#I love his quippy one liners
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Hobieee ♥️♥️
#doodles#my art#hobie brown#spider man: across the spider verse#across the spiderverse#atsv#spider punk#spiderverse#i am literally so normal about this movie you guys omfg#I've already watched it twice and I want to watch it 10 more times it's so fucking good. the movie of all time#and hobie. oh my god hobie. hobie.#I love his quippy one liners#and his whole attitude is just a perfect contrast to the rest of the spideys who are walking on eggshells around miles and miguel#meanwhile hobie is just like fuck it we ball and chooses chaos#SO SO GOOD#GO WATCH IT#ID in alt text
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Thinking about how Leo says he uses his jokes to cope and y’know, thinking harder on it I think it may very well be because of what else uses one-liners and puns and that type of humor.
Specifically, 80’s action movies and campy sci-fi. Even more specifically, the protagonists of these.
So I can imagine why, exactly, Leo leans toward this brand of humor. It’s directly linked to things he loves! But even more than that is why I think it’s used as a coping mechanism.
In these genres, these quips tend to be said by the winner - or, if not a winner, then someone who will stay alive. So there’s a confidence behind them, an assurance, almost, that even if things go wrong, things aren’t ever too serious. There’s no bad endings here! It’s all good fun, even if the stakes seem high.
Leo canonically has been known to steer his brothers away from the more brutal villains and toward more fun, lighthearted activities and not-so-dangerous criminals. So for Leo, these jokes definitely make things less heavy, make the situations they find themselves in less intense.
It’s kinda not just coping, but also can be seen as a form of escapism. A safety blanket. A way for Leo to defuse the tension of knowing just how dangerous their lives are and replace that with a levity which implies that things will be okay.
Unfortunately, levity alone does not alter reality.
#rottmnt#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles#rottmnt leo#rise leo#rottmnt headcanons#how pretentious can I sound when talking about a fictional turtle more at eight#anyway I always loved to think about Leo’s quick line about coping with humor#I don’t care how much people think it doesn’t REALLY matter it’s fun to play around with tbh#also love the idea that Leo’s sense of humor comes from the protags of his fav campy series#(+ from his confident and awesome big sis April)#like idk Leo’s special interests directly paving out how he presents himself both to others and in general is so interesting to me!!!#he is someone who KNOWS people and their quirks so 100% he caught on to that 80’s style of quippy one-liners-#-and associated that with safety and levity#even the villains of these genres who spout off quips tend to be the ones who survive!#Leo desperately fighting to keep the same lighthearted genre as 87 TMNT as the horrors of 2003 and 2012 loom on the horizon#and I think something important to note is that Leo KNOWS things are real#he is WELL AWARE of how dangerous things can get for them#but he copes anyway because it’s easier to deal with everything that way#bro just wants he and his family to be safe tbh
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Girl help! They diet MCU-iffied the Time Bandits!! 😭😭😭
#time bandits#me and my family were browsing Apple plus and found out a Time Bandits series is a thing#and it looks like garbage#all they showed was the quippy one liners and played an 80s song fucking kill me already#also the lady playing the thief leader has zero charisma#she looks bored as shit#tbh if it’s as bad as the trailer looks I don’t blame her#maybe this is a dnd honour Amoung thieves situation#where the trailer looks like a corporate MCU clone ass project#but you actually watch it and it’s actually good with cool worldbuilding and solid emotional beats#but considering this was by tika waititi#and his last Sci fi fantasy project was a Thor love and thunder#I’m not holding my breath on this one chief
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RM! Miguel O'Hara headcanons (SFW)
(Wattpad) Series Masterlist, Main Masterlist
College roommate!Miguel O'Hara x reader
summary: In light of the most recent chapter of my college au fic, Rigor mortis; here are some headcanons I have for this version of Miguel <3 .
warnings: none, just fluff :)
a/n: trying to get out of bad writer's block with some drabbles. looking through my asks and making my way through them rn!
wc: 0.5k
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He's meant to wear reading glasses but literally never does. You see him squinting at shit all over the apartment, and it only really clicks when you catch him early in the morning (because I know he wakes up at disgusting hours in the day to be productive) and he's got a pair on.
He gives amazing gifts. I feel like he's really detail oriented so he'll take forever to choose meaningful gifts. Not even necessarily expensive; just something that shows he pays attention to conversations: like that item of clothing you loved but can’t afford, something super specific for your hobbies, a whole bunch of books you like because you just mentioned a specific author or genre you love.
Conversely, he's the kind of person that's really difficult to buy gifts for. Everything that he could possibly want, he'll just buy for himself; his interests are too niche for you to buy him tools and things; and he'd give you absolutely bs answers when you ask him straight up. You'd be like, hey, I know your birthday’s soon, what do you want; and he'll say oh, I just want you to be happy, or I have everything I need right here, baby. And you'll be like ok cool, is that yes or a no on the ipad?
Coffee addict. Has all the expensive machines and fancy filters. He lives pretty modestly, but it is the one thing he'll really invest in.
Similarly, will collect old tech and gadgets just to fiddle around with. He has a box of junk underneath his bed that lowkey he’s been building up since he was a kid. I feel like he was such a curious kid and all his tías and tíos would pinch his cheeks and pat his head and give him all their old junk because he shows an interest.
Sleeps like a dad on the couch. Especially after a long day. He stretches out on the sofa like a cat with his hand on bare belly and it is simultaneously super fucking funny and kind of hot??? Like you can see his happy trail and that peek of tan skin and you just knoww that v line is sharp asf.
He talks to himself. Especially after a frustrating day, and it's pretty funny to watch. He becomes so animated and will have a whole ass conversation with himself whilst chopping veg, or something. He'd wave the knife around, playing both sides of a situation. It helps him to decompress and logically reason with difficult problems. It's something he will 10000% deny if you bring it up.
He's funny. Not necessarily laugh out loud, quippy one liners; but he has a super dry sense of humor. He's fond of a deadpan, and will often play it straight whilst saying something ridiculous. I feel like no-one usually gets when he's being sarcastic, but for some reason you do, and it makes his eyes go wide the first time. Like you catch something he says under his breath and laugh; and he's stuttering because people don't usually have the same kind of humor as him.
long story short, he's a big ol' softie. more bark than bite :)
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#i luv him#miguel o'hara x reader#across the spiderverse#rigor mortis 😼#miguel o'hara#miguel o hara x reader#spiderman 2099#kat_writes😼#fluff#miguel o'hara headcanons
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Leo Valdez being Leo Valdez and saying stuff in Spanish. That's it. That's what I need in my life, y'know..... :)
mmmm. delicious way to start off my 22nd year of life. thank you for this one babes.
Leo just... has that flavor yk. he will not hesitate to make you flustered or go uohouoh little comment. quippy one liners and banter are his specialty. so when this boy starts talking all sexy in spanish?????? OOF. it doesn't matter if what he's saying is inherantly sexy or not, bc every time he speaks spanish at all your brain implodes. as it fucking should. I am still searching high and low for a voice claim for Leo so lmk if yall have any good ones but I imagine it sounds kinda like this. it's usually when he's on the phone with his mom or some friends or extended family yk. just quick catch up calls or coordinating dinners and weekend plans, but GOD does it send you into a feral tizzy. especially first thing in the morning?? you wake up and Leo's not lying on top of you or spooning you like usual, so you find him all sleepy and messy in the kitchen only wearing a pair of gray sweats as he makes coffee for you both and tries to wake up. He's talking to his mom about the three of you having brunch this weekend, catching up with her, talking about you.
"Sí, podemos encontrarnos como a las 11:30. Sí, eso suena bien. Lo sé, ellos también están muy emocionados de verte." his voice is all sleepy and morning-y and you're fucking transfixed by him. he chuckles and blushes. "Mamá… sí. Sí. Bueno lo haré. Oh, ahora están despiertos. Me tengo que ir, hablo contigo pronto. Te amo adiós."
god as if you couldn't love him any fucking more. sometimes when you can't sleep he'll rub your back or play with your hair and just talk to you in spanish. it's so relaxing and it is hands down the best way to fall asleep. when you have kids down the line, it's the only thing that gets them to sleep too. that and hotel room service by pitbull.
#drabbles#leo valdez#leo valdez x reader#leo valdez drabbles#heroes of olympus#heroes of olympus x reader#heroes of olympus drabbles#op's birthday#AAAAAAAAAUGH I FUCKING L O V E HIM#LSKJFSLK#he's so goddamn soothing#hng
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I think I probably wrote my question in a confusing way, maybe because it’s a confuse thought in my head too!
I kinda meant, she admitted that she ghosted and “swindled” partners in the past and she had her reasons of her course, but that’s the same thing she accuses Matty of, but in his case she tells him that he is what he’s done, in her case it’s glossed over as a “clever” and “girlboss-y” (not my words, I read them used here and on twitter). Isn’t it a bit hypocritical, for lack of a better adjective, to condemn this type of behaviour when she admitted that she did it in the past?
so just to be clear (because i know i'd get a sassy anon otherwise), i don't think leaving a relationship by way of getaway car is "girl bossy" djdksjs i don't think empowerment in relationships means not caring about hurting people. it means knowing when to leave and how to look out for yourself. but taylor (just like any of us) is just trying to leave her life, she's not dating and breaking up AS an icon of feminism or whatever. like, she's a person. her actions will not always be logical or pure or even good.
so that said, i don't think it's very productive to say "you did this once, you're not allowed to feel hurt when the tables are turned." i think we can look forward to ts12+ and see what she says about those patterns, though! i mean, i for one have said a few times i'd love even more songs about her motivations, or what parts of herself lead her to engage in these specific patterns (getaway cars, people pleasing, and so on.)
like, in the bolter, she reiterated how she skips town on men and it feels freeing. but she's also written many songs about how she thinks she must've been better as an idea, because men leave her in the dust. so which is it? was she in control or was she not? these are questions she asks herself in her last few albums: the archer comes to mind, where she's saying she knows she has an issue with bolting and hurting people close to her - she wants to change. in wcs, she asserts she wasn't poison, she was young and naive, but then why can't she let it go? is it because she enjoyed some of it? in mastermind, she says she's driven by a need to be loved and implies she doesn't deserve it unless she tries tries tries, it's now part of who she is. and in the manuscript, she says she was young, and this guy who was older and so much more mature (as she knows now, given she's in her 30s now too) thinks he did nothing wrong. and maybe it wasn't wrong (or was it?)... but it set her on a path she didn't choose, and she had to find meaning in it to move on and regain control over it. and ttpd is a reflection of that lesson: how you can be led by emotion and superstition and constructs like luck or fate, but these are also traps, because you can use them to escape reality and construct a fantasy that can burn down your whole life.
and taylor has said she's hurt people, switched out men, ghosted. maybe she hasn't sung enough about it to your liking besides quippy one liners, but i also think the explanation for that behavior is clearly described. she's afraid people will leave her and betray her so she searches for reasons to bolt! think of that EVERYONE WILL BETRAY YOU sign in the anti hero mv, and "this is how the world works: you gotta leave before you get left" in idsb, and the reputation poem about caging herself in with her own extreme sense of justice; think about how she sings she "shoots to kill when she's mad," "why do i break what i love so much?" "help me hold onto you" and "my reputations never been worse so you must like me for me" and he "loves her like she's brand new" and how essential that would be for someone who NEEDS to be liked in the midst of a massive public cancellation. how easily that turns into handcuffing yourself to a spell, to the idea that this is the only person she can be with. like, this is a very similar story to say, calvin, but the stakes were lower. but she was still trying to choose the right relationship in the most of a lot of public bullshit.
and then think about how, if you handcuffed yourself to an idea of love, if that love stops being enough, you might struggle to figure out how to end it. i mean, anyone who's ever had to initiate a breakup in a ltr can tell you how you don't break up the first time it occurs to you. you pick fights, resentment builds up, you have doubts you'll find someone else, you go on breaks, you try to make it work, you go into denial.
and ultimately, choosing yourself and your own happiness is so rarely a clean decision. people WILL get hurt in the process, sometimes in avoidable ways. it's just life. ghosting or ending things badly is often a result of not wanting to hurt someone or have a confrontation. which isn't always the best way to handle things, but, well, that doesn't mean you can't be hurt later lmao.
anyway, she wanted to tell a specific story (three stories, really) in ttpd and maybe later she'll talk about her own so-called hypocrisy. or not.
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hello ! i would like to ask if u know any fics about crossovers between the 1992 movie script & any other alternate good omens universe . any kind that somewhat has them interact w the characters there (like a body swap or an au meet up, anything of the sort)
thank you for the hard work, this blog was a godsend (haha) !!
Here are some fics which crossover with the 1992 movie script...
Crowleys Anonymous by IneffableAlien (T)
The boys meet 1992moviescript!Crowley.
A Cursed Case of Accidental Identity Theft by hellsteeth (G)
Sometimes, the universe likes to play tricks on us. Perhaps to teach us a lesson. Perhaps for its own amusement. Perhaps because nothing actually matters, and reasons are stories we tell ourselves to help us sleep at night. Regardless, this is a story about one of these tricks, in which an angel and a demon stare into the funhouse mirror of reality and catch a glimpse of their cursed counterparts. Welcome to the circus. Bring out the clowns. (Crowley and Aziraphale are exposed to the other's 1992 screenplay counterpart)
The Tadfield Secondary Players by attheborder, malicegeres (G)
Colin "Greasy" Johnson's aspirations as a prodigy playwright are put to the test by a panel of judges. After all, who better to evaluate a play about the apocalypse, than an angel and a demon who were really there? Even better: three pairs of angels and demons, each from a slightly different universe. Boundaries will be pushed. The limits of theatrical good taste will be tested. Narratives will be deconstructed. Vomit-inducing quippy one-liners will be dished out. From the mists of the multiverse, GOOD OMENS: A STAGEPLAY will arise. And nothing will ever be the same...
Limitless by SmokingMirrorChaos, Yvesriba (T)
Crowley has never known a world with Aziraphale. Where he's from, his counterpart was the angel Anathema. 6000 years of friendship eventually lead to them traveling between worlds until they discover one where there has never been a Crowley. But, there is an Aziraphale. They met and fall in love and with Aziraphale, Crowley finds the happiness he's always sought. A tale told in Crowley's stories to Aziraphale and flashbacks.
The Other Side by Fanlan (M)
Summary: She works in mysterious ways, keeping every timeline and every alternate version of each universe windingly like threads on the tip of her fingers. Maybe it was an accident, maybe it was to fix something or maybe it was just a test, but she twisted two of those threaded universes together, making a small change in each one: switching an Aziraphale for an Aziraphale. (A what if take if Show! Aziraphale and 1992 Script! Aziraphale swapped places)
- Mod D
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August July June
Note: these are not in any order!
Of Lizards, Love & Laundry by @noxsoulmate
M | 13.8k
Nine sweet stories showing Carlos’s progression from tolerating Lou Two to dutifully accepting his role as proud lizard papá. This one is really soft, and shows how Carlos comes to love and appreciate Lou Two for the comfort and joy he brings to TK. Comes with some truly adorable art.
Ashes, Ashes by vaguenotion
T | 12.5k
Listen, this is the second Tarlos fic by the elusive author of the Greatest Story Ever Told, aka the fic. You know as soon as this one dropped I rallied the fan club (iykyk) and we devoured every word before our book club commenced. Expect all the deeply gorgeous descriptions, quippy one-liners and lingering tension we love from this author. Judd inhales some hallucinogenics on a call, which send him on a bad trip causing him to hurt TK. The story of healing and brotherhood is so, so good. Plus, the best description of Mateo I’ve ever seen: “[he looks] like the kind of guy who would wear JNCO jeans.”
one night (and the rest of our lives) by falloutmars (is this person on tumblr? Drop the @ if you know!)
T | 2k
Tarlos reflects on their first official date, the first time TK called Carlos baby (outside the bedroom 👀). Very soft and sweet!! And a surprise ending.
I ramble my way home by @ladytessa74
M | 32k
This one is as sweet as peach pie! After his relapse, TK goes to stay with a retired Owen who now owns a peach orchard. Judd, Carlos and Marjan work at the orchard. The Strand family vibes are sweet, Judd and TK brotherhood is utterly endearing. And the Tarlos of it all is so tender. There’s adventure, a little grief and even a treasure hunt! Also Buttercup.
looking inwards by @birdclowns
NR | 5.5k
(Disclaimer: I beta’ed this one). He/they TK. This is such an important story and it’s told SO WELL. The gentleness and care with which these characters are handled, the time taken to really show the journey that TK takes in his self-discovery journey — every single step of the way through a difficult conversation with Carlos. It’s all so well done, and the reader is right there with him. This kind of representation is super important, and I think doing it with such a beloved character like TK is a really great way to introduce these topics to folks who may otherwise be unfamiliar.
Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines by @carlos-in-glasses
E | 13.6k
Listen, don’t make the same mistake I did and choose the wrong soundtrack for this. Fat Boy Slim was a mistake. I realized this early on. This one needs something a little more downtempo, maybe a nice Portishead or some Massive Attack. Anyway! This is a beautiful, heartbreaking, vivid story about trauma and grief, and how terrible events can somehow lead to the most amazing things. Cig weaves so much detail and backstory into this story we already know so well, and characters we love so much, and still finds ways to weave humor in, which I think really enhances the story. The dichotomy of grief and joy, terrible events leading to beautiful life moments, the sunbeam on a stormy day.
our corner of time by @theghostofashton
T | 1.7k
We love a good outsider POV around these parts. In this one Owen watches TK with Carlos, and revels in his son’s joy and the love with which Carlos takes care of him. And isn’t that everything we want for our sweet boy?
In My Time of Need by @spaghett-onaplate
G | 2.2k
STOP THIS ONE IS SO CUTE AND FUNNY. AU meet cute. Carlos and TK are neighbors in an apartment building, and a lizard is on the loose in Carlos’s apartment and he …doesn’t react well. Cue TK to the rescue.
Querencia by @bonheur-cafe
G | 500
Lovely little glimpse at an early morning in the Tarloft.
“Carlos takes his hand like it’s bathed in gold, kissing the pulse point on his wrist, feeling TK's own heartbeat under his lips before trailing the kisses up towards his palm. He places the last one on his ring.”
I MEAN!!!!
The Calling by @orchidscript
M | 10k
TK takes the lead on developing and testing a new, more compassionate method for reviving opioid overdose patients — a new way of administering narcan that wakes patients softly rather than the abrupt shock of traditional narcan. This story does a great job of capturing the sweet, compassionate boy that is TK Strand. When Carlos is the responding officer on an overdose call, he has to assist TK with a patient revival and he’s left in awe of witnessing his kindness, gentleness and compassion.
coming home by falloutmars (is this person on tumblr? Drop the @ if you know!)
G | 2k
Soft, sweet little look at a moment in the Tarloft right after TK comes home after waking up in Push. This is a really lovely exploration of Carlos’s dueling emotions during this time, relief and joy, but also residual heartbreak and uncertainty about how to treat each other.
meet you after dark by @strandnreyes
E | 8.9k (wip)
I loved as if you were a mythical thing and I love that it’s getting a sequel! You MUST read the first fic first. Carlos is an author living in a tiny coastal town in Maine, he meets and falls for his reclusive neighbor TK. What could happen next?
As always, this is not in any way a comprehensive list of all the good stuff that came out in September. This is the stuff that I was able to read and vibed with. This is a way for me to hype the stories that got me excited this month, and I encourage everybody to be intentional in reblogging fics and screaming about the stuff you’re reading and enjoying all month long. Let’s work to build this fandom into a more inclusive and encouraging place to create! Also, caveat that the Gabriel grief stuff is tough for me, so I’ve been avoiding and/or very slowly making my way through those ones.
#September fic recs#tarlos fic#911 lone star#tk strand x carlos reyes#lemon’s monthly fic recs#FIC REC
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idk if it’s just me but I rlly love the tiiiiiiny glimpses of the gods underneath their masks so far in the show.
Ares is most obvious- the switching between dicking around and being vaguely unsettling to “the joke was funny for a minute, but-“
Hades is another good one. You see a well dressed man with odd eyebrows who walks in a hurry and offers pomegranate juice. Who says things like “I rarely cahoot” and whines about his helm. But- he offers pomegranate juice, in the underworld?
I’m still bothered and perplexed by “I see you.” Is it a joke? A quippy little one liner? Probably. But Hades has seen countless heroes try to bring their loved ones back from his realm only to fail. So is it really?
His demeanor doesn’t change when he hears about Kronos- but it flickers. “Ask me for sanctuary.” And the kids don’t know it yet, but he’s offered this before to his lover and their two children, only to fail. One can only assume he’s offered many times before.
Poseidon is the only one thus far who’s Felt like a god, and that was in the presence of a woman he loved.
Dionysus, Hephaestus, Hermes- they feel like people. Odd ones, but people. And yeah ig there’s an argument that that’s the whole point of the Greek gods- they’re fashioned after humans. They’re fickle and flawed and impulsive.
But it’s just so much more fun to consider that there is so much more underneath these beings that we’ve only gotten moments of.
It’s so much more fun to consider how fucking terrifying they are when they’re motivated enough to set the masks aside.
#like I can’t explain it but watching hades was an Experience because he’s Like That but WE ALL KNOW that isn’t all there is#I was on the edge of my seat the entire time bc#I can’t remember the actors name but he has such dark eyes and they’re so Knowing#percy jackson#pjo tv show#every single one of these actors know that they’re playing Beings who are Immortal and Fickle and somehow manage to capture the physical#feeling of looking at a person who seems perfectly normal and Knowing Something Is Not Right#as a theatre major I salute them for the care they’ve taken
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The Grass is Greener (1960)
I watched The Grass is Greener (1960) over the weekend and I can't stop thinking about it.
For starters, I watched it purely for the cast. I didn't even bother to read the description, I saw Robert Mitchum and Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr and Jean Simmons and I was in. In hindsight, I'm actually really glad I didn't read the plot ahead of time, going it without an agenda was perfect for this one. And for that reason, I'm going to put the rest of this under the cut because I'm going to completely spoil the plot.
The general plot of the movie is: Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr are a married, titled British couple who have begun allowing tours of their family estate to keep the lights on; Robert Mitchum is an American oil millionaire who gets nosy on the regular tour and decides to barge into the family's private quarters, where he meets Kerr. Over the course of about 10 minutes, they get to chatting, he's very flirty, and they share a pretty passionate kiss. Grant then arrives and the afternoon is over...until Kerr decides to go to London to "get her hair done" and ends up staying for a week having an affair with Mitchum. Simmons plays Kerr's best friend, whom she stays with in London and who decamps to the family home to see how Grant is holding up.
That last part is important: everyone in this movie knows exactly what's happening with Mitchum and Kerr from the very beginning. Grant can see the moment he walks into the room that this stranger is into his wife and that his wife is intrigued. Simmons knows that Kerr isn't spending any time at her apartment, she's spending it with Mitchum.
Everything comes to a head when Grant, in a display of passive aggression that would make generations of Midwestern church ladies proud, calls Mitchum and invites him to come back out to the house for the weekend. Oh, and while he's at it, would he mind giving his wife a ride home, she's been in London all week too, you see.
From there we have the world's most awkward dinner party, a legitimate duel at midnight in the estate's long hallway, and a genuinely keeps-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat questioning of who Deborah Kerr is going to choose.
And it's this denouement that makes this such a wonderful movie and has it rattling around in my brain days later. Weirdly, and wonderfully, no one in this movie is treated as a villain! This is a story about love and adultery and passion and complacency and everyone just gets to be human.
It would be so easy for Deborah Kerr's character to be treated as a harlot and a whore and a loose woman for seeking out an affair with another man. It would be so easy for Robert Mitchum's character to be simply made a homewrecker and an aggressive American jackass and a playboy for showing clear interest and affection for a married woman. Cary Grant's character could have so easily been made out to be the cold, distant, unloving husband who drove his wife away. And yet none of that happens.
All of these characters are treated sympathetically and respectfully. I spent the whole time rooting for all of them and feeling conflicted every way about who I wanted Kerr to choose. It felt real and honest and like something that wouldn't be told in 2024.
Plus it was absolutely hilarious. Because as poignant as this was, it was also so damn funny. Cary Grant still had so many opportunities to break out the slapstick and prat falls and quippy one liners. Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum got to trade dry repartee, and don't get me started on Jean Simmons. Jean Simmons absolutely stole the show as the somewhat flighty, airheaded, divorced best friend and I couldn't stop laughing every time she was on the screen. I'd never seen her do comedy before and it was just incredible.
So, yeah, go watch The Grass is Greener.
#the grass is greener film#cary grant#deborah kerr#robert mitchum#jean simmons#i guess technically this is a farce?#kinda?#whatever you want to call it#it's fucking brilliant
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project hail mary by andy weir [review]
read from august 20th - august 23rd
review:
beware - (slight) spoilers ahead
i did not expect to like this that much?? i did not expect this book to go how it went either!!!!! now i’m just gonna say up front - the only reason this isn’t a 5-star is because there was a LOTTTTT of space jargon. the book tries its best to explain it so i at least had some idea but…. i’m sorry by the end i was lost with how much jargon there was. not only was there insane science technical terms but made up concepts???? my brain short circuited it couldn’t keep up. even if i had no idea wtf was going on usually i could excuse that, but i will say when there were paragraphs of jargon by the end i just started skimming because i knew i would just be wasting my own time and hating every second of it. sue me. other than that? this book was PERFECTION. i get why this guy had his book made into an award winning movie. ngl this needs to be made into one too. idk how they’d make rocky but honestly i don’t care! grace was so funny and quippy. he did lose a bit of this by the middle, but tbh at that point based on the personality established i had grown to love him without his funny bone rearing its head every sentence so i wasn’t mad. i loved his flashbacks appearing in progression, especially his dynamic with stratter. now - i gotta spotlight my boy rocky. ROCKY!!!!!!! i started crying over him because i actually just loved him so much. i won’t lie i did have to google illustrations of what the actual fuck he looked like cuz i actually could not imagine it at all. yes i am an avid fantasy & sci-fi reader with slight aphantasia and what? but after i got over that slight hump (i’m so serious i googled a drawing of him literally when his physical description was given so… this didn’t take long) i ADORED rocky. he’s my homeboy. i actually started panicking because i thought rocky sabotaged the ship at the end. i was FREAKING OUT!!!! thankfully he didn’t or i would’ve been PISSED. he was so quirky and made up for grace’s lack of funny one liners later. the world building here also needs a great pat on the back. i mean i imagine the brain behind a blockbuster space movie would be great at world building…. and i would be correct in thinking that. everything down to the hypothetical(?) aliens & planets & situations felt so realistic that i actually forgot this book wasn’t sci-fi and was real. like if i went to space i would see a rocky. i saw on the news tokyo had 100mm of rain in an hour and my brain went “oh yeah that makes sense based on what the prediction surrounding astrophage’s effect on earth” and i had to pause. and realise. oh wait that’s not even real. it’s just raining a lot because of global warming and…. idk rain. not an alien parasite(?). even tho i had no actual idea what was happening on the logistical/technical side of things, from the dumbed down versions of events provided, it felt entirely realistic!!!!! i was so locked in reading this. can u tell seeing i read this in like 3 days as well. the relationship between rocky & grace ate so bad. god and the ending too?????? ugh impeccable. no notes. chefs kiss. i had such a fun time reading this. anyways omw to add the martian to my letterboxd watch list 🫡
#project hail mary#book review#andy weir#project hail mary andy weir#project hail mary rocky#project hail mary review#andy weir review#spoiler book review#sci fi book#science fiction book#science fiction#scifi#sci-fi#andy weir project hail mary#bookworm#bibliophile
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Every Beautiful Thing Christmas Outtake
Do I have an HBO War Secret Santa fic to write that is living in my head but not on my screen? Yes. Do I have holiday shopping to do, end of year reports for work to be run, and a full page to-do list? Yes, but I wrote this little fic before doing anything else.
In order to understand the backstory, you should read @almost-a-class-act's Where the Pieces Go over on AO3. If you can't, just know that on Christmas Eve 1946, Chuck swallows a whole bunch of pills, calls Joe, throws up on Joe, and the two friends have a tough conversation the next morning.
Sam Francisco
Christmas Eve, 1964
“That’s the last of it,” Joe said, throwing the bags into the garbage can. Ellen put the lid on tight.
For years, the Liebgotts - all nine of them - came over to the Grants for Christmas Eve, just like the Grants went to the Liebgotts for Thanksgiving and the first night of Passover. Ellen made a delicious spread: roast beef, potatoes dauphinoise, a Buche de Noel, and Christmas cookies of every kind. The kids each received one gift, wrapping paper flying through the room, squeals of delight echoing through the house, and parents put to work opening packaging and reading instructions.
“Do we have to go back in just yet?” Ellen asked.
The quiet felt nice, even though she could still hear sounds from the house, the older kids playing records in the Grant boys’ bedroom, and a rousing game of Twister, supervised by Chuck and Miriam, being played in the family room.
Joe chuckled and lit a cigarette, offering one to Ellen, even though he knew she’d turn it down.
Ellen turned to look at him.
“You know, I’ve never thanked you.” Ellen said.
“You’re gonna have to be more specific, El.” He flashed a toothy grin at her, expected her to laugh.
“Christmas Eve, 1946. The Christmas Eve when Chuck called you.”
The smile left his face. Joe didn't think about that night, just like he didn't think about Tipper or Bastogne, Landsberg or the night in Austria when Chuck got shot.
“When did he tell you about that?” Joe asked.
“Years ago. Our first Christmas after we got married,” Ellen answered.
“I didn’t do much,” Joe replied after taking a long drag. “He threw up the pills on his own.”
“True,” Ellen conceded. “But if you hadn’t come over, maybe he would have swallowed the other half of the pills in the bottle.”
Joe had the same thought as he lay on Chuck’s bedroom floor that night, listening to make sure Chuck was still breathing.
“I’ve never thanked you, either,” he said quietly. Joe wasn’t one for heartfelt conversations, so he didn’t tell Ellen about the first time he met Chuck, at Toccoa, and his confident swagger as he came over to introduce himself. He didn’t tell her about Chuck’s quippy one-liners at The Bell that would send the entire pub into fits of laughter.
He didn’t tell her that the confidence and the jokes and all the other things that made Chuck his best friend only came back once he met her.
The two people who loved Chuck more than anyone else in the world looked at each other. They were the perfect team, one being able to help when another didn’t know how. There was never jealousy or competition between them, only relief and gratitude that the other person was there. And although they never said as such, Joe and Ellen were friends, too.
Joe wasn’t one for hugs, either, but he put his arm around Ellen and gave her arm a squeeze. He knew she understood the things he couldn’t say out loud.
"C'mon, let's go see if Miriam and Chuck need reinforcements," Joe said, his arm still around her as they walked back to a Christmas Eve so different than the one eighteen years ago.
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4 more episodes to go before I finish Slayers. I’m actually really enjoying it. I love Evil/Dark Tara. She’s so hot. She’s obviously not entirely evil otherwise she wouldn’t be double-crossing Druscilla and showing mercy to her friends so I reckon the real and good Tara’s influence will win her over. But I will certainly miss that sexy ass voice of Benson’s. Woof. 😛😋😝
Juliet Landau is fantastic as Druscilla. She seems to be much more focused and in the know than ‘BtVS’’AtS’s Druscilla as she wears both her evil genius and insanity marvellously now she’s the BIG BAD.
They’re all really good voicing their characters to be quite honest. Emma Caulfield doesn’t quite sound like Anya but I think that has to do with the character’s age and personal experience as this alternative Anya. She’s not as quippy. Is much more serious and down to business and her sarcasm and bluntness is virtually zero but then so is alternate Cordelia’s. It’s like the fun and charisma has been sucked right out of both of them. There’s not really any funny or quirky one-liners.
James is perfect. He plays Spike to the absolute tee. And despite Indira being a new character and slayer, she’s a lot more interesting than any of the potentials from Season 7 were. A little spitfire and not in a bratty way like Kennedy or a frustrating way like Rona. In fact she acts very Faith-ish but like a lot younger. I’m almost certain this was what Faith was like at her age.
And James Charles Leary as Clem. I didn’t know I needed to hear his voice again. But he sells the comedy and now I think about it, - he is pretty much the only reason Season 6 of Buffy wasn’t completely dull and dark. He provided the lighthearted humour. Very much needed then and very much needed here.
And despite the fact that I still cannot stand Giles as a character, Anthony Head is giving it all he has got and I can appreciate his subtle cynicalness when it’s not coupled with the fact he doesn’t even want to be here.
I’ve still got a fair bit to go so verdict may vary… but at the moment…half way through. This is a solid story!
What do you think @oveliagirlhaditright ? @gh-0-stcup ?
Also I know it’s a joint effort with Chris Golden but Amber Benson should seriously consider writing more supernatural drama. She’s really freaking good at it.
I know she writes erotic romance novels and writes the odd script for TV shows/movies here and there but there doesn’t seem to be anything in the young adult category that she’s done. Unless I just can’t find it.
#buffy the vampire slayer#angel the series#slayers#a buffyverse story#tara maclay#amber benson#cordelia chase#charisma carpenter#indira nunnally#laya deleon hayes#clem#james charles leary#spike#james marsters#giles#anthony stewart head#anya#emma caulfield#druscilla#juliet landau
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CC3 Anon
spoilers under cut
Hiii it’s CC anon. THANK GOD YOU RESPONDED NO ONE ELSE I KNOW IS READING THIS BOOK 😭
I finished CC3 last night and yeah. I enjoyed the pacing at the beginning of this book more than the first two books because we’re already in the thick of the climax and don’t have to build up suspense again but omg it dragged in the middle.
I did not care for Ithan at all I’m sorry. And yes he hasn’t been a pro sun all player in YEARS idk why she keeps bringing it up. I think someone stumbled and he caught her and Sarah went “his sunball reflexes” HES A WOLF HE WAS ALWAYS GOING TO HAVE QUICK REFLEXES. Had him running up and down to resurrect Sigrid and in the end it DIDNT EVEN MATTER.
Lmaoooo Ithan mostly acted ago appropriate if I think about it. He's like 20 I'm assuming since he's around college age. He's def not my favorite character either tbh. Love how everything fell into his lap tho. Literally anytime he was mentioned so was snuball it was so fucking dumb.
I know you like Tharion but can he do anything right omg. Ithan carried him with the Viper Queen. Sathia carried him in front of the Ocean Queen 😭 I WAS SO PISSED ABOUT THE ANTIDOTES OMG and then Ithan went and did the same. I see why they are best friends like wow stupid really follows stupid.
LMAO I love Tharion, yes he'd definitely dumb and needs to make better decisions but I liked how witty he was in the first book. He really needs to stop with the whole woe is me act tho. omg the antidotes shit don't even get me started. half of the stuff that she wrote for the book didn't even matter in the end. like, we could've cut this damn book down 300 pages tbh, nothing would've been missed because nothing made sense even.
I don’t hate Bryce. She did annoy me though. I hated when Aelin wouldn’t tell people about her plans and could not stand it from Bryce here. Her yelling at Hunt about having to face the consequences of their actions. I’m like dude you went to another world and came back powered up. Hunt stayed and was tortured brutally like what? I know why she doesn’t want him to have guilt about it but it’s his 3rd time going through this and failing. And now he has more to lose. Of course he would be feeling a type of way.
I do not like her at all lol. The whole not telling people plans things pissed me off because her loud mouth is not like that. AND THEN SHE HAS THE AUDACITY TO TELL HUNT "OH YOU DONT EVEN WANT TO BE HERE" girl maybe if you told someone the fuckin plan they would feel a bit more confident about going through with it for fucks sake. she's a mean girl and i can't stand her and i don't think she's funny at all she is so cringe to me haha. HUNT HAS ALREADY TRIED GOING AGAINST THE ASTERI AND HE WAS TORTURED FOR 200 YEARS?! Then he gets freed and has to do it all over again?! Like, why are we yelling at this man? of course he's weary.
I’m not the biggest fan of her swagger at times. Like sometimes we don’t need the quippy (read: unfunny) one liners :/
LITERALLY
The STAKES???? Bryce should’ve stayed dead! It would have been a lot more impactful. Even the torturing scenes kind of didn’t hit as much after the fact cause everyone can just regrow their limbs and be fine. No one had a single nightmare about what happened to them? I thought we would see something like that beyond “a glimmer of darkness in his eyes” idk :/
The entire "someone dying only to be brought to life on the next page" has definitely fucking worn off now but sjm apparently can't see that. she created a world with 50+ characters only to not use half of them when it matters. so stupid. Also, i don't remember them being able to regrow limbs tbh.
Maybe the book would’ve been too long but I was genuinely shocked we didn’t get more scenes of anyone on the actual battlefield. We were mostly in the palace after Bryce and Hunt teleported, and then the moment with Lidia and the sprites. But maybe the book would’ve been too toooo long idk.
Yeah there really was only like 60 pages of the end scene. but as soon as i saw the word space i actually almost DNFd it because what the actual fuck was that.
I will say I really like how the male friendships are genuine. I honestly can’t tell you that Bryce, Fury, and June are friends LMAO. (I’m exaggerating but I do kinda agree with this) .
Yeah, i love Ruhn, dec, and flynn's relationship. i think sjm tries to be like "oh yeah girl power, strong fmc's" but there's no women in the books? and they all don't like each other? like danika, bryce, fury, and juniper seemed like mean girls? girls that didn't give a fuck about anyone else? idk. the way that the men to women ratio in her books is very interesting to me. and the fack that EVERY man that comes across bryce thinks she's the most gorgeous girl to have ever lived...fuck off with that logic.
My girl Jesiba :////// She was my favorite for sure. I'm indifferent about her lol. Her entire storyline i feel was just made up like two months ago so she could connect to the other series lol
I do agree with what you said about Bryce (I legit almost wrote Aelin LMFAO) . I was not expecting her to just say no rulers for the Fae at all. But I guess a Senate would be more democratic.
SO STUPID. The Senate (starwars)
Im sure there will be a fourth book but I am so uninterested in Tharion and Ariadne like who caresssssssss. If Im interested in Ithan, it’s because I want to see more Perry. I wonder how connected this world and ACOTAR will remain.
I honestly hope it ends at 4 books. I think that would be a perfect ending because there's four houses. no need for more im already sick of it. yeah i liked perry too. i hope they're no longer connected lol.
Ruhn and Lidia :) but HE LEGIT SHOT HER?? I know she was acting irrationally because of her sons and he wanted to make sure she didn’t get herself killed but then he shot her. Like okay 😭. I think my favorite couples are Bryce’s parents and Lidia and Ruhn. Ruhn just seems so hot 😭.
Ruhn is a winner for sure for sure.
I’m writing too much and I’m scared this app will just shut down so I’ll quit here. I still think the first book is the worst one in this series. But I had fun with this one (despite my hang ups) and I’m glad it’s over (for now :/).
THANKS FOR LETTING ME RANT!!!
THANKS FOR LETTING ME RANT TOO!
CC anon!! I went to goodreads to read reviews of the book and I genuinely cannot believe how many 5 star ratings this book got. I mean, I can and can’t believe it. Atp anything Sarah puts out will average at least a 4 star rating on there and sell a crap ton.
I think people just give her that rating because she's popular, not because they read lol. oh yeah, why do you think she released 5 different bonus chapters. talk about a greedy cash grab. that mentality kinda makes me sick im not even going to lie.
I was reading through the 2-star reviews and someone mentioned their shock at how quickly Ruhn and Lidia resolved their issues which I totally agree with. She said she hated him and would never forgive him for what he did, and she was right! I know why Ruhn did it, but I genuinely still cannot believe he actually shot her, even if she was gonna be okay. That’s a terrible time to be worrying about a wound like that when you want to be at full strength to fight for your children.
Yeah half of the plot lines felt stupid? like what? he couldn't have stopped her any other way...really? i feel like she did not think this book through as well as she thought she did tbh. seems to be her thing these days.
(Even when Hunt said he hated Bryce for stopping him from killing Celestina, I was like Oh!)
OMG THAT WAS ACTUALLY WILD. YEAH OKAY. I TOTALLY BELIEVE THEY'RE MATES.
The reviewer said Sarah should have left their relationship on the rocks so we could get Ruhn groveling in the fourth book, and I can’t get that idea out of my head. ESPECIALLY with their bonus scene. Idk if you’ve read it but I was like ??? I like them as a couple and I like their story, but it did seem like it was all patched up insanely quickly. Like if you shot me then the very LEAST you could do is get my kids to safety. That alone would not necessarily make me forgive you.
I didn't read their bonus chapter but i can't believe they moved in with each other literally after like two days of knowing each other in real life. bro, you just found out she has two kids? you don't know the woman at all lol. no, everyone has to have a happy ending by the last page of the book or else. lol. no suspense.
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Watching Making myself sit through Moffat's Who, trying to give it a decent chance and I can't stand it already. Y'know why?
The stupid fucking love triangle.
Because not only is it just generally annoying as a trope, but it is so poorly written here. It takes over the show in a really obnoxious way and completely flanderizes characters who, in the first episode, were decent people.
Rory is portrayed as a fool for being... concerned that his fiance is cheating on him with the not-actually-imaginary friend she's been obsessed with since childhood, who she ran off with and kissed (A normal thing to be concerned about!!). And just generally, he's portrayed as a bumbling idiot. As the one who just gets confused and makes one-liners about being insecure. And both Amy and the Doctor just brush him off, leave him behind! Mocked by the woman who's supposed to be there for him and abandoned by the Doctor who's meant to keep him safe. He's being reduced to basically just comic relief here, and it sucks.
The Doctor is so.. aloof. More so than 10 and DEFINTELY moreso than 9. He's a silly, childish man who often fails to recognize the emotional consequences of his actions. He has his emotional moments, yes, but a lot of his writing falls victim to what I call "Sherlock Syndrome." When Moffat just writes an aloof super genius and expects the audience to fawn over him because he has good outfits and witty one-liners. Matt Smith is a fantastic actor and he carries a lot of his run, but putting glitter on a turd doesn't stop it being a turd.
Amy is yet another victim of the "every woman falls madly in love with the Doctor" pitfall. Worked with Rose, got old with Martha and after that almost every one-off woman who flirted with him just made me roll my eyes. Her obsession and anger with the Doctor didn't have to be romantic, but Moffat just couldn't resist writing a "strong female protagonist" who's sexy and she knows it, who loves having all the boys fawn over her and flirts without a care in the world. Who's a brash girlboss in charge of her boys, but who also turns into a sobbing damsel in distress at the slightest sign of danger.
All three of these characters are so blatantly characatures of themselves right now that it takes me out of it. They're all just quippy one-liners of their smartness or their brashness or their insecure foolishness. Can these types of people exist in real life? Yeah. But the way they're written about here is just obnoxious. I'm willing to accept that later Moffat seasons might be better than this (at least on the interpersonal conflict side of things), but it's season 1 and he's already dropping the ball so hard.
We could've gotten something truly marvelous, with a PLATONIC conflict based on the Raggedy Man from her childhood finally coming back and offering her freedom from a boring adult life. She's enamored with him, but doesn't entirely trust him because hey, he massively fucked up once already. Maybe Rory is concerned about his place in Amy's life, and Amy tries to be comforting. Maybe she messes up, maybe she says the wrong thing. Maybe she says the wrong thing right before losing Rory to the crack in space and time. But she has to try, because why should I care about a relationship where one person doesn't care about the other's happiness, at least a little? And right now it just feels like she doesn't.
I'm not saying shows shouldn't have interpersonal conflicts and flawed protagonists. They should! But to pull that off well, you have to make us want to see these characters grow. You have to give us a reason to enjoy watching these characters interact, even at their low points. And revisting Moffat's run as an adult, I don't feel enjoyment. I just feel annoyed.
#also all the flashbacks to the cracks in time. like sir we're not stupid#we can remember that thing that happned two episodes ago without visual reminders#also we don't need the doctor and amy to exposition monologue about how scary the crack in time is every damn time they see it#we know that its a crack in space and time and that its scary#also i feel like he overrelies on the Epic Monologue#they can be really impactful and cool#but already they're feeling overused#matt and karen and arthur tried their damn hardest and i don't blame them#but wow moffat just wrote a really tropey muddled season#i see why i remembered rtd's run so much clearer#because there was so much more worth remembering#doctor who#new who#11th doctor#matt smith#amy pond#rory williams
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OLIVIA RODRIGO - "GET HIM BACK!"
youtube
[7.29]
But mostly we hate the way we don't hate this, not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.
Ian Mathers: Wait a minute... there are two kinda contradictory meanings of "get him back"! I'm on to your tricks, Olivia Rodrigo. [10]
Wayne Weizhen Zhang: "Drivers License" and "Vampire," the two definitive Olivia Rodrigo tracks, are arresting because of their emotional directness. When Olivia sings "You didn't mean what you wrote in that song about me" or "You made me look so naive," it unleashes so much power and vulnerability because it feels like we, the audience, are eavesdropping upon a real, intimate, two-person conversation. "Get Him Back" flips this formula. The song plays like a drunken gossip session with a friend, or better yet, an inner monologue of confessions too embarrassing and honest to be said out loud. The guy that Olivia wants to get retribution against and reconciliation with is never addressed directly and almost irrelevant to the story, because this is all about Olivia unleashing every oddball thought she's ever had about him. Olivia gets pigeonholed as a humdrum Disney Channel ballad princess, but this song is so deeply funny from the opening bars ("Wait, is this the song with the drums?") to the way her therapist dad and his mom become tertiary characters in the plot. [8]
Michelle Myers: It would be difficult to argue that Olivia Rodrigo's music is sonically innovative or even especially interesting. Once you get past the initial delight of "teen pop Breeders," you're left with a few sticky tunes and a trove of snappy one-liners you can append to an Instagram story you hope your crush and/or ex will like. Of her 2023 singles, "Get Him Back!" has the cleverest, most caption-worthy lyrics, which means it's her strongest release yet. [9]
Katherine St Asaph: One of the weaker songs on Guts, "Get Him Back" is largely indistinguishable from various lightly sassy artists of pop past--midcareer Taylor, mostly--with bigger riffs but less punchy punchlines. And on the subject of pop past, given the widespread press salivation over Olivia's influences it feels underremarked-upon that Fiona Apple already did a track with this conceit, and it was better. [4]
Oliver Maier: Olivia can be quippy to a fault, particularly in storytelling mode, but I find her sense of humour refreshing and pretty genuine -- I can't imagine this song working from someone like Taylor, even if this sounds like "We Are Never Getting Back Together" by way of Reputation. There are plenty of popstars who will tell you that they still fancy someone who was bad for them without daring to reach for a line as pathetic and self-exposing as "I want to make him lunch". Hook's good, too. [7]
Josh Love: As much as I love Taylor, she's a huge dork who laughs at her own jokes (actually not a point against her in my book, but still). Olivia is so much naturally cooler and more withering, so she can sell a line like "He said he's 6'2" / I'm like 'dude, nice try'" while hardly lifting an eyebrow. I also love how "I am my father's daughter / So maybe I can fix him" subtly subverts the expectation that you'd hear "mother" there instead. [8]
Alex Ostroff: All of the attitude and humour and '90s guitars of "Bad Idea Right?" filtered through Taylor's "We Are Never Getting Back Together" and mid-career Avril. The chorus is the biggest and hookiest and poppiest on the album, so naturally it's the one I like the least. Still, points for "I pour my little heart out / but as I'm hitting send / I picture all the faces of my disappointed friends" and "I wanna meet his mom, just to tell her her son sucks." [7]
Nortey Dowuona: More piss-take Beastie Boys raps, bright excited chant chorus, the same disappointment from her friends, the excellent whisper "so maybe I can fix him." But this one has the line "I want to meet his mom, just to tell her son sucks," so it's obviously better. And there's a great guitar riff in the back, so it's really better. And yes you got him good -- his mom is typing an angry comment on a 2-years-dead blog to refute this. [10]
Michael Hong: "But I am my father's daughter, so maybe I could fix him" is the kind of out-of-pocket thing your friend says to you, which you smile and laugh off because you're not interested in starting a fight. Kind of bad, kind of fun, but Rodrigo's final attempt to anthemize its final chorus with a lighter-up sing-along is an awkward conclusion to her giggled banter. [5]
Alfred Soto: Her commitment to writing like teens talk and thinking like teens write separates her from those who poeticize these states. "Get Him Back!" says what it needs in declarative sentences, which, if you think about it, are not how teens express themselves either. She seems immune to bad faith. [7]
Jonathan Bradley: With a chorus that romps rambunctiously enough to set off the crowd at a late '90s Warped Tour show, you might almost miss how well Rodrigo's rapping captures the overthinker's cursed inner-monologue. (Rodrigo is the kind of over-thinker quick with a witty quip and a self-aware observation.) "Brutal," took the same tack, but that song was a doom spiral; this is anthemic enough to have an acoustic guitar break out strumming the bridge. [8]
Andrew Karpan: A thrillingly monster pop-punk riff dedicated to the subject of dating the kind of faceless rich people that Drake writes songs about wanting to be. Of course, being mid can be as contagious as anything else. [5]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: My enjoyment of this perfectly good song has been significantly diminished ever since I figured out that she's 100% doing the "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" flow. [6]
Aaron Bergstrom: Sometimes I just stop and reflect on how lucky I am to be living at a time when I can write the words "prominent Butthole Surfers influence" about one of the five biggest pop stars in the world, then come to find out that two major publications beat me to it. Long live our slacker-rock princess. [9]
Brad Shoup: Speaking of "Pepper," "I can taste you on my lips/And smell you in my clothes" was a pop couplet about 20 years ahead of its time. That song was blanketed in a psychedelically surreal menace. That cloud isn't here (only the ramshackle rap), but Rodrigo's casual note about her ex's temper makes the menace uncomfotably clear. The conceit is dichotomy, but not like the crazy/beautiful regurgitation of "Bad Things". Doubling her vocal on the verses just makes thematic sense, but on the chorus, she multiplies: manufacturing consensus. [6]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: The weakest of the Guts singles, if only because the verses' talk-singing is of narrative importance more than anything else. Rodrigo's most awkward phrasing and strained attempts at cleverness are all over this, surely in the name of relatability. What ultimately sticks is the double meaning of the titular line; all this humdrum storytelling feels perfunctory when the dizziness and spontaneity of the chorus comes crashing through. The bombast is so polite that it could be a campfire chant, and the faux straight-laced presentation reflects the sophistication of her songwriting, leaving the rest of the track feeling comparatively shallow. [5]
Will Adams: Frustratingly anonymous by Rodrigo's standards, "Get Him Back!" puts all its points on a massive shout-along chorus at the expense of having anything else to say. [5]
Frank Falisi: To attribute a maybe apocryphal sentiment to the piano man: the keyboard is a percussive instrument. You pound it and it creates its own space, space which, in turn, is filled by collapsing mallets. And what about percussion? Is this the song with the drums? The drums dictate melody! They're meant to be sung to, like guitars. On "Get Him Back!", all lower-case and exclamation bang, the drum set drags Olivia's voice around that most familiar narrative: sour love, curdled absence, and the slip-rap hem-hawing of getting a half-beloved back. Her voice hits skin, halts, snaps and turns on a beat. What does it sound like? Who does it sound like? And then, the greatest trick a pop song can pull off: it reminds you of everything you can't recall because you don't have a name or word for it yet. [9]
Taylor Alatorre: Not since Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" has a tentpole pop single been constructed entirely out of the intention to cause as much visceral annoyance in one's critics as possible. (Taylor made a few worthy attempts, but she couldn't dethrone the Motherfucking Princess.) Going by the reviews, of course, Rodrigo doesn't seem to have many capital-C Critics these days, but what can a song like this be other than a big-budget reaction to the idea that, somewhere out there, someone hates us? And the idea that, you know what would be really funny? If we made them hate us even more. Rodrigo takes this hyper-awareness of self and runs with it, making a virtue out of bratty petulance in a way that was thought to be extinct outside of bands with names like State Champs and FRND CRCL. Getting an acoustic breakdown with gang vocals onto pop radio in 2023 is an achievement in itself, and apart from the inexplicably Pinkerton-aping "All-American Bitch," it's the moment where Rodrigo's simulacrum of a simulacrum of punk most approaches the real-fake thing. "Get Him Back!" is the aural equivalent of those Dark Brandon memes with the glowing red eyes, though distinctly different in that it requires less pretending and will likely age better in ten years. [7]
Hannah Jocelyn: I have no idea how "hits" work in 2023. I've been following this YouTuber named Spectrum Pulse for several years now, who's spent the past decade meticulously tracking the Billboard charts. Those charts are something of a no-man's-land right now, with years-old songs making dramatic comebacks, new records disappearing immediately after debuting at #1, and the entire fucking spectrum of country crowding out any pop or even rap (!). It reminds me a bit of the shift in 2016, when once-surefire hits like "Into You" underperformed in favor of moodier music. I don't know where the shift is going now, if it's even shifting to anything. What I do know is that a chorus like the one on "Get Him Back!" belongs to a smash, and it would have been one even a year ago. The double entendre of the title is wonderfully mischievous, Rodrigo sounds phenomenal, and Dan Nigro's Passion Pit-aping production is as good as his work's sounded since "Deja Vu." It's not a revelation like that song, one of the greatest pop songs of the 2020s so far, but it doesn't have to be. Clearly, it wouldn't matter if it was. [9]
Leah Isobel: Does "Get Him Back!" have the emotional weight of "Vampire" or the joyfully nihilistic invention of "Bad Idea Right?" No. Instead, it has something simpler: an absolute fucking 15-story kaiju monster of a hook. Sometimes that's all it takes. [9]
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