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warningsine · 6 months

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The funniest show on television is Girls5Eva, which transplanted from the backwoods of Peacock to the mires of Netflix for its third season. While a lot of shows have taken off after landing on Netflix — You, for instance — Girls5Eva, from the data available publicly, didn’t get many viewers on the platform. I’m no expert on the mechanics of streaming, but I have one radical explanation for why this is happening: There are simply not enough episodes of Girls5Eva available to watch. On Peacock, the show had two eight-episode seasons. Netflix has given it an additional six. That means that Girls5Eva has aired, in total, only 22 episodes, about the same number as a full-season order of an old-fashioned network sitcom like 30 Rock, to which Meredith Scardino’s series is deeply indebted (Scardino wrote on 30 Rock; Tina Fey is a Girls5Eva executive producer). Over a three-year period? This is simply not enough!

Sitcoms are built for mass production and consumption, with dynamics between characters designed to generate an endless stream of story lines, and it can take a season or two to fully gel. Girls5Eva is lucky enough to have a distinct sensibility and a strong cast from the start, but it hasn’t had the space to work through all the possible material. There’s so much to mine in flashbacks to the girl group’s checkered early-aughts past, in Wickie’s failed solo career, in Summer’s wackadoo Christian upbringing, in Gloria’s fraught lesbian drama, and in Dawn’s attempts to find her own way as a songwriter (plus the larger meta arc of Sara Bareilles coming into her own as a comedic actor). Season three, in which the crew goes on tour around the country, tries to cover so much ground it’s like a distance runner sprinting at her vO2 max. The overarching plot — they want to perform at Radio City Music Hall — encroaches on all the fun along the way, rushing past a guest appearance from Cat Cohen, the reveal of Wickie’s real backstory, and an intricate Harry Styles parody. Sitcoms should be about all the fun everyone is having along the way, and we’ve lost that.

But there is another and perhaps more important reason that we need longer seasons of Girls5Eva: holidays. Network sitcoms, airing on a traditional schedule, have the opportunity to set episodes around the holidays near which they would air; think of the Thanksgiving episodes of Friends, The Office’s Christmas episodes, 30 Rock’s impeccable use of Leap Day. In my ideal universe where Girls5Eva has 22-episode seasons, Netflix would also abandon the binge strategy and air those episodes weekly, but that’s not a necessity. You could still drop them all at once, which gives me the opportunity to revisit the holiday episodes as those holidays occur throughout the year. If you need convincing, here are my suggestions for some holidays the Girls5Eva might celebrate:

Christmas (duh): Dawn tries to write a Christmas song; Wickie reveals a longstanding feud with Mariah Carey (she claims one of the items from her riff rolodex appears in “All I Want for Christmas Is You”; Mariah does not know her).

Thanksgiving: The girls try to book a gig at the Macy’s Parade (as Peacock actually had the stars do, to the confusion of my parents watching at home) while also atoning for their past sins at the event (revealed in flashback).

Valentine’s Day: Gloria revisits a past relationship with Taylor Lautner (she was his dentist).

Tax season: Summer reveals she hasn’t been paying taxes for years (thought you were covered if you already paid your church).

Presidents’ Day: Dawn tries to write a song about Lincoln being sexy, inadvertently offends a gay activist group.

Pride month: Return of Bowen Yang’s lip-sync influencer.

Cuffing season: Big for Gloria.

The Feast of San Gennaro: Big for Dawn (why is the show so all-in on Sara Bareilles being Italian??).

V-E Day: Wickie and Dawn’s husband, Scott, discover their mutual fascination with the Eastern Front: “I spent a lot of time touring post-Soviet states, okay!”

Casimir Pulaski Day: Gloria has beef with Sufjan Stevens.

#girls5eva

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squeezesublime · 6 months

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people you'd like to get to know better

tagged by @simvanie!!!

Last Song

II HANDS II HEAVEN by Beyoncé - Ever since COWBOY CARTER was released, I just cannot get enough of this song for whatever. It is five minutes of total PERFECTION in my mind and nothing will change that otherwise.

Favorite Color

Forest green! I have so many sweaters in this color and feel like it is so versatile and can be paired with so many everyday colors (blues, blacks, grays, browns, etc.)

Sweet/Savory/Spicy

I definitely have more of a sweet tooth when it comes to different cakes, breads, and cookies. But I also enjoy the sweetness and savory blend of flavors like BBQ, honey mustard, etc.

Currently Watching

The Golden Girls, Girls5eva, Griselda, and Invincible (a hodgepodge of a bunch of stuff lol)

Relationship Status

Currently in a short-term relationship with this really cute guy that unfortunately may or may not be moving in a couple months. But I absolutely and thoroughly enjoy all the time I get to spend with him now! ☺️

Current Obsessions

✦ COWBOY CARTER by Beyoncé (duh!) ✦ Hanging out with my long-haired, short-term-relationship boy who is just as obsessed with COWBOY CARTER as I am ✦ @aashwarr's storytelling on her YouTube channel ✦ Toasted Ritz crackers ✦ Curating my own Sim-style (still in process...)

Last Thing You Googled

"apri pill" (medical school tingz)

I am tagging a couple of my favorite mutuals, do as much as you see fit! @helloavocadooo @socialtownie @theosconfessions @westonsims00 @retrotrait

#non sims #tagging game

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performativezippers · 6 months

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I know it’s unlikely, but seeing as you’re a fan of Girls5eva, I’m just picturing Kate also being a huge fan of the show (Lucy is completely unaware of it), and Lucy comes back early from the gym or hanging out with Ernie and finds Kate singing B.P.E or one of the other amazing songs from it and just being completely dumbfounded because 1) holy crap can Kate sing, and 2) what the hell is Kate singing

okay yes kate can sing but i am SURE kate cannot rap, so BPE is the one song she shouldn't be doing LMAO

but kate is like "why is dawn's song of fears funny? that's just LIFE" and lucy being like "oh my sweet anxious string bean"

#ask zipps #kacy #girls 5eva

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girls5evasource · 1 year

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reneeelisegoldsberry: How do we at #girls5eva know our beloved friend is our biggest fan? He watched season 1 twice. Season 2 drop was one episode every Thurs morning at 6am… so he was texting us by 6:35am celebrating his favorite lines… Doesn’t want any season 3 spoilers at all because they would steal from the joy of bingeing it when it drops… I love people who take the work of cheering their friends on as seriously as they do putting their own work into the world… Thanks @lin_manuel and @vamnit for stopping by the set to say HI! This is the only pic I can share of your visit until season 3 drops because it’s top-secret stuff! But I can’t keep quiet about how grateful we all are for you two, and for every #girls5eva fan! Season 3 will be on @netflix ! We are days away from wrapping principal photography…We love it so much we can’t wait to share it with you! Extreme closeup so I don’t spoil the surprise… But this style team ALWAYS slays! @lasonyagunter @takishahair @heme_style

#renee elise goldsberry #lin manuel miranda #girls5eva #bts #photos

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thegirl20 · 2 years

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I posted 5,377 times in 2022

243 posts created (5%)

5,134 posts reblogged (95%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@corleyan

@lovecanbesostrange

@royalarmyofoz

@adorabilityinitiative

@mjduncan

I tagged 5,373 of my posts in 2022

#the witcher - 448 posts

#kevin can fuck himself - 278 posts

#abbott elementary - 238 posts

#taskmaster - 233 posts

#allison x patty - 222 posts

#yennefer of vengerberg - 207 posts

#allison mcroberts - 197 posts

#patty o'connor - 194 posts

#girls5eva - 161 posts

#tissaia de vries - 160 posts

Longest Tag: 120 characters

#i am enjoying thinking about catherine and gill interacting when they were working on whatever case they were working on

My Top Posts in 2022:

While we’re on the topic of Tissaia’s hands, I noticed this on one of my skim throughs.

I liked how similar the hand gestures were. The first to purchase Yennefer, the second to stop Stregobor from hurting her. (Both arguably saving her.)

195 notes - Posted February 7, 2022

1.08 | 2.03

206 notes - Posted January 17, 2022

Okay the scene in 2.03 where Yenn is leaning against Tissaia. How do you think they shot that so that Anya and MyAnna looked to be the same height? Because all I can imagine is that incredible powerhouse of a woman did that scene standing on an apple box and it makes me laugh every time I think of it

I have been laughing about this since I read it, anon.

I wouldn't put it past her to be that intimidating while perched on a box, I can tell you that much.

For the artistically inclined among you, I have helpfully included a screenshot with an area you can fill in with your ideas.

Ridiculous answers only, please. I don't want anybody telling me that Anya is standing further back, or that she's barefoot while MyAnna is wearing six inch platform shoes.

292 notes - Posted January 11, 2022

See the full post

293 notes - Posted June 2, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

See the full post

508 notes - Posted March 10, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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windowsandfeelings · 2 years

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3, 11, 18?

3. Favorite TV shows to watch this year

So many as always.

Obviously Nancy Drew ranks pretty high. I loved Severance and Abbott Elementary and Our Flag Means Death and Only Murders in the Building and Sex Lives of College Girls and White Lotus and Mythic Quest and For All Mankind and Grey's Anatomy (still!) and Alaska Daily and She-Hulk and 9-1-1 and Leverage: Redemption and Pivoting (RIP) and The Bear and Barry and Starstruck and Maggie and Hacks and Reboot and Mr. Mayor and Rutherford Falls and Girls5Eva and Heartstopper and Never Have I Ever and Yellowjackets and Wednesday and Bumper in Berlin (really!) and Legends of Tomorrow (also RIP) and GOD I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT ELSE.

Plus old stuff I watched for the first time, like Crash Landing on You.

Or Station Eleven, which I think was truly one of the greatest shows of the last few years, but its season straddled 2021 and 2022 which positioned it weirdly.

Probably a ton of other stuff I'm forgetting.

11. Biggest squee moments of the year (For ye youths who no longer use such awesome terminology, that means the fandom moments that made your heart cry out in overwhelming joy. Can y’all believe that “squee” didn’t quite stand the test of time??)

(bring back "squee"!)

Okay the absolute number one answer to this is that at one point during the Nancy Drew finale I was so aelkfha;sdlfjas;ldkfghjas;lghas;ldfjawoieth about something that I leapt off my couch and spilled my diet coke EVERYWHERE and now there is a permanent diet coke stain on my pull-out mattress. I do not, however, remember which moment it was, exactly, that prompted the reaction. It could have been any of several.

18. Fandom that you never expected to get into

IDK about "fandom" exactly, because I tend not to be a super active participant in fandoms these days (with a couple of notable exceptions).

But as far as, like, a piece of culture I didn't think I'd get that into and then did: Severance.

Also, I can't share what I wrote for Yuletide until Sunday (I think?), but it's not a fandom I ever thought I'd write for (even though, of course, I volunteered to).

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alexzalben · 2 years

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Hey Alex! I was just wondering if you could explain the process of a show from one platform being renewed by another? I know so many people have lost favourite shows recently and I'd love to know if there's any hope for some of us.

I don't know that I can adequately explain it, because A) every case is different, and B) I'm not involved in those contract negotiations. But the short version is that it comes down to whether multiple parties involved want to make a deal, and contractually can make a deal.

So, for example, Minx: that was a show that streamed on HBO Max, which is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery; but the show itself was produced by Lionsgate, which owns Starz. Though I absolutely don't know this for a fact, presumably when WBD decided to unrenew Minx, they made a deal with Lionsgate to buy back the streaming rights to the first season, as well as the second season, so Lionsgate could air it on Starz (and stream on the Starz app). This is a win for Lionsgate/Starz since they get a critically acclaimed show, and a win for WBD since they were dumping the show anyway, and have to make back a huge amount of money in their budget.

Another example, Girls5eva: again, I do not know this for sure, but it was already canceled by Peacock, and then picked up for a third season by Netflix. For Peacock, it was most likely not driving subscriptions and didn't have the streaming numbers they needed to continue. For Netflix, I would venture that someone(s) was a fan of the show and the talent involved, and were able to make a financial case that buying the rights to stream the first two seasons of the show as well as producing a third season could produce a comedy hit a la Cobra Kai. And NBCUniversal, too, could use a little cash on hand - like WBD and Paramount, I'd guess they're finding licensing their content can make them more money than constantly pouring it down the hole of their own streaming service.

Again, this is two cases, and I don't actually have any inside info, just speculation. But the short answer is that everything is a unique case... The best thing you can do as a fan, since you don't have anything to do with contract negotiations, is watch and talk up shows you love; on social media, and in person... Like you presumably do anyway.

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warningsine · 6 months

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Now that we’ve gotten to the end of Girls5eva season three, there’s just 6 much we’ve seen the girl group sing about: the hotness of boys in space, UTIs, knee surgery. But in the quest to be famous 5eva, one song has to be No. 1. Using a highly scientific process known as “listening to my own taste,” I ranked the output of Girls5eva thus far, focusing both on whether the songs are good as stand-alone songs and whether they are actually funny. For the sake of clarity, I stuck to the music available on the show’s official cast recordings, which does leave off several gems we only hear for a few seconds onscreen. (Why didn’t we get a studio version of Dawn’s song where she uses every possible definition of the word “set”? This is a question I can only yell fruitlessly at the screen and hope for a response.) Until then, we will make do with this list of the excellent Girls5eva material that is available on a music-streaming service near you.

32) “U Ready?” A filler song that is itself a joke about filler songs, you have to admire the number of ways the Girls5eva writers have the group stall for time. The delivery is very funny, and we get all the girls (including Ashley Park) doing their best ready-for-MTV voices to confirm they are, indeed, “in the house” and “ready.” However, the concept is better as an elaborate joke than a song, per se. Best line: “If you’re ready, could you say ‘ready’? Because you could be ‘in the house’ and not ‘ready.’”

31) “Home Alone Doorknob” This is barely a song, but man, it’s a funny metaphor for what happens to your clitoris when you get horny. Best line: “It’s gonna get sexy, so watch out, Joe Pesci!”

30) “The Splingee” Another exercise in specific girl-group humor, Girls5eva describes how to do a “dope” dance move that is supposedly taking the world by storm. It involves whipping your hair, doing figure eights with your waist, blinking with two eyes, and getting all shy like you want to cry. The instructions end with the note that “the only thing left to do is repeat it two more times to make one complete splingee.” Honestly, it sounds like a home workout I should try. Best line: “Grind up on a ghost, then shake it out.”

29) “Who U Know” A solo performance by Jeremiah Craft’s Lil Stinker (who later gets canceled and rebrands as a country act), this is a send-up of name-dropping rap singles, with Stinker just listing everyone he knows, from his mom to his friend’s mom to Alfre Woodard. Best line: “From Zendaya to Zen-die-a!”

28) “No Strings” Gloria spends season three trying to hook up with every type of woman, but realizes that she’s a romantic after all. Here, she’s trying to embrace a no-strings-attached dynamic through a nonsensical folk tune that’s about a couple chasing the moon in an airplane powered by love. Best line: “A morning that never came until the coroner said to the wizard ‘time of death,’ the same.”

27) “Line Up” ”This is the song that launches Girls5eva’s comeback, since Lil Stinker samples “Famous 5eva” on it. We’ll get to their original hit later on, but the Stinker side of it is pretty generic as a placeholder for the kind of song that might sample something from the early 2000s. Best line: “I know you wanna light up, forever 5eva enough.”

26) “Thinking About Myself” One of Dawn’s stabs at songwriting early in season two, this is a fairly direct ballad about self-involvement. It does have some great zealous grandstanding vocals from Renée Elise Goldsberry, though. Best line: “Crying harder than anyone at a funeral for a great-uncle I barely knew.”

25) “Space Boys” In the chronicles of Girls5eva’s adventures in dating, here we have them going on an interstellar boy-kissing mission. Sadly they don’t have a TARS to keep them company, but after checking every planet they can (including “the stars”) they find some space boys (“more exotic than a waiter from France!”). On the show, the song accompanies some flashbacks to a young Gloria trying to avoid making out with actual boys, but solely as music, it’s just a low-key sci-fi jam. Best line: “We found a planet full of girls, but we left!”

24) “Later” An empowerment song in the genre of “Brave,” sung of course by Sara Bareilles, but about procrastination. The drum and piano orchestrations are so inspiring it’s easy to ignore that the message is that you really don’t need to do anything right now. Best line: “Now’s the not the right time, let’s aim for next year when we’ll have no fear, maybe by then the problems got solved by themselves all on their own.”

23) “Boyz Next Door (Puber-Dude)” To match the queasy sexualization of the Girls5eva, this number offers up the chance to objectify the just-recently pubescent members of Boyz Next Door, who have become the “hottest boys in the cul-de-sac” with a “Backstreet’s Back”–style anthem of their own. Who could resist their thin little mustaches, awkward growth spurts, and bland conversation? Best line: “Floppy hair, greasy brow, Adam’s apple going pow-pow-pow.”

22) “Sweet’N Low Daddy” Another vault track: In season three, the adult members of Girls5eva are pretty embarrassed by the message of their old hit about the benefits of dating an older man, but man, it’s pretty catchy, so you can understand why Cat Cohen’s character took it as gospel. Their ideal daddy has parents you never need to meet because they died during Nixon, and, of course, the song ends with the crucial question: “Real talk, when are you going to die?” Best line: “Don’t need to graduate, because we’re elder bait!”

21) “Can’t Wait 2 Wait” Back in the day, Busy Phillips’s Summer and Andrew Rannells’s Kev collabed on this break-out Christian-pop single about the joys of not having sex yet. Its fun hook and a peppy atmosphere bely the sheer grossness of the overall message. Best line: “Premarital urges aren’t itches to be scratched, so look up medical oddities until those feelings pass.”

20) “Daughter Hero” Renée Elise Goldsberry gets to do a groovy ’90s ballad with Wickie in celebration of her own generosity to her mother, never mind the fact that she comes from a solidly upper-middle-class family. She buys her mom a house, a house that’s significantly less nice than the one she already has! Best line: “Daughter hero, like if Jesus had a sister!”

19) “New York City Moms” An obvious sequel to “New York Lonely Boy” (more on that below), this song brings on Ingrid Michaelson(!) to perform an ode to the women of the city who have chosen to wait to have kids. A celebration of the moms who have “bumps poking out of Eileen Fisher” and are “judged by their husband’s out-of-town sister,” the Girls5eva writers can riff endlessly on very niche New York micro-communities, and bless them for that. Best line: “Spent their 20s in a disco, still younger than moms in San Francisco.”

18) “Summer Brings the Fall” Kev’s best attempt at a torch song involves an increasingly convoluted series of attempts at wordplay that I can’t help but respect. It starts out with “thought you were for ev, thought you were for Kev, you were like whatev, now I pray to heav … for strength” and just gets more forced from there. Best line: “Thought I was your male, cause you’re my holy grail.”

17) “Is There a Me?” Season three brought Busy Philipps a short but sweet bit of soul-searching in which Summer questions if she has any identity of her own, or if her personality has just been a series of attempts to please guys. Points for Philipps showing off some vocal training, deductions for the amount of Netflix cross-marketing involved. Best line: “Do I even like The Witcher, or is it just to please a mister? And what is The Witcher? I watched 40 minutes and I’m still not sure!”

16) “Inside My Sweater” Girls5eva’s music industry gets awfully specific with its parody of a Harry Styles–type sensitive boy hounded by mobs of fans named Gray Holland, played by Gossip Girl alum Thomas Doherty (he also played a similar role on the late, lamented High Fidelity Hulu reboot). As far as sound-alikes go, this Harry–slash–Shawn Mendes low-key bob is eerily accurate but also somehow a successful earworm, especially in the way Doherty refuses to ever pronounce the “r” in “sweater.” Best line: “Come dance and cook and make sweet love with me, inside my sweater!”

15) “Welcome to Now” Doherty’s soft-boy star Gray Holland returns, against his own will, in a pop hit constructed by his label “because Clause 46B, Paragraph Q of the artist’s contract grants the company use of postmortem generative voice cloning.” It’s the funnier of the two Gray Holland songs, and the beat’s so sensual you may miss that it quickly becomes an ad for the deals available at Best Buy. Best line: “Best Buy, Best Buy, Gray Holland loves Best Buy. Tablets, projectors, and more. You’re the best, bye!”

14) “Larry’s Song” The girls get their Taylor’s Version moment with this kiss off to their former manager that references many of the show’s recurring jokes about the indignities of early aughts fame, including him promising a steak knife to whoever seduces Carson Daly. The twist by the end is that they’ve finally gotten some financial and personal control, and thus, “everything we do belongs to us.” Best line: “Only let us eat crab, cause you can’t get fat from food that’s so damn hard to get at.”

13) “At the Beep” No, you’re tearing up thinking about a fictional character who died in an infinity-pool accident. In this episode, Gloria finally gives up on her conspiracy theories about Ashley’s death and accepts that she might really be gone. (I do wonder if Ashley Park would’ve been available for a longer run in season two if Emily in Paris hadn’t gotten so big.) This results in a somber number where girls say good-bye to Ashley through her still-active (because Gloria has been paying) answering-machine service. Best line: “It should have been me.” “I did a lot of cocaine, so much cocaine.”

12) “Get It Off Your Chest” In a moment of confession and healing in season three, the women of Girls5eva share their darker secrets with each other and their audience. The result is a series of tightly written jokes from the show’s writing staff: Wickie only likes people who “like me,” “but be careful, if you like me too much, it has the opposite effect and I find you desperate,” Gloria doesn’t trust stand-up comics who are too in shape, Summer hasn’t listened to a voice-mail since 2015, and finally, Dawn delivers my favorite … Best line: “Every year when my son’s school sends out the class list with parents’ names, the first thing I do is Google them to see what they paid for their apartments.”

11) “Momentum” Starting off season two, the girls have got momentum, yeah, um, it’s their moment (bless you, Jeff Richmond) with a song that’s relatively straightforward within the Girls5eva canon but is also a solid earworm. I have to respect that groovy baseline, too. Best line: “Unstoppable, this unst-unst ain’t toppable.”

10) “Tap Into Your (Fort) Worth” A canny marketing move: The girls of 5Eva plot a way to secure a captive audience by writing a song about an American city nobody else has written a song about. The result is a clever ode to Dallas’s overlooked sister, declaring that “cow town is a wild town with a walkable downtown” and trumpeting the fact that the Trinity River is, in some places, now actually swimmable. It’s enough to make you want to consider booking a flight to DFW, maybe just as a connection, but still. Best line: “Some say Omaha Zoo is second-best, but that’s a lie because their red panda is always inside. It’s never out on the tree, yeah!”

9) “I’m Afraid (Dawn’s Song of Fears)” Sometimes you just have to let Sara Bareilles loose with a piano and sing like she’s performing “Gravity.” Here, Dawn’s attempt to write a song on her own ends with her just listing things she’s afraid of, from the fact that she might thrive under Scientology to her fear that she’ll text a pic of her vagina to her dad. There’s something very funny to me about the way Bareilles says “my hummus is fungus” and I have to own that. Best line: “I’m afraid that the second I leave town I’ll get a UTI. Why can’t they sell those pills over the counter? I don’t need a doctor, I know exactly what it is.”

8) “Yesternights” Finally, a full taste of Wickie’s solo album, a work absolutely choked by melisma and sung impeccably by Renée Elise Goldsberry. It’s, as she sings, “gorgeous and sensual” and also “life fancy,” and also “dancing, yearning.” You could probably slip it on a sex playlist and nobody would notice, and frankly, we need an eight-minute version. Best line: “But tonight, there is no night or tomorrow night / Or any future night / ’Cause you’re only in my yesternight of nights.”

7) “The Medium Time” Sara Bareilles wrote the Girls5eva’s season-three finale hit song, which is about being inspired not to aim for immense fame, but a reasonable, medium level of attention. Bareilles is so good at selling the earnest, heartfelt feeling behind the song that you may forget that the wise man who told her this advice, in the universe of the show, was actually Richard Kind. Best line: “The middle is the riddle of it all, and the medium time is just fine for now.”

6) “Dream Girlfriends” The satire of Girls5eva cuts deepest here, in this song from their original run about all the ways they’d be willing to debase themselves to appeal to men. The list includes the fact that their dads are dead, that their moms are overtired so there’ll be no pushback, that they want to watch you play darts and love watching stand-up (but not by women). “Dream Girlfriends” cuts both ways, managing to make the men it’s supposed to appeal to sound pathetic as well. The girls are short so they don’t know you’re bald! Best line: “Tell me again why Tarantino’s a genius.”

5) “Bend Not Break” Near the end of season two, the women of Girls5eva realize their best song is actually about Gloria’s knee surgery. Metaphorically, it’s really about how they have to learn to compromise and acknowledge each other’s weaknesses to support their success, but there is also literally a joke about how she uses a cane. Anyway, it’s got a groove that’s hard to shake and does really make you want to dance (carefully, in a way that doesn’t risk further knee injury). Best line: “We got our secret weapon already, and it’s got eight legs, four smiles, and a cane.”

4) “Famous 5eva” Perhaps the best theme song in the vast universe of television today, here Girls5eva embraces the joys of counting by promising they’ll be famous 5eva — ’cuz 4eva’s too short. Those synths have an addictive crunch, and there’s something about the way they describe the series of cars they’re driving in (first a Lexus, then a Mercedes and then a Maserati) that’s gleefully ridiculous. The show has to make you believe the girls really are talented, and that there’s something joyful about watching them perform. This does both. Best line: “We’re Girls5eva, could we get a high SIX?”

3) “B.P.E.” Put your hands together for a “We Are the Champions”–style celebration of big pussy energy. Girl5eva’s absurdist answer to “WAP” celebrates their “Vitamin P” with some gospel-choir-esque harmonies. And the remix, which outdoes the original, adds in some church bells to heighten the energy. It will make you tap into whatever B.P.E. you have of your own. Best line: “Square feet, I’m going for miles, upgrade, taking up the aisles, open up those classified files from the Department of Treasury.”

2) “New York Lonely Boy” The best of the Girls5eva songs in terms of straight joke-writing, “New York Lonely Boy” applies a Simon and Garfunkel sensibility to the tales of hyperarticulate soft boys who know too much about mixing plaids and the dangers of restaurants on the corner (they just try too hard). Its comedy is sort of tangential from Girls5eva’s overall focus on the music industry, but it’s so perfectly realized that it doesn’t matter. Any show that can deliver such a specific encapsulation of a type — to the extent that I now think of various former St. Anne’s students who’ve became indie celebrities (okay, just Lucas Hedges) as New York Lonely Boys — deserves to run forever. Best line: “His playground is the lobby, has a palate for wasabi.”

1) “Four Stars” If “Famous 5eva” had to establish Girls5eva as it was, then “Four Stars” has to do the work of making you believe the second iteration of the group has come into its own. It does this delightfully well, with an anthem about embracing your imperfections that includes plenty of tossed-off jokes from each of the band members. (I’m particularly fond of “women are an ocean of secrets!”) Plus there’s something great about the harmonies of everyone singing “four stars” together. I have put this on exercise playlists, and it works! Best line: “The best things in life are free, that’s why rich people never carry wallets.”

#girls5eva

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ednacrabapple · 1 month

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So I just finished watching the six individual episodes that got Emmy nominations for outstanding writing in a comedy series like I've been threatening to do and here they are ranked from best to worst:

Pride Parade - WWDITS

This might be the best episode of any sitcom I have ever seen in my life. There is so much that happens in this episode. I've seen it a million times and I still don't know how they fit everything in AND made sure everything got enough time. This episode has EVERYTHING. Nandor goes to space. Laszlo terrorizes people at the beach. Colin Robinson and Ghost Nadja both posses Nadja's body. It's insane. This episode absolutely deserves the Emmy (though we all know it won't win). And I still want to know why Nandor wasn't speaking to Matthew (the little bird that flew into his room that he was trying to befriend) anymore lol

Also Natasia Demetriou absolutely should have been nominated for a best actress Emmy for her performance in this episode alone but that's a story for a different time

2. Orlando - Girls5eva

The 30 Rock vibes are immaculate. I had no context for anything that was happening and I still loved every second of it. I was literally laughing the entire time I was watching this episode. Paula Pell especially is outstanding. This one episode made me want more and I need to watch the entire show now. I loved it

3. Brooke Hosts a Night of Undeniable Good - The Other Two

God this episode was so fucking chaotic and insane. I literally don't even have anything specific to say about it. It was just so fun??? Also that fricken song that Cary and the other gays were singing is stuck in my head. Amazing episode no notes

4. Career Day - Abbott Elementary

Now, I absolutely adore Abbott, which I'm sure you can all tell by now, so it really hurts me to put it so low on the list, but honestly Career Day was the weakest episode of the season in my opinion. It was still good - the whole plot with Melissa and Gary was so well done and heartbreaking, and some of the jokes about Ava going to Harvard to use their wifi to earn a degree from Grand Canyon university were hilarious, but overall I think this episode could have been way better. It just felt like something was missing, ya know? I think there are some other episodes from this season, like Smoking or Party, that were better overall and maybe deserved the nomination more. I still love this show, but this episode is kinda meh

5. Bulletproof - Hacks

I know absolutely nothing about this show or the characters, but the episode was still so compelling. This is definitely a show that handles the whole "dramedy" thing well from what I can tell. I definitely enjoyed this episode, but it just wasn't quite as good as some of the other episodes that got nominated. Also, that scene on the plane with the sorta proposal was amazing lol

6. Fishes - The Bear

This show is not a comedy. Full stop. It is a drama. Like, sorry it can't compete against Shogun, but how is that WWDITS' fault? Or Abbott's fault? Or Girls5eva's fault? It should be in the drama category - NOT stealing nominations from actual comedies.

That being said, this episode was just not good. It was so boring. It couldn't hold my attention for more than a few minutes at a time, and it was just so long. It felt like it was never going to end. And I swear it was 90% people yelling at each other and nothing else. But don't worry everyone, I'm sure this is the episode that will win the award, despite being the least deserving by far 🙄

#i'm actually afraid to tag this as anything because I have seen people get torn to shreds over their opinions on the bear #but its a boring show and I have given it so many tries and i have given it so many tries and I'm just over it #also I really wish they nominated a different Abbott episode because there are so many better episodes in season 3 :/#anyway #lets fucking go pride parade #i know you probably won't win but you are the best episode by far and you deserve the world #can't wait for the Emmy's in case you can't tell #expect me to complain a lot that night

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postguiltypleasures · 2 months

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My Peak TV Journey Girls5Eva

I meant to take notes for this, but didn’t as I watched it too quickly while preparing to move. I thought that the third season was great. If I have any complaints it’s that it was too short, and I wish they found more time to fit songs into it.

In the pre-release to the season, critics buzzed about how switching from Peacock to Netflix would boost the show’s profile and make people forget it ever started and was canceled anywhere else. It didn’t. As someone who really likes the show and wants more of it, that was disappointing. Contemporary musical comedy made for television may be a really small sub-genre for a reason. But I also developed a dark theory, which is that this cycle of revisiting pop musicians from approximately twenty years ago and condemning the way they were treated by the media really isn’t interested in dealing with the aftermath in contemporary life and that makes this show finding an audience harder. And while I do generally think that, I am unwilling to fight for it. It’s accusatory and un-provable. Also, it’s just based on my thought experiments. Based on more anecdotal experience, it might be that in the first episodes, the set up feels more sad than funny. This is similar to The Other Two, a show of I’d consider its cousin. Both can trace their roots to Saturday Night Live, both are show-biz satires about the not great effect of long term commercial failure on its main characters and an industry morphing at a rapid speed. I am a fan of both, but have to admit I can see why they’d be off putting for many viewers, especially in their early episodes.

Instead of speculating on why it didn't hit that big, I am going to praise what I liked about the series, showing my appreciation as long as I can. The season’s arc was about a failed attempt to do a small tour after the release but lack of promotional support of the album that they spent most of season two making. That season ended with a song they wrote about Fort Worth, Texas simply because it’s the largest American city that didn’t have a song about it. So their “tour” starts with an extended residency in Fort Worth, where they are adored, but not reaching their full potential. This is underlined symbolically by them staying at the Marriott Hotel’s Divorced Dad Suits. (They stay for free courtesy Gloria’s credit card points.) I love everything about the Divorced Dad Suites’ especially the vending machine of already wrapped birthday gifts. (Summer advising one of the divorced dads on what to purchase from it makes me smile to think of months later.)

When they finally leave Fort Worth they arrange a tour of small clubs, excited to meet with more of their under-served and dispersed fan base. Wiki also books them to play Radio City Music Hall on Thanksgiving Day, giving them the goal of trying to sell tickets there before the date. Only it turns out that the clubs they are touring are all owned by an ultra right wing family (represented by John Ealy as some one eager to force himself into meetings between pregnant people and their doctors, while otherwise being a miserable closet case) who demands approval of the content of their shows. When they defy this by performing their original song “BPE (Big Pussy Energy)” a “Footloose” is declared on them banning them from all their potential future gigs. The declaration of a “Footloose” also has me laughing months later. Awful as he was, I wanted more of John Ealy and his character.

Between being forced to cancel most of their tour and the season climax at Radio City, they visit Wiki’s parents in Maryland, take part in a private birthday for a rich wife, and befriend the biggest male pop singer of their time.

Summer gets involved with a multi-level marketing business to try and make more money while the band's tour is cancelled. while trying to develop a sense of self away from men and religion. She’s adorable. She also is deeply unsure of her taste and gets some validation in loving something literally everyone else thinks is a bad idea. Busy Philips has never been better.

Wiki’s parents turn who are affluent. All the talk about her “Hard Scrabble” up bringing was puns and misdirection. Her dad is buying a boat to retire on and enjoys crabbing. She has very successful sibling in medicine. She wondered if some of her failures in show business are because she’s too coddled at home. But we learn more about her DOA solo career, some of which demands scenes between her and Summer, a plot important rarity. It deepened the dynamics in the group in some interesting ways. Renee Elise Goldsberry is as always a treasure and its exciting to see her reach for new successes after previous failures to launch.

Dawn kind of feels like an afterthought in this season. This is probably because she’s not trying to write for most of the season. Instead her arc, such as it is, is about being pregnant while touring and finding herself in situations where she awkwardly struggles with how to talk about the conversation that sometimes fuel her songwriting. It’s kind of awkward and doesn’t really have a payoff, unless you count the song written near the end of the season. I do like a lot off this plot in theory. I like the acknowledgment that it’s sometimes harder to address things directly than through art. And that as much of the pernicious things we want to attribute to art are already well ingrained into the society that produced them. I just want more Sara Bareilles.

Finally it’s time to talk about Gloria. Her story involves being obsessed with true crime podcasts, a direct to streaming reality series called Critter Mouth about a veterinary dentist for wild animals, becoming friends with the worlds biggest male pop star of the moment while not recognizing him because of her indifference to men, and a quest to determine what I kind of woman she is most suited to by sleeping with all 179 types in existence. (She has a spreadsheet). Amazingly, all these plots come together in hilarious climaxes. Breaking women into different types in general is not funny, but the fact that the number of types is 179, and this is apparently well known is funny. Also it led to a very good Reel Paula Pell and her wife made.

The season had some good jokes about Netflix through it’s in universe version of the series and recognizable versions of Netflix hits. It makes me sad to think of Girls5Eva not thriving among them.

#peak tv #what i'm watching #girls5eva #busy philipps #renee elise goldsberry #sara bareilles #paula pell

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sebyecosesimili · 1 year

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Tag 10 people you want to know better

I was tagged by @wo-der-horizont-beginnt to do this

Relationship status: single

Favorite color: dark blue

Song stuck in my head: B.P.E. Girls5Eva

Last song listened to: Finale B from the musical Rent!

Favorite food: so Italian of me but spaghetti with anything basically

Last thing I googled: Rise of Cultures Events wiki (just a silly phone game to practice escapism)

Dream vacation: I don't knoww but I'd say somewhere where there's a lot of musicals runs so I can watch them all! (Ok not to be basic, but that could be London to watch Phantom, the new Rebecca and Sunset Boulevard with Nicole Scherzinger, once they open)

Not tagging anyone, but if someone other than a s3x bot wants to do this, please join!!

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lindsaywesker · 2 years

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Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting at my desk, in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day. Happy Hump Day!

Many thanks for all your messages of concern. Yes, I feel better. It was only a cold and sore throat. I taught yesterday for six hours with no problem. I bought myself a bottle of runny honey and squeezed it into my coffee. You know how important it is to keep lubricated! Today I will be teaching for five hours with a group of students who got VERY aroused last week! This is all good! I would rather students asked questions and played an active part in the conversation. We got SO side-tracked last week, I’m only halfway through my Week One slides!

Thanks to everyone that responded to my list yesterday. I think the bottom line is we are all decent human beings but there are some complete tossers out there who spoil it for everyone. I think the major problem with people these days is selfishness and inconsiderateness. They just don’t care about you or I. Somebody else has to clean up their mess! Wonder what I should do for Too Much Information Tuesday next week?

Absolutely no need for Beyonce to win four more Grammy’s at Sunday’s ceremony. Share the love! Some of those young acts NEEDED a Grammy more than her. The ‘Best Dance/Electronic Recording’ award was a scandal! ‘Intimidated’ by Kaytranada & H.E.R. was one of the songs of the year, far better than ‘Break My Soul’ and should have won the award. For me, the funniest Grammy story was the Daily Fail (yet again) describing Bonnie Raitt as an “unknown blues artist”. She’s been making superb music since 1971 and has already won 12 Grammy Awards! She’s No. 50 in the Rolling Stone magazine ‘100 Greatest Singers Of All-Time’. You can’t get the staff!

‘You People’, starring Eddie Murphy and Julia Louis Dreyfus, (co-written and directed by Kenya Barris, who created ‘Black-ish’) is not earth-shattering but it’s worth a watch (on Netflix). Jewish guy falls in love with black girl and the two families try to get on. Standard, culture clash comedy.

‘Girls5eva’ is also worth a watch (on Netflix). A nineties girl group try to reignite their careers 20 years later. Starring real singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles, produced by the legendary Tina Fey of ’30 Rock’ fame. You can tell that The Trouble and I have been flicking the remote looking for something to watch.

Big hoo-ha over a balloon! When a 'foreign' anything (plane, drone etc.) enters American air space, it is IMMEDIATELY spotted, tracked and DEALT WITH, even if it's just a balloon! America has probably the most sophisticated tracking systems and high-tech fighter jets. So, do we still think the 9/11 planes were foreign? If they had been foreign, they wouldn’t have even made it past the coastline!

Have a wonderful and well-endowed Wednesday. I love you all. Yes, a crazy, bald man loves and cares about you.

#mixcloud #mi soul #dj #music #new blog #lockdown #coronavirus #books #weekend #democracy #brexit #cronyism #election #radio

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gpgurl50recaps · 3 years

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My Top 25 TV Shows of 2021

Superstore- This was a heartwarming final season. Everyone ended up as they were supposed to.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine- This show ended on a good note. Funny and sweet.

Pose- The entire season was just fan service but in the best ways. Papi singing “I Swear” as his wedding vows still works for me.

Black Monday- The entire season was a hilarious murder mystery and I guessed the killer correctly! This show is so slept on.

Saved By The Bell- This show avoided the sophomore slump.

Girls5eva- This was great. It was about a girl group getting back together after years. It was a comedy with actually good singers.

Wynonna Earp- This was a solid final season given the COVID of it all. Everyone ended pretty happily.

Wandavision- This was such a pleasant TV obsession for me. It was a good mystery box show with a great cast.

Yellowjackets- This is my current obsession. There's actual gay characters on the show but everyone on the show has the dynamic of are they in love or do they hate each other? The answer is always both. It's dark, depressing, psychological horror, funny, complex relationships, mystery box show, actual horror.

Mom- This had a nice final season too. It's a shame Anna Faris didn't come back but it ended very hopefully.

The Other Two- This had a solid sophomore season. It was very funny. It was a good take down of actual things and some actually great character moments.

What We Do In The Shadows- This season put our silly characters in power and brought some new character dynamics. It was a lot of fun.

Everything's Gonna Be Okay- I'm going to miss this show. It was a sweet, gentle, funny show that depicted characters with disabilities and varying shades of sexuality. A lot of found family stuff.

Resident Alien- This was a fun, tonally weird, mystery show. An original show about an alien who comes to Earth to destroy the world and ends up liking it.

Kevin Can F*** Himself- This was a fun genre bending show, told from the perspective of a sitcom wife, if her life was actually a gritty drama.

Tuca & Bertie- This show continued to deal with trauma and relationships in a very funny way. It explored some interesting things.

We Are Lady Parts- This is a fun show about an all female rock band that forms together. It's a sweet comedy.

A.P. Bio- The show did a lot of crazy things this season but it was fun.

Hacks- This was a show about an older comic teaming up with a young writer. It was kind of a dramedy that ended on a great cliffhanger.

Reservation Dogs- This was a good show about indigenous kids living on a reservation together.

The Queen's Gambit- This was a good drama that hooked me in. It was nice seeing it build to a finish.

Falcon & The Winter Soldier- This was a good Marvel Show. A lot of fun and betrayals.

Harlem- This was a chill hangout show.

Batwoman- This show is extremely gay. It's a good superhero show that has a diverse cast. It's bringing in Poison Ivy and the Joker.

Stargirl- This show is maybe the most improved of the year for me. It felt like a kids show when it started. Then it turned into a psychological horror show in season 2. It had stakes and new characters in season 2.

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