The Grammys Emotional Roller Coaster
Plus: The Traitors, SNL with Ayo Edebiri, and my new favorite movie Bottoms
I started my new job, got my first bylines in The Athletic, and even got a few mean comments! In the immortal words of Rico Richie, “If you ain't got no haters, you ain't poppin'.” Or whatever, I guess.
Well, folks, I decided to start watching The Traitors, and now it’s all I think about! I don’t even watch competition shows and I’m addicted. It’s dumber than Survivor but not as dumb as The Bachelor, and if you like games like Mafia, you’ll love the strategy of it. And—this might not be for everyone—but I LOVE the characters!! They are SO MESSY!
And when I say messy, I mean like Scottie-Pippen’s-ex-wife-who-is-now-dating-Michael-Jordan’s-son-are-both-on-this-show-together messy! Shame, shame, they DON’T know your name! The cast rounds out with other main characters from different reality shows including Survivor, Big Brother, The Challenge, Real Housewives, Bling Empire, etc. — and also, the drama queen former Speaker of the House of Commons in the British Parliament, John Bercow, who I am wont to quote with my other Anglophile friend, Laura. This show is truly a “This place has everything” à la SNL’s Stefon.
Anyways, if you have the remotest interest, make sure you look up Season 2 of the American version. They’re up to episode six and will have 11 total; new episodes drop Thursday — join me!
Or, share with me your current TV obsession that’s getting you through the trying times of January/February?
The Grammys took us on a journey we will be talking about in therapy.
Sobbing:
I defy any other moment in 2024 [unless my sister magically has another baby] to surpass that Tracy Chapman performance. I blubbered. It was a little miracle that Chapman agreed to come perform with Luke Combs, who covered her song so reverently this past year. She has been nearly invisible since retiring from performing.
More blubbering: Joni Mitchell giving her first-ever [!?!] Grammys performance at the age of 80. She recovered from a brain aneurysm in 2015 and retaught herself to play guitar.
Celine Dion! My #1 forever! She, too, has suffered immense physical trauma in the past few years, and was a complete surprise appearance to deliver the top award of the night.
Super happy about:
Women won tons of stuff, women women women! They did THAT!
Victoria Monét won Best New Artist! It baffles me only in the sense I have been listening to her for years [that is a brag], but I’m SO GLAD she got her recognition! Her speech was so funny and heartfelt and beautiful.
SZA, who came in with the most nominations, winning and then giving the most authentic speech. “I’m not an attractive crier. Have a good evening!”
Miley Cyrus winning her first [1st!??!??!!??] Grammy! And being so classy and sweet to Mariah and then delivering the most rock-star performance ever with her godmother-Dolly-Parton hair!
Jay-Z’s speech calling out the fact that the Grammys is basically like if Green Book won the Oscars every year, aka, their most-awarded female artist, Beyoncé, has still never won Album of the Year. We love to see a man standing up for his wife’s incredible work.
Annoyed by:
Now we must come to the Dark Timeline of my Grammys experience.
We are 13.7-billion-and-counting in years that Beyoncé still has not won Album of the Year. [Though this year she didn’t have music to nominate.] Lemonade—which is, imho, the greatest album of all time—lost to 24K Magic by Bruno Mars in 2018 because the “voters” thought Beyonce was trying to “game the system” by incoroporating several genres, instead of recognizing that she transcended genre in order to create perhaps the greatest piece of pop-music art ever created!?!?!?!?
Up next in annoyance:
An amazing night for Taylor Swift…. She won her fourth Album of the Year Grammy [the “Best Picture” of the Grammys], which is the most of anyone in history. She also announced a brand new album, coming in April.
….but not for my Taylor Swift fandom. I don’t want to sound like hoity-toity Grandmary from the Samantha books, but our girl did some things in poor taste.
[Let’s be clear: I’m not throwing stones, Taylor Swift is my top-listened-to artist. I’m not some special white girl who is above it!]
Announcing a new album—when you have the fame level that Taylor has ascended to this year—at an awards ceremony where many artists are receiving their first-ever accolades, and are still waiting for their moment to shine? That is tacky! I don’t care if I sound like Grandmary! I’m happy for her fans that she announced a new album or whatever. But girl.
She also completely ignored Celine Dion when accepting her Album of the Year award. If you watch the video, it is kind of gobsmacking. She bounces around stage hugging every single other person up there, including dragging a very unwilling Lana Del Rey onstage with her, then takes the award from Celine with even looking at her. [To be fair, later someone clearly stepped in, likely her publicist Tree Paine, and made sure they got a photo together.] I can understand that getting that award and being there and on stage and all of that is discombobulating. I know the cynics will think I’m naive, but I really think she would never intend to ignore Celine! But still, she has enough experience and poise not to make that mistake. It was tacky and sad! Sorry to sound like Grandmary and Trump!
Conclusion: If there’s one thing Taylor’s gonna do it’s stay hyper-focused on her fans—a.k.a. the churning economic machine that has brought her where she is today. And that is both good and bad.
Anyways, her new album is titled The Tortured Poets Department, which might be a reference to her ex-boyfriend’s group chat, but sounds like what I called my “book club” in eighth grade right after watching Dead Poets Society for the first time and when my email address was “sparkling.dawn.88.”
I’m sure I’ll be listening to it the day it drops. Ugh @ me.
Saturday Night Live Highlights - Ayo Edebiri
Sometimes SNL has an A-list actor who muddles through the skits because they at least have talent, and it works if the skits are really well-written. And sometimes the skits are pretty mid, but they have a guest who has sketch comedy so deeply in their DNA that it just works where it really shouldn’t.
That was this episode!! YAY!
Ayo Edebiri [pronounced “EYE-oh eh-DEB-ihree”] got her comedy chops coming up in the NYC sketch/improv/stand-up world and it shows. She is also just one of those people who, without seeming to attempt to, makes you want to root for her. She’s giving 1,000% no matter what’s going on around her.
Highlights: (1) Her monologue (above) was really sweet; (2) “School Hypnotist” [SHE IS ON ANOTHER LEVEL] (3) Why’d You Say It? (4) Dune Popcorn Bucket (5) Trivia Quest (6) People’s Court - Bad Hair Day
The Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake episode, which I missed last week, was an odd one because it was like nine GARBAGE sketches and two of my favorites of the YEAR: 1) Please Don’t Destroy Roast [they figured out how to use her deadpan-ness] 2) NFL Championship Cold Open.
Watching: Bottoms on MGM+ (I rented on Amazon)
[Please note this is the explicit trailer, which means don’t watch it with kids around! Also, if you don’t like that trailer, you certainly won’t like the movie!]
Ayo Edebiri is having a moment. She’s winning every award for her role in The Bear, she’s killing it in the red-carpet fashion game, she’s hosting SNL, and she’s becoming a meme machine.
If you, like me and everyone else, just can’t get enough Ayo—I give you: Bottoms. Also, if you, like me, have often wondered: “Why can’t they make Superbad but for GIRLS?” I give you: Bottoms! I mean, this movie is SO much more than that, but it’s also not a terrible way to help someone understand what they’re getting into.
The second I finished this movie, I mentally added it to my “Comfort Watches” list. It was so hilarious and well-acted, the comic timing was off the charts — the kind of movie you want to constantly pause and write down the dialogue because it’s just so unexpected and funny. [“You don’t care about feminism, your favorite movie is Entourage,” one lesbian says to another.]
It’s a raunchy, over-the-top comedy about friendship and cliques and honesty and hormones, and I had a fantastic time and immediately wanted to watch it again.
PSA: I know my review makes it sound like a safe little PG film for kids, but it is not that. It’s the level of raunchy that doesn’t register for me AT ALL but then I recommend it to someone with children and they’re like, “Did you….forget about…all the stuff?” The script is going to use all the words for all the genitalia. If the characters are breathing, they’re talking about trying to have sex. The F word is in every scene. They are going to do murders. You’ve been warned not to watch with your children or your grandparents.