Cheat Work Thursday

If there were no big-budget campaigns involved in movie award races, how different would they look? Granted that I don't watch that many movies to come out with a different Oscar list, I don't think I'll ever register the existence of La La Land or The Favourite then. A Star Is Born It’s not always easy to tell others that you are in pain. So, many would just drown in it — trapped, suffering in silence. But I’m at a point in my life where I can’t watch someone rich and successful self-destruct. I see A Star Is Born as nothing more than a movie with two huge Hollywood names. I can’t believe this is the third remake of the story. How was one not enough? Beautiful Boy Similar to A Star Is Born , Beautiful Boy is a story about addiction and life going off the rails. But I feel less angry watching this one, maybe because it’s based on real people and it also has a better ending. It's still uncomfortable watching someone try to lie the obvious, though — ar...

If you've been too productive with all the important things in life that you missed some of the good TVs in the first half of the year, it's time to rectify that. (Some spoilers ahead because I also have to tell you why I like the shows.) Fyre Festival, the "documentaries" @ RealZachBall This is obviously very old news, but apparently some of you haven't seen them yet. The entire scam is already too dumb and you probably need to respect your brain by not watching the shows, but no one is going to judge you here because the debacle is also too funny. Watch the Netflix's Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened if you want to literally roll on the floor laughing, but watch Hulu's Fyre Fraud if you think FuckJerry is gross. (FuckJerry produced the one on Netflix and was also the company responsible for marketing the event, so they were conveniently absolved on the Netflix show. Eight thousand ticket buyers might have been scammed by the ...

THE IRON THRONE It must have been a rough four days for people who watch both Survivor and Game of Thrones this week, and hate the endings. The polarizing, hysterically similar endings have to happen on the same week! But thank universe, I'm fine. I really think we have a very satisfying ending for Game of Thrones too. Daenerys, The Last Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. If burning down the city is still not an indicator, it's eerie to see how off the rails Daenerys has got from her victory speech. The war is not over, apparently. Hearing that is already making me tired. At the top of the broken stairs surrounded by a sea of rubble, she then declares a mission to “liberate” the entire world. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Still, being able to command both the Dothraki and the Unsullied — at the same time — cannot be an easy feat. Looking at the opposite ways they are cheering for their win, I don't know how the two armies survived crossing the sea, not killing each other. Then we arrive a...

"I SEE THE MILLION DOLLARS" "Who's angry?" Turns out you can build a winner's story in one week, even for someone that you've totally forgotten about , and I'm buying it! Not because this story is also about a young, good looking male who every time he goes fishing, a portion of Twitter goes hyperventilating. Totally not . So yeah, I wish it was Victoria's story. In her laid-back confessionals yet with horns and claws, she probably had her finger on the pulse more than any other players did in the game. If only she had just two idols. Soclose. This season did have some good weeks in the middle, but the several weeks leading to the finale were kind of rough. But I say the finale was goood! And I'm saying this while sipping coffee, scrolling the internet outrage at the result. (I also get that most of the internet is hating the game, not the player. Still...) Dear internet, the guy and ten others who were waiting this out got...

THE BELLS The thing about Game of Thrones is, we can't wait to find out the ending, but we also don't want it to end that quickly. Eight years of epic entertainment and surprises, and after this episode, there are only 80 minutes left of the show. So we are checking off speculations and prophecies at lightning speed this episode, and axing people left and right. They are all going to die — we just want each of the deaths to be more creative and unexpected than the last. "Varys got torched by the dragon." "Just torched? What a letdown." I am kind of disappointed with the way Varys dies, though. I wish he had lived to old age and done whatever it was that he meant by doing things "for the realm". I wish the show had surprised us with the Hound too. With all his pessimism, he deserved to live a long life. Jaime and Cersei's deaths were kind of ok , right? Granted that we didn't see the bodies, they had to die either by killing ...

"IDOL OR BUST" This is the episode which highlight is everyone at Extinction Island receiving a letter from... themselves prior to the game? Sigh. That was so close. Food would be better. So is it possible that for the first time ever my winner pick actually wins the game? But how will Victoria get there? What kind of magic story she's building in the finale next week to support this? We really haven't seen that much of Victoria, tbh. But it's still possible for a Victoria win, right? Maybe her FTC story will be "I didn't receive a single vote all season. I was always in the know of where the votes were going. I let people eat each other up because in this era of Survivor, making the flashy move will only get you targeted." Because I don't think Rick is going to win. That will be too easy. And I don't think anyone currently at Extinction Island is going to win either. Besides Reem, we've forgotten about every single one of them. T...

THE LAST OF THE STARKS "Well?" WHERE WE ARE AT RIGHT NOW: 1 Gendry is now Lord Gendry Baratheon of Storm's End. I don't think that place has ever registered on my brain. Are there even people living in Storm's End? Anyway, he also proposes to Arya and gets rejected. Then Arya and the Hound escape the crowd and ride to King's Landing ahead of Jon and Daenerys' army. 2 It is still tough to make friends in the North for Daenerys. While celebrating their victory against the Night King, everyone wants to drink with Jon, and she has to make Gendry a Lord and give a toast to Arya to get a cheer. I totally feel for her; she's me at networking events. "What kind of person climbs on a fucking dragon? A madman , or a king ," Tormund toasts Jon while Daenerys looks on. Awkward. Also, foreshadowing? 3 Daenerys tells Jon to keep his Targaryen blood a secret. Jon says he doesn't care about the Iron Throne but has to tell Arya and Sansa a...

"AWKWARD" This is an episode which highlight is Rick climbing a tree. After the Wardog vote, Rick realizes how he's just kept being lied to over and over again by Ron. But that doesn't stop Ron from doing some damage control and lying to Rick one more time, so he gives his expired advantage to Rick to show that he's loyal and trustworthy. As if that's not odd. If it's a real idol... You. Won't. Give. It. Away. To. Others. (Well, usually.) Ron wins the loved ones visit, and he picks Julie and Gavin to enjoy the lunch reward with him. Victoria tells us that this makes her relook at relationships in the game. Loved ones visit is huge, apparently. Who you pick tells a lot. Back at camp, a few people get caught looking into Rick's bag but the heat is on Aurora because her hand is on Rick's bag when he walks in, but she nonchalantly brushes it off. "I'd feel awkward if I got caught looking through someone's bag," Rick say...

THE LONG NIGHT Nobody: Literally nobody: Me: I'm reporting from Winterfell. _____ 0:03 Theon casually wheels Bran out to the weirwood tree because that's the plan. Just a bait to draw out the evil king, who can do powerful magic and wants everybody dead but has like 0.006% chance — tops — to be killed himself. No big deal. 0:04 The last of the Unsullied marches into the field. I give it to these people, they line up super straight like it’s all measured with rulers. The rows of people and Winterfell all lit up look beautiful too*, like they are all here to celebrate something. Except it's awfully quiet and cold and they are about to fight creatures that almost cannot die. (*Come on, people. It's in the middle of the night. It's appropriately dark.) 0:06 A lone rider approaches the Winterfell gang — it's Melisandre. The Red Woman asks the Dothraki to lift their swords, and she goes to light their weapons. Whoa, I'm geeking out so hard right n...

"FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS" This is an episode which highlight is Wardog tripping at the reward challenge. There were three people left out of the Kelley vote — Lauren, Gavin and Julie. Lauren is mad at Wardog and now out for blood. Gavin is also pissed for being "talked to like a dog" by Wardog. But miraculously, Julie tells Ron that she's not angry at him. "I don't hold anything against you, Ron. Please, I'm not like that. I'm not super emotional, as emotional as I am in this game," she says. Rick, Wardog and Ron talk about shielding each other, being each other's biggest threat in the game right now. Well, Rick and Wardog mostly. Ron confesses that he still can be anyone's ally at this point, and despite working together in the last vote, he does think that Wardog is a loose cannon. Lauren, Ron, Victoria, Aurora and Gavin are talking about voting out Rick, while Ron also doesn't get along with Aurora. The two arguing a...