The Favorites, Apple Cider Vinegar, and Bridget Jones.
Week 222.
Hello hello! Making sure you all saw this commercial, which many people texted me about during the Super Bowl, because I have done a really good job of cultivating a personal brand (the brand is Magic Mike Fan). Here’s a recap of my week:
Things I Read
Books
If you’re looking for a book to read, try this list of contemporary romance recs, this list of other fiction recs, or this list of non-fiction recs. I also track everything I read on Goodreads.
The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren: This is my eighth Christina Lauren book, and I find their romance novels to be pretty reliably good. The plots are getting more and more absurd, though, so this might not be for everyone. But I had fun! This one is about Anna and Liam, who got legally married so they could live in cheap family housing during school. Flash forward several years, they haven’t spoken since graduation and Anna thinks they are divorced, but Liam shows up at her house and tells her that not only are they still married, but he needs her to come on a big family trip with him for his sister’s wedding and pretend to be his wife so he can claim his inheritance (like I said, absurd plot). This is very fun. Vibes are Crazy Rich Asians/White Lotus meets Succession. The best Christina Lauren book is still The True Love Experiment, but I liked this one.
The Favorites by Layne Fargo: Between the description of this book and the dozens of rave reviews I have seen over the past month, I have been very excited to read this and basically ran to the library the second I got the notification that it was available (I put this on hold months ago, even though it just came out in January). It lived up to the hype!! This ruled. This is inspired by Wuthering Heights and is about two people, Kat Shaw and Heath Rocha, and their career as ice dancers. It follows them from childhood to the Olympics, and is interspersed with snippets from an oral history-like documentary about their careers. This has everything. It is juicy and intense and there’s romance and backstabbing and DRAMA. I loved this book, could not put it down. It’s already being shopped around for a screen adaptation, which I would absolutely eat up, so I hope that gets made. I finished it and then immediately went to watch this, because obviously. Good book!!! Highly recommend. I predict this will be everywhere this year.
Articles
Teen Moms, All Grown Up: Immediate click for me on this interview with Maci, Catelyn, and Leah from the Teen Mom franchise that’s been a mainstay on MTV since I was in middle school. I watched the original seasons of this show for many years and have peripherally followed what has happened in these women’s lives since, even though I don’t watch the show anymore. It’s interesting to hear them talk about how they often feel like they cannot move on from the perceptions people have of them that were formed when they were 17, even though they are now solidly in their 30s and grown adults. And it’s also interesting to talk about the ethics of children growing up on reality tv. Feels very much in parallel with the conversation around child stars on traditional television and also the children of family vloggers. My interests!!
Things I Watched
TV
If you’re looking for a show to watch, try this list.
Apple Cider Vinegar (Netflix): I really couldn’t look away from this MESS. This is a miniseries based on the story of Belle Gibson, an Australian woman who built a huge online platform talking about how she healed her terminal brain cancer through alternative medicine, and then it all turned out to be a lie. I knew about this story going in (mostly from this excellent Maintenance Phase episode about her), but the show takes some liberties and adds some story lines and that kept me pretty locked in. Kaitlyn Dever plays Belle and I think she’s so good, as she is in everything I’ve seen her in. This reminded me a lot of Inventing Anna, the show Netflix made about Anna Delvey a while ago. I liked this better, I think, because Inventing Anna was way too long. This show has the same chaotic, frenetic feel, but it’s only 6 episodes which is a much better length. And I would have been annoyed to have to wait any longer to watch this woman’s downfall, because she is just the most vile character. This has lots of dark stuff about cancer and death so maybe not for everyone, and it’s not like Prestige TV by any means, but I thought it was entertaining enough.
Movies
I spent most of this week rewatching all of the Bridget Jones movies in preparation for the new one, which came out yesterday. My love of rom coms is well documented in this newsletter, and this franchise is foundational text of the genre. The first one, Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), holds a lot of nostalgia for me and is a movie I’ve seen several times. There’s some things in here that don’t age well (for example, there is a running joke about how fat she is, which is not only a dumb thing to hyper fixate on because who cares but is also objectively false), but unfortunately I will always love this movie. Hugh Grant is so hot in this film it actually is sickening. His character is such an asshole and I simply do not care, I too would let my boss Hugh Grant ruin my life. When he falls in the water??? HOT!!! I just love this movie. I then watched Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), which is really not a good film if we’re being honest. I have rewatched the first one countless times but I rarely revisit this one. I have the same affection for all of the characters, but this falls into so many of the bad tropes of early 2000s rom coms, and I don’t think it lives up to the first one at all. I hadn’t seen the third one, Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016), since it came out. It’s quite ridiculous, but I think it’s better than the second one. In this one, Patrick Dempsey replaces Hugh Grant as the love interest competing with Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy, and Bridget gets pregnant and isn’t sure which one is the father. Patrick Dempsey is so CUTE. A silly, goofy time. These three movies are all streaming on Max.
And that brings us to the new one, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. I’m going to talk about a big plot point that is revealed in the trailer for the movie (my general rule around here is NO SPOILERS, I will only talk about details that are revealed in the marketing of the thing), so if you want to know absolutely nothing about this stop now……okay you’ve been warned! They killed Colin Firth!!!!!!! This takes place four years after Mark Darcy’s death and follows Bridget as she starts dating again for the first time. I was upset to learn this was what the film was about (I haven’t read the books) and was apprehensive when I sat down to watch it. Cut to: me weeping??? This is a genuinely touching movie about grief and growing older and living life. It is also silly and funny and cute! Leo Woodall is here (hot), Chiwetel Ejiofor is here (hot!), and, thank god, so is Hugh Grant (still hot!!!!!). It’s got a bit of a fun love triangle, of course, but it’s also just about Bridget and the people who have been in her life for decades. I’m so serious I really loved this movie. I cried so much! Renee Zellweger is just so good in this role. I have such nostalgia for this franchise and this is the most lovely continuation of it. This is unquestionably the best sequel of the three. I wish so bad it had gone to theaters instead of straight to Peacock. It’s really good! You should absolutely watch.
Things I Bought
You can read about my full skincare routine and favorite products here. If you need a sunscreen recommendation, try this list.
COSRX sheet masks: I’ve written about these before but I really love them. I buy a box every winter and I really think they save my skin during the dry months. I use one weekly and they really help!
One Last Thing…
I’m a lil late to the party on this one but I listened to The Good Whale, the latest Serial podcast. It’s about the whale in Free Willy, and the years long effort to return him to the ocean after an entire life in captivity. This is very good but also kind of sad! Full list of podcasts I recommend here.
That’s it for me! I hope you all have a good week.
TTYL,
Emily