February: The Sex Appeal of Jamie Lee Curtis, and Other Easily Understandable Concepts
Dear Hannah,
I write to you this month with great excitement for our first ever issue, and also with concern and confusion over my mounting crush on Jason Mantzoukas. Maybe it’s his most recent stint on The Good Place as “Fancy Derek”...
Maybe it’s his unironic enthusiasm for Gilmore Girls and Bunheads...
Maybe it’s just the pure chaotic energy he brings to every role and podcast appearance I experience him in. Whatever it is…
(This important journalism agrees with me)
OKAY getting into now what we’re actually talking about...Scream Queens! For those of you not carefully tracking the Twitter conversations between me and Hannah (which, if not, why?? and also if you are...why??), this is the topic that provided the impetus for this newsletter! Or at least a vehicle for us to both say, “Wait, you want to do a newsletter with ME? I wanted to do a newsletter with YOU!!” *heart eyes emoji*
So it took me until the last episode to figure out that the reason the scary theme music (mostly in the ‘previously on/end credits’, but also in the finale scene at the asylum) sounded so familiar was because it echoes the score from the original 1978 Halloween movie (replicated in the 2018) sequel, both starring, of course...Jamie Lee Curtis! As someone who has recently become obsessed with the 1978 & 2018 Halloween movies (so far not the in between ones though bc I only have SO MUCH time), this was slightly embarrassing for me, but also brings me to my main feeling about this show, which is
WHY ISN’T THE WHOLE THING ABOUT JAMIE LEE CURTIS.
There are only so many times I can hear Emma Roberts over-enunciate the word ‘slutbags’ before my eyes start rolling backwards into my head, but I could watch Jamie Lee Curtis strut around in pantsuits, with her barely repressed anger and very big sexual energy, for EVER. One of my goals for 2019 is to work on untraining my need to always be looking at my phone or doing sudoku or drawing lines in an unlined journal while watching TV (I just decided this now and don’t have high hopes for myself), but I think the solution might be...only watch TV with Jamie Lee Curtis in it?
I’ll try not to get tooo deep into the Halloween-sphere, because that’s not our topic, but it is interesting to contrast JLC in Halloween (2018) with JLC in this role. They’re both playing on her role as the “original scream queen,” but from different angles. Scream Queens says “okay what if we took this legacy and made it snarky and empowered and sexy” and Halloween (2018) trends scared, broken, and bitter. JLC herself in this excellent fucking interview that made me go “wait WHAT?” over and over, said it best:
“So the capital T word is now, in October, right here. We’re ALL talking about it. Christine Ford, standing up with her hand. Everybody is talking about past trauma. Burying it, hiding it, squishing it, silencing it, shutting it up and it’s amazing that this is the world. We’re talking about this movie that, actually at its core, is about trauma. And trying to put a real face on horrific trauma.”
So bringing that recent JLC experience into watching this show was interesting, because I really liked all of the stuff to do with her! And that incredible scene where she’s dancing around with a glass of wine, explaining how she killed her husband, felt like what they wanted the finale to be. Theoretically, devoting an entire episode to “how I pulled it off” should have been entirely my jam! I LOVE movies/shows about women who are good at planning (Ocean’s 8! The Parent Trap! Halloween (2018)! Gone Girl!) Maybe it’s that I didn’t really feel all that invested in the show’s central mystery until at least halfway through, and even then it felt like the mystery took a backseat to the ~commentary~.
And in terms of the commentary...I don’t really know what the show wanted me to come away with. It felt in keeping with the “We make fun of everyone! And it’s mostly shitty people saying the shitty things! That’s why it’s okay!” style of humor that I remember from Glee. Most of the commentary jabs were aimed at college campuses, but they didn’t really have anywhere to land because the actual functioning of a campus (or the actual functioning of the character’s roles within the campus) barely featured in the plot at all. I think the person who actually acknowledges their academics the most is...Chad?
Which! Let me take a moment to talk about Chad because the mystery of whether or not I find Glen Powell attractive has only deepened via this show! I’m rarely pro-the buzzcut look on any dude (sorry men, you can’t pull off the look like women and nonbinary folks, I don’t make the rules) but there’s just so much going on in Glen Powell’s general face area (and torso area!) that it kind of works. Also, he pulls off a cartoonishly unlikeable character with an astonishing amount of charm. Anyway, nobody better tell me to rewatch Set It Up, because I still haven’t emotionally recovered from the rooftop party dancing → eating pizza on the floor sequence AND I WILL NOT BE TAKING QUESTIONS AT THIS TIME.
(Halp)
Some thoughts on the other characters:
Every time Grace the Newsboys Cap Stand was onscreen I had to remind myself that she was, theoretically, part of this show. Grace, the limp Chicken Nugget. Grace, the whisper-moth, who should be hotter than she is, based solely on who her dad is? Grace, whatchu doing with that eyeliner, bb?
I had hoped for better from Abigail Breslin, and for Keke Palmer.
I 1000% DO want to attend Wes’ “film course” in which we all apparently watch a horror movie together, he monologues about it for less than a minute, and then we all leave and try not to get murdered in real life.
Not saying Nick Jonas should be forced to sing in every TV/film appearance...but not NOT saying that either.
I have a lot of respect for How Hard Emma Roberts Tries, and I mean that sincerely.
Everyone ragged on Gigi’s style, but NOTHING ANYONE ELSE WAS WEARING MADE ANY MORE SENSE. [except, of course, for JLC, who looks incredible while fighting off a home invasion]
Okay, now that I’ve emoted a lot about Jamie Lee Curtis...The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and The Good Place.
One of the things we talked about this last month was the Golden Globes, specifically the award for Best Actress in a Television Comedy/Musical. In a Very On Brand move for us, we talked about caring way more about the Best Actress awards than the Best Actor awards (and WATCHING more of the shows/movies that the Best Actresses were in), and this particular award struck a weird chord with me. Rachel Brosnahan won for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and when the award was announced, I yelped “are you SERIOUS??” (not in a thrilled way) and got some very weird looks from the friends I was watching with. “I thought you liked that show?” someone asked, and...I do! I do like it! I like Rachel Brosnahan in it, and I think it’s cool that an Amy Sherman-Palladino show is finally getting critical recognition.
Though the show’s premise is that a 50s housewife turns to comedy when her life falls apart, one of the tensions that I think the second season actually leans into is the fact that her life...hasn’t really fallen apart. In the pilot, her husband announces he’s been having an affair and is leaving her, and as much as that sucks, Midge Maisel comes from a wealthy family who is willing to (grudgingly) support her. She pretty constantly has easily accessible childcare, her charm and attractiveness get her into just about any space she desires, and she seems to excel at anything she sets her mind at. Meanwhile, her friend and manager Susie is dodging (assassins?), struggling to pay her phone bill, and eating apple cores out of the trash. Through Midge’s resistance to telling her family about her comedy and attempts to fit dating into all of this, she starts to accept that she may need to let her life fall apart a bit more if she’s going to honestly pursue her goals. It’s a funny show with a thought-provoking edge that grapples with questions about craft and its pursuit, particularly as a woman.
And Brosnahan does a great job embodying a character working through those questions! I think! Actually, I know nothing about acting, to be honest, so I tend to think more in terms of what the show is demanding of a character/actor and then go from there.
AND HENCE MY CASE FOR WHY KRISTEN BELL SHOULD HAVE WON FOR THE GOOD PLACE.
The Good Place manages to be one of the most fun and also most important shows on TV right now and the balance that Bell has to walk is ridiculous and she does an exceptional job.
A LIST OF WHY I FEEL THIS WAY:
Bell’s character, Eleanor, starts out the show as an “Arizona trashbag” who walks through the world with a staggering amount of confidence about her exclusive rightness and attractiveness...a confidence that cloaks her deep insecurities about her worthiness and “goodness.” Bell has the ability to make this simultaneously hilarious, horrifying, and sympathetic, and that alone should win her all the awards.
The cast ensemble is unique in that out of the six leads, there are two very big names (Bell and Ted Danson), and the other four (D’Arcy Carden, William Jackson Harper, Manny Jacinto, and Jameela Jamil) were relatively unknown before this show. Both Bell and Danson do an amazing job of leading and centering the show without overshadowing their costars, but I would argue that it’s extra impressive on Bell’s end. Danson’s character is immortal, and he’s in a different age category than the rest of the group. As one of the thirty-something humans in the group (aside from Carden, who is also not playing a human), Bell exists as both the technical “center” of the show, while also needing to appear a seamless part of the group and she accomplishes this fantastically, both onscreen and off, according to the many interviews of her costars on The Good Place: The Podcast, where everyone who works with her sings praises of her generosity and diligence.
Okay this is a slight spoiler, so if you’re not caught up to the first few episodes of season 3 AVERT YOUR EYES and scroll down until you see the next picture of Fancy Derek.
Throughout the series, Eleanor and the other humans are “rebooted” repeatedly, meaning that their character growth for an entire season may be canceled out within a single episode, forcing them to start from scratch on their quest to learn how to be “good” (and figure out what that even means). This makes character development tricky for both the writers and actors (I’d go so far as to compare it to the show’s “Jeremy Bearimy” explanation of time), and while everyone is great, Bell in particular brings a level of nuance to every reboot and manages to make sure every growth arc is congruous with the other arcs, while also being its own unique thing and GAH IT’S SO IMPRESSIVE.
Okay!! You’re safe now!! Kind of! I’m gonna talk a bit now about why this third season of The Good Place and the show in general has been so meaningful to me lately, and I’m going to try not to spoil specific plot points, but if you’d rather go in knowing nothing, I guess skip this part?
What makes it such a liberating show is that one of the central premises is the simple acknowledgement that being a human is fucking HARD, and trying to be a ‘good’ human even harder. I think that feels particularly powerful having grown up Evangelical, where the messaging is so often that knowing how to be good is very simple: the Bible is the one true guidebook, and if we don’t understand or agree with what it’s saying, then that’s on OUR sinful nature! The Good Place by contrast feels like a deep breath of relief. It prompts honest reflection and dialogue about what it means to treat one another well, while also validating that the process is complicated and exhausting and frequently not a straight line. A recent episode even acknowledged that sometimes actions we take with the best of intentions can backfire and cause harm and how we handle that within ourselves. But it’s a hopeful show because there’s also a core belief at the center that somehow the striving is worth it, partly--or perhaps entirely--due to the depth and support we can experience with other humans in the process.
ALSO (okay, dammit, this is about to be a spoiler), I exist in the portion of people who isn’t necessarily deeply invested in Chidi and Eleanor as a couple, but was also deeply emotionally affected by the finale. I actually think another of the incredible things the show is exploring is the idea that a relationship could take on one valid and lovely form in a particular timeline or “reboot” and a different equally valid and lovely form in a different timeline. They’ve done this through the Janet/Jason/Tahani love triangle (I’m still holding out for a Tahani/Eleanor pairing and will not rest until I get it!!), as well as an exploration of how through all the reboots Chidi and Eleanor’s relationship has run the gamut of different nuances of romance and affection. Though most of us are not experiencing reality as a series of reboots [THAT WE KNOW OF], we all experience the inevitability of change in situation and relationship, and the pain that often causes us...or the confusion when we’re not feeling what we think we ‘should’ be. Again...being a human is hard! And while our interpersonal relationships ideally enrich our lives, and help us with meaning-making and person-being, they also introduce unavoidable levels of complication...which is okay! This too is part of the arc Eleanor has been on; when we see her backstory, we see someone who has convinced herself that depending on others is for suckers, and by the Season 3 finale we see someone truly grappling with the pain that often accompanies opening oneself up. I think the speech Janet gives Eleanor is what really got me, and I no longer trust myself to keep talking about this without getting too ~emoshe~, so I’ll just say that I’m very glad we found each other in this reboot and I’m so glad to be pen pals with you.
Kelsey
Dear Kelsey,
There’s so much I have to say, but first a personal Netflix update: I am extremely behind on every single TV show that I follow except for The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Grace and Frankie. I think these three demonstrate my tastes pretty accurately. I wrote “watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” on my to-do list because 1) I take my television watching very seriously and 2) if it’s not in list form, I will probably never remember to do it. As my philosopher friend Hilary would say, my google calendar is an extension of my body because my brain depends on it. I’m not a philosopher but that sounds accurate.
I am still a knot of feelings about the 2019 Oscar nominations. I’m so excited for Roma—being nominated for Best Picture is a huge win for a foreign film and pretty rare. (Watch More Foreign Films 2k19!) Green Book is a hot mess of ethical questionability and white savior complexes, and I’m tired of seeing problematic movies rewarded in the Academy. But PenPal faves Olivia Coleman and Melissa McCarthy are nominated for Best Actress, so maybe there is good in this world after all? It’s about time Melissa McCarthy gets the artistic attention she deserves.
LOOK AT THOSE ACTING SKILLS!
Okay, okay, time to talk Scream Queens. When I watched the first season I thought of you immediately because it is exactly the kind of weird dream sequence that we would have many thoughts about, and you did not disappoint. I found the first season hilarious and oddly fascinating, but I barely made it through a single episode of season 2 before quitting entirely. The show is hot garbage, but at least season 1 is INTERESTING hot garbage.
If you’re unfamiliar with the show, the first season takes place on a university campus where a freshman named Grace (Skyler Samuels) decides to rush the sorority her deceased mother was a member of when she was in college. Grace hopes that somehow, by being in this sorority, she’ll learn more about the mother she never knew. However, sorority president/queen Chanel Oberlin (Emma Roberts) is concerned about the decreasing popularity of the sorority on campus and is dealing with sanctions from the dean (Jamie Lee Curtis) placed on the sorority for….ambiguous reasons? But someone is on campus with a thirst for blood, and slowly the sorority sisters are getting picked off one by one.
This show just feels like a bizarre nightmare that never ends, and random events occur which sequentially make no sense but everyone just accepts it. I personally found this hilarious. To give credit where credit is due, I truly did not anticipate the ending!
Additional thoughts:
Our “heroine”, Grace, has to be one of the most unlikable characters of all time.
Keke Palmer deserved better than playing her sidekick.
Several times I thought to myself, “If they kill off Emma Roberts, I will not be able to finish this show.”
An unexpected highlight for me was Ariana Grande as Chanel #2 and also the second largest Big Dick Energy on the show (second only, of course, to Jamie Lee Curtis.)
Since you caught on right away to the fact that Jamie Lee Curtis basically carries this show on her padded-blazered shoulders, let’s talk JLC. I put her in the same category with Melissa McCarthy as unbelievably talented, deeply underrated actresses that were weird and unconventional so were rarely given due opportunity to shine. Also she is actually getting hotter with time (or maybe I just think this because I’m into silver foxes?). I’d let her karate chop me, that’s all I’m saying.
I mean. Come on.
Speaking of people who I’d let karate chop me: GLEN FRICKING POWELL. Frat boys are extremely not my type but he manages to bring so much charm to every role he plays. Even as the “villain” in The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society, he manages to charm the hell out of his audience. Just looking at that shot from Set it Up brings back Feels!
Speaking of crushes, I do not share your crush on Jason Mantzoukas but I do think the hype is well-deserved. His episode on Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Goys could prevent frostbite. And speaking of, LET’S TALK MAISEL.
Yes, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is now Amy Sherman-Palladino’s most critically acclaimed television show, beating her previous record of zero awards. (I guess the Academy wasn’t a fan of Stars Hollow, which I find quite rude.) In spite of enjoying the show, I share your lack of enthusiasm for its newfound high-brow recognition. Portraying standup comedy on a TV screen is difficult and Rachel Brosnahan does it admirably, but I find Midge so deeply unlikable that I’m finding it hard to root for her. Lauren Graham managed to make ASP’s rude and occasionally narcissistic female lead warm and funny and endearing, but Brosnahan’s Midge is just so self-absorbed that it makes me cringe. Am I the only one who finds performing standup at parties and friend’s weddings unbelievably irritating? (Kelsey, the only reasons I survived the second season were the sheer delightfulness of Tony Shalhoub and the tall drink of water we refer to as Zachary Levi.)
Kristen Bell has a similar challenge in making at-first-glance-unlikable Eleanor Shellstrop a heartwarming, tender human being, but Kristen’s performance feels effortless in its easy lightness. Kristen’s “difficult woman” is one with complexity and depth—while on the surface she’s looking to entertain and lighten the mood, underneath she struggles to experience her true emotions, particularly the ones that make her feel vulnerable. Midge has no such apparent internal conflict. Hers is so entirely focused outward that we might think that if her parents and ex-husband were supportive of her life choices, she would have no difficulties in life whatsoever. Some people might find this charming, but frankly I find it insincere. Also Joel is still a mediocre trash bag of a human being. Yep, I said it.
The Good Place is truly on a level of its own when it comes to engaging with complex philosophical and sociological work through a comedy about the afterlife. How many comedies exist that wrestle with the nature of bureaucracy as inherently inefficient in creating lasting justice? Which brings me to this tweet:
This show is a ray of sunshine in our dark capitalist hellhole, and I'm so happy I’m sharing this dark capitalist hellhole with you.
Your friend,
Hannah