is June 30, 1990 and his mother takes him to a Cardinals-Dodgers game. He remembers that day. Alice doesn’t care about sports. Deeks doesn’t either but he will always remember that day. It was so hot. Ice cream cones were melts as they were being passed down the row. Alice doesn’t want to talk about the weather either. Deeks does. Because all he really remembers from that day – his mother wearing jeans and a long-sleeve turtleneck. Not that it really mattered – she couldn’t cover the bruises on her face. She wore clothes like that for the entire summer.

Alice asks if “he” spared Deeks. Deeks says no but kids are supposed to have bruises. He would tell the teachers he was fighting in the playground. “What do you tell people?” Alice said she had nobody to tell. Her husband made her push everyone away. Deeks asks how long has the abuse been going on. Physically, Alice tells him, three-years. “Mentally, who knows.” She doesn’t have access to their bank account. Morgan controlled every part of her life.

Deeks asks if a few months ago, she told the Navy. There was a military hotline and she called. She didn’t hear back. She filed a report with the family advocacy center who told her they’d look into it. Deeks has to asks and understands if she did – did Alice kill her husband? She didn’t – she found him dead when she arrived home. What surprised Alice was even after everything he did, she tried to save him. It doesn’t surprise Deeks.

Deeks asks why did she run. Alice explains that her husband was a valuable asset to the military, “I’m not.” She was afraid her reports would be used as motive. She asks for a few minutes and Deeks agrees. As he’s leaving, she mentions that her husband would smell like motor oil after he returns from his business trips.

At home, Bertie is telling Rosa about skinny dipping at a Ramada Inn off the Strip in Vegas. Kensi isn’t thrilled. Rosa is really entertained. She would like to see Adele in Las Vegas, a friend has a condo and the family would let her use it. The friend, Tay, is from her calculus class and Bertie is down on calculus. With a disastrous marriage, three dead-end jobs and a brush with a pyramid scheme, she never used the Pythagorean theorem. That’s really geometry, Kensi notes but Rosa is in love. Bertie is the coolest. Since Rosa needs to soccer cleats, she asks Kensi to take her and Tay to the mall. Bertie moves on to a story about taking a sound bath behind a DQ in Marfa.

At a storage unit facility, Callen, now teamed up with Shyla, is brought to Jeff Morgan’s storage unit by the manager. The place was cleaned out but still smells like almonds and motor oil – explosives manufacturers put the scent into their product on purpose. Callen finds a small piece of C-4. Shyla doesn’t think Morgan was killed for the software, he was killed after using his access to these explosive manufacturers to procure some product. Callen worries about where the explosives are now.

The woman managing the storage unit place wants all the inside scoop if there is a dead body – she has a true crime podcast. Three men were removing boxes from the back of the storage facility when the woman started her shift. She doesn’t have access to the video surveillance, however, only her boss can do that. Shyla wants the woman to call her boss – they need the footage now. Shyla is also going to contact Commander Burns to figure out what is missing.

In Ops, Kilbride confirms that Alice Morgan contacted the military abuse hotlines to Deeks and Rountree in the boat shed. The people running the hotlines say they take all abuse complaints seriously but there wasn’t enough information to move it to NCIS. The Pentagon invested $1-billion to remedy this situation after past failures. Deeks wonders how much of that money could have been saved if this was a priority from the start. The Admiral is not pleased with Deeks’s statement. He says since Alice didn’t kill her husband, figure out if she knows who did and disconnects.

Looking at Deeks, Rountree asks how much of the story he told Alice was true. “Every word of it,” is Deeks’s reply.

Bertie finished doing laundry though Kensi out of the dryer sheets. Asking for Rosa, Kensi explains that she’s negotiating between Tay and a friend over a disagreement. She also tells Bertie that she doesn’t have to do laundry. Bertie missed doing the laundry. Kensi tries telling her mother-in-law that she and Deeks missed her but Bertie knows better.

Bertie also knows Kensi is feeling a bit overwhelmed by parenthood. Kensi notes that she’s not “technically” Rosa’s parent. Bertie asks Kensi if she loves Rosa and wants to keep her safe. Kensi does on both. Bertie follows up - does Kensi fear she isn’t doing enough even though she’s exhausted from doing too much. “Every single morning.” Bertie doesn’t care about “technically” – Kensi is Rosa’s parent. Kensi spent her entire NCIS career being one step ahead of everyone else. She thought she could do that with being a parent. She couldn’t.

Bertie offers some words of wisdom from her mother about being a parent – it’s like being pecked to death by a chicken. That’s not helpful.

Shyla has news for “Shark Tank” – Rountree. She’s sending video of the three men who took the explosives from the storage unit but the footage is awful. Rountree goes into interrogation to see if Alice knows any of the men. Alice recognizes one of the men – she met him at a wine festival. She remembers the date – it was her birthday. She thought he was doing something nice for her birthday. Obviously not. As Rountree goes to tell Shyla, Alice asks Deeks what happened to his father. Deeks tells her he shot him and two weeks later, he was in jail.

Callen and Shyla return to the office. She gets a call as she returns to Ops, Callen goes to see Sam in the bullpen. They are on a video call with Commander Burns. He assures Callen and Sam that he’s been working with ATF. 15 to 25 pounds of C-4 is missing with a lot of blasting caps and detonation cord. Callen asks abuse complaints about Morgan. Burns did not have enough evidence to move forward. Before Callen and Sam could press him, Shyla needs them in Ops. They quickly end the call but promise to call back.

In Ops, Shyla found Morgan had several bank account Alice Morgan knew nothing about. Several of them received $9,000 deposits in the prior week – a transaction amount just under the amount of money a bank would have to report to Feds. Met World Holdings sent the money. It is owned by an Ivan Parson, who looks like one of the man in grainy video. Met World Holdings is an import/export business – they move fine foods and fine wines. Parson is connected to extremist groups in Ireland, Germany and Indonesia.

The Admiral is looking for a sitrep. Met World Holdings has an unoccupied space in Hollywood. Deeks is getting Alice to a safe house so Callen, Sam and a seven-minutes out Rountree are at the unoccupied space. The Admiral reminds everyone that the job is to get back the explosives without blowing up a city block. The only way LA is going down in flames is if the Admiral has the match.

Callen and Sam move near the building. They can see some shelves of items and a man but he’s not Parsons. Going through the back door, Callen and Sam see Parsons. Sam throws a wine bottle to get one of the men’s attention. Sam quickly takes him out but makes enough noise to get Parsons and a minion to run. Callen tackles the friend but Parsons gets to his vehicle. An arriving Rountree stops him but Parsons throws his bag of explosives in the air and shoots them. That sends Rountree flying but Sam takes down Parsons with ease.

As Parsons is being taken away, Callen tells Sam and Rountree that Morgan wanted to back out of the deal but Parsons already paid for the explosives. Morgan was either scared or greedy. He also wasn’t as tough as he thought he was.

Deeks joins Bertie on the back porch. They share a couple of beers as Bertie asks if he got all the cats out of the trees. Deeks said he did his best. Deeks wants to talk about “Dad”. Bertie isn’t interested in her past. Deeks doesn’t think that’s fair – it is their past. He only wants to know how she made it through. “Vicodin and Sally Jessy Raphael,” is her answer. She doesn’t know.

Bertie explains that Deeks’s father took everything from the two of them, including the person Bertie used to be. But when he was gone, with Deeks’s help, she got that person back. She’s made a lot of mistakes since that in her life but it is her life. Deeks approves.

Kensi and Rosa join Deeks and Bertie on the patio. They’re just back from the mall. Rosa would like to visit San Francisco and Deeks is all in on that. Bertie invites herself – she knows a thruple up in Barstow that can rent then an RV. Deeks is horrified by his mother being in a thruple. Bertie assure him she’s not a part of the thruple, she just knows one.

Anna returns home. She thought they were going to dinner but Callen has a candles and some wine. He also got bagels. He loves Anna and he’d marry her tomorrow. When they get married, he wants to be surrounded by everyone that means everything to them. Arkady and Hetty are part of the package. Anna isn’t happy but Callen explains Hetty has been in his life from the beginning. He can’t get married without her. She has more of the story and he needs her to tell it. If he doesn’t do this, Hetty will always be the other person in the room. He doesn’t need a lot more time but Anna is giving him all the time he needs. She only asks the he tell the truth, even with it is hard, especially when it is hard. He promises he will.

What head canon can be formed from here: While the case of the week wasn’t much, that felt intentional. The guys who stole the explosives were plot points. They weren’t the typical bad guy – they were a bunch of dudes. The hour instead was about family relationships. It started with the Kolcheck-Callen and Blye-Deeks households, moved to Rountree talking about his sister, Sam with his father and then the case of the week.

This was a terrific Deeks episode. Light and goofy dad/husband at home, sad and serious with Alice and later with the Admiral, Rountree and Bertie. There should be a bonus for the person who decided Pamela Reed would work as Deeks’s mom. Just as light and goofy she could be in most of the episode, she was sad and serious near the end. That scene with them alone wasn’t just family, it was two survivors who built themselves the lives they enjoy.

For a program and an NCISVerse that is mostly pro-military, there was a real sense of disgust by Deeks and disappoint/disgust late in the episode by the Admiral over the handling of Alice’s abuse case.

Loved the explosion that sent Rountree flying – that’s the show I know and love.

Episode number: Episode 307 overall, the fifth episode of season 14.

#NCIS: Los Angeles Rewatch #NCIS: Los Angeles #NCIS: LA #NCIS Los Angeles #ncis la #Youtube

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dystopianam · 1 year

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The reason why I stopped talking about what I like ✨

TW: Social Anxiety

It's almost 2am here where I live and it's the perfect time for deep thoughts.

I was thinking that one of the biggest reasons I can't socialize is because I have that absurd and toxic thought in my head that my passions and hobbies are worthless and therefore I don't have the right to talk about them while I'm forced to listen discussion about other people's passions, because those are the "normal" ones.

The problem behind this is that society labels passions and hobbies and people often find themselves having to be ashamed of things that there is no reason to be ashamed of just because someone who feels mega chad decided that YOUR passion sucks while HIS is gorgeous and perfect.

To give you a practical example, a lover of books, videogames, technology, study or anime and manga will NEVER be considered worthy of being able to appreciate his hobby, while a lover of sports, clubbing and any social and physical activity will be rated as perfect.

Unfortunately this is because the "nerd" is seen as an absolute loser and the "extrovert" as the model to follow because society has always led us to think that nerds = waste from society, even in cartoons they are rapresented like this.

A very stupid example is that a year ago I did a Totally Spies rewatch and I realized how... morally wrong that children's cartoon was.

I felt a really strong bad taste in my mouth every time I watched a scene where a kind and polite nerd tried to flirt with girls and they always rejected him like he was garbage to value the super cool dude with 0 personality and maybe even arrogant.

It's not right. Isn't fair to make this discrimination. You all want children to study but at the same time you make them all believe that if they do they will always suck and you all destroy their self-esteem. Why? Because of a STUPID stereotype. That damn stupid nerd stereotype.

I've never understood why one shouldn't be encouraged to try various hobbies. I don't understand why for society the "good" hobbies are only the strictly social ones.

When I was a child I remember that I wasn't afraid to talk about my passions, my hobbies, but then I saw myself having to grow up too soon because already in elementary school the other children started making fun of me because I still watched cartoons instead of thinking about boys. IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

In middle school, because I was passionate about anime and manga and animation programs like Miku Miku Dance, I was cyberbullied by my own classmates so much that I didn't want to go back to school. I felt wrong. I felt wrong because I had my hobbies. Hobbies that others didn't like. Hobbies that didn't hurt anyone.

In my first year of high school, however, I had that thing that made me think "I will never talk about what I like ever again", making me completely shut up.

The teacher had asked the class what our hobbies were. She encouraged everyone's hobbies, even the most simple ones like "I like taking selfies" but when I replied that I liked videogames and anything with a investigative theme (books, TV series, movies) she immediately scolded me in a very aggressive tone, saying that video games were absolute evil and that movies and TV series fried my brain. After she did that, she let the whole class laugh at me and did NOTHING to stop them.

And that's why I don't talk about what I like. I live in a society where from an early age everyone make you feel wrong if they don't like what you like.

#tw social anxiety #introversion #personal

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loulougoingsolo · 4 years

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Mutated wheats & homeopathic jalapeños?

I've been feeling a little surreal the past few days, watching the corona virus pandemic develop. I have asthma, and it doesn't mix well with stuff like this. But I guess, staying indoors for a year, waiting for a vaccine, is not a very viable option either.

But on a happier note, when the world is in turmoil, at least one thing is constant: GMM. Today, Rhett and Link are trying the snack which tastes most like actual jalapeños.

I wonder if someone has been commenting on Rhett's voice, because for a reason unknown, he has his most serious news anchor tone on today. Whatever he has going on, I love how Link's ears perk up and he starts to grin when Rhett starts talking - or more accurately, reading his teleprompter with a hilariously unreactive tone.

"Bring out the jalapeño."

It's been a while since I bought fresh jalapeños myself, my go-to heat provider is a bottle of garlic sriracha - but jalapeños aren't that hot, really. But bringing them out seems to help Rhett get over his news anchor voice.

I don't know if it's the heat of the jalapeños, or if Rhett just is in a Mood today, but his mini rant about the rules of the episode is hilarious. And this is one of those episodes that make me crave some kind of snacks myself. We don't have those odd little cracker rolls (Combo - a combo of what?), but I wouldn't mind a bag of kettle chips right about now. Foldies, or unfolded, as long as they're crunchy.

Link is known for preferring his chips folded, so it's very generous of him to give a foldie to Rhett - even if he almost dinks it to crumbs a second later. 😂

Okay, someone has definately been giving Rhett "feedback" on things - he now goes on to give a lecture on the correct spelling and pronounciation of jalapeño, the n has a ~ on top. (Fun fact: in Finland, nobody says jalapeño correctly, we even say the j in the beginning wrong.)

I assume this little rant is the reason for the title of the video being misspelled. And all this time, while Rhett is being particularly annoyed by everything, Link is quietly focusing on the chips.

After the hawt slim jims, the guys try jalapeño peanut butter. Rhett seems to have trouble facing a jar of peanut butter for the first time in a while, swirls and all - and I love that Link is teasing him about it. For reals, though, I'd imagine jalapeño peanut butter could work in a savoury dish, but who in their right mind would pay $13 for a small jar of peanut butter? (One which apparently has homeopathic levels of jalapeños in it.)

I wonder how many lawsuits Snyder has gone through to add all those notes and warnings on their pretzel pieces? Also, why pretzel pieces, and not actual pretzels? Is this a byproduct of a whole pretzel business?

I had no idea One Day at a Time was a remake, until today! I've only seen the new version - but I assume, the og version also had a Schneider, not a Snyder. But Buffy did have an actual Snyder...(How often is it healthy to rewatch Buffy per year? In fact, I don't think I've watched it in 2020s yet.)

My mom didn't find canned meats until later in life, so I didn't experience spam trauma as a kid. Also, our local canned meats are not quite as disturbingly homogenous as Spam. And I think they smell more like dog food.

Ok, the the most jalapeño-like snacks of the day are the Kettle chips. I still don't have them, and I still have the craving. Darn it. It's too late now.

In More, the guys are joined by Chase and Davin for a game of eating hot gummies. I feel very accomplished for actually knowing what coche verde means before Chase gave the translation. But Link's translation was much better, and I love how he probably realized what he was saying mid-sentence, and almost blushed.

I didn't expect to hear another mention of Buffy in today's episodes, but it happened. I can't believe they didn't know Allison Hannigan! Now I really want to know if Link's ever watched Buffy, or is his idea of Sarah Michelle Gellar in all leather something he's learnt by proxy. (Also, I feel someone should write a Link Neal x Buffy fanfic - unless he's already written it himself. He could replace Spike. Or Buffy. They both wore a lot of leather...)

Having been a 90s kid who grew up in the same household with a skateboarder (I even had a skateboard myself for a second, but I have no balance, so I just have huge respect for the sport), I have to agree with Link when he says Tony Hawk is cool as hell. He is a literal living legend, and they should really try to get him on GMM.

Rhett and Chase really didn't do great in this game, but I loved watching how much happier Link and Davin got after each round of not having to eat the spicy candy. Rhett is never good at losing, but Chase, who had to do most of the eating, didn't look too happy either.

Now, tell me more about the knitting club with Link and Davin.

#gmm #gmmore #gmm 1707 #rhett and link #team rhett and chase #vs #team davin and link #jalapeño snacks #hot gummies #awesome more

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