Freaky Friday (2003)

Because it’s me, I have to spend the first few paragraphs setting the scene…

Can I just say 2003 was an amazing time to be a teenager? So many great movies and in terms of music, Disney was at its peak. That summer I remember setting a goal to see three movies in theaters.
Freaky Friday, Finding Nemo and one other… I think it was Rugrats gone Wild. The Lizzie McGuire movie was also around that time and another special theater experience that stuck with me for months.

All these years later, I'm still not sure if the rivalry between Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan had any truth to it... but I'll always be Team Lindsay. She may not play guitar like she does in the movie but she has a much better singing voice.

In terms of Lindsay Lohan teen Disney movies, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen is still my favorite.
But I think I watch Freaky Friday a little more frequently. Maybe once every year or so while the other, it’s more like every 4-5 years. I got the Confessions soundtrack first and listened to it a lot more. So it breaks even at the end of the day.

It was either during this time or after the movie, but I got really into magazines like Tiger Beat so I could read the latest on my favorite teen idols. And obviously any news on Jesse McCartney when he was on the cusp of a solo career post-Dream Street. My clearest memory after seeing this movie- seeing a coupon for something to put highlights in my hair and I decided it was something I wanted to do. I wanted to get blonde but wound up with red, dyed a few times after that until finally I grew my hair out until it regained its original dark brown.
Between this movie and Michelle Branch being one of my top artists at the time, I’m still kinda surprised I didn’t lobby for guitar lessons also. But I also had a keyboard I barely knew how to play so clearly that wasn’t happening.

I really liked Lindsay's look in this movie and I wanted to do it myself. That's probably as far as things went in terms of her being a role model.

Movie time…

The movie begins on a tumultuous Thursday where both Tess and Anna Coleman are having not-so-good days.
It’s hard not to find the chaos generated by Tess's army of electronic devices hilarious in retrospect… had this been a few years later, all of these devices would’ve been replaced by a little invention called the iPhone.
Anna clearly gets the shorter end of the stick, though. "Mr. Bates is out to get me" is one of the best lines from this movie-- I'm sure a lot of teenagers felt like this about one of their teachers at some point, but in this case, it was actually true. Between him and her ex-friend Stacey, she gets in detention twice in one day.

One thing I never understood… why is detention multiple times a day? I’ve never been to detention myself but I always thought it was an after school thing where your punishment was being forced to stay after. Or, you know, The Breakfast Club, where you’re forced to come in on a Saturday.

We get the impression in the first few seconds of the movie that this mom-daughter duo were close once. But in typical fashion, the teenage years change all that. I was an exception to this cliche because I often bent over backwards to not get in trouble, but I know it's a common thread in a lot of teen movies.
It takes a while to drive the message home, but this movie does a great job explaining the reasons why this once strong relationship broke down. 

Things reach a boiling point when Tess learns that Anna wants to go to a band audition instead of her wedding's rehearsal dinner and feels that this special event is meanginless to her. Fate intervenes in the form of a fortune cookie. And two women experience a body swap overnight.
Once they piece together what happened, they decide to live each other’s lives in order to keep up the pretense everything is normal. 

In her mom’s body, Anna enjoys her newfound freedom anyway she can, including a really fun makeover/shopping montage. Chaos descends in the form of that fleet of electronic devices and she has to swing by the therapists’ office to do work. Her patients seem to be none the wiser except for the one woman she gives valid advice in dealing with her teenager. She also quips the best response to an upcoming root canal spoken by anyone ("That's not fair, they're not my teeth...")

Then as Anna, Tess fails to mend fences with Stacey and succeeds in putting Mr. Bates in his place— apparently his vendetta against Anna was revenge against her mom for not going to a high school dance with him.
She also learns a lot from Anna’s friends about how she’d talked about her. How she doesn’t care about her music and hadn’t paid her any attention since Ryan came into the picture.

If it's possible, the second half of their day as each other gets even crazier.

Ryan surprises "Tess" with a guest appearance on a TV show to promote her new book and in her mom’s body, Anna generates so much buzz the host has her thrown out by security. God forbid a guest outshines a talk show host… I always hear rumors about those people either being egocentric, nicer on camera than they are when they’re off or some combination of both.

Or people like Oprah and Ellen, my dad dislikes how they're always giving stuff away to guests but they do it through sponsers instead of using their own money.

She also attends a parent-teacher conference at her brother's school. He’d spent the better half of the movie annoying and embarrassing her. But then she learns he wrote a paper on why she was the person he admired most. We never get to see how this betters their relationship once the bodies get switched back, but in the only way she can at the time, Anna talks to him about it and you’re left feeling hopeful that things will be better between them in the future.

Back at school, the second verse of "This is why we can't have nice things" by Taylor Swift kinda sums up what happens between "Anna" and Stacey at the much hyped Honors Qualifying exam. So much for Tess's boasts that she could make it through at a day at Anna's high school without getting detention. She and Jake get some extra time together when he offers help her out, but he's just as quickly put off when he catches her doing something less than noble with the opportunity.

This one small act gives away to potentially the most insane part of this whole predicament. After the talk show debacle, Anna winds up at the coffee shop where Jake works and they hit off. This leads Jake to develop an unrequited crush on Tess and hilarity ensues. 

As a quick side note- as good as the soundtrack is, they did not need to include that Chad Michael Murray sound bite of him singing a Britney Spears song… he meant well but it’s excruciatingly bad.

Finally, we have the night of the rehearsal dinner and audition. So much happens but it sometimes takes a few watches to fully grasp all of it. As a teenager, I was stoked when Anna’s friends showed up to “kidnap” her for the audition and in the end she finally gets to go. Watching this again a bit older and (hopefully) wiser, I get even more of this moment. As her mom, Anna finally gets to see how Ryan feels about her and her band and how he sees himself fitting into this new family. Up until this point, he’d made small attempts to make her warm up to him and she shut all of them down. And I guess she also assumed he didn’t care about any of her music stuff because her mom never gave her positive feedback on it. This movie is really about the two female leads at the end of the day but this was Mark Harmon’s moment to shine.
And it’s thanks to him that the audition is a rousing success. If he hadn’t told Tess to cheer on the band, they wouldn’t have pulled it off. There’s also a funny joke where Anna tells her mom to fake playing guitar like Keith… and she had to elaborate “Richards, mom!” Her improvising is probably a little closer to the lead guitarist from AC/DC but it’s good enough that everyone else at the House of Blues is none the wiser.

Then in exchange, Tess tells Anna that she has to tell Ryan to postpone the wedding. There’s a really nice heartwarming speech about the tragedy of losing their dad/husband and how Ryan made her mom happier than she’d been in a long time. So happy she was singing in the shower again, to the chagrin of everyone else.
But the speech kicks everything into motion to be set back to normal. 

The only issue I’m sure a lot of people had with it, though… there’s an earthquake after the fortune is told that only the two of them feel, yet when everything goes back to normal, everyone notices. (In "Freakier Friday," nobody notices an earthquake except the people involved at the start and end of the spell… so it’s a major continuity error, but a minor nitpick on my part).

We have the wedding, Jake is in attendance and things are looking up for him and Anna, and the younger lady from the Chinese restaurant prevents her mom from giving away another fortune cookie. This moment is so dramatic and over the top, but good for a laugh every time. It would’ve been an interesting body swap but maybe not enough for a whole movie.

Then the movie ends with another catchy Lindsay Lohan song. 

Soundtrack discussion

“Ultimate” got as much play on Disney Radio as the title track from “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.” Both were huge staples in my teenage years and even though I don’t listen them as much as I used to, I still know (nearly) every word and have a great time when they’re on.
A lot of the soundtrack is just covers of older songs and not necessarily covers that improve on the original. “Happy together” by Simple Plan is a little too fast. It’s a good way to start the movie but I’d be fine without a full 3 minute version. I’m not really a fan of the Bowling for Soup Britney Spears Jake and Anna are raving about. The Lillix version of “what I like about you” is probably the best one. "What a wonderful world" by Joey of the Ramones isn't bad either. 
The big non-cover standout for me is “Brand New Day” by Forty Feet Echo, which kinda serves as Jake’s theme song since it canvases two scenes between him and Anna-- directly before and after the body swap. It kinda reminds me of “Here Without You” by 3 doors down.
The rest are a mix of pop and punk songs by indie artists or people like Ashlee Simpson who became a little bigger later on.

Theatrical Review: Freakier Friday

Preamble

There’s been a recent trend of sequels to movies that came out decades after their predecessors. Maverick, the long awaited sequel to Top Gun, was the start of it and we can all be certain there’ll be dozens of similar instances to come. That is until Hollywood gets back to putting out more original stories that hadn’t been already done a thousand times. Although many of the trailers preceding this movie have given me some much needed reassurance more original stories will be on the way.
https://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2025/08/freakier-friday-trailers.html (I did something different and gave the trailer their own post... not sure if I'll continue to do so but this time it felt like the right call)
Also I am aware horror movies have been navigating similar gaps between sequels as well. I’m not a fan of horror movies so forgive me for not counting those.

Personal Connection

So… I’m officially that age where I can say how excited I am for a sequel to a movie i saw in theaters in high school. The original Jamie Lee Curtis/Lindsay Lohan Freaky Friday came out in the summer of 2003 when I was coming off my first year of high school (in Neshaminy High School, we had grades 10-12 so I’d just finished 10th grade). I enjoyed the Parent Trap remake with Lindsay Lohan so of course I wanted to see this movie too.
It was a blast and I still come back to it on DVD at least once a year.

Also in case anyone is wondering, I did see the original versions of Parent Trap and Freaky Friday. I wasn’t a fan of either one. Especially not the original freaky Friday with Jodie Foster… it was nothing like the Lindsay Lohan version. In fact, we only follow the one character and don’t know the other was switched until the very end when she reveals “oh I was switched the whole time, I just didn’t tell anyone”

As for this sequel, of course I was thrilled when it was announced but that didn’t mean I didn’t have my reservations. I was concerned in some way this movie would take away from its predecessor… or it would ride so much on its coattails that it wouldn’t have its own identity. I had a little more faith this time around because I’m sure the nostalgia would carry me some of the way. Plus, Jamie Lee Curtis, who has enough control of her career and understanding of herself as a veteran actress… the fact she lobbied for this sequel and got it made speaks volumes. I mean, she wouldn’t stand by something like this unless it was good, right?

Two Different Rating Systems

In terms of rating or reviewing this movie, you could say it has two ways to score. How I’d rate it as a movie and how I’d rate it as a sequel. Especially a sequel to a movie that’s 22 years old.

As a movie… it’s good. I actually really liked the first act before the switch happens and it had a decent conclusion but the middle was a very chaotic jumbled mess. At times, it was difficult for me to keep these characters straight despite knowing who they were from the previous film and it was hard at times to catch my breath. But in the moments it did slow down and the actresses got to breathe and do their thing, it was really good.
I suppose if I was being objective, I’d give it maybe a B to a B- taking points away for the two or three jokes that overstayed their welcome. There wasn’t as much cringey stuff as I expected considering we have different generations and nowadays when generations are in a room together, they harp on that fact way too much. Actually, most of the comments from the gen Z characters were about how adults really don’t get it.

As for rating this movie as a Freaky Friday fan, I’d say my satisfaction rating is at 90%. So I’d give it an A- essentially.
I didn’t read a lot of reviews for Maverick, but I’m sure the criticism that it leaned too much on the nostalgia factor.
For Freakier Friday, I think it might have struck the perfect balance between throwbacks to its predecessor and telling its own story. Well, perfect might be overselling it but I was very happy with it.
The movie brought nearly all of the main characters from the original and their chemistry still holds up really well all these years later. We also added Anna’s new finance and her daughter Harper and his daughter Lilly and they more than held their own against the others. 

The only low points in that regard were Tess’s husband Ryan almost blending into the background (I barely noticed Mark Harmon was in this movie but that’s likely due to Jamie Lee Curtis stealing nearly every scene she was in) and the unpleasant return of Elton Bates (Anna's teacher who failed her purposely until Tess sets him straight during her day as Anna). Although it should at least be some consultation that he’d been demoted to detention babysitter and he was equally unpleasant to everyone.
What is it with Stephen Tobolowsky always playing unpleasant teachers with some unearned sense of entitlement? He’s literally the same character in everything I’d seen him in.
We also have a brief cameo from Anna’s brother Harry at a rehearsal dinner. The only character who doesn't make a reappearance is the grandfather (Harold Gould passed away in 2010) and Tess's "regular" patient Evan (Willie Garson passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2021). Evan was such a nervous wreck, it wouldn't have surprised me if his character arc ended tragically, but that might've made the movie too heavy.

Family and Casting dynamics

Going off the trailers, I knew there’d be four people switching bodies but I had no idea how it was going to break down, who would be who, etc. I also had no idea who the 4th girl in the freak-out scene was. But in my defense, I did go into this blind and wanting to be surprised and trusting everything would work out. And my faith was rewarded, which doesn’t happen often.

Who Harper’s dad is, that’s never revealed and part of me is kinda disappointed in that. One because it wasn’t Jake and he was only the typical high school boyfriend that just stays in high school. And two- I’m curious about the story. Was it a one night stand or was the guy even less responsible than Anna and she decided to put her music career out to pasture to be there for her?
But I like the updated dynamic between Tess and Anna where they coparent Harper. In fact the dynamic is so good the question lingered… ok, why is this switch happening again? As it turns out, not only is Anna now the one getting married but there’s the addition of another daughter into the family. And Lily happens to be a girl in school Harper doesn’t get along with. Their parents meet in the principal’s office after the duo causes a lab accident in science. And quickly fall in love.
Yeah, I didn’t see that coming but after seeing how cute they were together, I was all for it. The bulk of the conflict comes down to living arrangements. Lily wants to go back to England and Harper wants to stay in LA. Especially since her grandparents live nearby and surfing is her thing.
In addition to her therapy career, Tess does a podcast and plays pickleball with Ryan.
Anna’s old band Pink Slip has since made decent progress since their garage phase. Since becoming a mom, she now works at a music studio and manages upcoming pop star Ella, which proves a bit more of a challenge after Ella’s boyfriend breaks up with her in a very public way. She also still writes songs in her free time but it’s mostly taken a backseat between her job and parenting.

For a more politically correct twist, the switch doesn’t happen through “Asian voodoo” (we do get a quick cameo from that mom-daughter team who now have this big food empire). Instead it’s a psychic played by SNL alum Vanessa Bayer- someone else who plays the same character in every role- but this role definitely gave her plenty of freedom to be as weird as possible.
The switch navigates its way across the generation gap- the coparents switching places with the two girls.
The girls interpret the fortune they receive as a reverse-parent trap situation, where they work towards breaking up their parents’ engagement.
At one point, they track down Jake on Facebook, commenting how it’s how old people find each other. (Omg- I got on Facebook when I started college. Old?!)
He owns a record store and yeah, Chad Michael Murray is still as hot as he was back in the day. What’s funny is seeing him still having a soft spot for Tess despite the age gap and her being married. There’s a bunch of funny jokes here but the top of it is "Lily" looking for something “vintage… like Coldplay”.
Omg, still no respect… and for me, I always flip out when music I listened to when I was a teenager 20 years ago is now concerned “old”. My version of old is the Beatles and Elvis. But I also own 5 Beatles albums so I love me some vintage as well.
Sometime during their scenes, they give Ella a much needed pick-me-up via a cheesy fashion montage.

Meanwhile Anna and Tess, once they spring themselves out of detention… most of their shenanigans are rolling around town on motor scooters and consuming vast amounts of junk food while their metabolisms are still super high. All while “Spice Up Your Life” plays in the background. I think that was probably my favorite part of those sequences, the music.

I own the soundtrack from 2003 movie because it had some great songs but mostly because I had to own all of Lindsay Lohan’s stuff.
And I just have to say how much I loved her being back for this movie and lighting up the big screen. I’ve wanted this comeback for a long time and hopefully there’ll be more… especially if they’re decent quality and not exclusive to Netflix. Cuz I don’t have Netflix…

Having this switch happen four ways has its dodgy and chaotic moments for sure. But it also allows for extra opportunities for characters to bond and get to know each other more. This is done especially well when Anna’s fiancé Eric is part of these heart-to-hearts. I cannot overstate how great these sentimental character interactions are. When everything just slows down and they’re able to be candid with each other.
Part of me also wondered a bit whether everyone would switch back at the same time or there’d be two sequences for when all of the characters resolve their differences. 

It could've gone either way, but this is a 2 hour movie. However, unlike some movies that run too long these days, I felt like the story merited it being longer than the original 90+ minute movie.

Conclusion

The final major scene of the movie takes place at Ella’s concert. I don’t want to give everything away - although some YouTube thumbnail is sure to do that for me- but it wasn’t just the biggest ode this movie made to its predecessor, it gave me the big thing that was missing from that movie.
I swear if there weren’t other people in the theater (maybe 5-6 other people), I would’ve stood up cheering because the movie did this.

Just as a final comment overall, the movie wasn’t perfect nor will it win any awards. At the end of the day, that doesn’t matter. I got a little more out of this than I expected, sometimes a lot more. I just had a lot of fun with this movie and I’m really happy I went out to see it.
You can bet I’ll get it on DVD at my first opportunity. I’ll still go to the 2003 movie more but I’ll probably watch this a bunch as well.

Freakier Friday- The Trailers

[I decided to make this a separate post from the actual movie review because the post was long enough on its own]

A big bold beautiful journey
Starring Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie

This trailer got the day off to a good start. First off, I’m game for almost any Colin Farrell movie where he gets to use his native accent. And Margot Robbie lit up the screen like she always does but per usual I didn’t know it was her until her name was mentioned. (You’d think after Barbie and especially after seeing her twice a couple weeks ago in two Harley Quinn movies I’d recognize her quicker by now).
This movie is about the two of them meeting, one’s AI personal assistant leading one to where the other happens to be, and they go through a bunch of doors to re-experience things in their lives. The good and the bad.
Not saying I’d buy a movie ticket for it but I’m highly curious how it goes from there.


Regretting You

The novel this movie is adapted from is by the same author who wrote “It ends with us”… a movie that stirred up a LOT of controversy between the harassment lawsuits and the fact the trailer promoted it as a love story when it’s actually about a familial cycle of abusive relationships.
I’ll have to read this book first but after enjoying the trailer I really hope it’s a good movie.
It revolves around a family and how the dynamic is shaken up when tragedy strikes. A pair of sisters find love and the one sister dies in a car accident with the other’s husband and for the widows left behind, there are a lot of unanswered questions they may/may not want the answers to.
Must be a bunch of books I’ve read in recent years about interesting family dynamics but I’m highly curious where this is going.


Eternity
Starring Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen

The career arcs of these two actors has been really fascinating and that’s not me paying them a compliment. It just strikes me as odd. Elizabeth Olsen has yet to do anything that’s resonated with me. I’m still astonished she got her own Marvel spin off. Formulaic as they are, I’d rather have a dozen more Olsen twin movies. Then with Miles Teller- the Divergent movies have been out for a decade, but I’m still astonished he was made to be the breakout star because his role in that series made him so unlikable. Now a similar thing is happening with Glen Powell who was even more unlikable than he was in the Top Gun sequel and now he’s Hollywood’s new golden boy.
Back to the actual trailer, though, it’s another fun concept I’d like to see play out, although not necessarily in a movie theater. He dies and goes to the in-between (sort of like Grand Central Station meets hotel but with millions of people) where the two are reunited. Then she also runs into her first husband who’d died in the war. The central conflict- everyone in limbo has to choose the one life they’ll live for all eternity and she has to choose which husband to stay with. Needless to say, it gets very competitive between them and there were a couple of funny jokes at their expense.
The concept of having to choose one life to stick with is an interesting one and I’m curious to see how they’ll handle it. I just hope I enjoy it more than reading "The Midnight Library"- great in concept but the fact the protagonist got to her limbo predicament via suicide because her life was unsatisfying… it was a reading experience I don’t care to have again.


Hoppers

I was admittedly half distracted during this trailer but it’s basically Avatar but with cute cuddly animated animals. And the fact Avatar is referenced in this movie pretty much tells you it’ll be another of those meta humor movies I’m not a fan of. Yet they can’t seem to stop making them…


Zootopia 2

I knew this was coming soon but this is the first time I’m seeing the trailer. It opens with Judy and Nick in work couples’ therapy. Not sure if it’s a trailer thing or the actual movie will keep coming back to this but I’d like to see more.
And it looks like the two of them are on a mission to expel a snake from Zootopia because it hasn’t had one for ages. So I’m thinking “is this a garden of Eden thing and snakes aren’t allowed in paradise?” And considering who the villain wound up being in the previous movie, something tells me it won’t be as cut and dry as “snakes are just bad and that’s the end of it”.
By the time it comes out, I can definitely see this being pitted against the conclusion of Wicked in the box office. Between the two, I know my sister would definitely prefer this over Wicked.

"Wicked for good" is definitely on my list to see just because I have to see how it ends and I'll be busy avoiding spoilers until I do.

Overall, I came away from this block of trailers hoping these movies are half as good as their trailers because they look so fresh and different.
Movies feel like they’ve become so formulaic and predictable and obsessed with inclusivity to make up for all the years they weren’t. And very little is making me want to go see them anymore.
It’s crazy how in 2025 I’d seen more movies streaming them on Apple+ when I’d spent so many years rejecting this streaming trend. It’s definitely more convenient than driving 25 minutes to the local theater. I’d bring up ticket prices but considering I’m paying roughly the same price per month for my subscription and in the past year I’ve only watched 8 seasons of different shows (three being Ted Lasso) and 3 movies, it breaks even.

The Studio (season one on Apple+)

Considering this show nominated for a ton of Emmy’s, I think it’s a safe bet it’s already renewed for more episodes.
And if Hollywood loves something more than giving each other trophies, it’s making fun of themselves.

The Studio is probably the most divisive Apple series I’d seen so far. Divisive meaning I don’t think I’ve went back and forth this much in deciding whether or not I actually enjoyed watching a series. That’s kinda wild, especially since each episode (except the pilot) is half an hour long and I could end one having a good time and the other being back to square one skepticism.
(Also- I should TM “square one skepticism”- that sounds as cool as “old school Hollywood buffet”… watch episode 9 for additional context)

Unlike previous series I’d watched, I didn’t go into it because of one specific actor. I figured it was a series about making movies and I took a stab.
I’m not even a Seth Rogen fan. He did have some good moments but he had just as much cringeworthy moments that I don’t think my status as a fan had changed.
Catherine O’Hara is an over-the-top movie producer, sometimes too much, but it’s one of those roles she pulls off well.
Among studio head Matt Remick (Seth Rogen)’s employees are Sal Saperstein (Ike Barinholtz in another role tailor-made for him), a marketing person played by Kathryn Hahn and Quinn, a plucky young producer eager to make her mark in the movies.
Also Bryan Cranston as Matt Remick’s eccentric boss, Griffin Mill.
Not to mention the dozen or so cameos of celebrities playing themselves.

Aside from Seth Rogen’s shenanigans (more on that later), the one other aspect I didn’t enjoy about this show is Kathryn Hahn’s character. I’m not super familiar with her career so I’m not sure if it’s just this role or she’s like this all the time. She was just WAY too much. Her dialogue is either shotgun fast that I just want her to stop talking or she speaks like she’s pandering. Either politically correct BS or she’s trying to be “down with the kids." She talks like someone who’s gen Z and in real life, she’s older than Seth Rogen (I recently learned he's just 4 years older than me!). It just didn’t make sense and it irritated me.

As for Seth Rogen as Matt Remick, he’s the main character so of course I want to see him succeed.
When he got promoted to studio head, he talked about wanting to make the kinds of movies he wants to make. Not going for easy cash grabs and box office totals, he wanted to make art that would also be financially successful. That much was clear in the pilot where Griffin Mill wants to make a Kool-Aid movie (riding on Barbie’s hot pink coattails) and Matt tried so hard to make an artsy Kool-Aid movie with Sorcerses directing— which was less about Kool-Aid and more about a cult that brought “drinking the Kool-Aid” into the public lexicon.

Other storylines revolve around other movies (thankfully Kool-Aid wasn’t the only movie they were making) and the ups and downs coming with production. Some of which ran into snags because he was interfering or overzealous with making suggestions. But others weren’t.

One nice thing about having these be half an hour per episode is how it condenses everything down to a single event or movie. How much of it is tongue-in-cheek and how much are things people in Hollywood actually have concerns about- I’ll always be slightly curious. In a few interviews, Robert Downey Jr would say how he’d approach making movies by picturing himself as an audience member. Bearing in mind what people expect to see and making certain moments more impactful when it counts. I’m sure there was more to it- it’s been a while- but it’d be nice to think other actors feel the same way. Some of them are just as frustrated by certain things that’ve grown unnecessarily prevalent in the industry as we are.

My two favorite episodes or at least the most memorable for the right reasons were about a One-Shot sequence and the other involving an infamous “motel sequence”.

One-shot is an instance in movies where long sequences are shoot in one continuous long take with no cuts. 1917 was almost entirely shot this way as was the Alejandro Inarritu Oscar winning "Birdman." This was something I’d already heard of before going in so I was already ahead of the game.
But all the ways Matt Remick interferes with this shoot because he doesn’t have the sense to know when to shut up… all I can say is stick around for the end. He got on my nerves, but it ended with such a huge laugh that the prior frustrations could easily be forgiven.

As for the motel sequence movie, it’s a Ron Howard film "Alphabet City" starring Anthony Mackie. Matt Remick and crew are watching the final cut in a theater. They’re loving and enjoying it… until it winds up with a ridiculously long runtime. The final half hour is this bizarre, over the top, self-serving scene where nothing happens. It’s Anthony Mackie with (presumably) his son and they just stand together in silence staring at the moon.
Kathryn Hahn is especially angry about the runtime because after discussing with her people, she learns that theaters will only be able to show it twice a day and it’ll be a financial disaster as a result. The one time in the entire series I agreed she had a point. 

Plus there’s been a lot of talk in recent years about movies being too damn long. I think someone published a stat prior to the 2025 Oscars that the average length of best picture nominees was long... looked it up, the average was 2hr29min.

Oppenheimer and Christopher Nolan movies have gotten this criticism for years but I think the Adrien Brody movie “the brutalist” ran over 3 and an half hours. (Looked it up, it's 215 minutes, which apparently includes a 15-minute intermission... WTF! and you thought his Oscar speech was long...)

The only problem left was who would be the one to tell Ron Howard… not only do we learn the motel sequence was a tribute to a cousin who’d died young but Matt is especially hesitant to be honest because he once gave Ron Howard painfully bad advice.
It all works out in the end but just the amount of craziness that culminates, it was a blast.

Some low points… I’d said how Matt Remick can’t shut up when it’s in his best interest to do so… he's smart on occasion but his ego is so fragile, you'd have to barely breathe on it and it would shatter instantly.
The most memorable is being a plus one at a doctors' charity event and going on a rant about how his job is just as important as doctors saving cancer patients.
Sure, all hospital rooms have a TV and people need entertainment to lighten the mood when they’re already not feeling well. But his blatant disregard for the medical profession, thinking working in movies is even on the same level, if not better… if anyone got through this episode without screaming at him or wanting to strangle him, I’d give them a dollar all while questioning their judgment.

Then we have an entire episode essentially dedicated to Hollywood’s obsession with diversity and political correctness.
Casting the Kool-Aid movie and wondering if it’d be racist to cast Ice Cube as the lead. Then it accelerates until they're left wondering whether it's possible to go too far when you make the entire cast black?
Personally, I’m a little curious if people in Hollywood are actually having these kinds of conversations. Seems like no matter what they do, some group (marginalized or not) will take issue with it.
This all culminates in a massive convention announcement and now the burning question is whether AI is going to put all the writers out of work. All important conversations to have, but omg, what a mess.
Also- since when has Kool-Aid been a product affiliated with the black community? I’ve literally never heard this. I'm white and grew up drinking Kool-Aid in the 90's so I thought at most it was a middle class thing.

Another sort of low point for Seth Rogen— obsessing over whether Zoe Kravitz is going to thank him in her acceptance speech. He just takes this whole thing way too far and I wouldn't have been surprised if all that effort was wasted.
Probably the best part was someone else getting thanked and name dropped over a couple speeches. I’m sure this piggybacked off Oscar winners in recent years thanking their publicists and all the winners afterwards doing the same.

A lot of the guest star actors playing themselves were great sports at poking fun of themselves. Although regarding the episode revolving around a missing reel of Olivia Wilde’s movie, I wonder how much was true to her as a person or they deliberately made her out to be a perfectionist. And not just a perfectionist but David Fincher “doing 50 takes of someone opening a door” crazy perfectionist. (Him and Stanely Kubrick apparently pull this stunt in all their movies).
Olivia had also gotten some heat recently on the set of “Don’t Worry, Darling." (Looked it up... these rumors apparently were unfounded so I guess the "Missing Reel" episode was making light of those rumors)

The final episodes were a two parter where all the actors spent half of it tripping on shrooms (Zoe Kravitz was a riot in this storyline!) and the other half trying to get everything together and tracking down a wayward Griffin Mill so Continental Studios can pull off a killer presentation at CinemaCon.
It ends on an odd note but man, the journey leading up to it, you just have to see for yourself. It’s insane.

One final highlight actually didn’t involve Matt Remick much at all. Rather, it was a tit for tat rivalry between Sal Saperstein and Quinn. Each of them has a horror movie they want to get made and they’re willing to pull out all the stops to make that happen. Again, it’s crazy over-the-top ridiculous so you’re better off just enjoying the ride cuz, oh boy, it’s a doozy.

I just really appreciated the issue this was addressing. I don’t like watching horror movies in general but I’m especially not a fan of the same concepts getting used to death and dragged out over a dozen sequels. Plus, “Smile” is a recent success story that has since spawned exactly one sequel and the fact Sal is backing a film called “Wink” that rips off that concept and has the same person directing it… I’m definitely on Team Quinn for this one.
I get that Hollywood is a business and businesses revolve around making money but c‘mon!! To rephrase a quote from Herman Melville, I’d rather them fail at something original than to continue succeeding with the same old stuff they’ve done a billion times over.

Whether you enjoy series about making movies, gratuitous cameos from actors playing themselves, or making fun of the whole institution, I’m sure this series has something for everyone to enjoy. Some points do require a little more patience than others and I’d highly recommend sticking it out to the end before you form an opinion on "The Studio" as a whole.

Stick (Apple+ series, one season... so far)

As of posting this, Season two has been confirmed...

Promotion and Writing


This series was promoted as the next “Ted Lasso”… but with golf.
While this was a good way to promote it, it was also to its detriment. I’d only just experienced that series for the first time this year and it was VERY fresh in my memory.
They have two things in common- the main character is a middle aged white dude, played by a well known actor, and it revolves around some sport.

For me, Ted Lasso was a very “cozy” series. Meaning it was a lighthearted mix of drama, humor and pop culture references… but mostly because I almost never had to worry about the show hitting that “point of no return”- where some irreconcilable drama happens that derails the entire plot and it's a slow painful slog until it gets fixed... assuming it gets fixed at all.

Stick, unfortunately, had a few of those extra dramatic moments. One of these moments spanned an entire episode and it took the entire half hour runtime for a last minute epiphany to magically solve the problem.

Granted, I’m thankful it didn't last past an episode… but it also felt so rushed that I complained the writing wasn’t very good.


Watching this as a golf fan

I hadn’t read many reviews just to keep my perspective pure but I did read one with a notable criticism— it’s a show about golf, but the golfing terminology left something to be desired. This one reviewer complained that this one tournament or going pro was referred to as “the dance”- when that term does not exist in the golf world.
But hey- I’d been watching golf for years. So for me, it was accurate enough and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It also taught me something I spent the last 30 years knowing nothing about. Namely why we have the different numbered clubs, woods vs irons and so on. The number determines the amount of curvature in the club face, which is why some are built better for longer distances.

And while this show didn’t have a lot of the heavy hitters like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy making cameos, they did have Keegan Bradley and Collin Morikawa among others.
If Ted Lasso had any cameos, I didn’t know who they were. But I’m also not a soccer fan and I still don't get why the clock counts upward and how/why time gets added after the initial 90 minutes.


The characters


When we first meet Pryce “Stick” Cahill, he’s working at a pro shop and sells a customer on some heavy duty (not to mention expensive) hardware.
But beyond that, to paraphrase Taylor Swift, he’d been “sleeping… in a 20 year dark night.” He’s on the cusp of a divorce, his house is a mess and he’s still grieving a very traumatic loss.

He comes across Santiago “Santi” Wheeler, a 17 year old prodigy who can drive over 300 yards when he sneaks into the local driving range between shifts at his after school job. So Pryce gets the idea to be his coach and get him into the tour. Of course he has a lot of convincing to do- both with Santi and his mom, Elena, and his friend/caddie Mitts. Mostly making sure he’s in this for the right reasons. That Santi, the kid not the golfer, comes first.
Along the way, they also meet Zero, who later joins the group as Santi’s caddie and later love interest.

At one point or another, all of the characters did get on my nerves over something. They also got on each other’s nerves, whether it’s Mitts thinking Pryce’s idea is crazy or Elena being frustrated with Mitts when he tried to talk her out of investing all of her windfall (courtesy of Pryce to get her onboard) in one thing… you have a lot of strong personalities in close proximity for an extended amount of time, it’s bound to happen. Plus they come to consider each other family and families argue.

I’m not sure if I’m alone in this but I could understand if people found Zero a polarizing character. Especially if those that aren't gen Z.
I’m a year away from 40 and I never felt closer to that age than I did watching this show and feeling out of the loop.
Whether it’s the ever growing “correct pronouns” conversation (which to me is ridiculous when Zero also said “she/her” was acceptable…) or the flagrant disregard for adults and authority figures Zero and the other gen Z characters seem to have… a lot of the conversations involving the younger characters grated on my nerves. So yeah, I've officially become one of those people who gripes about the younger generations.

One plus about the writing, uneven as it can be sometimes, is how it explains and navigates a lot of these disagreements.
Zero worked as a server/bartender at a country club and got harassed by the patrons… so I can understand developing a thick skin and not trusting adults.
Same with Elena in that conversation with Mitts. I understood where he was coming from by encouraging her to diversify her investments. But because she had to fight for her livelihood as a single parent and a woman, it’s important to her personally that she stands up for herself. And she’s done her research so she’s aware of the risks but still willing to take the chance.

And to be honest, Santi got on my nerves sometimes too. Yeah, he’s gifted but when he didn’t listen to Pryce’s advice and things went sideways, he didn’t handle things well.

We also have Mitts the curmudgeon but over time we learn more about him and he grows on you.


The Show

Now we’re getting into some spoiler territory…


For the actual show itself, yeah, it had its ups and downs. It wasn’t perfect but it ultimately came through in the times where it really mattered.
There’s a lot of heart and the characters go through a lot together. And while it had a good finale, there’s room for more story.

The first few episodes are the introductory period, getting to know the characters and their relationships and personalities.
In addition to being his former caddie, Mitts has a history of helping Pryce with various hustles. Usually involving alcohol and heated arguments at bars and Pryce showing the other person up in the end.
The series starts with a hustle and we get at least one more later on.

After this group of misfits come together, Santi has to qualify for the amateur championship. Pryce instructs him as his caddie which clubs to use in different situations. As a prodigy, Santi has great instincts but he’s still young enough where that isn’t sustainable in the long run.
They eventually butt heads and it becomes a slippery slope. We hear about his dad a few times, how he’d coached him and his coaching style put him off playing for a few years and his dad took off.

Zero comes in around this time and the two of them hit it off quickly. So Pryce gets the bright idea to have Zero caddie and he’ll signal from the sidelines which clubs to use. Plus, with the two of them being around the same age, it might be a better arrangement.
My one little nitpick- and this is another generational grip. Some of Zero’s comments, saying to Santi something like “as long as you feel safe” before leaving when Pryce wants to have a few words one on one, and later about “holding space” or “having space” in a conversation with Mitts and he rolls his eyes at the terminology… yeah I can’t help but agree. Gen Z is weird about stuff like this coupled with this whole “distrust of authority” thing.

But as friends and later a couple, Santi and Zero are great together. It’s nice having a friend your own age on the road but also for someone like Zero who’s a self proclaimed nomad, it’s nice having someone you feel comfortable around enough to be yourself.
But like all sorts of background arrangements in media, the truth comes out and things blow up between everyone. Obviously things would work themselves out but it’s hard to trust sometimes. I definitely didn’t want this to be a 3+ episode arc.

The later episodes revolve around the last chance for Santi to qualify for the pro circuit and it involves getting an exemption from an old rival of Pryce’s.
He reminded me a little of the bad guy from Happy Gilmore although not nearly as antagonistic or stuck on himself… although he spend a lot of his time in retirement riding on the coattails of a handful of victories. Including insurance advertisements, a golfing academy and a fancy steakhouse.
While we don’t get to see Pryce’s infamous career ending meltdown, we get a decent picture of what it was like because this was the guy he ultimately lost to… and I think Pryce beat him up afterwards. It all circles back to the loss Pryce is still grieving… now we sort of know why he blew up like he did. And can you honestly blame him?

The final hurdle takes place over the season finale. When Santi is riding the high of finally taking the lead and going viral on TikTok, his dad comes back into the picture… and it goes about as well as you’d expect.
His dad had a mercurial coaching style where he’d be his best friend when he’s doing well but become hypercritical and dismissive when he was not.
Elena talked about it a few times and here we finally see it and it’s ugly. When you’re having a rough time, the last thing you need is for someone to talk down to you and grumble about you needing to “play better” without any constructive advice on how to achieve that.
Had this not gone sideways, he probably would’ve taken credit for his success even though he didn’t show up until the final day of the tournament. The worst part is him assuming no responsibility for any of the bad turns even when it was his advice that got him there in the first place.
The only thing I wish we had was just someone laying a massive tirade on him or at least Elena slapping him. Either way, people like him we sadly just accept will never change.
Unlike Tin Cup (heavy sarcasm implied), at least we get a decent redemption arc to close it all out. And there’s definitely plenty of room left for subsequent seasons.

As a final note, the Simon and Garfunkel song “Cecilia” makes a number of appearances throughout the series. Pryce said how it was a song he’d recall to ground himself in his uncertain moments and how it guarantees a smile.
Let’s just say good luck getting it out of your head after finishing the final episode…
I can count the number of S&G songs I know on one hand and this became another to add. And yes, I still have it going through my head and that was a couple days ago, lol

The Internship (2013)

Since Owen Wilson’s Apple+ series is wrapping up this week, it felt like a good time to do a post on another of his movies.
With the recent exception of “Masterminds” (as in recent to me- the movie came out 9 years ago and I saw it last month), I’ve never met an Owen Wilson character I didn’t like. I’ve always found him generally likable, but a bit more since seeing Midnight in Paris.
This movie was promoted as the much anticipated reunion of him with his Wedding Crasher partner-in-crime Vince Vaughn. The end result… maybe didn’t meet expectations but even with its flaws I found it enjoyable. We have the DVD in our shorehouse movie collection so we see it at least once a year.

The initial premise- the duo are businessmen who sell watches and they awkwardly learn on a sales call that they no longer have jobs. (By the way- this probably the best use you’ll ever see of “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette in media).
Because of this, Vince Vaughn loses his girlfriend and his house (as well as some of the audience’s respect over his idiotic pronunciation of Barcelona). Owen Wilson isn’t much better off, selling mattresses for Will Ferrell (who definitely has a sexual harassment lawsuit in his future with how inappropriate he is with his “hotter” customers).

Suddenly Vince Vaughn has an epiphany… the two of them can participate in Google’s internship program, which is a gateway to full time employment.
Their interview scene to get accepted into this program is a good showcase of this movie’s writing, both the good and the… for lack of a better word, annoying. Some jokes throughout the movie either do too good of a job showing how clueless these guys are about how technology works or they just run way too long.
They do their interview via Skype (dating this movie a bit... Skype closed up shop early 2025) in a public library and they essentially BS their way through it. They enroll in The University of Phoenix to meet the student requirement and Owen Wilson’s major is physics. Also, they call it “the Harvard of the internet,” which is definitely not true.
The key question they’re asked: you’re shrunk down to the size of nickels and dropped into a blender. What do you do?
They never answer this directly but their answer is clever enough to get them chosen. They do a silly reference to Fantastic Voyager, saying they’ll get out of the blender and go into the mini submarine to save lives. But their whole message is essentially “it’s not about getting out of the blender, it’s what you do next” and how they had been in the blender and this is their second chance to make a difference.

They get to the actual Google campus out in California and all the interns are put into teams. Predictably, they wind up in the team with all the misfits or as head honco Mr. Chetty puts it “the leftovers” and Lyle (who we see campaign for them at the admissions meeting) is their team captain/supervisor. Josh Brener, who plays Lyle, later plays a notable role in the HBO series "Silicon Valley," but he sadly winds up being one of TJ Miller's many punching bags throughout the series.

Graham, the intern who serves as the antagonist drafts his teammates all based on their colleges- only Ivy League are good enough in his eyes.
While Vince Vaughn regularly butts heads with him and Chetty, Owen Wilson spends the majority of his time essentially stalking Rose Bryne. I love the guy but I just found this character arc so annoying— first because she’s an employee and interns aren’t supposed to date them and second, it just perpetuates the myth that a girl will eventually agree to go out with you if you ask them enough times. I want to scream “she’s not interested in you- leave her alone!”

As for the rest of Team Lyle, we have Yo-Yo Santos, the neurotic son of a “tiger mom” (this term for overbearing Asian moms came into being a few years prior), Neha, an Indian girl who loves anime and Star Wars, and Stuart, a deadpan-humor type of guy who needs to learn the valuable lesson that there’s a whole world out there- just 3 inches up.

The internship program consists of challenges and the team with the highest grand total is guaranteed jobs after graduation.
The challenges vary, as do how well the two guys handle them.
The first challenge is finding a bug in the code… and since they have ZERO coding knowledge and annoy their teammates to death as they play 6 degrees of separation with pop culture references, they get sent away to find the creator of the code… Professor Xavier.
There’s a quidditch match and Vince Vaughn gives a pretty cool halftime pep talk referencing Alex, the steel mill girl with a dream to dance (aka the plot of Flashdance). As a Harry Potter fan, it was a fun scene but Lyle’s comment about recommending a stag patronus in case of dementor attack… ugh, it annoys me cuz last I checked, you don’t choose what your patronus looks like. The form chooses you. Although Snape’s patronus in the deathly hallows might prove otherwise…

Next is a “create your own app” challenge where the team with the most downloads wins… once we get out the annoying loop that includes “on the line/online” and “exchange-a-gram," Team Lyle comes up with their million download idea after a crazy night out off campus. The first time any of the younger interns really get to experience the real world so it comes with a lot of shenanigans but also some cool moments.

After hearing the lot of them bemoan they need to win because jobs are no longer a sure thing after graduating from college, it's nice for them to get away from that stress and find a way to savor the in-between moments.

The final two challenges are the most pivotal to the plot for typical plot reason- one where all hope seems lost afterwards and one that’s a redemption arc.
Josh Gad has somewhat of a small role in this movie until this point, where he sort of becomes a mentor to Vince Vaughn while he’s studying for the customer hotline challenge. He has a cool line about how mentoring him isn't like teaching a kid the alphabet, it's like teaching them a single letter. Pretty deep stuff and the best part… I’ll leave for you to find out. It’s always a cool moment when a background character winds contributing to the plot in a huge way.

Another entertaining detail- in the first class where Mr. Chetty teaches the interns the do's and don't's of the program and outright refuses to “get a cold one” with Vince Vaughn, they have banter about different food items interns can’t take home with them… Aasif Mandvi was a regular correspondent on The Daily Show in his heyday so his improv chops are put to good use. But the funniest part- throughout the movie after that scene, you’ll see Vince Vaughn eating one of the food items mentioned in that conversation.

And say what you want about the guy, Vince Vaughn is a hell of a salesman. At one point I think Owen Wilson says he could sell ice to an Eskimo or some other version of that adage.
Also he co-wrote the script. While it’s not perfect, it’s good in the moments where the chips are down and it really counts.

Why am I extra sad when my favorite female characters leave?

I still haven’t figured this one out.

I thought maybe it was just a phase I was in or just something my younger self got caught up in… but one of the 3 is more recent so it’s not just a passing fancy.
I’m sure the same would apply for all characters I like leaving a franchise or series at the end but there’ve been 3 specific characters, all female, I missed terribly when they went away at the end.

I loved the “Land Before Time” series to death as kid- although that love fell off a bit after they changed the voice cast in the 5th installment.
My favorite character only had ONE appearance in all of the 13 installments. Something I’m still a little bitter about. Chomper the baby TRex had 2 appearances… technically the only guest character to recur in the films but still!
And i honestly couldn’t say now why Ali was my favorite. But I liked her so much that I was sad at the end of part 4 when she and her family left. And I had recurring dreams about tracking down her voice actress just so I could say how much I loved her work in that one movie. I never found her in any of the dreams and in real life, Julianna Hansen only had that one acting credit. I still can’t believe that.

Next was Elora from the second Spyro game. I was still exhilarated when I beat the game the first time, I didn’t count on how much it’d hit me that she just disappeared from the overworld once you 100% the game.
Don’t know why that hit me so hard but I found myself drawing her to make myself feel better.
The saddest part was the epilogue book that says Spyro missed his chance with her… I thought they’d be cute together, why did they have to do that?
So of course I was thrilled she made a cameo in the post credits of the next game.
But fast forward years later with Reignited, she has a new look and new voice and I didn’t feel that same spark as I had for the older version. I still like her of course and it’s nice that she’s more of a love interest this time around but it’s not quite the same.

Finally Serena from Pokemon,
I loved her story arc because it felt like a page out of my own life. A random dream sparked my Pokemon fanfiction idea before I fell in love with my subject. The fact that Serena followed Ash because of her crush on him- I couldn’t help but relate. I loved all those cute amourship moments with them.
And yeah it was sad seeing my favorite season end, the end of any of the Pokemon seasons is a bit sad. But this one was more devastating.
I’d only seen this final episode twice. The second time which was a few years ago… I think I was more broken up about Serena going her own way than the season ending. It was extra emotional and I’m not sure why.
Plus, this was a few years ago. The other two were when I was 10 and maybe 14. So clearly it’s something I haven’t grown out of.

So now I’m trying to figure out if there’s some sort of pattern to this or I just form random lesbian crushes on certain characters. Elora being a faun and Ali being a brontosaurus also makes this a bit more complicated- if you want to go that route. I’m not.

Maybe it’s all in the voice and I have a thing for voices like Julianna Hansen and Melissa Disney (Elora). But Melissa was also the lead in “as told by ginger” and I liked her a lot but not to this degree.
Or maybe I felt a personal kinship with them and that’s the reason for it. Again, only 2 of the 3. Ali was super shy, just like I am. And Serena was shy and harboring a crush and was hesitant to share with her mom that she had a different dream than her. Things I can all relate to. But I had nothing in common with Elora.

Ali and Serena had a commonality where i preferred them as a love interest for another character or just preferred to them a regular female character in the cast. (Elora could almost fit this argument too except I never played the Legend of Spyro series with Cynder- although between the two I’d picked Elora even though she’s not a dragon like Spyro).
With land before time, Cera was always my least favorite character because she bullied Littlefoot in the original movie and challenged every decision he made. While no longer a bully who put him down, she was still the one character who didn’t want to go along with his plans.
Obviously it’s a kids series so there’s no romance involved but these were the same reasons why I didn’t like Misty in Pokemon. And this was before I found out about her rumored crush on him… if anything I made me feel more antagonistic toward her. He deserved better than the girl who was a bully and only followed him because of her stupid bike. But then you could make the same case for Helga from hey Arnold and I ship for the two of them despite her constant berating of him. I could explain that away for a few reasons but the main one is I understand why she does and she even expresses remorse for doing so. Misty never walked back a rude comment she made to Ash, at least not to him personally.
I’m sure I liked Serena because of her having the crush more than her being a better pairing than Misty but it became more about that later on.
Now that I think about it, I’m not sure if I would’ve picked up on Misty’s feelings if I hadn’t heard her song on the Pokemon soundtrack. And I wonder if I would’ve been more amiable toward her and open to her being a potential love interest if I picked up on that on my own. It was just thrown in my face and it occurred to me that maybe I like him and that’s why I reacted the way I did.
Also in general, I’m a main character girl and it’s a pet peeve when other characters pick on the main character or say they’re not good enough to achieve their goals. Cera putting down Littlefoot bothered me a lot but not nearly as much as Misty… where it felt like that was her one purpose on the show. Friends should be comfortable telling their friends when they’re getting ahead of themselves and need to rethink things but the way it always came off to me is “you’re being stupid, that’ll never work”. Sometimes she’s right but it’s more satisfying when he proves her wrong.
And of course I’ll admit when Ash makes mistakes. I’m just as annoyed as anyone else when he brings out a Pokemon who has a distinct type disadvantage in a fight. He makes it work sometimes but I’m always asking WHY? I don’t understand it but I don’t give him a hard time over it because he’ll either make it work or not. It would just be a little less annoying if he learned his lesson and made better choices going forward. But I’m fairly certain that he used Chikorita in 2 or 3 ill advised fights, like he didn’t learn from the mistake the previous time.
Ultimately this all became part of his training style. Going for unexpected matchups and using quirks in the battlefield to his advantage… when it works, it’s mind blowing and I love it. And it’s even sweeter when the people around him compliment him on it. Even without Serena, the Kalos series was my favorite because Ash had companions that took him seriously and admired him and he didn’t get a super swelled head about it. Not nearly as badly as when he was just starting out.

It’s crazy to think I’d been done with my fanfiction series for a couple years now, but the fact I’m his biggest cheerleader hasn’t changed at all. But I’d also been in his corner since I was 13, which is 2 thirds of my life. The kind of thing that never goes away.
I still haven’t written my retrospective with him leaving the series but I also haven’t seen the finale- but I’m also not in a hurry to see it because I know it’ll be emotional.
I gave up the series for a while when Veronica Taylor and the original cast left but i definitely cannot see the series going forward without him. I won’t do it.