Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much

I’m willing to bet that anytime you see The Price Is Right these days you are immediately transported to staying home sick. Is there anyone out there who hasn’t fantasized about studying up and having the game challenge YOU? What would happen if you were to catalog every item and its price ever put up for bid, then memorize said catalog? Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much answers this question. We watch fanatic Theodore Slauson as he recounts his many tapings and accurate bid guesses on The Price is Right. The story is absolutely thrilling. To witness someone ‘take the house’, so to speak, is even more exciting than playing the game. At a short and sweet hour and ten, Perfect Bid is a jaunty little documentary. It covers the topic well, has great interviews, and tickles your game brain. 

It’s interesting to watch someone really dive into an obsession…… Ted reminds me a lot of my dad, actually. HEY DAD I KNOW YOU READ MY BLOG -  HAVE YOU SEEN PERFECT BID/DO YOU AGREE??

Fleabag / Miranda

There’s been a big movement in the industry to show ‘real’ women full of flaws, questionable decision making, and ‘unlikability’. While it might be a horrific realization to men across the nation, women rejoice and breathe a collective sigh of relief. FINALLY, we are being portrayed in the media for qualities other than utter pleasantness! Phoebe Waller-Bridge writes and stars as Fleabag - a modern, single, insatiable British gal dating in London. We quickly form opinions after we see her delight in shoplifting. We watch her journey of theft, expert level negotiating, sex, and a puppet-like on and off again boyfriend whom she navigates through turmoil for her own amusement. 

The show is known for its flawless breaking of the fourth wall. This is when a character acknowledges the presence of a camera. Waller-Bridge is able to sweetly charm a suitor, deliver some contradictive sharp wit while she burns the lens, then snaps back into seduction with ease. She is an actress incredibly full of depth. She possesses an important trait every actor should strive for - surprise. Waller-Bridge pulls many mugs and faces at camera. While expressive, she manages to control even the slightest muscles in her face. The editing in Fleabag is a style worth studying. Quick cutaways and sharp edits keep the comedy feeling fresh and unforced.

I heard on the ‘gram that ‘Miranda’ is what some refer to as the originator of the BBC quirky quick-witted lens burner. So in an attempt to learn more I just got sucked into her 2009 sitcom on Hulu. And I must say, Miranda has me laughing more than Fleabag! While I do enjoy Fleabag, I think I’ll explore Miranda a little more….Miranda Hart looks straight into the camera to plead with viewers, desperately seeking encouragement during moments of social awkwardness. The live studio audience cackles at the various prat falls and silly antics of a single woman living alone and desperate to date. Miranda is at the butt of every joke. Like any great comedian, she puts the audience at ease by immediately poking fun at herself, her size, and overall appearance. Miranda’s show has me hooked. I’ve revisited it more than Fleabag, in fact. I can’t believe how much I’m actually cracking up at! I can see how this show would inspire a more polished take…

Both shows are fabulous! But as I’ve said before, what kind of American would I be if I wasn’t pitting women against each other?? Overall, I’d simply categorize Fleabag as a bit naughty and Miranda as a bit nice. Now go watch both and report back!

Game of Thrones - Finale

There’s a petition going around right now asking for HBO to remake season 8 of GOT with ‘competent writers’…..it has over a million signatures! And this is where we are in 2019. If you want a company to spend millions of dollars on you cuz they didn’t get it right the first time, a petition will do the trick!!! Surely HBO will bend the knee to its viewers. NOT. Ya’ll are morons. Anyone who is that butt-hurt about where the show has gone clearly set themselves up for disappointment. And no, they didn't have the books to fall back on, so yes, the show runners gained creative control over the ending of the story. Get over it.

Expectation is a funny thing in the TV world. When watching anything, it’s important to acknowledge your expectations going into it. At least monitor your excitement, preparedness, hesitation…..notice yourself gearing up in a certain direction about what you will view and how you think you already feel. Then assess yourself during your viewing - are you enjoying it? Are you getting let down? How can you adjust your mental course so you’ll still be happy in the end? Or can you?

When I thought about the options in my head, I feared we were headed toward a perplexing, disappointing ending (like the show LOST’s finale.) Let’s break it down a bit. Game of Thrones had a few choices of where it could end. We could end with a ruler we expected/wanted, or a ruler we didn’t expect/want, or we could end on a note that maybe wouldn’t polarize the audience TOO badly by bringing a roundtable of the bewildered leftover characters to give a giant shrug at the question of WHO SHOULD RULE??

This is essentially my biggest problem with the finale. After all these years, various journeys, bloodshed and battle to get to the throne, you’re telling me no one knows what to do?? No one had a backup plan? This was the least opinionated council of people I’ve ever witnessed, and I used to work in public involvement. It’s also funny to see them hint at democracy just to immediately shut it down, cuz that ending wouldn’t have been satisfactory either. It would have been too much of a political statement. I suppose I’m just baffled at the choice of Bran. After years of being told nothing gets done without hard work, I was pretty shocked to see the most listless, apathetic, lackadaisical character on screen win the throne. SO THERE’S HOPE FOR ME, MA! Where I once saw him as this all-knowing, humble, dazed and confused person who seemed so careless about the self, we learn that, in fact, every move Bran made led HIM to the throne. AND HE SAW IT COMING. Now he can say ‘I don’t want it’ all he wants, but……if this show has taught me anything about the concept of power…..I don’t think I believe him.

When you consider what the writers had to do, you kind of get why they did it. Try and think about where they were coming from and what feat they had to accomplish. It’s like we’ve spent years watching them painstakingly put together a giant 5,000 piece puzzle. And they did it well, too! In the words of Kit Harrington, “whatever critic spends writing about this season and makes their negative judgement on it, in my head they can go f—k themselves ‘cause i know how much work was put into this.” In this age of demand and consumption WAY surpassing supply, the viewer easily forgets the blood, sweat, tears, and MONEY it takes to make a show of this magnitude. If anything you should really be thanking HBO - they made it possible for you stare off into the screen, getting lost in Westeros with the boobies and dragons, in your battered sweatpants, wine-stained teeth and hazy cloud of cheeto dust.

Now that the watch has ended, we are all left with a gaping hole in our Sunday evenings. but remember to look back fondly and know that it was never about the destination, but the journey.

DRACARYS.