Cheat Work Thursday

Homeland Carrie with Yevgeny (who is totally Oleg . You know that's Oleg.) Homeland's final season was great, but the finale was -- I realize this is probably an unpopular opinion -- underwhelming. You have a nail-biting story the entire season and sacrifice one of the best friends anyone could have in the entire world, then you end up running to the enemy land and sending secret messages in books like it's still 1980s. That said, thank you for one hell of a series, Homeland. I don't regret following you for eight seasons. Better Call Saul I thought season 5 was the show's final, and that was disappointing because I feel like it's still not telling much. What with Mike and Nacho practically only saying a total of six lines in every episode. I get that this is the prequel to Breaking Bad, but I still want it to have a great story of its own. So, high hopes, still, for next year. Survivor I suppose 2020's real-life excitement has taken away...

The world was on fire out there. But it was kind of nice in another way because it was quiet. The stupid highway next to my house had miraculously almost cleared, and there was no single dumbass to disturb me in a stretch of weeks! We were all floating and putting things on hold, apparently. And came these movies that you watch lazily in your numb state, a luxury, simply because why not, you have time. Hustlers The movie is inspired by a true story based on a 2015 New York magazine article by Jessica Pressler titled "The Hustlers at Scores". It's a story about a group of strippers who steal from rich men by drugging them and running up their credit cards. Is it a mind-blowing movie? No. But at least its existence doesn't make me mad. The movie moves fast, just like the savvy women in it. It doesn't have time for empty, draggy scenes. And the huge bonus is, it lines up actors who are easy to root for : from Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu and Keke Palmer, to...

Photo by Hello I'm Nik 🎞 on Unsplash I've been cautious in crowded and public places since end of January -- careful with surfaces that I touch and conscious about being too close to others. I also bought masks that I didn't use, though, not until March. Promise I didn't hoard, I only bought a pack of 30 pieces. The last time I was out of my neighbourhood was for work on 11 March, a week before the stay-at-home order took place. I have a doctor appointment tomorrow (12 May), so that's two months now of essentially self-isolating, going out only for groceries every two weeks, picking up a couple of drive-thrus and takeaways, and receiving only three deliveries for a charging cable, contact lenses and cooking gas. The order has been relaxed since last Monday. I don't shop for clothes often, but a few weeks into staying in, I made plans that one of the first things that I wanted to do when the order was lifted was to buy some new clothes. But...

Two out of these three will probably not win more than one award at next week's Oscars. But I'll jump and scream for them if they do. My three favourite 2020 Oscar movies: 1917 I think most of us can't watch this movie without instantly comparing it to Saving Private Ryan , only because of their similar premise: soldiers tasked with a rescue mission that requires them to sneak through an enemy's land. In 1917 , two young men are to race against time and call off a scheduled attack at the other end of the war zone that would save two battalions of the Allied armies from walking into a trap. While Saving Private Ryan is gripping with its brutal battle scenes, 1917 is transporting us with its score, lighting, and delightful cinematography of a seemingly continuous shot, bouncing us from one war experience to another. It's a story of an underdog's journey, not obvious heroes. You stay close to keep the characters company and root for them till the en...

I love Lost , so I finally watched The Leftovers , another highly acclaimed show co-created by Damon Lindelof. The story starts in Mapleton, New York, following the aftermath of the "Sudden Departure" when 2% of the world's population disappears. Those left behind grieve and live in fear, painfully trying to find explanations and ways to move on. Among them are Kevin and Nora. Kevin is the Mapleton's Chief of Police. He doesn't lose any family members from the Departure, but his wife Laurie leaves to join a cult called the Guilty Remnant, his stepson Tommy joins another cult in the desert, and his teenage daughter Jill is annoying. Nora loses her entire family -- husband and two kids -- from the Departure. Kevin and Nora meet at a town event one day and start dating. Like Lost , The Leftovers also features an ensemble cast of characters with different backgrounds and secrets, which I always love. So, season 1 is great, and I almost get this "show...

I put off reading this for a long time, thinking that I won't like it. I mean, do I really need to read a 400-over-page book about royals and extra rich people being rich? Then when I finally read it, because Goodreads, its first few pages with way too many pop culture references were just eyeroll-inducing. But I soon got past that and was charmed by its quick banter. And once it got me hooked -- omg, it felt like curling up in bed with a warm blanket on a rainy day! The story is sweet and smart and funny and packed with so many reasons to be hopeful -- or dream  of a more empathetic world(?). My immediate thought after finishing it: Please, please don't let the movie ruin it. Because I'm selfish. And there's no way a movie is not already coming for this. So Alex is the son of the first female President of the United States and Henry is the fourth in line to the British throne. They start their relationship by despising each other, to being fake friends for dipl...

Knowing what we know now, those award acceptance speeches thanking and worshipping Harvey Weinstein just make me want to shower. These two must-read books were written by the three reporters who broke the Weinstein story in 2017, recounting their months-long investigations and the aftermath of the broken dam. Kantor and Twohey published their story five days before Farrow, reporting it for The New York Times ; Farrow started his investigation when he was at NBC, and when it was quashed by his bosses, he brought the story and wrote it for The New Yorker . While the focus of the two books are Weinstein's "alleged" crimes and how he uses his money and power to silence the women who accuse him of rape and abuse spanning over decades, they also cover sexual allegations against other powerful men, mostly in media and politics, including Roger Ailes, Les Moonves, Matt Lauer, Brett Kavanaugh and Donald Trump. There are some overlaps between the two books, but the sto...

El Camino Breaking Bad 's finale is probably one of the most satisfying TV endings in recent times. We already knew Jesse escaped, but knowing how with El Camino is a nice surprise for us who miss the series. And we've already seen Mike in Better Call Saul , so it's great to see other familiar characters popping up on the screen. The flashback of Jesse and Walter sombrely captures the relationship between the two. And OMG, how still great at being creepy Todd Alquist is? Killing someone and calling it Monday, casually waiting for the body to be thrown from the second floor because efficiency, happily singing in the car and driving the said body to be disposed like he's driving to his grandmother's house? Then there are the resident legal and recycling expert Old Joe; the stoic Ed played by Robert Forster, whose performance is so impactful you forgot that he only appeared once in Breaking Bad ; and, of course, the ever-loyal sidekicks Skinny Pete and Badger, ...

I passed on Noah for a long time. The story felt a liiitle too close to a red line to me. But running out of books one week, I decided that I was just going to give in to the high Goodreads rating and read it. And it's one of my favourites now. So why it was difficult to read it earlier? Julian is Noah's sister stepson. Ok, Julian isn't really Noah's nephew. They aren't blood-related and were never close or saw each other much before. They've never had that uncle-nephew relationship. Still, it kind of jolt your system hearing it the first time, no? Noah is a 40-year-old movie director and the life of the party. His life turns upside down one day, beginning with him walking on his girlfriend cheating on him. The next day, his entire family -- parents, sister, brother-in-law, young nephew and niece -- die in a plane crash. The only one left is Julian who was not on the plane. A month after the funeral, while Noah is nursing his sorrow with alcohol and not...

This is the second Cara Dee's book that I read, and my God, I love Casey! Just like Cara Dee's other characters and all human beings on earth obvs , Casey's not perfect. But seriously, how do I find someone this funny and fun and kind and apparently hot, too, in real life? Even as a friend? Do people like him really exist outside of a book or screen? So where are they? And if you are telling me that I have to be all those first to attract similar people into my life , this is where I'll get angry. I seriously need the scientific study that backs that discrimination up. Embarrassingly, my cynicism evaporates when reading Cara Dees. If this were real life or maybe a story by some other authors even, I'd probably question e-ve-rything. Because how too-good a two-week vacation in beautiful, secluded coves, jungles, rivers and waterfalls while falling in love is? Thankfully my brain ignores that because this book is good, and Casey is unfiltered, quirky and hilario...