A Little TLC(w): The Duke of Mount Deer: Season 1, Episode 3 (1984)

*This is turning out to be a fairly serialized show, and Wai Siu-bo is in a very different position now than he was in episode 1. As such, there will be some spoilers for the previous episodes in setting up the current state of affairs, including an identity reveal for one character.*

I’m less into this episode than I was the first two, largely because there’s not as much Wai Siu-bo/Tony Leung Chi-wai. Still, there’s some good stuff going on here and I continue to have a good time.

After his misadventures in the last episode, Wai Siu-bo is now thoroughly entrenched as the coerced servant of the ailing but sly martial arts adept Hoi Goong-goong. Posing as a eunuch in the Imperial Palace, he tries to balance doing his new master’s bidding with helping out his fugitive friend Fatso. Meanwhile, the young emperor attempts to deal with a treacherous imperial guardian, but maneuvering the traitor out of his position is easier said than done.

First things first: it’s revealed at the end of episode 2 that Little Yuen, who’s adopted Wai Siu-bo as a sparring partner, is actually the emperor. Up until now, despite multiple plots going on, Siu-bo has definitely felt like the main character, but here, the emperor steps forward as a dual protagonist. There’s all kinds of court intrigue going on, and even though the emperor isn’t thrilled about being tied down to all this responsibility on his plate—not identifying himself to Siu-bo is a classic royal-posing-as-a-commoner move, Princess Jasmine would be proud—he does seem like a smart, capable young man who wants to do this right. He’s been guided by regents thus far, but as the shady Imperial Guardian Ngo Bye reaches for ever greater power, his regents urge the emperor to take more control for himself.

We also get a little more on the Ming loyalist movement. Fatso, who’s pro-Ming and knows how to throw down but isn’t an actual revolutionary, makes contact here with the elusive Heaven and Earth Society. The society’s goals align with his, and he considers making a move from being a lone wolf to joining up.

Caught in the middle between everything happening with the emperor, the jockeying for power at court, and the exploits of the rebels, we have Wai Siu-bo, who is just trying to keep his plates in the air. I’m still enjoying this character a lot. He’s kind of a selfish guy, generally looking out for number one above all else and not overburdened with scruples. And yet, he’s personable enough to make friends easily and is pretty loyal to those he meets. Now that he’s quasi-safe at court, albeit still in a precarious position, he tries to offer Fatso what cover/help he can, but he’s at the beck and call of Master Hoi too.

The “clever fool” characterization I noted in the pilot is turning out to be an apt one. Wai Siu-bo is a bit of a trouble magnet, and he can appear hapless and a little flailing as he careens from one sticky situation to another. But whenever the shit hits the fan, he’s incredibly light on his feet, launching into action to talk his way out of anything. What he lacks in book knowledge (in fact, he’s illiterate) and martial arts training, he makes up in street smarts and a refined talent for BSing on the fly. I love the little touches in Leung’s performance, like when he makes a face at Master Hoi’s orders (bold only because he knows Hoi is blind and can’t see it,) or the way he fumbles when he’s being genuine but is smooth and confident when he’s lying.

Some Thoughts on Wanda Maximoff in Multiverse of Madness

*Spoilers for Multiverse of Madness and WandaVision.*

Okay, now that I’ve gushed all kinds of Moon Knight feelings onto the internet, it’s time to circle back around to Multiverse of Madness for a bit. There are some things I like about the second Doctor Strange movie—the visuals are great, Strange himself works a lot better for me here than he did in his debut film, and I enjoy America’s introduction—but on the whole, I can’t come away with an overall positive feeling on the movie, and a lot of that is down to how it deals with Wanda.

First of all, I’m not trying to be a Wanda apologist here. She’s a very complex character who’s done a shit-ton of wrong things, and I’m not opposed to seeing her go down immoral paths. And she’s so powerful that, when she does break bad, it’s no surprise that she’s incredibly hard to stop. But I really do feel like they did her dirty here.

My main issue is that Wanda’s storyline in this film makes her entire journey in WandaVision feel pointless. I love the exploration of Wanda’s psyche in WandaVision, how her grief and her power combine in astounding ways and she allows herself to be blinded to the hurt she’s causing in order to anaesthetize herself from her sorrow for just a bit longer. When she comes out of it and finally reckons with just how badly she’s harming people, she’s horrified, and she gives up everything she wants in order to make it right. She says goodbye to the children she created and watches Vision disappear yet again. After the events of WandaVision, she secludes herself, in part to study the Darkhold, in part to explore her magic in an environment where she can’t hurt anyone.

To have her very next appearance in the MCU be full-blown villainy, willingly killing multiple people in horrific ways to claw her way through the multiverse and find Variants of her sons, makes me ask what that beautiful, dark exploration in WandaVision was for? What was WandaVision itself for, other than introducing Billy and Tommy? It’s so disappointing to me.

Some have been quick to point to the Darkhold. After all, it’s a powerful magical object that corrupts everyone who tries to use it. But 1) “Wanda loses her senses because of an evil book” is way less compelling than what we see in WandaVision. And 2) even though the Darkhold appeared on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. several years prior to making its flagship-MCU debut in WandaVision, the film tells us that the Darkhold corrupts without ever showing us the process of that happening. We only see Wanda, and a Strange Variant in another universe, already corrupted by it, and hear secondhand about another Strange Variant who was corrupted by it. This thing is like the One Ring of the MCU, but we never see how it’s affecting people. By Wanda’s first scene in the film, she’s already all the way gone.

If they were gonna do “Wanda turns evil because of the Darkhold,” I really wish we could’ve seen the slide, the descent. Let Wanda come to Strange talking about the multiverse, about needing a way to be reunited with a Billy and Tommy from another universe. Let them find America together—to help Wanda try and navigate the multiverse, not to have Wanda attempt to kill a child to steal her power. Let Wanda initially want to find a Billy and Tommy who’ve lost their Wanda rather than trying to supplant her own Variant, but let her grow increasingly impatient/desperate as America struggles to wield her powers. Let us watch her shift from asking, to demanding, to trying to take for herself. Let us see her at times recognize that her thoughts aren’t fully her own, and let those clearheaded moments gradually fade as the Darkhold gains more of a hold over her. In short, if we’re going to have Wanda be a villain immediately after WandaVision, show us how she gets there.

Like I said, she’s in so much deeper here than she is in WandaVision. There, she’s mentally torturing people with her own anguish, but at first, she’s not entirely aware that she’s doing it, and later, it’s acknowledged that she’s subconsciously tried to mitigate some of the damage, such as mostly keeping the children in Westview asleep so they don’t feel what the adults are going through. Clearly, this is all still awful stuff, and I’m not excusing it in the slightest. I’m just saying that it’s a different tenor of awful than wanting to kill a 14-year-old girl and successfully killing multiple superheroes in agonizing ways, frequently while doing her best impression of The Ring.

One thing I do find interesting, though, is that Wanda never kills any Variants of her old friends back in the main MCU universe (like Iman Vellani, I don’t feel right calling it 616.) She doesn’t kill a Natasha Romanoff, or a Sam Wilson, or even a Johnny Storm who looks like Steve Rogers. These are all Variants of people she’s never met. She may have seen the photo of Peggy in Steve’s compass at some point, but she didn’t know Peggy. Granted, a big part of this is just the easter-egg fun of bringing in these various surprise characters for the Illuminati. But as a byproduct, it means Wanda is never confronted with the choice of killing anyone with the same faces as her friends. I wonder what she would’ve done.

Other Doctor Lives: Sex Education: Season , Episode 2 (2019)

*Series premise spoilers.*

I’m settling in well to this show. Some of the humor veers a bit too cringey for me, but I’m enjoying the plot as it unfolds and how the characters are starting to gel. This episode puts a different spin on a timeless premise for shows about teens.

After learning that Otis’s upbringing has caused him to absorb some of his mom’s talent for sex therapy, Maeve envisions a business where Otis provides therapy to other students about their sex problems. Otis regrets agreeing and gets in over his head, and his first official session is a predictable disaster. He’s ready to give up then and there, but between Maeve’s enterprising nature and Eric’s tenacity, they hit on an ideal spot for Otis to advertise the business with “free samples”: a Friday-night party.

Quick side note: I know the show is set in the present day, because the kids all have phones and viral videos spread like wildfire, but I keep fooling myself into thinking it’s a period show set in the ’90s or early 2000s. These kids write notes to each other in class. What is this??

Before I get into the stuff with the kids, I want to touch on Otis’s mom Jean. Sure, it’s an obvious plot for the expert sex therapist to have a sexually-awkward teenage son with all of the book knowledge but none of the game, but I like that it’s not just Otis being immune to Jean’s incisive analysis. Jean is genuinely flailing here, unsure of herself in a way that wouldn’t seem possible when she’s coolly rebuffing a one-night-stand who got a little too attached. When she can’t figure out what Otis is thinking/feeling, it frustrates her, and she makes some sloppy mistakes in her floundering to get it right.

I enjoy seeing Otis’s timid dive into the world of unlicensed sex therapy. It’s completely believable that he’d offer excellent counsel in the pilot without realizing it but then choke when he was expected to do it on cue. Clearly, Otis is a guy who overthinks things and worries too much, and it’s both entertaining and painful to see how badly he fumbles. It’s quickly becoming apparent that he needs to connect with his “clients” and focus on their problems. When he’s not thinking about himself, he doesn’t have time to get self-conscious; he just does what needs to be done.

Every show about teens has to have at least one party episode, and I like Sex Education’s take on it. Otis and Eric being at the party is itself an additional trope, the “loser” kids struggling their way through a popular kid’s party, but for starters, Otis does not want to be there. He has no desire to be popular, or be noticed by anyone popular. Whenever anybody pays too much attention to him, he makes like a turtle retreating into its shell. The other twist, of course, is that, irrespective of each character’s reaction to being there at the party, their ultimate purpose there is business, getting the word out about Otis’s sex therapy and trying to drum up some clients. It’s fun to watch Otis, Maeve, and Eric each try to work the room in their own way.

As is shaping up to be typical, Eric is a study in contrast with Otis. While Otis dreads going to the party, Eric is thrilled to be there, and he analyzes every move for maximum effect: his look (monochromatic in orange,) his arrival (you do not show up to a cool-kid party early,) and his conversation starters (there’s blow-job advice involved.) His excitement is infectious, but at the same time, he gives off a whiff of desperation in this episode. He’s trying way too hard because he really wants to impress these kids, but popular teens can smell desperation as well as they can smell fear. This won’t end well for him.

There are moments in the episode where Eric’s scenes get a little butt-monkey-adjacent, which bums me out. He had some embarrassing moments in the pilot too, but it gets considerably worse here. I suppose this is twofold: 1) unlike Otis, he really cares about this stuff, and 2) also unlike Otis, he continually puts himself out there. Eric takes risks, which can place him in the path of embarrassing himself, but he’s eternally hopeful for a possible pay-off.

Ncuti Gatwa’s performance feels really honest and naturalistic, even in moments when the writing doesn’t. Early in the episode, Eric says both “take a chill pill” and “fake it until you make it,” but Gatwa’s delivery keeps either from sounding clichéd. And as psyched he is about Maeve hanging out with them (“She’s better than popular because she’s cool,”) he’s able to stay on his toes. I love how neatly he BSes an excuse when Maeve notes that he missed a button on his shirt, insisting, “It’s a new look! It’s like normcore, but with buttons done up wrong.” Gatwa gives off a breezy, unbothered air on the line even as you can feel part of him willing her to buy it.

Anything Goes (2021)

I’m not positive, but I’m assuming that this London production is pretty much the same as the 2011 Broadway revival, and not just because Sutton Foster plays Reno Sweeney in both. Rather, I remember the Broadway production’s Tony performance of the title number, along with Jonathan Groff’s splendid Miscast recreation of it, and I’d say that’s the same tap routine we see here. I have the cast recording from that production, but even though I enjoy a number of the cast members and Cole Porter’s music, it only gets occasional rotation in the soundtrack of my life. I came away from this Great Performances recording with a similar feeling.

Young, eager Billy Crocker does a dumb thing when he realizes the woman he loves is boarding a ship with her fiancée: he stows away. In between trying to woo his beloved Hope away from her beau, he has to evade both the ship’s captain and his boss, another passenger on the ship who expects Billy to be handling his affairs back on Wall Street. Luckily, Billy has some help from his friend/former flame Reno and, rather unexpectedly, a gangster known as Moonface Martin.

Here's the funny thing. I’ve actually seen Anything Goes live twice, but both of those were high school productions of dubious quality, and while I remembered some of the songs, the broad gist of the love story, and the racism in the ending, I realized watching this video that I didn’t actually know the story of the show. And it’s— I mean, it’s what it is. For the most part, it’s just a frame to hang the Cole Porter songs on, flimsy and farcical with silly jokes and misunderstandings stretched to absurd proportions. This cast manages it fine, but there’s very little that pops onstage.

I will say this production is moderately less racist than the others I’ve seen, and I’m guessing less than the show was initially intended to be. There’s no tropey “chop suey” characterization for John and Luke, and the ending keeps the basic plot beats of the original without going full-blown Charlie Chan. It’s still no great prize for Asian American representation in musical theatre, but the actors playing John and Luke here have fewer cringey moments than usual.

The music is what comes off best, in no small part because of the songs themselves. In addition to the big-ticket numbers like “Anything Goes,” “De-Lovely,” and “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” I also love the swooning melody on “Easy to Love” and the delightful rhymes on “You’re the Top.”

Sutton Foster, no surprise, is the firecracker the production pivots around. As Reno, her belt is strong and her dancing is topnotch, both as usual. Honestly, though, on the acting front, it was just okay for me. The weak book is partly to blame, of course, but either way, I wasn’t really feeling it. Unfortunately, Samuel Edwards is bland to me as Billy, especially in his scenes opposite Foster, and Nicole-Lily Baisden’s Hope is pleasant but a little dull. Robert Lindsay has some amusing moments as Moonface Martin, and Felicity Kendahl is entertaining as Hope’s snobby, overbearing mother. For me, the actor who acquits themselves the best is probably Haydn Oakley as Hope’s gullible fiancée Evelyn. The show gets plenty of corny mileage out of jokes about the British Evelyn not understanding American slang, but Oakley mostly makes it work.

Warnings

Lots of suggestiveness, mild language, drinking/smoking, a little violence, and some sexist/racist humor.

Character Highlight: The Jacobi Master (Doctor Who)

*Spoilers for “Utopia.”*

This will be a tricky Master to talk about. You thought the Eric Roberts incarnation didn’t have much screentime to work with? Derek Jacobi is in one episode of new Who, and for most of it, he isn’t actually the Master! (Side note: I’m aware that the Jacobi Master, along with other short-lived TV characters, has had a fuller life in supplementary materials like Big Finish audiobooks, but today, I’m focusing just on what we see on the show.)

We can’t talk about the Jacobi Master without talking about Professor Yana. Similar to the Tenth Doctor in “Human Nature,” this version of the Master experienced a human life via a Chameleon Arch. While the Doctor became human to hide out from the murderous Family of Blood, the Master did it to escape the Time War. He’d been granted a new regeneration cycle in exchange for fighting, but as the Time War dragged on, he needed an out—and so he used the Chameleon Arch to make himself human, concealing his Time Lord essence and true memories in a fob watch.

Thus, the Master became Professor Yana. The Master had intentionally chosen the end of the universe as his hiding spot, but for Yana that’s simply his life. And although Yana has some of the Master’s qualities, like his scientific mind and the psychic drumming that plagues a number of the Master’s regenerations, he’s in truth a very different person. Much like the Doctor as John Smith is pretty indifferent to suffering and falls to useless pieces when aliens attack, the Master as Yana is a kind, altruistic soul who devotes his life to building a rocket to find a new home for the remnants of humanity. When it seems to him he won’t be able to complete it, he keeps that news to himself, not wanting to deprive people of hope in their final days, and when the Doctor shows up in the TARDIS, Yana is all too happy to defer to his quickly-apparent expertise to get the job done.

It's this same encounter with the Doctor, though, that ultimately leads Yana to open the fob watch and release the Master within. And credit to Derek Jacobi—even though he’s only in this one episode and is playing Yana for most of it, it’s immediately clear that his Master is someone else entirely. In the blink of an eye, he turns cold, cruel, and ruthless. All of the sudden, he’s once again looking out only for number one. He’s only too happy to leave the Doctor, Martha, and Jack stranded at the end of the universe, and he’s needlessly cruel to his former assistant just because.

Given his limited screentime, as he’s shot and regenerates maybe four minutes after he regains his identity, it’s hard to say too much about this version of the Master, but the impression I get is that he’s harder and more serious than many who come before or after him. We don’t really see much of the Master’s more dramatic tendencies here. And I suppose that makes sense. The Master most likely experienced some intense shit before he ran away from the Time War, and then he spent 60+ years as a human puttering around on a dying planet vainly trying to save a bunch of refugees. 1) This Master has been through it and isn’t really in the mood for theatrics. And 2) he doesn’t have the time for it, having “wasted” enough of his regeneration as Yana. So he goes straight for the jugular, pausing only to frighten and mock Chantho before he kills her. He may not have the chance to be the Master for long, but he packs as much villainy into those few minutes as he possibly can.

News Satire Roundup: June 19th, June 21st-June 23rd

Sunday, June 19

·        Recap of the Week – Peru corruption inquiry, January 6^th committee, midterms

o   Loved this comment about Trump lawyer John Eastman – “Quick side note: if you’re ever accused of a crime and your lawyer shows up to court dressed like this, you are going to jail.”

o   John agreed with another lawyer who testified about his appalled reaction to Eastman’s plan to overturn the election, but he quibbled with the lawyer’s use of, ‘Are you out of your effing mind?’” – “I will say, at this point, you can just say ‘fuck.’ Democracy is hanging by a thread, and you had a front-row seat. You can say ‘fuck.’ You said it then and you should say it now.”

o   This tied directly into the piece about the midterms, where over 100 candidates who “back Trump’s false claims of election fraud” have already won their primaries.

o   We looked at some of the most worrying among Secretary of State candidates, like conspiracy theorist Jim Marchant from Nevada – I did like John’s description of Marchant as “[someone] who looks like what a child would produce if you simply asked them to ‘draw business.’”

o   Then there’s Audrey Trujllo from New Mexico, who’s wholeheartedly convinced of election fraud and won’t be swayed – “Wait, wait, wait. ‘Whether we can prove it or not’? But that’s a pretty big loophole, isn’t it, Audrey? We all believe plenty of things that we can’t prove, but we shouldn’t base major life decisions on them.”

o   There was also Kristina Karamo from Michigan who, in addition to denying the legitimacy of the 2020 election, said Democrats have a “Satanic agenda” and allowing premarital sex is a slippery slope to pedophilia – “Okay. First of all, Democrats don’t have a Satanic agenda, mainly because that would require having an agenda in the first place.”

o   It all came down to this – “The January 6^th committee is reminding everyone just how close we came to democracy basically collapsing. It was a handful of people in the right position choosing to do the right thing that saved us from a constitutional crisis. But there are multiple candidates running for consequential positions right now running on the platform of basically, ‘Let's do the coup again, but better next time.’”

·        And Now This – Zaddies

o   Lotta local news anchors apparently out just calling any older man a zaddy – In the montage, we got claims of Jeff Bezos, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Vladimir Putin(?)

o   There were also more than a few male anchors either claiming the title for themselves or asking their female co-anchors if they were zaddies.

·        Main Story – Housing

o   Depressing but true intro – “Our main story tonight concerns housing, that thing that 16-year-old TikTok millionaires can afford and you can't.”

o   Last month, the median monthly asking price for rent exceeded $2,000 for the first time, but John noted that the rental crisis in the U.S. is hardly new – in some major cities, the average housing cost has exceeded 30% of residents’ income for 10 years or more.

o   In other words, “It’s a problem we’ve know about for decades and is only getting worse, which, I believe was also a working title for this show. It was either that or America’s Saddest Home Videos with Adult McLovin.”

o   John had no patience for one landlord wringing his hands over “market price” and how he “had to” evict low-income residents – “Of course kicking someone out of your house doesn't make you a bad Christian. It's in the beatitudes. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Fucked are the poor in money: for theirs is the kingdom of landlords. Wazzaaaaaaaaaaaaa!’”

o   While new apartment construction has increased in recent years, the availability of affordable-housing units has decreased – “That might be why, if you've ever tried to search for affordable apartments in your area, Google just says, ‘Nope!’”

o   John had an appropriately-disgusted response to another landlord getting his Ebenezer Scrooge on – “Wow. ‘They can't go anywhere and for us that's an unprecedented opportunity to press them.’ That is a terrible way to talk about people. Honestly, it's a barely acceptable way to talk about paninis.”

o   We looked at federal assistance through Section 8 vouchers, but naturally, it’s woefully underfunded and isn’t available to nearly enough of the people who qualify for it – One Chicago alderwoman recently made news for getting a Section 8 approval letter 29 years after she applied.

o   Then we’ve got housing court, where it’s almost impossible for renters to fight unjust evictions – One study found that “nearly 90% of landlords were represented by a lawyer compared to less than 1% of tenants.”

o   John laid out the crux of the matter – “That is the core issue with rental housing in this country, though: people who think that investments deserve more respect than basic human needs.”

o   In looking at solutions, John pointed out that we could easily increase Section 8 funding and affordable-housing availability with the money that the government is currently spending on tax deductions for mortgage owners, with around 2/3 of the benefits going to people who earn over $200,000 a year – “We are clearly willing to prioritize housing in the budget, just not for the people who it the most.”

·        And Now This – Happy Hour on QVC

o   Just a montage of QVC announcers enthusiastically day-drinking while they hawk products – I chuckled at the woman who, mid-anecdote, explained, “And they said, ‘Wine?’, and I said, ‘Uh, yeah!’”

 

Tuesday, June 21

·        Headlines – China may be spying on TikTok data, January 6^th hearings, police response to Uvalde school shooting, Biden falls off his bike

o   I chuckled at Trevor’s defense of TikTok – “What else are you gonna do when you’re pooping, right?”

o   This is hardly a new idea, but it’s still valid – “It's a little crazy how we're so hooked on social media that governments don't even need to steal our data anymore, right? We’ll just give it to them. Like back in the day, they'd have to hack into a database or break into the Social Security building. Now we're just giving it to them for free.”

o   Ouch – Trevor described the January 6^th hearings as “the investigation that will somehow result in less punishment than the Oscars slap.”

o   This was a good line, in reaction to White House officials coming to dread calls from Rudy Giuliani in the weeks after the election – “This man went from being an American hero to sounding like a telemarketer selling a coup.”

o   Sound advice – “Not that I’m encouraging it, ‘cause I’m not, but if you are gonna try to overturn an election, maybe don’t leave voice mails?”

o   Trevor had a relatable reaction to the new revelation that the police officers in Uvalde were equipped with rifles and ballistic shields but still didn’t even attempt to confront the shooter for over an hour – “You know, what’s insane about this story is how the one time— the one time it would have been appropriate to go in guns blazing, the cops decide to have a picnic outside. Yeah. But if you’re Black or you have a broken taillight—oh, then, all of a sudden, they go all Rambo on your ass.”

o   In light of the Uvalde Police Department’s continually-changing story, this was an applause moment, and well deserved – “Journalists shouldn’t be reporting what the police said. They should be investigating what actually happened.”

o   It’s no surprise that Trump was at a rally concerned-trolling Biden falling off his bike, but I laughed out loud when Trump told his followers, “I make this pledge to you today: I will never, ever ride a bicycle.”

·        Correspondent Piece (Dulcé) – Corporate history with Pride

o   Awesome line – “June is Pride Month, or as it’s called in the state of Florida, ‘Shhhh.’”

o   After modest in-roads into LGBTQ-focused advertising in the late ‘70s, most corporations backed off when the AIDS epidemic hit – According to Dulcé, the corporate reaction was, “Oh no! What if the gays look at our ads? Wait. Is that how you get AIDS?”

o   Visibility increased in the ‘90s, though that led to backlash – “One Ikea even got a bomb threat. What is wrong with these religious fanatics? They know the furniture isn’t gay, right?”

o   Of course, we didn’t ignore the fact that a lot of the same corporations that rainbow-ify their logos every June also donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to anti-LGBTQ politicians.

o   Nice closer – “The point is, enjoy all those gay Whoppers and pink Toyotas, but don’t forget what this month is about. Pride is a time to celebrate the right to love who you want and to honor the people who fought to give us that right back when no brand was on their side.”

·        Interview – Journalist/anchor Katy Tur

o   Tur was there to talk about her new memoir, which deals heavily with her upbringing under her helicopter-news parents – She recalled how her parents captured the footage of the O.J. police chase, saying, “My mom is hanging out of the helicopter with a camera on her shoulder, quite literally, just strapped in with a belt, looking down at the ground, which is 1,500 feet below her.”

o   She stated that her parents really pioneered that style of capturing breaking-news footage – “They were the ones that changed the way news was covered in Los Angeles, and then, the country, and then, you could argue, the world. It was breaking, in the moment, and it was now, now, now. It was no context needed, blow out everything, and cover this for as long as we can.”

o   While she recognized some benefits to this, she also acknowledged the corrosive effect this has had on the news, with its 24-hour-cycle frenzy – “I do think you could draw a straight line from the way we covered pursuits back then to the way we covered Donald Trump in 2016, and the way we cover politics now.”

Wednesday, June 22

·        Headlines – Biden pushes for gas-tax holiday, gun reform bill, NYC mayor has confiscated dirt bikes crushed, FDA may ban Juul e-cigarettes

o   I loved Trevor’s take on the way Biden will sometimes lean forward and start whispering during a speech – “Joe Biden is the only president whose vibe shifts in the middle of a sentence.”

o   A sadly apt summary – “There have been many mass shootings in America over the past couple of decades, and, after each one, people have always said, ‘Maybe this time will be different. Maybe Congress will do something about this.’ And, every time, Congress was like, ‘…No.’”

o   The new bill is incredibly modest, but at least it seems it will pass. Trevor had a wonderful, withering response to Mitch McConnell’s contentment that it “fully protects” the Second Amendment – “Oh, I agree with Senator Mitch McConnell. Thank God the precious Second Amendment has been preserved. Oh, yes. I mean, I’m all for protecting kids, but the Second Amendment, oh, have you seen that little face? Have you seen it?”

o   So well said – “Sometimes I feel like Americans want to protect the Constitution more than they want to protect the Americans the Constitution is supposed to protect.”

o   Loved this line – “I’ll tell you now, if the Second Amendment was in that classroom in Uvalde, the cops would’ve bust the door down with Mitch McConnell right behind them.”

o   I laughed at Trevor’s enthused reaction to New York City’s mayor ordering that confiscated dirt bikes be crushed under a bulldozer – “That’s what I want from my city government! I don’t even care about the underfunded schools anymore ‘cause this shit rocks!”

o   With the biggest maker of e-cigarettes poised to get banned by the FDA, “your days of going around looking like you’re blowing R2-D2 are over.”

·        Correspondent Piece (Lewis) – Weddings in 2022

o   Due to pandemic issues, 20% of weddings last year were rescheduled for this year, meaning everything is in high demand – “Planning to marry? Then get ready to rumble!”

o   Because of this, and ongoing supply chain issues, the average wedding is far more expensive this year – “I guess that’s America for you. It’s easier to get a shotgun than it is to get a shotgun wedding.”

o   Looking at a viral video of a bride who brought a cardboard cutout of her groom to the reception when he tested positive for COVID a few days before the wedding, Lewis mused, “What does it say about the groom that he can be replaced by a cardboard cutout and nobody seems to care?” – Meanwhile, I was just wondering how on earth the bride wasn’t considered a close contact.

·        Interview – Author Angela Garbes

o   Garbes and Trevor had a great discussion about her book Essential Labor, about how mothering and caretaking keeps America running – “Without care work and domestic labor—you know, this is the work that makes all the other work possible. The idea that domestic work is somehow less valuable than ‘professional work,’ I just think it’s a myth.”

o   According to one study, “if women in America were paid minimums wage for the amount of domestic labor that they do unpaid right now, it would be worth $1.9 trillion per year.”

o   Garbes pointed out how so many of society’s issues can be prevented through giving children stable, nurturing environments – “When we invest in children, in families, in mothers, it’s investing in public health. It’s investing in the very future and health of our society.”

o   She also talked specifically about Filipina women in care industries, like her mother – While Filipino nurses make up 4% of the profession as a whole, they’ve made up 34% of the COVID-related deaths.

o   She was hopeful that lessons learned during the pandemic, about reaching out in our communities and supporting one another, will carry through in society after it’s over – “We are surviving this not because the government sent us eight tests. We’re surviving this because we took care of each other.”

Thursday, June 23

·        Headlines – Supreme Court strikes down concealed-carry restrictions, new Chicago Police Department regulations over foot chases, U.K. rail strike

o   Trevor calling the Supreme Court “the only government department where the dress code is retired Jedi” made me laugh.

o   Trevor was on fire throughout the Supreme Court piece – “You can see where this is going. This Supreme Court is feeling themselves, huh? ‘Cause you realize they finally have all the justices they need to do anything they want. It’s like Amy Coney Barrett was the last Infinity Stone they needed. Yeah, they put it in, and now they’re just snapping away at all the laws.”

o   Savage – “The Supreme Court has struck down restrictions on who can carry guns outside of the home, saying that you can’t require people to meet certain standards in order to get a license. Which makes complete sense, because that would be making the militia well-regulated. I mean, you can’t do that, you know? It’s not like it’s written anywhere.”

o   Good line – “And, I mean, it will switch things up, you know? Now, when you’re on the subway and you see a guy reaching into his pants, you’ll be like, ‘Aah! Please let it be a dick.’”

o   Trevor thought New York should do a Texas-abortion-ban-style limit on concealed carry, getting around the Constitution with a different law that accomplishes the same goal – “They should say, okay, anyone can buy a gun if they want, but the gun stores are only open on the nights that the Knicks win.”

o   I loved Trevor’s response to the new list of reasons why a Chicago police officer won’t be allowed to pursue a suspect on foot – “Well, yeah. I mean, if you’re a cop who’s lost your radio and gun and you don’t know where you are…you are in no position to be chasing anyone. Yeah, maybe just throw in the towel, my man. Today’s not your day.”

o   Valid – “Even if that person is a legitimate suspect, you want to make sure that the crime is worth the chase, right? Because when the police chase a suspect, it is way more likely to end in violence. Think about it: once someone makes you sprint across half the city, you’re way more likely to want to beat their ass when you catch them.”

o   As has been pointed out for months now, rising inflation is a global issue – “It turns out it’s not just America. This is happening all over the world. Which is weird, because Fox News told me that Joe Biden is the only reason we have inflation. So that means he’s also causing it in Denmark? Damn you, Joe!”

o   I loved Trevor’s impression of Boris Johnson getting all huffy about the rail strike – “Yes, it’s preposterous. I… I mean, I need those trains to get to my illegal work parties. How else am I supposed to spread COVID?”

o   This made me smile – “I know you guys think British people get around on flying umbrellas, but that’s just the nannies. The people need the trains.”

o   At the same time, Trevor understood where the striking rail workers were coming from – “It’s not fair for somebody to work a full-time job but not be able to make ends meet, especially when your bosses make millions in profits.”

o   This was a great line – “If you can’t afford to live, then what’s even the point of working? You only work so you can live. That’s why it’s called ‘making a living,’ right?”

·        Correspondent Piece (Jordan) – MAGA reactions to the January 6^th hearings

o   On his latest trip to a Trump rally, Jordan summed up the attendees’ response to the January 6^th hearings thusly – “Most were paying no attention. And yet there were some who were paying even less attention.” This segued into him talking to two women who didn’t know what January 6^th was, with one asking if that was Election Day.

o   I loved Jordan’s response to one man declaring the hearings a witch hunt – “It’s a witch hunt. It’s a mob of people coming together with pitchforks. Saying… And we can’t have that.”

o   Also great? His response to a woman claiming Nancy Pelosi planned the insurrection – “She planned it? Why did she plan to get attacked by a mob of Trump supporters?”

o   Jordan wondered if actually showing the people footage from the hearings might help…and then a guy watched a clip of Ivanka Trump saying the election wasn’t stolen and argued, “It don’t even look like her,” speculating that it might have been a clone – “It might be an Ivanka clone. Hot take, my friend. It’s almost like you’re confronted with it, and your brain just does somersaults to figure out there must be some other… some other reason.”

·        Interview – Actor Elliot Page

o   In talking about the new season of The Umbrella Academy, Page talked about collaborating with the showrunner to incorporate elements of his own transition story into his character’s plot for this season.

o   After complimenting Page’s physique for an Esquire cover shoot, Trevor asked about his fitness routine, which led to Page rather bashfully describing the ins and outs of the VR fitness app he uses