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.

The Edge of Seventeen (2015)

This is another of those high school movies that I might not be able to recommend seeing more than once… but it’s just interesting enough to warrant writing about.

I won’t be giving everything away but I’ll go into most of the key points.

It has a pretty good soundtrack- some songs from the mid 2010s I remember hearing in other contexts. But it’s mildly disappointing that the Stevie Nicks song serving as this movie’s namesake doesn’t make a single appearance.
Also- I’ve always interpreted that song as a more dramatic version of “I am 16 going on 17” so the fact the main character is already 17 makes the title a double liar… unless the whole point is that she’s 17 and a little rough around the edges.

The whole genre of teen angst high school is a little over and done by this point… but this is probably one of the more honest looks at what that means.

The protagonist Nadine, played really well by Hailee Steinfeld, develop a huge dislike for her more outgoing classmates (and all things popular) at a young age. The types of people who attract success anywhere they try and her brother is major representation of that. Between the two of them, he always got the better grades and more popularity whereas she was outcast and bullied for being the opposite.
She finds solace from this in her new best friend and for their whole lives, they’d been two peas in a pod.

But things change when her friend starts dating her brother and through him, gets into better social circles and she feels left behind. Plus betrayed because they used to share a mutual dislike of him. As far as big brothers go, he’s not the most obnoxious (definitely not to the point of Bill Paxton in weird science) but it’s easy to be put off by some of his actions.
I can understand her frustration to a point. I know I’ve lost friends or felt left out because they got into social circles I didn’t feel welcome to join. Or I just wasn’t welcome at all. But there are points where I’ll admit she takes her anger about this betrayal a little too far— how long can you hold a grudge until you get over it and move on?

Then there’s the fact she was daddy’s little girl and he died of a heart attack a few years earlier and the family is still navigating the grief of that loss. (There was one funny punchline where she uses her dad’s death as an excuse for not doing her homework and her teacher says that excuse expired after the first year… it was 4 years ago).
But as much as she feels like the world is against her, she comes to realize she’s not alone and just maybe she’d been wrong about the people in her life because she didn’t consider their perspective.

It sort of blew my mind later on when her brother came out saying he works so hard to be perfect to keep their family together. Their mom works hard to provide for them and she and Nadine fight so much. He feels compelled to go to a local college when he could easily have made Ivy League to make sure he’s there in case he’s needed.
And just maybe, he likes hanging out with her friend because she helps keep him grounded like she had in their friendship.

Most high school movies have that one teacher character. This one was tailor made for woody harrelson and his wry sense of humor. In fact, he makes this whole movie. Not just because he matches her wit tit for tat but he’s extremely supportive when stuff in her life spirals out and she feels she has no other confidants.
She also makes a new friend who takes part in an indie film festival at the end of the movie… won’t spoil his animated short but it is super cute. Then when she comes over to his place, she learns his family is actually pretty wealthy yet he’s very unassuming about it. Not crazy rich Asian rich (although he is Korean) but definitely richer than most of her classmates. My jaw dropped when I saw the house— but I’m a sucker for a good Victorian style house.

Nadine is very outspoken and gets in trouble a few times because of this. One moment particularly when her lack of impulse control gets the better of her. She’s not the first teenager to make this mistake but that doesn’t make it any less cringe worthy to see how it plays out.
She talks a few times through the movie how she’d fantasized about this one classmate who works at a pet store. Then she texts all these errant thoughts to him (a lot of weird sexual stuff I always wonder how teenagers know about them cuz I sure as hell didn’t at that age) by accident and he’s interested.
Then she awkwardly realizes as it’s happening that she didn’t really mean what she said and he’s super bent out of shape for the mixed signals. It sort of reminded me of a situation I got into in college where a guy I met on Facebook asked if I’d ever kissed and suggested when we watch American idol together as planned we try. Somehow that got misinterpreted and he wanted to turn the entire show into a make-out session. To his credit he backed off when he saw how uncomfortable I was about it… but yeah… be careful what you say to the opposite sex online. Don’t put out the wrong message so they don’t get the wrong idea.

Luckily she had her teacher for an exit strategy and she gets to learn a bit more about his life while spending him at his house to decompress from everything.
I’ll say it again- Woody Harrelson totally makes this movie.

Four Weddings (TLC series)

I’m one of those people who balk a lot at the fact a certain channel is still called MTV… when it hasn’t had anything to do with music in decades. #IwantMyMTV

In a similar vein, I remember a time when TLC used to stand for The Learning Channel… although the only show I remember watching was Professor Iris- which was an educational show with puppets and a lot of musical numbers.
Now… TLC is chock full of shows about trashy reality shows featuring long distance relationships and people struggling with weight issues. More real than the people on Jersey Shore type shows (gag) but not what I consider entertaining.
Mind you, I’ve only seen commercials for these shows but I just don’t get their appeal.


Four Weddings (along with Say Yes to the Dress) are among the TLC shows my sister watches.
Both have their flaws as well but they have more of the reality show stuff I enjoy more.

I come from a large family on my mom’s side so I’d been to several weddings in my life. Admittedly most of my experiences were just ok… speaking as an introvert that has trouble mingling with people for long stretches of time, most of them just ran too long and I got bored. Never mind that I wasn’t drinking age when I attended most of them.
Given how much I got into this show, I think I can say weddings might be more fun to watch or read about than to actually attend.

The whole concept of the show is that four brides go to each other’s weddings and after judging various criteria, the winner wins a honeymoon package.

The dress, venue and food are ranked from best to worst. But overall experience is out of 10.

Overall experience

The system is set up the way it is to keep women from underscoring the others to cheat. But you can bet they still find a way to do it.
Also it’s the one score we hear until they end because they obviously can’t rank everything else until going to all 4 weddings,

Sometimes all of them are in cahoots and give each wedding the same average score but usually it’s a single person who gives every wedding a 6 or less and you’re rooting for them to be punished with a last place finish.

My interpretation is whenever all 3 vote 6, they’re not being genuine. They’re deliberately keeping it a close race. If they rank the wedding 6’s and 7’s with occasional 8, that’s ideal.
Once I think I saw one show where all of them gave a wedding a 4… which was shocking but I think they at least had some good reasons.

All of the other marks should count toward the overall score but it’s a bit cheap to give a wedding a low score because the venue or the food was not up to the person’s expectations.

A few criticisms I never understood:giving a low score because the theme wasn’t original. (Original compared to what? Not everyone is that creative)
Low score because they don’t like fake flowers. (Goes both ways- some don’t like real flowers…)


Food


I think I saw one wedding where the brides just ordered pizza. I don’t remember if it was because the food was bad, it was cold or it took forever for them to get food.
But according to a story my dad read online a few months ago, people have done this for other reasons… particularly after word got around beforehand that a menu would be all vegan or vegetarian, people were freaking out and some were offering to order pizzas.

Some people like buffets and others hate them. Not all buffets are created equal- I’d been to good and bad ones and not just at weddings.
Some have had really fun options like grilled cheese bars or make your own s’mores or baked potato.
The alternative is having a fixed menu with a choice of meat, fish or chicken. Sometimes this works out and other times, there’s complaints about lack of flavor or the food is cold.

By far, the criticism that drives me the most crazy… giving a wedding less than a 6 because “I’m vegetarian and I left hungry”.
I understand dietary restrictions on religious grounds and allergies… but for the rest, I wish the casting department brought this up in auditions (“would it be a deal breaker if if a wedding had no vegetarian options?”) and didn’t cast these people at all.
This is a hot take but whatever… you’re a last minute guest, practically a stranger off the street. Why should a catering company go out of their way to make a vegetarian meal for just one person?

Dress

I’m not an expert so I can’t do a proper discussion.
Personally I’m not a fan of strapless dresses or any dress with excessive cleavage. Not just at weddings but as a general rule.

One divisive point when it comes to scoring is when there’s two different dresses. One for the ceremony and the other is a dress specifically for dancing at the reception.
Some like the two dresses and others prefer just the one dress for both because it’s more traditional.
I don’t have an opinion either way, honestly. It’s the bride’s special day. Whatever you feel comfortable and beautiful in- go for it! As long as they go with the dress, you can wear sneakers to the altar. I won’t judge.

Venue


The variety of venues on this show is probably the most fun component of the show along with the theme.
Sometimes they rent out entire venues- one was at the Pittsburgh Steelers stadium and a few had been at museums. Then some are as simple as a backyard wedding— one of those actually won the big prize at the end.

As awesome as it would be to have an entire wedding themed around one particular thing or a common interest between the bride and groom, I can’t imagine myself going that extra mile.
But I’m also someone who never took the time to imagine what their wedding would look like… considering how I’ve never even been in a relationship.
However, if I was lucky enough to wind up with a fellow Prince fan, you can bet that’d be the theme. All beginning with the ceremony’s first words- “dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…”

Getting back to the show, probably the most common complaint is the venue not having enough room or seating. Which is fair.
If the guest list is around a couple thousand, surely you can compensate for 3 extras. And if seating is limited, don’t have food that requires a knife and fork.
If there’s a lot of upbeat music, there has to be a dance floor or at least plenty of room to move.
Some people like it dark or prefer mood lighting… I personally don’t and I’m sure others have complained about it. Or not being able to hear the vows being exchanged or the toasts because they got stuffed in the back of the room.
At the ceremony, there are times where there’s a cultural or religious difference between the other brides and the current bride’s background so they feel left out of the ceremony because they don’t understand what’s going on. Especially if most of the ceremony is done in another language.
Another issue is the transition between ceremony and reception… the venue being too far from the church with confusing directions. Or the cocktail hour being too long and not enough food or entertainment for the guests while the bridal party does photos and other related activities.
A few times, there was an outdoor venue for one or both parts of the wedding and it was too hot or there were too many bugs. The weather, sometimes that can’t be helped. But bugs… I know that would be an issue for me. All the more reason summer might not be the ideal time for weddings. Especially if you’re in southern New Jersey and it’s green-head season (IYKYK)

Fake flowers vs real flowers is one thing. Another is centerpieces and it varies. Once or twice there’ve been complaints about the centerpieces being too big and you can’t probably talk to other people at your table. One way combating this was having tall skinny vases so the view isn’t obstructed nearly as much.
Some decor is homemade and others aren’t. Some people like the originality while others… it’s not their style.

The grand prize


It’s always kinda fun to find out where people wind up going for their winning honeymoon.
The only time none of us are super excited when we all watch the show- they’re either going to Mexico or Dominican Republic. We went to Cancun once on vacation and it wasn’t a fun trip— getting harassed by people selling us stuff was just one of the massive turnoffs. And unless it’s Punta Cana, I haven’t heard many nice things about Dominican Republic.

Most of the typical prizes go to the Bahamas or somewhere in the Caribbean, Bermuda, Turks and Caicos or Hawaii. Easily Hawaii is the top destination although I’d been to some Caribbean islands. The mileage varies… I know someone who went to St Lucia for their honeymoon and I’m sure they loved it. The only time I went there was part of a cruise and the rain that day didn’t allow much freedom to enjoy the scenery.
But once or twice, they either went to Tokyo or the Maldives.

Of course we have our exit interviews at the end… I mean, the ideal attitude from an also-ran is that they’re happy for the winner or they were just happy their wedding went well and they still feel like a winner because of who they married.
But a few times… it’s the opposite. One bride being bitter about losing or trashing the winner’s wedding. Luckily the sore loser isn’t a common occurrence.
It’s fun seeing how these different weddings are orchestrated and comparing them. But once the show is over, you should come away with the satisfaction you’ve found the love your life. And who knows- you might have wound up having more fun on your honeymoon than the winner.
The show is all repeats now and has been for several years… but I can’t help but wonder if any of the people who’d been on the show got divorced… and tried auditioning again for another chance to win. But if TLC was going to do anything right with their programming, they wouldn’t allow anyone to double dip like that.

Your Friends & Neighbors (1 season... so far... on Apple+)

A few years ago, Jon Hamm did a promo for Apple plus where he was complaining about how everyone notable in Hollywood has their own Apple series/movie except for him…
Well, he finally got his wish and it was worth the wait.

For whatever reason, I never got into Mad Men when it was on. But I liked Jon Hamm enough in the Top Gun sequel and that tiny role he had in SuckerPunch as “the high roller” (considering how much of the movie's plot hinged on that character, I still can't understand why the majority of his screentime was only available on the extended blu-ray edition) to follow him to this series.

And it was a good series.

It’s interesting. Andrew Cooper (most people just call him Coop) isn’t meant to be a likable guy. Most of the people in his neighborhood aren’t meant to be. They’re all affluent people, almost all white, and have more money than they know what to do with.
He gets set on his trajectory when he’s fired from his hedge fund firm and thanks to a non-solicit clause, he’s not able to get hired anywhere else. Then the few interviews he does get, he cops an attitude and sabotages himself. Seriously, if he wasn’t good looking or charismatic, you wouldn’t be rooting for him.
Another thing that’s not going well for him and hasn’t for the last few years- he’s divorced after his wife cheated on him with a basketball player. Prior to that, he was already an absentee workaholic husband and father so he’s not on the best terms with his family.

So what he winds up doing to keep up appearances… he starts breaking into his neighbors’ homes and stealing valuables, which he turns around for cash at a shady pawn shop. Or at least the only one who’ll entertain him because he’s selling pricey watches without receipts and certificates of authenticity.
The question lingers in the air of if or when he’ll eventually be found out. The missing valuables haven’t all gone unnoticed. He gets in over his head with one of his stolen acquisitions where one of his friends becomes collateral damage. And for good measure, he becomes the leading suspect in a murder plot… it’s teased in the first few minutes in the series and by the time it circled back, I completely forgot about it, haha. That’s what I get for only watching one episode a day.

It’s a drama series but there are plenty of humorous moments to break the tension. Maybe a little too much sexual content for my tastes but that’s just me.
One funny comment mid-season that may as well be a fourth wall break— someone mentions how there’s been an uptick in violence lately. To which I replied “no kidding- the first four episodes only had language and sexual content” and pretty much every one after that also had violence listed in the viewer discretion column.
Aside from DNA, one thing linking him to the crime scene is him having a fight with the eventual victim… don’t remember what it was even about but the dead guy wasn’t super likable anyway.

What I liked most about the series, I think, was the relationships. Particularly between Coop and his family. Both of his teenagers are talented in different things and I couldn’t help but root for him to get back on good terms with them. It wasn’t like they preferred Nick the basketball player, either.
Nick was great but maybe too great… I kept expecting something to be wrong with him because he was too nice at times. Especially with the cold shoulder Coop would give him whenever they’re in a room together… which is kinda frequent with how close the neighbors are. There is one fun moment in the series when they’re able to set aside their differences and they go out for a night of gallivanting, along with Barney, his financial advisor. Especially the scene they’re night-putting at the country club until the sprinklers go off in the morning.

One character who steals the show is Coop’s sister, Ali. He takes her in when she has nowhere to go and the sibling loyalty runs deep both ways. Ironically, it’s the only good relationship either of them have at particular times.
She has bi-polar disorder and she’s managing it better than she had in the past. She’s also a talented singer who gets a steady gig at a local bar. And more than once, she winds up being the most sane person in the family.

To say anymore would be giving too much away so this is a good stopping point.
But it's a series I'd highly recommend and there's plenty of story left to tell, in the event it gets renewed for subsequent seasons.

Update: Jon Hamm announced on his appearance on Kelly & Mark that the show had, in fact, just been renewed for season two.

"The Morning Show" and "Lessons in Chemistry" (1 season- Apple+)

I figure these shows have enough in common that using one post to discuss both of them would be best.

As someone who never streamed any series before this year, I selected the series I chose to watch on a different set of parameters than most.
I saw a trailer for both of these shows years ago. They starred people I knew and that was it. I had no clue aside from the tiniest bit of detail I got from the trailers as to what they were even about.
And in both cases, the subject matter was about more than I bargained for… would it have changed my mind about watching them at all? I don’t know.
I just know I wound up with one series I chose not to continue and the other— it had one season and I might have watched more if there was more. But I was satisfied with the ending I did get.


The Morning Show


Initial impression- Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon play anchor women who butt heads on and off camera

Actual premise- a daytime show struggles to salvage its reputation after its lead anchorman is fired for sexual misconduct

Basically it’s a #MeToo series. Steve Carrel’s character Mitch being modeled after other disgraced anchors like Matt Lauer. And we find out through different characters how little accountability was taken and how deep the corruption went.
It isn’t until the last few episodes of season 1 we get a sense of how it all went down. The closest I’d personally been to this issue was the documentary about the gymnasts who spoke out against Larry Nassar so it was both eye opening and unsettling. I went from watching one episode a day to two the last few days because I had to see how it all resolved.
One season I watched ultimately ended in a way I was happy with: everyone who was involved or covered up for Mitch was ousted on air and fired. In case the subsequent seasons took this progress in reverse, I didn’t want to be there to witness it. I’ve gotten more in the habit of stopping certain series if all they do is annoy or upset me… life is too short.

During this latter portion, trigger warnings started to precede episodes. I understand why but part of them didn’t like them because they essentially spoiled what was going to happen. So I’d be bracing myself for whenever the thing happens and it compromised the whole experience.

Another thing I’m still kinda sad about was how the fallout of this impacted another relationship on set. They were keeping things quiet for a while not to attract too much attention but eventually they were out in the open. And one of Mitch’s accusers talks to the girl and her experience wound up convincing her the relationship wasn’t a good idea. Except for maybe rushing to a public dinner date, he never did a thing wrong… I don’t know if they eventually reconcile or not, but I was rooting for them.

The main cast was really good. Luckily Steve Carrel looks a lot different than he used so it’d be difficult to rewatch episodes of The Office after this. Not so much what he did but his attitude, ugh! There was zero admission of wrongdoing and he learned nothing from the whole thing.
We all know Jennifer Anniston. This role was different from Rachel in so many ways. It’s revealed through the season how the station was looking to replace her (because women apparently age out of show business and she lacked the same fire she used to have) but find themselves in a bind after what happened with Mitch. We learn she’s terrible at the work life balance and is getting divorced. And as the pressure gets to her, she has breaking points.
Then Reese Witherspoon- she’s so fiery as Bradley. This gets her in trouble a lot but her reporting is much fresher than what the majority of the morning show people are like. She goes viral when she tells off a protester and ends up getting recruited to join the show. Later Jennifer Aniston makes her co-anchor- not so much for her accolades but because it would get under the skin of her superiors. And having the option to choose her co-anchor was something she wanted in her updated contract.
I’d heard of Billy Crudup but never saw him in anything and he was good as the new creative director of the show. He’s a maverick when it comes to certain things and it tests his superiors a lot, particularly his attitude about being immune to being fired. Then Mark Duplass (I’d previously seen him as a midwife in The Mindy Project ages ago) as Chip the executive producer- he’s unfortunately culpable in the Mitch situation and I think he loses his job at the end of the season. Despite his flaws, he’s in a similar boat as a lot of the other main characters. Even if they do things I disagree with, I still find them very likable.

One storyline I remember most is when the two of them go to LA to cover wildfires and they sort of have a breakthrough moment as colleagues.
With California being what it is with climate-related disasters, this was always going to be timely but it was interesting and kind of eerie to watch this while California was dealing with the Eaton and Palisade fires earlier this year. And also how news during these times are covered. I think I remember there being a story of rich people paying extra for firefighters to protect their homes, drawing resources away from poorer neighborhoods. Not the type of stuff morning news shows cover (it’s more of slanted CNN/fox news type story) but I still found it interesting they went there. Also a huge yikes if that’s actually a thing.

My only other critique of this series… there was a lot of yelling laced with expletives. Maybe it’s just me but in normal conversation or in professional situations, you don’t talk to people like that. I get that frustration was there but… seriously, would it kill you to expand your vocabulary beyond using the f word every 5 seconds?!


Lessons in Chemistry


Initial impression- Brie Larson plays a chemistry teacher

Actual premise- Elizabeth Zott, a female lab tech in the 50's struggles to get support for her research and winds up becoming a TV personality… and finally a chemistry professor at the end of the series

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to talk about this series without giving everything away so consider yourself warned.
This series makes me think of an Ed Sheeran lyric about “watching shows they recommend that don’t get good until the end.”
The latter half of this series was loads better than the first half.
I know it’s based on a book and it’s about self reliance and overcoming adversity… but some things need to be said before I can go forward:

1) if a woman stabs a man with a pencil, there’s probably a good reason for it… she isn’t the one who should be forced to apologize
2) Don’t make me fall in love a character…and kill them off. Especially when they’re the one ally the main character has
3)if a woman states they don’t want to be a parent, don’t make them a parent because “biology”— this is just something that annoys me. Writers need to get more creative and write more female characters who find success and happiness with every other aspect of their lives.

Now that that’s out of the way…
Elizabeth reminds me a little of Sheldon from Big Bang Theory. Maybe it’s just a genius thing but both of them are very matter-of -act and don’t always notice sarcasm. Her tendency to take things at face value ruffles some feathers but these quirks help bring levity to the story.

It’s a little disappointing in retrospect that she doesn’t achieve the goal she set out to do- earn recognition in the science community for her research.
But she does achieve a lot through the series. After losing Calvin Evans, the love of her life, and dealing with the challenges of being a single parent, she gets a gig doing her own cooking show on public broadcasting.

This was when where things started to get really good. She’d already become good friends with neighbor Harriet Sloane (I’d previously seen her as one of Keating 5 in “how to get away with murder”) who has her own storyline fighting for their neighborhood— they’re putting a freeway through it specifically because it's predominately a black neighborhood— probably one of the best integrations of civil rights in a recent series I’d personally seen. I don’t think they won the fight to keep the neighborhood but she definitely fought tooth and nail for it.
At the TV station, they had Dwight from The Office being a not-always nice guy and Stuart from Big Bang Theory helping her get her foot in the door. His character also gets progressively braver and willing to take more chances to help her succeed.
Then of course her daughter Madelyn, being the product of two geniuses, becomes a prodigy. So much so that her teachers are constantly annoyed at her for being smarter than them.

So the supporting cast overall is super strong. It’s also nice to have the military husband angle for the neighbor and he comes back home alive from Vietnam… I guess the show didn’t want to kill off more than one significant other.
We also learn more about Calvin's backstory- how he grew up in an orphanage and when his father came looking for him, the orphanage people kept them apart because they were using his genius for their own gain.

The show within the show is different than the Julia Child show we’ve experienced or seen one way or another. She still cooks on set but she also grapples with product placement issues. Most of which she doesn’t approve because they’re not made with natural ingredients. Then at one point, she turns a lot of heads when she held up a box of tampax as their latest sponser.
I mean, the rabid fan base of the show was mostly housewives so it’s relevant but the fact she went there was a good laugh. She also makes a controversial stand for the local civil rights movement and thanks to her fans, they keep her on the network... and Dwight loses his job.

In the end, though, she sees how her newfound fame has been affecting her relationship with Madelyn- they dont see each other as much anymore- so she leaves the show. And finally becomes a chemistry professor… and it ends there. I kinda wish I saw more of her in that role but for everyone, it was a good stopping point.

Ted Lasso (3 seasons on Apple+)

I'd been the type of person who absolutely refused to buy into the idea of streaming TV shows. Particularly on anything that would require paying a monthly subscription.
This is something I have absolutely zero regrets.

HOWEVER...

I finally joined the rest of my family and got my own iPad for Christmas. With it came three FREE months of Apple+.
So I figured... eh, why not? I'll see what all this is about and I had three shows in mind that I wanted to see.

Ted Lasso was the first one I choose and as of writing this post, the only one I continued binging after Season One. More on that later...

I knew nothing about this show going in except that Jason Sudeikis played the title character, he was coaching a soccer team and that it was a comedy.

It didn't take long for me to not only get into this show, but to immediately rate it as one of my favorite series ever. This is not an exaggeration... it had its ups and downs throughout the three seasons (as of this post) of its lifespan, but it had one thing going for that few other series have.
Most of the show was light-hearted and fun, full of memorable characters that'll be staying with me for a long time. And while it wasn't 100% drama-free zone, it handled those bumps in the road without throwing the train completely off the tracks. Between that and all the pop culture references, it was almost like it was tailor-made for me.

Going forward, there will be some spoilers... 
I'm mostly writing this post for myself so I have a record of why this show meant so much to me in 2025. 
Also- if anyone is thinking of getting an Apple+ subscription or happens to be in the middle of a free trial period, I'd ABSOLUTELY recommend checking this show out. 

And in case you're wondering, you do not have to be a soccer fan or even a sports fan to enjoy this show. I still don't know anything about that sport, haha.
With the exception of the World Cup a few years ago when Argentina (led by Lionel Messi) won in overtime, three seasons of this show is the most soccer I'd watched in my entire life.

***.

Ted Lasso is a college football coach from Kansas who is recruited to coach a soccer club in England by its female owner, Rebecca Welton. 
AFC Richmond isn't the strongest team in the league, but has a few star players. Notably young upstart Jamie Tartt and seasoned veteran Roy Kent.
But here's the catch: Rebecca recruited Ted for one specific purpose-- to sabotage any chance it has at success. 

...like many other people seeing this the first time, I reached the inevitable conclusion that this is essentially Major League, but instead of baseball, it's about soccer. Then more information comes out and we discover there's more going on behind the scenes. 

Rebecca's ex-husband, Rupert, had been the club's previous owner and ruining it would be the perfect revenge against him. Once she reveals this to Ted, they have a good conversation and they become allies- to make this team the best team in the league and a much better team than it had been under his leadership. 

Even before that, Ted's easygoing Midwestern attitude was winning over the hearts of everyone around him. He'd start each morning making "biscuits for the boss," which she accepted begrudgingly but secretly had Director of Operations Higgins doing recon to find out where he bought them because they were that good. 

Another skeptic he slowly won over- Trent Crimm from The Independent. Someone who you think is just another skeptic journalist but Ted wins him over and we get to see more of him as the series goes on.

For a while, it seemed like his only ally was Nate Shelley- the kit (equipment) guy who was full of ideas for how the team could improve and Ted was the first person to take him seriously. Nate's trajectory through the series... if you told me when I started this series the twists and turns that were in store for him, I'd say you were crazy. No matter what went on with him, part of you couldn't help but root for him.

Nearly every character was likable and even the ones that weren't, they often had a redemption arc or a certain stand-out moment in the series that won you over. The only exceptions were probably Rupert and the billionaire from Ghana that butted heads with a bunch of the main characters in season three. The closest things show had that could be considered villains... and karma came for them 

Roy Kent had a lot of growth through the series (as well as career changes), but the award for Most Improved definitely goes to Jamie Tartt.
He was notable for being the most prolific player on the team.... mostly because he never let anyone else score the goals. Super arrogant and unpleasant to be around. Then the contract that lent him to Richmond expires and he goes back to his original team, Man City. Then he ditches that team to do reality TV and had to work to regain his former team's respect when he came back to play for them. He's still not my favorite character, but he'd redeemed himself plenty in my eyes in season three. 

Roy Kent will probably go down as one of the most iconic characters this show is remembered for. He'd been in the league a long time and clearly dealing with the struggles that come with being an aging athlete. So his soccer career ends after seasons one. After that, he moves from being a talking head on a SportsCenter type show to a solid member of the coaching team at AFC Richmond along with Ted and Coach Beard (Ted's close friend who came along with him when he was recruited).
He's got a foul mouth and is rough around the edges, but he shows throughout the series he is a softie underneath. Especially when it comes to his niece, Phoebe, who he occasionally babysits. One of his finer uncle moments was in a Christmas episode. One of Phoebe's classmates says her breath stinks... and he bets her that he can find a dentist to address her halitosis within 10 doors. And he succeeds. 
In practice, he's very hardcore- one highlight was an ill-advised teamwork experiment where he had players paired up and tied to each other by their... let's just say a part of the male anatomy. It goes about as well as you'd expect. Meanwhile, he is laughing this really distinct laugh on the sidelines... thinking about that now still has me in stitches but yeah, do not try this at home.

Keeley does a lot of advertising and PR work for the team and later gets her own PR firm. Her friendship with Rebecca is a great example of female friendship. Despite the age gap, they're almost as close as sisters. Recently, Barbie dolls were made of the two of them to pay homage to that. 

Sam Obisanya gets more of a chance to shine after Jamie leaves the team and he winds up getting a lot of the bigger storylines in the series. His family is from Nigeria so that factors in a number of times. Keeley sets him up with a sponser but after hearing about their role impacting the land back home, he stages a boycott and everyone falls in line to support him. He also sets up a restaurant to bring the cuisine of his country to England and it has a lot of success. It's also the victim of vandalism after he has a Twitter spat with a politican who blocks his countrymen from seeking asylum in England.
His storylines are among the heavier on the series, but I liked how they were handled. 

Dani Rosas... three words- "Football is Life!"
It's funny... among the many references now I understand thanks to watching this show, I don't think anything can top the moment I put two and two together with this particular State Farm ad. As in "omg, I know that guy, he's from that show"
He was introduced later in season one and became a regular very quickly. He has a very happy-go-lucky attitude and super fun to be around.

I'd be remiss if I didn't devote a paragraph to the series's namesake.
I don't think I've seen a role yet where Jason Sudeikis didn't played a likeable character. But man... Ted Lasso is a role he played to perfection. Such a likeable sweet guy. Plus he had tons of good pop culture references and jokes to go along with them. The writing that went into his lines is the kind of stuff I really love... and there was only maybe one or two references where I honestly didn't know what he was talking about. 
But as the series progresses, we see there's more beneath the surface. How he struggled with the loss of his father at a young age. His continuing difficulties of working across the pond from his son, whom he misses terribly. Struggling with his divorce and his wife potentially finding love elsewhere... 

Sports psychatrist, Dr. Sharon Fieldstone, was introduced in season 2. Despite his usual optimistic attitude, Ted was a huge skeptic of her methods... in retrospective, I can understand why. Somewhere along the line, they not only become friends, but she helps him out a couple of jams... when panic attacks start happening.

Another interesting moment was Season 3 when Richmond managed to recruit sports legend Zava to join their team. I don't know much about soccer, but I know the tendancy for certain players to be divas. Faking injuries and so on. So I thought he was going to be another Reynaldo type character... once again, I was wrong and he became a great asset to the team. Until they started not doing so well...
I didn't do the math on this, but I'm sure if you sorted out Richmond's record throughout the series, they probably lose slightly more games than they won. They aren't completely helpless but definitely prone to long losing streaks. 

Another episode highlight that comes to mind is Amsterdam... where the whole Richmond staff go to get away for a little while.
Roy has been helping with Jamie special training and this continues while they're on vacation. Then the shoe goes on the other foot when Jamie teaches Roy how to ride a bike so they can take them to find a windmill.
The rest of the team, meanwhile, spend most of the night in the hotel lobby trying to figure out how to best spend their time... I can't remember if they ever decided on anything, haha. 
Rebecca has a chance encounter with a guy who owns a homeboat. They get along well but part ways with neither learning the other's name.
Ted has an interesting time at the Netherlands' interpretation of an Americana restaurant... something about a hot sauce induced epiphany where he finds the key to ending the team's latest losing streak.

***

I'm sure there's plenty of other highlights that'd come to mind but this is a pretty good cross-section. I'm going to miss this show... chances are by the time I finally discontinue my membership, season 4 will drop. Right now, they just say it'll be coming late 2025 or early 2026.

So far, this is one of three series I'd checked out on Apple+

"Lessons in Chemistry" only had the one season, but I would've done more if more existed... although it did take a while before it got good.
Then "The Morning Show"- I knew nothing about it other than the two main cast members. There'll be a post on that in the distant future, but I got the end of season one and decided in that moment that I'd had enough. The season finale was what I'd consider an ideal ending and I had no desire to continue forward to see how that gets ruined. Not to mention the subject matter... I hadn't experienced it personally but through one of its characters, it felt real enough.

I figured after one season, I'd check these other series out, just in case I get too comfortable with Ted Lasso and everything else will pale in comparison.
Spoiler alert-- it didn't matter what order I watched any of these, Ted Lasso would still be my favorite.

Theatrical Review: A Minecraft Movie

Date: Saturday, April 5 2025
Location: Stroud Mall cinemark
Time: 12pm (12:26 after the trailers)
Party: 3 (my sister, mom and I)

Review

Something I was feeling while sitting through the trailers leading up to this movie- new movies aren’t as fun as they used to be. They’re all big budget action movies, unnecessary sequels and live action remakes nobody asked for. There’s just not as much incentive to go to the movies as there used to be…
Then the main movie started and all of that cynicism essentially flew out the window. “Minecraft” isn’t the best movie ever and it isn’t necessarily groundbreaking in any way.
But it had one big thing going for it- it was FUN

My sister and I have gone out to see a bunch of these video games adaptations at the movies. All have been great even when all we know about them going in is from pop culture or we’d seen let’s plays on YouTube by our favorite content creators.
This might be the first time we’re going into one of these movies with absolutely no context.
The rest of the people in the theater more than picked up the slack. I’d venture to say that this is the liveliest theater we’d been in in a long time… and it was awesome. THIS is what movie theaters are all about.

The story begins with Steve (Jack Black) and his lifelong fascination with the mines. It’s only when he becomes an adult and he’d had enough of his deadend office job he’s able to go and explore. He goes into the actual Minecraft world and gets to create the life he’d always wanted— literally.

Minecraft is what a lot of gamers refer to as a “sandbox game” where you have the freedom to make whatever world you want. Life simulation games like animal crossing and stardew valley (I’ve put hundreds of hours into playing both of these) do the same thing but Minecraft was one of the first games to do this.
After a montage of mechanics that people who’d actually played this game would recognize, Steve is captured by the denizens of the Nether (it’s sort of a take on hell complete with fire and brimstone) and he has his pet wolf Dennis hide the power cube to keep the pigs from using it to take over the overworld.
Both this game and Angry Birds cast pigs as the villains for some reason. But after recently reading animal farm, I may have an idea why…

Fast forward- the rest of the main characters are introduced.
Jason Momoa plays Garett, whose one accomplishment that he’ll never stop bragging about is the fact he won a fighting game in a national championship. His nickname is “the garbage man” because of his signature move in the game. Sadly he’d recently fallen on hard times financially and he’s about to lose his vintage video game store.
Henry and his sister Natalie are moving to Cutlass Idaho to start a new life after their mom died. Their realtor, Dawn (who has a traveling petting zoo as a side hustle) is the first friend they make in a new town. Both siblings have their first days (Henry at school and Natalie at her new job) and they both run into problems.
Henry’s art teacher made me think of a line from another Jack Black movie- “those who can’t teach, teach gym.” I figure this dude is one step away from being relegated to that position. He gives an assignment to do a still life and gives Henry grief for being “too creative” with his assignment and the other kids bully him as a result.
Then his attempt to prove everyone wrong by actually designing a jet pack that works… it not only goes awry but it directly impacts his sister’s new job.
I’d ask “what are the odds?” but this is a movie and it takes place in a small town so I’d have to say- very good.

Luckily Henry had met Garett on the way to school so he not only gets him to pose as an uncle to take him home from school but he gets to hang out in his store.
While there, he comes across the cube, one of several things Garett won in a storage unit auction (basically all the stuff from Steve’s bedroom because he’d been gone for a long time). Before Garett can fully read the accompanying warning (written by Steve) about not putting the blue cube and the earth cube together, both of them get dragged into the mine.
Natalie and Dawn follow them there and get dragged in themselves. Before they get too enamored by the look of the place or have a chance to return home through the portal, night falls and they have to fight off the skeletons and zombies that come out after dark. Henry does his first ever build with a pretty decent tower that holds them off for a while but Steve arrives to save them before it’s too late. Although he did have a little help with the sun coming back up but whatever…

The moment he introduces himself… clearly this is a line from the game because in perfect unison, nearly everyone else in the theater said “I am Steve” alongside him.
Seriously, it was a cool moment- you had to be there.


As they travel together, Steve gives them a lowdown on the bad guys and a tutorial on crafting mechanics.
The leader of the pigs ascended to her position in a similar fashion to some notable bad guys from our own history… her talent was not appreciated by her peers so her only other option is to ruin creativity for everyone else. And since the pigs turn to stone when they go into the overworld, she wants to use the cube to cast eternal night so they can roam and pillage freely.
Since the earth cube got destroyed during the melee with the zombies, the heroes’ objective is to go on a journey in order to obtain a new one. Garett is also on a personal quest for diamonds in order to pay back all his debts.

There’s also a side story we go back to throughout the movie involving the vice principal (played by Jennifer Coolidge) and one of the pacifist villagers who comes into the real world through the portal when the heroes get sucked into his world. And surprisingly they hit it off.
I can only guess her newfound popularity from being in the white lotus series was behind this casting choice. But also, Jack Black and Mike White (the White Lotus creator) did school of rock together so that connection probably helped as well. Either way, it was a fun little thing to sprinkle it through the movie.

We may not have had an inkling of what we were getting with this movie but we’d seen enough Jack Black movies and know his humor well enough to know we were bound to have a good time.
Naturally this includes a few random songs he made up on the spot- none as good as “Peaches” or the school of rock stuff but Jack Black through and through.
We hadn’t seen much of Jason Momoa except some of his DC stuff and the commercials he’s in. He’s very hammy and over the top (as any dude stuck in his glory days from the 80s would be) but he makes it work. The chemistry of the whole main cast is really good.
Dennis the wolf takes a while to come back into the story. He’s great as well but I’m always a sucker for a good wolf character. Particularly when a wolf isn’t cast as the villain in a cartoon— that’s one cliche I’d love to do away with entirely.

Another reference the audience got really excited over despite it being in a bunch of the trailers- when the chicken jockey showed up in the boxing ring.
The experience of watching this movie- my mom would probably say that’s the way she feels when she watches other nerdy stuff with us. And honestly it was kinda fun being in the same boat, not really knowing what was going on. It allowed us to take things as they came without any expectations.
Of course there were a bunch of things that were predictable and cliched but with the special effects and stuff, you stop caring and just enjoy the ride.

In the end, the good guys win, bad guys lose and the good guys take the skills (and diamonds) they learned from the Minecraft world and took them into reality.

Sonic 3 was about the importance of teamwork (particularly with Sonic, Tails and knuckles working together for the first time). The Mario movie was about how anyone, no matter how small or how much other people underestimate them, can make a difference in the world.
I suppose one key thing people can take away from this movie- whether they’re part the Minecraft fandom or not- is that maintaining a sense of creativity and finding joy in it is one of the most important things we have and should never be taken for granted.

Grade- a solid B+


Did it make me want to try the game myself?
Maybe… I’ll have to check YouTube to see what the switch version is like
Would I be any good at it?
Debatable… I really enjoyed the other cozy sandbox games I’ve played but there’s always that pang of comparison envy when I compare my builds to what I see on the internet.

Trailers


How to train your dragon (live action)

-the first time I’m seeing the full trailer and yeah, it looks impressive


King of kings

-it’s that time of year where there’s a limited release of a movie that leans heavily on the Christian theme.
-This one actually goes into the story of Jesus and all that leads to his crucification on Good Friday and him rising from the dead three days later on Easter. But this time it’s told as an animated bedtime story, which gives it a fresh new take it hasn’t had in a while… if ever.


Lilo and Stitch (live action)

-I mean, it looks fun and definitely faithful to the original movie. But I’m getting the feeling people are over live action remakes. Especially with how badly the little mermaid and Snow White movies were received


Smurfs

-we had a couple movies with animated Smurfs in a live action environment. This one seems to be all animated… but nonetheless feels pointless


Mission impossible- The Final Reckoning

-thankfully this was only a teaser trailer… seen the full one more than enough times


Jurassic World- rebirth

-ugh! Why?
-I have so many cliches I could use here involving extinction… I’ll leave it for everyone else to decide which one to use


Superman

-ok, at least this trailer offered something new… I thought it was going to just be Superman being saved by Krypto, followed by the same stupid montage flashing all of the movie scenes in a span of 90 seconds. The montage still happened with probably the same scenes in the exact same order but at least this time we got an epic reveal of the fortress of solitude

-Depending on the reception it gets, I might go out and see this one… considering how many superman reboots that’ve been attempted this century (not an exaggeration- we’ve had at least 4 movies featuring Superman come out since the mid 2000s), I’m kinda hoping we have one that finally works. If not, Hollywood should just stop trying to “make fetch happen” and let the Christopher Reeve movies represent the character as originally intended.