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[mare]

Is Squid Game good? I'm looking for new (or "new") shows to binge watch this summer with my newfound free time. We started watching Resident Alien a couple of months ago, but nothing else new.

I lurk on your Kieran tweets when they pop up in my notifications, so you're my running award season commentary. Thanks for keeping me informed!  I think I caught one where you were saying we needed to rank celebrity death matches based on Hot Ones and you're absolutely right. I'm probably misremembering and exaggerating your calling it a death match, but I wholeheartedly support that interpretation .

I avoided Squid Games for years because in my head, I pictured it as gory as Saw and the whole non-English thing made me avoid it but I'm glad I decided to watch it. Like Steph and Julie have been saying, once you get past the dubbing, it's not so bad. They do a decent job with the dubbing actually. I am watching Resident Alien too! I LOVED the first season. Alan Tyduk is hilarious. I'm not that far into season 2, but so far it hasn't been as great as season one. As far as other recommendation s, not sure what streamers you have, but I enjoyed Only Murders in the Building on Hulu and Shrinking on AppleTV. Of course, it wouldn't be me if I didn't recommend Succession lol Evil on paramount + is excellent as is What We Do in the Shadows on Hulu. Interview with a Vampire is on Netflix and it's really great as well.

I'm glad I can be of service in your awards updates. Even though I am very much a one trick pony. The big news rolling around is that two of the big awards contenders, The Brutalist and Emilia Perez were just outed as using AI to help enhance the actor's accents. Which people like me are delighted about because the Brutalist fans are the ones making the most noise about Kieran and category fraud.

A little lesson:

Technically his performance in A Real Pain by definition does fall into the Supporting category as he isn't the storyteller, and we never get to see through his eyes ever. But he also is in enough of the movie and has a big enough part where he could have also run in lead. The problem with that is in Oscar rules, you can't have two lead performances competing in the same category from one movie, so it made sense for them to run Kieran in supporting and Jesse in lead because at the time they were hopeful Jesse would get some awards love. So Kieran is running away with all these accolades and it's pissing all these other people off. Meanwhile Adrien Brody has gotten award winning praise for his Hungarian accent in The Brutalist. 😉

I'm not sure where the Celebrity Death Match came from? I mentioned Best of the Worst. There was someone who tweeted how it's funny how Kieran is the more famous Culkin and all the Home Alone fans basically went beserk and one of the things they kept saying is Macauley is so famous he regularly appears on Best of the Worst. That's when I mentioned Hot Ones, because Kieran has been on that and I think out of those two shows, that's the one that's a tad bit more popular. Maybe someone else in that thread went on to mention celebrity death match? lol

I'll be glad when awards season is over because these movie people are intense! I thought some of the BSB fans were bad. Yikes!

[RokofAges75]

I highly recommend Squid Game, Dee!  I started watching it when it came out to see what the hype was about (and find out why people were concerned about our students playing Red Light Green Light at recess), and I absolutely loved it!  I re-watched the first season a couple months ago in preparation for the second season, and it was just as good the second time around.  It is pretty brutal in parts, but you'll get a feel for that in the first episode.  It does have a plot and character development and isn't just torture porn.  And you get used to the dubbing or subtitles, depending on which way you choose to watch it.  Just don't watch with your son in the room. 😄

[Carter-Orange]

And another I'll recommend if you like Squid Game is Alice In Borderland (Julie, you'll love it I'm sure).  It's a Japanese drama about a group of friends who suddenly find themselves in a strange version of Tokyo in which they must compete in dangerous games in order to survive.  It reminds me a little of The Hunger Games/Squid Game and it is violent, but so so good.  There's a series 3 coming soon which I can't wait for.  I think it's on Netflix.  It's probably dubbed into English but I watch in Japanese with subtitles as I like to hear the actors real voices.

[RokofAges75]

I'll have to give Alice in Borderland a try!  I've seen it pop up on Netflix but have never clicked on it.

I watched A Real Pain last night.  It was good!  It gave me all the feels - I laughed out loud in parts and cried in others (mostly the concentration camp stuff).  Kieran was fantastic!  He nailed the whole charismatic, manic-depressive vibe Benji had going on.  Jesse Eisenberg was also great and so relatable to me, as I'm used to being the quiet, introverted, anxious one with more extroverted friends and a sister with mental illness.  The pace was perfect, too - it was over before I started wondering, "How much longer is this movie?"  Kudos to your boy!

I didn't watch much TV this weekend.  I started the SNL documentary on Peacock, but that's about it.  I've been writing and trying to avoid social media.  I had to remove Facebook from my home screen so I wouldn't keep clicking on it and seeing people I know in real life posting pictures of their inauguration watch parties. 🤦‍♀️🤢🤮  Secretly voting for the Antichrist is bad enough, but proudly declaring their support for him and celebrating his victory is downright disgusting and has made me lose any last shred of respect I had for these people.  I decided that was enough social media for me today.

[nicksgal]

I'm glad I can be of service in your awards updates. Even though I am very much a one trick pony. The big news rolling around is that two of the big awards contenders, The Brutalist and Emilia Perez were just outed as using AI to help enhance the actor's accents. Which people like me are delighted about because the Brutalist fans are the ones making the most noise about Kieran and category fraud.

A little lesson:

Technically his performance in A Real Pain by definition does fall into the Supporting category as he isn't the storyteller, and we never get to see through his eyes ever. But he also is in enough of the movie and has a big enough part where he could have also run in lead. The problem with that is in Oscar rules, you can't have two lead performances competing in the same category from one movie, so it made sense for them to run Kieran in supporting and Jesse in lead because at the time they were hopeful Jesse would get some awards love. So Kieran is running away with all these accolades and it's pissing all these other people off. Meanwhile Adrien Brody has gotten award winning praise for his Hungarian accent in The Brutalist. 😉

I'm not sure where the Celebrity Death Match came from? I mentioned Best of the Worst. There was someone who tweeted how it's funny how Kieran is the more famous Culkin and all the Home Alone fans basically went beserk and one of the things they kept saying is Macauley is so famous he regularly appears on Best of the Worst. That's when I mentioned Hot Ones, because Kieran has been on that and I think out of those two shows, that's the one that's a tad bit more popular. Maybe someone else in that thread went on to mention celebrity death match? lol

I'll be glad when awards season is over because these movie people are intense! I thought some of the BSB fans were bad. Yikes!

The last movie I saw in theaters was Barbie, so I am woefully behind on everything!  I almost watched the Golden Globes because Nikki Glaser was hosting, but ultimately decided a couple of her jokes and a bunch of things I didn't see wasn't worth watching in whole.

Until reading this, I hadn't heard of Best of the Worst, so I figured it was some sort of celebrity competition because that sounded more fun, instead of just a run of the mill interview show, like it clearly actually is. I'm the one who wanted celebrity death matches!

I highly recommend Squid Game, Dee!  I started watching it when it came out to see what the hype was about (and find out why people were concerned about our students playing Red Light Green Light at recess), and I absolutely loved it!  I re-watched the first season a couple months ago in preparation for the second season, and it was just as good the second time around.  It is pretty brutal in parts, but you'll get a feel for that in the first episode.  It does have a plot and character development and isn't just torture porn.  And you get used to the dubbing or subtitles, depending on which way you choose to watch it.  Just don't watch with your son in the room. 😄

I avoided Squid Games for years because in my head, I pictured it as gory as Saw and the whole non-English thing made me avoid it but I'm glad I decided to watch it. Like Steph and Julie have been saying, once you get past the dubbing, it's not so bad. They do a decent job with the dubbing actually. I am watching Resident Alien too! I LOVED the first season. Alan Tyduk is hilarious. I'm not that far into season 2, but so far it hasn't been as great as season one. As far as other recommendation s, not sure what streamers you have, but I enjoyed Only Murders in the Building on Hulu and Shrinking on AppleTV. Of course, it wouldn't be me if I didn't recommend Succession lol Evil on paramount + is excellent as is What We Do in the Shadows on Hulu. Interview with a Vampire is on Netflix and it's really great as well.

Having watched plenty of anime in my day, subtitles don't bother me nearly as much as bad dubbing. I'd rather do some reading to avoid watching bad lip flaps. Is it super gory? That's a lot of why I've avoided it until now. And no, no, these are shows for mom to watch while he's at school this Summer. 

Alan Tudyk is hilarious! That's what really sold me after it was recommended to us. I've heard good things about both What We Do In The Shadows and Interview With a Vampire.

Today we've had a lot of Bluey on and now catching up on DVR After Midnight during naptime. We have fun here. lol

[RokofAges75]

It's bloody but not super gory beyond that.  There is shooting and stabbing but nothing like the Saw movies, which was Mare's concern.  The first episode will give you a good idea of what to expect, although I think it takes three episodes to really get into it.

[mare]

I'll have to give Alice in Borderland a try!  I've seen it pop up on Netflix but have never clicked on it.

I watched A Real Pain last night.  It was good!  It gave me all the feels - I laughed out loud in parts and cried in others (mostly the concentration camp stuff).  Kieran was fantastic!  He nailed the whole charismatic, manic-depressive vibe Benji had going on.  Jesse Eisenberg was also great and so relatable to me, as I'm used to being the quiet, introverted, anxious one with more extroverted friends and a sister with mental illness.  The pace was perfect, too - it was over before I started wondering, "How much longer is this movie?"  Kudos to your boy!

I didn't watch much TV this weekend.  I started the SNL documentary on Peacock, but that's about it.  I've been writing and trying to avoid social media.  I had to remove Facebook from my home screen so I wouldn't keep clicking on it and seeing people I know in real life posting pictures of their inauguration watch parties. 🤦‍♀️🤢🤮  Secretly voting for the Antichrist is bad enough, but proudly declaring their support for him and celebrating his victory is downright disgusting and has made me lose any last shred of respect I had for these people.  I decided that was enough social media for me today.

Yay! I'm so glad you enjoyed A Real Pain. I cried at the Holocaust tour part too. Because it was filmed in the real location and as a result only allowed the commentary as if it were a real tour, everything James says is what you would actually hear touring Majdanek. I'm sure it feels different in person, but that's the closest I'll probably ever get to touring a real concentration camp. Really powerful. That Gasp Kieran does after Jesse put's his hand on his shoulder at the very end before they leave was Kieran's honest reaction and not scripted. Jesse decided to keep it in there. I definitely related to David as well. All the anxiety and everything. I'm definitely the quietest at any kind of social gathering. I had a teacher friend very similar to Benji and it was a nightmare going out to eat with her because she overshared with everyone including the waitresses, the next table, everyone. Both my mentally ill parents used to do the same thing.

I agree it was the perfect length. I feel like any longer, it would have been overkill.

It's funny because I happen to be reading a book now "We Were the Lucky Ones." That takes place during the invasion of Poland by the Russians and Germans, so it's been interesting reading a story about a lot of the things that we learn about in that movie. It's a fantastic book that was turned into a series on Hulu. I'm going to start it as soon as I'm done with the book, which will probably be today.

I was thinking of watching that SNL documentary. Is it any good? Now that I'm staying away from the news as much as possible, I am watching more movies and documentaries. I watched a stand-up special last night on Netflix. Michael McIntyre. He's British and he's hilarious. I really am trying to avoid FB as much as possible. I've already snoozed some people and stopped following any kind of news. I'm going with the whole ignorance is bliss approach to things. I'm really bad at that. We'll see how it goes. I've already posted about Trump and all the actions he took on day one. It's going to be a very long four years my friends. 

The writer in me keeps imagining a world where Trump was President during the late thirties as WW2 was happening. How different America would look because he would have allied with Hitler right away. Because of that, Pearl Harbor probably wouldn't have happened, but just like Hitler teamed up with Russia only to betray them and invade himself, he would've done the same to the USA. Which would have made us occupied by the Germans. How different would that look? There might be a novel in there somewhere. We might be living it right now!

[mare]

Dee, like Julie said it's very bloody. If that makes you squeamish, you might have a hard time with it. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that about 80 percent of the violence is gun related. People tend to be stabby too. I have a very low tolerance for gore, and it didn't bother me much. I did tend to look down at my phone when all the gunfire happened though. lol

Interview with a Vampire also bloody. Obviously. And What We Do in the Shadows can get gross sometimes. But in a hilarious way!

[RokofAges75]

I thought the concentration camp scenes were very well done.  The total silence aside from James's commentary as they walked to each part of the camp and the actors' reactions made it emotional.  I doubt they had to act very much.  I can only imagine what it's like to set foot there yourself.  I've never been to one either, and I'm not sure I would want to go, although I probably still would if I ever found myself in Poland or Germany because I do appreciate history.  I have been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, which was good but so incredibly sad.  Just like in the camp they showed in the movie, that museum had a room you walk through that is just full of shoes.  That is the part I remember most; it made me cry then, and it made me cry watching the movie the other night, and I'm crying just thinking about it as I type this now.  Absolutely devastating to think that each pair of shoes belonged to a person who was murdered in one of these places.  I will never understand how anyone could hate a group of fellow human beings so much as to do something so unspeakably evil.  And the parallels between that period in history and our current one makes it all the more real and frightening.

I remember seeing the previews for We Were the Lucky Ones, but I never watched it.  You'll have to let me know if it's good.  I have to be in the right mood for anything Holocaust-related because it's so heavy.

The SNL documentary is good!  I think there are four episodes, and I've watched the first two.  The first one is about the audition process, and the second one is about the writing staff and what they do in a week.  They were both pretty interesting.

That is a scary thought but an interesting premise for a story.  Things would have turned out much differently if Trump were our president then.  If the US had sided with Germany during WWII, the Axis powers probably would have won, and our world might look a lot different nowadays.  I just pray our current administration is only a temporary evil and that we can take back control of this country in the next 2-4 years.

On a less depressing note, I got an extra day off work today because of the extreme cold (-23 wind chill when I checked this morning) and spent most of it writing.  My chapter is going well, and now I only have to work three days this week. Win win!

[mare]

Ugh, I know. All those shoes and the people most of the time not realizing that as they handed their belongings to the nazis that was the last time they were ever going to see them again. The whole thing seems so surreal, that people allowed that to happen. All the bad stuff including the Rowanden genocide and what's going on in Gaza and lord only knows what's going to happen with Trump. Him suddenly putting a stop to DEI hires and sending them all home gave me chills because that's exactly how it started with the Jews. They were told they had to leave their jobs.

So far We Were the Lucky Ones is pretty good. The book was incredible. I finished it yesterday and was amazed when I read the author's note to see it was a true story based on the author's grandfather. It's hard in general to read or watch things about that time period because you know the result and it's never great, but in this case, an entire family. Including an old mother, father plus five siblings and all their children and spouses all managed to survive the holocaust. It's quite the story. The author didn't even know her grandfather was from Poland because he spoke English without an accent. It was only after he died that one of her cousins told her the entire story. Can you imagine not knowing your family's legacy because they decided they would rather forget and move on. I honestly probably wouldn't have even thought about watching the show if I didn't already know there was a happy ending. I know I'm spoiling it for you, but I think we all need a tragic story with a happy ending every now and then. If you do watch, her grandfather was Addy and the cousin who told the author everything was Felicia.

I'll have to check out the SNL documentary. I know from Kieran talking about his experience hosting how fast paced and super stressful it is for the guest hosts.

Yay for bonus days off work! It is really freaking cold, isn't it? We usually don't get hit with minus temperatures like you guys do. We just get bombarded with snow, but this week it's been brutal. The coldest in Buffalo's history. It's only 0 here today not including the windchill. Between the cold and the snow, the kids haven't had school yet this week.

Not to go back to Trump, but my sister works for Niagara County, and they just had a really grim meeting about Trumps policies and how they will affect her field which is mental health. If all goes as planned, by April they intend to stop giving checks to all able-bodied disabled people. I'm safe for now, but that includes anyone on disability for mental health issues of any kind and also things like autism and down's syndrome. So, they will stop getting any kind of benefits. He already reversed the cap on insulin and all drugs which is problematic. So, this is going to be a ruling which I'm sure will affect many of the people that actually voted for him. What a hellscape we are living in.

Yay to you getting a significant amount of writing done! Did you get another day off today? I didn't write even one word yesterday. I am going to try to get some writing done now. We'll see how it goes. I am easily distracted. Wonder why?

[Carter-Orange]

An extra day off for the weather sounds good.  We never get it as bad as you do over there.  We rarely get snow, so when it does snow the whole country goes into a panic and can't handle it.

I'm going to have to watch some of these things you're recommending.  Although I know they are tragic stories and what happened was terrible, I think it's important to remember so that things like that never happen again.  When I went to Amsterdam I went to Anne Frank's house and the museum and it was just so sad to think they had to live like that and ended up losing their lives because of some evil dictator and his idiot beliefs.  If I ever went to Poland or Germany I'd try to visit places just because we should never forget what happened.  My kids went to Auschwitz-Birkenau when they went to Krakow a few years ago, as they are both into history.  They said it's the kind of place you have to visit but it was incredibly sad.

And Trump stopping benefits for autistic and disabled people is wrong.  I know a lot of disabled people do work, but doesn't mean everyone can and should.

[mare]

The US is currently a hellscape where everyday something terrible happens, but that's okay because today Kieran Culkin became an Oscar nominee! A Real Pain missed for best picture which bums me out, but Jesse is up for best original screenplay. Jeremy, Kieran's Succession big brother is also nominated in the same category. I wonder of that is a first time in history thing that a year after a show ends two costars get nominated for the same category at the same time?

[RokofAges75]

Just from what I've seen online while trying my best to avoid the actual news, it seems like Trump is getting right to work implementing Project 2025, which he claimed to know nothing about. I wonder what it will take to get his supporters to turn on him. Just how bad does it have to get? I know most of them don't care about immigrants, people who aren't white, people who aren't straight and cisgender, people who aren't Christian, and people with disabilities, but they do care about the cost of stuff, like groceries, gas, and medications. I pray that the political pendulum will swing the other way in a couple years when they realize that he hasn't magically improved their lives the way he promised.

That's good to know that We Were the Lucky Ones has a happy ending!  That makes me more likely to watch it.

Steph, that's so cool that you got to visit the Anne Frank house.  I don't know if I'll ever make it to Amsterdam, but that would definitely be on my list of places to visit if I did.

I did have work today and yesterday, but I could get used to the three-day work week! LOL  The temperature warmed up to the 20s, which actually felt pretty good compared to the negative 20 windchills. But now we're back to snow. We haven't gotten a lot, thankfully, just enough to cover the ground.

Congrats on Kieran's Oscar nomination!  That is cool that he and Jeremy are both nominated in the same category.  Sibling rivalry!

[mare]

Trump has wasted no time in taking away as many rights as he can. He's reversed pretty much every civil rights law he could. Taking away equal rights in the workplace etc. One of my friends, a professor at Berklee, just lost his position in the coast guard because he was in charge of diversity and inclusion. He was relieved of his duties effective immediately. He has been a member for over 25 years. You know how people make reaction videos for everything from getting into college to seeing award nominations? I wish there were some for the people who voted for this guy and are now seeing that his policies are actually affecting them. Like taking away the cap on insulin and drugs in general. Seeing the price of fuel rise because of the tariffs. Seeing them lose the people they pay to clean their houses and mow their lawn disappear because they're being deported. It's a real shit show and every day I wake up angry. If it weren't for Kieran to distract me, I'd lose my mind. This is when it really pays to be hyper fixated on something. Baseball will be coming around soon too.

This weather is all over the place! The kids actually had school for two days in a row. Even though we got about 8 inches last night into today. In Allentown they would get 2 days off for that much probably. Or at least one day off and a two hour delay.

Steph, I hope you don't get hit with unexpected weather. Florida got 8 inches of snow as did New Orleans. These places are always warm. The world is ending.

[RokofAges75]

I hope you had a nice birthday yesterday, Mare!

How has it only been twelve days since he took office? 😫  So much damage done in such a short time!  I've started watching the news again in small doses, but it's so depressing and scary.

My distraction this week was binge-watching a whole season of Survivor.  It was the Second Chance season, which I hadn't rewatched since it aired, and I really enjoyed watching it again!  I couldn't even remember for sure who won until I got to the final episode, and I resisted the urge to look it up, so it was almost like watching it for the first time LOL.  I finished it earlier today, and now I want to watch another one while I wait for the new season.  Apparently reality TV is the kind of mindless entertainment I need right now.

It actually felt like spring here this week!  It was in the 40s and rainy most of the week, so the snow that's been on the ground since the second week of January finally had a chance to melt.  Now it's all brown and gross-looking, but at least it's not so cold.  40 feels warm compared to 0!

I had ordered some earrings from an Etsy seller in Louisiana, and they were super delayed by the crazy weather they got down there!  They finally arrived today after being stuck in Louisiana for almost two weeks.

On another positive note, I'm excited that the Boys are performing for the SNL 50th anniversary concert!  Now I have plans for Valentine's Day evening LOL.  Like you with Kieran, I'll take whatever glimmer of happiness I can get right now.