✨ They Recaptured the Magic, Hunny! ✨
Queer Eyes, full hearts! Plus THAT SUCCESSION EPISODE.
Coming at you late this week! Thanks for your patience, it’s been a tough one. Today we’re talking grief and comfort. Shows I’m watching: Queer Eye and Primo, plus the penultimate episode of Succession! (Scroll to the bottom for Succession, not tryna spoil it!)
There’s this wonderfully funny scene in Elizabethtown [one of my favorite movies that *most people* think is garbage because *most people* are cynical trolls I guess, I don’t know, just something to think about!!] where Alec Baldwin, after the devastating collapse of his company and against the backdrop of a corridor spanned end-to-end with ads for the failed running shoe that tanked said company, takes Orlando Bloom’s hands in his and says in a hilarious, pitch-perfect deadpan: “I cry a lot lately.”
And, folks, not gonna lie: That’s been me this week. On top of her scleroderma diagnosis, my mom found out last month that her cancer [non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma] is back. She started chemo two weeks ago, and it’s been…bad. I’ve been walking around with a feeling I can only describe as There’s a piece of ice in the middle of my chest so cold it hurts, and I’m doing my best to keep it from sliding around and touching any internal organs.
That Alec Baldwin scene in Elizabethtown pops into my head at times like this. Its precise absurdity and coy self-awareness give me comic relief because, after all, life really is full of loss, and that in itself is in so many ways absurd.
I’m curious to hear about any movie moments, song moments, or book moments that do that for you. What is your entertainment culture security blanket? Maybe it doesn’t make you laugh, but something that struck you the moment you first saw/heard/read it and resonated with your sadness in a way that has become a comfort. No need to share something too vulnerable, but I’d love to hear if you have a security blanket like that.
Whoof! Okay, thanks for hearing me out on that one. I know you didn’t subscribe to this newsletter for sadness. This week I’m leaning hard into comforting TV.
Let’s get on to the good stuff.
In the News: Upcoming Entertainment
In more fallout from the writer’s strike, ABC announced its new “unscripted show” The Golden Bachelor. It is “a whole new kind of love story” — why? Because it’s for seniors! I love how they’re just like othering people over 65 finding love? Like, well, since we don’t have any good writers anymore, let’s throw the seniors a bone! Screw you guys! I’m going back to Grace & Frankie! Anyways, my favorite part of this is that Martha Stewart said she would be the bachelorette on the next season “if she can see the men first.” Iconic.
The Bear season 2 got a real trailer! Looks like Carmy’s finding love? Not gonna lie, this trailer just made me nervous about the next season.
Killers of the Flower Moon, the next Scorsese/De Niro/DiCaprio powerhouse, finally has a trailer. It looks exactly how you would expect an A-list of A-list film to look: stunning. As I always am with Scorsese, I’m going to be equally thrilled for it and annoyed by the fact that all our great epic films still seem to mostly be about dudes dude-ing. [Though we do have Lily Gladstone, a Native American woman, third on the cast listing?! Maybe it’s tokenism but it’s something!]
Looking At: The Cannes Film Festival
[Not to go all Lina Lamont but is it pronounced CAN??? CAHHHN? I do not know! I only know the S is silent, much like Taylor Swift’s publicist right now. 👀]
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The Cannes Film Festival is this week and, as always, the interminable standing ovations remind me of that scene in Baby Mama when Steve Martin rewards Tina Fey with “five minutes of uninterrupted eye contact.” Yikes.
Anyhoo, every year I look forward to the Cannes Red Carpet. [Met Gala? More like Met GARBAGE!!] I give you some favorites, in no particular order:
Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Priyanka Chopra, and Blackpink’s Lisa broke Twitter. They also look like they just finished tripping you on the playground.
I request to be invited to an event where I can wear this. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is serving Your Next
Indiana JonesHarrison Ford is Here.Lol, imagine a normal person wearing this outfit from Elle Fanning?? I would be thrown out of any establishment looking like this!!
Landry Clarke is hot now! Way to peak late, my man. Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons continue to be my favorite couple in Hollywood, living their lives and taking no questions.
Imagine you could turn Cookie Monster’s huggable fur coat into otherworldly haute couture? Viola Davis said, bet.
It’s giving ensemble cast in Seussical.
See all the looks here. Still waiting for DollarTreeGraceJones and CerealOnTheFloor on TikTok to review!
Watching: Queer Eye Season 7 on Netflix
Come with me as we take a little journey to a very specific emotional destination. We’re watching The Lion King. Rafiki has taken Simba to the pool to see his reflection and Mufasa is arriving on the clouds—like the actual Lord—saying, “Remember who you are. You are my son and the one true king." You’re crying, I’m crying, we all have chills. And, people, that is the precise emotion I feel during a good episode of Queer Eye.
When the first rebooted season of Queer Eye hit Netflix in 2018, I — like everyone with two clear eyes and one full heart — fell in love. The adorable Fab Five! [IMPOSSIBLE to pick a favorite, but mine is definitely Tanny!] It’s everything you want in a makeover show, a cooking show, a fashion show, AND a home improvement show all rolled into one—plus free therapy.
But after a couple of seasons, the spark of first love went a little stale. The marriage of us + the Fab Five got a little rote, a little “not that joke again," a little “I love you, but you have to stop eating cereal near me.” But, FOLKS, I am here to tell you: THE MAGIC IS BACK!!!!!
The Fab Five have returned from a 17-month break with Season 7 in the blessed holy city of New Orleans, and it is just tears and laughs and smiles and reaffirming our human purpose all the way!! They are Mufasa, we are Simba, and we are remembering who we are!! Put those overproduced emotions in my VEINS! I don’t want to be a heretic, but it’s a little bit like church? Episode 3, y’all. It had me saying, “Give us a WORD!”
Plus, it’s in NOLA, set in the swamps from which I was BORN.
Watching: Primo on Amazon Freevee
My favorite person to follow on Twitter is Shea Serrano.
I first started following him when he wrote about sports and movies for The Ringer, and I text Ben screenshots of his tweets several times a day. He is so smart, such a good writer, the funniest person online, so inspiring and enthusiastic and childlike with excitement about everything.
Anyhoo, now Shea has written his own show! In partnership with Michael Schur of Parks & Rec, The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Good Place fame.
I’ve only watched three episodes of Primo so far, and it’s already a comfort watch. It’s not the best show you’ve ever seen (yet) but it’s sweet and kind and funny and the characters are great. It’s loosely biographical about Shea’s own life, but also universally about family, love, growing up, all the things.
Let’s let Shea say it himself:
I AM COMFORTED!!!!
P.S. A Sec for Succession!
Back to the subject of grief, the penultimate episode of Succession was last night, and guess what that doozy was about? GRIEF, honey!! And, boy, they really rallied from last week’s episode which, in my opinion, was pretty mediocre and uninspired compared to your usual Succession fare.
Penultimate episodes are always the big ones, the season’s climax. In Game of Thrones, it’s “Blackwater,” the Red Wedding, “The Watchers on the Wall,” “The Battle of the Bastards.”
In Succession, there’s no literal war or bloody battles, but—those dueling eulogies!? The modern equivalent of Daenerys roasting an entire CITY! Lady Caroline lining up the wives and mistresses on the front row? Tywin Lannister levels of dunking on your family!!
Roman’s explosion of grief midway through the episode is the best dramatic performance I’ve seen on television this year. Eat your heart out, This is Us! Cannot wait for the finale and also won’t know what to do with myself when this is all over.
I've never seen a single episode of the rebooted Queer Eye and sometimes I just wanna say "I'm queer enough as I am!" LOL but I'm sure I'd love it.
So sorry to hear you're dealing with so much grief and pain right now. Thinking of you, your mom, and everyone who loves her. <3
That penultimate episode was an all-timer. I don’t know what I’m going to do without Succession. 😭