This one started out boring but had redeeming moments at the end. Honestly, the first half was really dull for me.
Everyone was reeling over the aftermath of the fire which I mean why wouldn’t you be? Especially when the Dean is out for blood.
Not much to report other than Tinsley and Callie trying to get rid of Jenny. Though Callie flip-flops on it because she doesn’t want to look bad in front of Easy but ultimately decides Jenny needs to go.
To really convince the Dean that Jenny is responsible for the fire Tinsley enlists the help of a prospective student who is visitng Waverly for the week. The perspective happens to be none other than the Dean’s niece Chloe.
Nothing too crazy here, Tinsley and Callie just feed Chloe a story about how Jenny was the one who started the fire. It didn’t help that while Chloe was in art class with Jenny she ended up drawing a photo of the fire. Talk about incriminating yourself.
Everything comes to a head when everyone is sitting in the Dean’s office. The Dean has decided instead of doing the usual thing where everyone pleads their case and he decides who is guilty he is going to let them sort it out between themselves. Fun.
This was actually the most interesting part and the whole time I was reading I was begging it not to become a breakfast club scenario. Though they already made a breakfast club reference before so it couldn’t be that.
The discussion got heated as Tinsley entered in as the main character ready to point all suspicion towards Jenny.
All the time reading I was waiting for something to happen where someone would defend Jenny or call Tinsley’s motives into question but it didn’t happen. Everyone sat in silence as Tinsley ran her ideas by the group and by the end it seemed everyone was beginning to agree with her.
When the Dean enters the scene and asks who would like to confess Jenny wastes no time speaking up. Again I’m shook because I thought despite Tinsley’s pushing and everyone else’s silence someone else would’ve spoke up and said something. Not even Julian spoke up in a gentlemanly gesture to protect Jenny.
So Jenny is packing up to leave and she is trying to convince herself it’s a good thing. Why would she wanna be friends with a bunch of people who didn’t even try to defend her to the Dean? She was ready to leave and not have to deal with Tinsley bitch Charmichael ever again…
Until the Dean chases her down and says the owner of the barn is insisting that the cows were actually responsible for the fire and that Jenny is no longer expelled. Yeah. The cows. Dumb. But also the silliness I expect from this series.
So Jenny is no longer kicked out of Waverly and it seems as though someone paid off the barn owner to save her…interesting.
Not sure who I can picture bribing someone to let Jenny stay at Waverly. It’s definitely not Tinsley or Callie. And even though Brandon, Brett and Easy like Jenny it seems unlikely they would beg their parents to pay off someone for this. So I guess we will have to wait and see.
First of all, Callie and Jenny agree to be friends and put the whole Easy drama behind them which is cute and predictable. Also predictable: Callie and Easy getting back together. Yawn.
I personally do not see the appeal of Easy, I have said it before but I dislike him and it looks like he’s not going away anytime soon so yeah. Gotta deal with that. Naturally, Callie doesn’t see any issue with getting back together with Easy because he was her boyfriend to begin with and things just seemed right. Jenny is just going to have to suck it up.
Sadly for Callie, Jenny does not take the news well, especially because Callie didn’t even tell her, Jenny had to see them together to find out the truth. In turn this makes Jenny mad at Callie and their brief friendship is once again over. Not that sad about it to be honest, Callie is just as annoying as Easy, if not more lol.
Things aren’t all bad for Jenny though because she has taken an interest in freshman Julian. He made a good impression on everyone by just being a cool guy who goes along with what Heath says which makes him popular with the upperclassmen.
What Jenny doesn’t know is that Julian is actually having a fling with a certain It Girl.
Yep. The Tinsley Charmichael has feelings for a freshman and it’s a side of Tinsley I did not expect. She sneaks around with Julian and shows that she is just a normal teenage girl after all. While she may get bored of the usual boys who give her whatever she wants, she finds Julian’s playing hard to get refreshing.
What she doesn’t realise though is that he ain’t playing hard to get lol Julian just isn’t interested in her after he gets to know Jenny.
Sad for Tinsley but at the same time something about her getting exactly what she wants is boring. So we need this drama. Especially when this drama causes her to set fire to a barn where everyone is having a party. Oops.
Aside from all of this drama we also find out that Brett has feelings for someone new. The new person being her new bestie Kara. We love a queer story.
Brett and Kara are exploring things on the down low with the surprising help of Heath Farro. Our local fuck boy. I did not expect him to keep their secret. Even if he was doing it because he was getting pics from them on the side. Turns out he has one redeeming quality after all. Sort of.
I hope Brett and Kara last, if only because we need one relationship in this series that doesn’t immediately go to shit lol.
Anyway yeah that’s everything that happens here. Naturally Tinsley is out to frame Jenny for the barn fire because she saw Julian and Jenny kissing and that causes her to freak out and toss Julian’s lighter behind her without looking. So really Tinsley started the fire but she already admitted to doing E and got expelled so she definitely won’t be making that mistake again.
Callie and Easy could have also set the fire as they were actually in the barn when the fire started. Jenny caught them having a post-coital cigarette and was not too pleased about it. Though I don’t think they were the culprits.
So I suppose we will be finding out the fallout from the fire in the next one. I say as I am already halfway through the next book lol. I am just behind on blogging but these things happen. Anyway, my prediction is that everyone ends up finding out about Julian’s lighter and he is the one that gets kicked out. Jenny is a main character and there are still at least four books in this series so she definitely does not get kicked out. I can’t see Callie getting in trouble either but I wouldn’t hate if Easy goes down for this. But we’ll see.
I’m actually surprised at how short the timeline for these books is? Like they all happen immediately one after another, it’s been four books and we have only covered Jenny’s first month at this school. It’s kind of weird. It makes me wonder where we end to be honest. Another thing I imagine I’ll find out very soon at the rate I’m going through this books lol.
I feel like I haven’t blogged here with a real life update in forever but here’s a big one for you: I’m engaged!
It feels weird to blog about to be honest, but I have blogged on and off for years about things in life so why is this any different? I guess because it doesn’t just involve me, it involves my partner too. He is not a public guy whereas I am literally everywhere online so that’s maybe why. So I won’t be sharing too many details.
I still wanted to make a little post because it also felt weird not to post. So here we are lol.
This proposal came as a huge shock to me, I wasn’t expecting it at all. I mean I knew it was going to happen eventually, my partner and I have been together for 8 years and marriage has definitely come up in conversation. I just didn’t expect it to happen now.
I wasn’t in a rush to get in engaged or married, I suppose because we already live together and own a home and have plans to go travelling next year. I assumed the proposal would happen in maybe the next year or so? But I got caught off guard at the weekend when I came home to a mountain of rose petals and balloons.
Obviously I said yes and am over the moon!
I don’t know when wedding planning will begin so let’s not even go there with those questions lol. I think it could be fun to blog the wedding planning journey but at the same time stressful. I’ve never planned a wedding and I don’t know how much I’ll really want to share about it when the time comes but it could be fun to make wedding content.
All I know from other people getting married is that it’s stressful and there’s a lot to organise, but at the end it’s a beautiful day filled with love and friends and family.
So yes, that’s where we are now.. I’m a fiancee and am excited to enter the next chapter of my life with my partner. Like I said, not sure if I will start sharing information on wedding planning or what not so I guess you’ll have to wait and see. Until then, it’s back to the regular content about books and TV lol.
I was writing a tweet about this and realised I wanted to talk more about it and then remembered I have a blog lol. So here we are.
I just wanted to make a quick post to say that I’ve been playing the Mastermind game for the Eras tour. Mastermind is a game created by Swift Alert that allows you to enter what you predict will be Taylor Swift’s outfits for her performance of the Eras Tour for that night.
I remember seeing people post online random screenshots from the game on Twitter when I was looking up things to do with my Eras tour dates and was wondering what this was. And so I finally did some digging and now I’m playing the game lol.
Before attending the show myself, I didn’t follow anything related to the tour. This was to avoid spoilers and also I just wasn’t interested.
However, after attending the show and getting post-concert depression I found myself online any time Taylor was performing to see what was going on. I mean fundamentally, I know the show is the same every night, minus surprise songs and the outfits but I still wanted to know. Plus, ever since Travis made a debut on stage you never know what is going to happen.
And that’s why I started playing this game. I thought it was a bit of fun and also it makes me feel really smart or something when I guess the outfits correctly.
I don’t have any strategy for it. Like I don’t analyse any stats of how often she wears something or anything like that. And when it comes to guessing surprise songs, I randomise every time because I do not have the brain power to start working out that shit lol.
But for most other outfits I make an educated guess and it works out for me.
I mostly feel proud when I guess the Lover opening outfit because it means I’m starting off well. Though after that it immediately goes downhill lol. I don’t think I’ve ever correctly guessed the Red t shirt and I never know about the Speak Now dress.
I got the Fearless outfit a few times right and thought I’d figured out a rough pattern for that, but that soon went out the window.
For Reputation, I always get my two points on the jumpsuit. I hope every time I’m wrong but so far it’s never lead me astray. I think maybe she might announce Reputation in London but couldn’t say for sure. Who even knows at this point?
The 1989 combinations, again usually randomised. Don’t know what is happening with them ever lol. Except for the few shows where she was wearing the matching combos. I have a theory she will save all green for Reputation TV but could be clowning.
I have been surprisingly good at getting the Folkmore dress which I think is cool and the same with the surprise song dress I feel like I get that a good amount.
I thought I was doing well with the Midnights outfits for a while but I think I’ve lost my touch on it lol. It was fine when Taylor was wearing the chevron for ages but I don’t know the pattern of when she switches that up anymore. Also the t shirt is hit or miss and the Karma jacket too. Though I get the Karma jacket more than the t shirt.
My average score is usually around 50 and I accept that I’ll probably never win but it’s just a bit of fun to do from time to time. Ngl I do get sad when I find out we have to wait another few days for the next quiz. And I’m not really sure what I’ll do with myself when the tour ends but I’m having fun.
Anyway, that’s all I came to say. I’ve been playing this game and there’s no one to talk about it with irl so I’m blogging about it lol. Let me know if you play and if you have a strategy besties x
This one was not as exciting as I thought it was going to be. I think I was expecting more Gossip Girl-TV-esque drama with backstabbing and girl fights and rumour spreading. There was none of that.
Despite the fact Tinsley and Brett are sharing a room and hate each other as well as Callie and Jenny there is not a single hint of any drama from this. All girls tend to ignore each other as much as possible when in their assigned living spaces and that’s boring. I needed chaos and people messing with each other’s stuff. But nope. The most we got was Callie flinging Jenny’s hair ties all over the room. Lame.
What we did get in this book was two Dumbarton parties, a new girl added to the friend group and discovering Tinsley is not the calculating manipulating ice Queen I thought she was. Which is a little bit sad to be honest.
So yeah Heath has decided since it’s sponsor weekend or something like that and all the teachers are going to be too busy schmoozing to get school funding it was time to throw a huge keg rager. So he orders up some kegs and decides to store them in the girls’ dorm room until it is time to party.
Unfortunately for him, the girls decide to party a lot sooner than anticipated and have a rager on the roof. Which is all fun and games before a teacher discovers them and decides to lock the girls down in the dorm all weekend. So they have to stay inside. Which is totally fine because they still have a bunch more kegs hidden in one of the dorm rooms. So another party ensues.
And the boys can’t bear to miss out on the party action so they sneak into the Dumbarton dorm using tunnels underneath the school. Which is kind of fun. Again this vibe is very silly Gossip Girl universe.
All the drama unfolds at this party where all the girls have decided to raid each other’s closets and drink keg beer. First of all we are introduced to new girl Kara. She is a girl who Brett and Jenny have deemed the ‘girl in black’ until she speaks out and has a voice. Apparently she was nicknamed the Whale by Heath a few years ago because she was overweight and went into hiding ever since. Which is rude of Heath. But she ends up getting her own back by throwing beer over him and becoming friends with Brett, Callie and Jenny. Cute.
Jenny finds out through a game of I Never that Easy took Callie to dinner with his dad even though Jenny is his current girlfriend and Callie is his ex. Gross. Basically the girls stop hating each other after realising that Easy is the problem. I gotta say this was the most mature response to the situation. I was not expecting that. But also I am proud of them for realising they shouldn’t let this fuck boy come between them. Chicks before dicks and all that.
I hope Easy ends up choosing neither of them and going back to the art-hole he crawled out of he is actually annoying lol. I hate everytime we see anything from his POV. Like I get it, tortured artist boy might be in love with two girls but can’t make a decision. It’s boring. I don’t need it.
We also discover at this party that Tinsley is a virgin! Shocking and scandalous for the times but also just surprising because it’s been implied that she’s the kind of girl who has no issues hooking up. Turns out that’s not her, she has fun flirting with boys but often finds after they’ve kissed all the magic is gone. So she loves a chase but not being in actual relationships. Real.
Plus Tinsley is not really a “mean girl”. She gave off vibes that’s who she was but I guess she’s really just a normal teenager lol. She can be manipulative when she wants to be but she’s not giving off the same bitchy vibes of the girls on the Gossip Girl TV show. Which is sad because I wanted that. If anything this book showed she can be vulnerable as she may or may not be starting up something with a cute freshman boy.
Don’t know how to feel about this character development. I mean I guess it is realistic but it’s not exciting enough for me lol. So we’ll see if it lasts.
Also, Brett and her boyfriend Jeremiah break up which is surprising because I thought they’d be together forever. Turns out Jeremiah slept with someone while he and Brett were broken up and she’s pissed he lied. And to go along with that, the girl Jeremiah hooked up with snuck into the Dumbarton party to look out for him. She was trying to be a good friend by making sure Brett wasn’t going to hurt Jeremiah when in reality the opposite happened. And then this random girl ended up making out with Brandon in the tunnels lol.
And I think that covers everything. Now all the girls are angry at Tinsley since she’s the one who spilled the tea about Callie and Easy at dinner. Brett and Jenny have always disliked Tinsley but now even Callie is on the outs with her. So I guess it’ll be interesting to see what happens next. I assume Tinsley will be fine without Callie, she seems like she would be or at least appear to be when all she wants is her friends back. And then who knows if the other girls will forgive her?
Well I predict they do and it’ll probably be really easy since that’s how teenage girls work sometimes. Other times it goes the opposite way where they’ll hate each other forever but that doesn’t seem in the spirit of this book series. Anyway, I’m hoping for something fun next time. I think this series is going to continue being hit or miss for me as we go on.
I feel like I’m writing a Buzzfeed article lol. But anyway, this is not sponsored and I was just bored last weekend so I thought I’d give BeReal a real chance.
I downloaded it once when it first came out to see what the craic was but honestly, I knew I wasn’t going to use it because all my days are very similar and also, I look trash 99% of the time and I was not interested in documenting that. But a couple of years ago, I did a ‘1 second everyday’ video and was thinking of doing another one next year. And so I thought maybe I should try out BeReal because that’s a very similar concept, except instead of a video, it’s a photo and instead of me deciding when to take the video clip, my phone will notify me to do it.
So off we went to download BeReal. Now I know the whole point of BeReal is to “be real” but from my experience people still will do the opposite. A couple of years ago when I was at comic con, there were some people who asked in Q&A sessions of the celebrities would be a part of their BeReal. And I imagine like other social media, people only want to post when they are actually doing something interesting.
So I can see why no one really talks about the app anymore. And also why no one I know in real life uses it lol. In the week I used it only one person was active. So this was disappointing. Only because there’s no point for me to go on the app everyday if no one else is uploading.
But I decided to give it a go and try my best to upload as soon as the notification went off and try to be my true authentic self. Disclaimer – I think I only ever made it on time once lol. To be fair, each time it was only a few minutes late rather than hours. It’s not that I am trying to stage anything, I just didn’t see the notification.
Though I was finding myself wondering everyday when the notification was going to go off. I didn’t know round what times of day it would go off or what I was going to be doing. Not that I was doing anything exciting. It was just interesting to see what sort of times you would be notified at.
I got a good mix of morning and evening though the morning ones were at the weekend and I was in bed lol. Other ones I was out and about or at work. Nothing crazy. I do wish my friends used it though because I would be interested to see what they would be doing. Part of the fun is seeing what everyone else is up to in the same moment you are but I didn’t have that so was definitely not getting the full experience. So this is why I’ll probably not be using BeReal long term.
I suppose I could just ask my friends to use it, but they probably won’t. They barely post on Instagram as it is and I’m supposed to convince them to do this? Highly unlikely lol.
But overall it was an amusing week with something new going on. I am still using BeReal at the minute, but the novelty is wearing off. I think I might try to use it for a year and see how it goes but after that I’ll probably delete it. If anything this app takes documenting your life a little too far, who needs a photo from every single day of their life? I know I don’t. Not everyday is that exciting lol.
Still, I’m glad I have it a go. And I applaud the developers for trying something new. I’m not sure what the next big social media thing will be or even if I want to be a part of it but I’m interested to see where it goes. But for now I’ll stick with my Facebook/Instagram/Twitter. And the occasional blog post (when I make an effort lol).
It Girl Tinsley Charmichael has returned to Waverly and she is wasting no time settling back into her role as the Serena van der Woodsen of the school. Well actually, she gives off more Blair vibes to me in terms of her leadership styles but there is no mistaking she is the It Girl everyone is pining over.
This book was so good. I really enjoyed it! I am not saying it’s literary art but in terms of storyline, it was fun and gave me true Gossip Girl silly vibes. And I think it was better than the first book since we got all the introductory awkward stuff out of the way we can just dive into the story.
First of all, I want to say, I can’t believe Tinsley was expelled because she was the only one who told the truth about the E thing. Like I was not expecting that, I thought for sure maybe Brett or Callie had sold her out or something more dramatic than her confessing lol. If anything it seemed dumb of Tinsley to confess to being on drugs in the first place, it doesn’t seem like the kind of girl she is. But I guess it doesn’t matter too much because she is back.
She is back and looking forward to returning to her normal life with her two best friends, Callie and Brett but only one of them is happy to see her. Callie is the Blair Waldorf to Tinsley’s Serena and I’m not going to lie, I kind of hate their friendship.
Callie is a hot mess in this book because her boyfriend Easy has dumped her for her roommate Jenny Humphrey. So all she does is mope around and hang on to Tinsley’s every word. Not to mention the fact she has an eating disorder which they mention a lot. Apparently, Callie just doesn’t eat and is very thin and it’s very concerning. I don’t know if it is going to be like Blair’s eating disorder in the original book series where it’s mentioned once or never again…I mean this is mentioned quite a few times which makes me hope it gets resolved. But also seems unlikely. Either way it’s alarming and I don’t love it.
On top of Callie being Tinsley’s lackey, she is desperate for Tinsley’s approval which lead her into almost having a threesome with Tinsley and Heath?! Ick. Heath is the school’s Chuck Bass figure and nothing about that is OK.
But with Callie by her side egging her on, Tinsley thinks she can do anything. Including run a secret society and dictate who the girls in the society should hook up with. Not going to lie, the secret society idea was fun. I liked this but it was short-lived when everyone gets caught at the Ritz by the Dean lol.
So the ending of the book was kind of silly and abrupt I liked it. It reminded me of reading the Gossip Girl books when things would wrap up kind of nicely and there wasn’t really consequences. Because that’s just the world we’re in. Not to mention Callie and Tinsley seeing that the Dean was having an affair with another faculty member – the scandal. We live.
Though not everything is roses and sunshine for Tinsley and Callie as they are being split up by the Dean. He has decided to put Callie and Jenny in one room and Brett and Tinsley in another. Yikes.
Tinsley and Brett are on the outs because Brett didn’t tell Tinsley about her thing with Mr Dalton. Which thankfully didn’t actually go anywhere because Mr Dalton dumped Brett before anything could happen. Sadly, he dumped her for Tinsley because he’s icky like that.
Tinsley decided that because Brett wouldn’t tell her her secret, the logical thing to do would be to flirt with Mr Dalton instead and make Brett jealous. the plan backfired though because Brett wasn’t interested in getting Dalton back, she actually wants to get back with her boyfriend Jeremiah. So Tinsley hooked up with a teacher just because, well, she also did it for Callie because she thought she could use her relationship with Dalton to get Callie’s ex, Easy expelled. That didn’t work out for her either.
Mainly because Easy saw Tinsley and Mr Dalton together and he decided they needed to be exposed. So Dalton ended up getting fired. Serves him right for being a creep.
The only other thing going on in this book is Easy and Jenny getting together which is cute. However, they probably won’t last long if Jenny now has to room with Callie full-time. The girls might end up killing each other because Callie is furious about Jenny swooping in and stealing her man. But that’s what we love about teen dramas.
All in all a fun read. I’m looking forward to learning more about Tinsley and how she operates and I am interested to see how all the girls cope with their new living arrangements. If anything I thought more drama would have come from the four of them sharing a room but that seemed fine when Jenny and Brett spent as little time in the room as possible lol. But oh well, things can’t always be as dramatic as we want them to be. Looking forward to where we go next.
It’s been forever since I blogged anything. But I am back to start a new review series on the Gossip Girl spin-off book series called the It Girl. This series follows Little Jenny Humphrey as she leaves her old life in NYC and attends boarding school.
So I don’t really remember a lot about the Gossip Girl book series other than I feel like Jenny wasn’t actually mentioned that much. Also that the series was quite unserious and there wasn’t really a plot it was just rich people doing scandalous and frivolous things just because.
This book series however has more of a plot which I am enjoying and I had some thoughts about reading that I thought I’d stick in a blog post instead of my usual Goodreads reviews. Plus I do want to try to get back into blogging a bit more so why not start with something easy?
First of all, one thing I was surprised about was all the things Jenny had gotten up to in the Gossip Girl series because I certainly didn’t remember any of it lol. It was also weird to read Jenny as this naive freshman who was just always in the wrong place at the wrong time and got herself into these crazy situations that lead to her expulsion from Constance. Like that is not the Jenny Humphrey I know and love.
The Jenny Humphrey I know and love will always be the TV show adaptation Jenny. Early seasons Jenny vs Blair had my full attention back when I watched the Gossip Girl TV show and to this day, one of my all time favourite episodes is Blair’s sleepover from season one. So to see Jenny being this shy and awkward girl trying to make a new start at a boarding school was weird.
So let’s dive into Jenny and her new life at Waverly shall we?
As always with a new book series there was a bunch of new characters thrown at me and it took me a while to figure out who mattered and who did not. As this book series is a spin-off we do not have Gossip Girl commentary between chapters, instead we have snippets of IM chats between students so lots of names and gossip are thrown around early on.
But I sussed the main people we care about are:
Callie and Brett – Jenny’s new roommates and supposed best friends. Though an incident last year saw their third best friend, Tinsley, expelled while those two got off scot-free.
Easy – Callie’s boyfriend but also Jenny’s new love interest? Drama.
Brandon – Callie’s ex who is bitter because Easy stole Callie from him (supposedly)
Eric Dalton – new teacher and someone Brett is definitely interested in
Heath – basically the Chuck Bass of the school
Everyone else was just noise and names of people who kind of blended together in my head while reading lol
In terms of the storylines this book I thought they were good. A nice dip into this new world we are in and the dynamics. I gotta say I wasn’t so much interested in Jenny as I was everyone else lol. Like Jenny’s story is fine, new girl at a new school trying to make an impression and falling for her rooommate’s boyfriend Easy like…fine.
But I wanted to know more about Brett and Callie and what happened with Tinsley. Basically Brett and Callie are fighting the whole book but like not fighting? More like ignoring each other and being weird because they both think the other ratted on Tinsley and got her expelled. Turns out neither of them said anything about Tinsley and so they end up becoming friends again lol.
I’m not going to lie, I think the author did a great job at portraying the thoughts these girl’s had about one another and just about teenage girl life in general. We’ve all had those times where you want to be normal with your friend but she’s acting weird so you act weird etc. it happens. Also you just start and stop being friends over the dumbest things. It’s so real.
As for the boy drama – well, I don’t think Easy and Callie should be together – they give off very Nate and Blair vibes. In that Easy doesn’t really wanna be with Callie and starts flirting with Jenny and liking it. Meanwhile Callie told Easy she loved him over the summer and he didn’t say it back. And that’s very similar to how Nate and Blair were in Gossip Girl – moreso on TV than in the books but yeah that’s what I get. And so I am waiting for that to just stop being a thing.
I’m still not sure what the vibes with Brandon are other than he’s still in love with Callie. He seems like the nicest and most normal guy around to be honest. Don’t know how much he will be around but he was friendly enough with Jenny and seems open to getting back together with Callie so we see what happens.
And then there’s the Brett and Eric thing which you know gives me the ick because it’s another teacher/student relationship and we frown upon those. Like especially in this one because Eric clearly points out the age difference and then tries to justify it by saying when they’re older it won’t matter as much. Ick. Brett thankfully doesn’t have sex with him but she almost did and who’s to say she won’t? I hope she doesn’t.
But overall, I enjoyed this a lot. It’s easy to read – despite all the outdated designer and fashion references that go over my head. Plus I do enjoy petty teenage rich kid drama. It’s the basis of most of my TV show loves lol. So I am looking forward to seeing what happens next, especially because this mysterious Tinsley has reappeared after her expulsion. She’s already giving Serena van der Woodsen vibes and we haven’t even met her yet.
I have been waiting for this movie to come out since it was announced last year and so naturally, I had to treat myself and go see it on release day. What else would you be doing on a Wednesday anyway?
So first of all, I think we should address the musical part. I know a lot of people were surprised to find out that this movie was in fact, a musical. But at the same time, how could you not pick up from the trailers, even a little that this was going to be a musical. There were definitely scenes in there that screamed musical number to me, and also the musical note in the title was a big giveaway.
But I also dislike Paramount’s reasoning for not marketing this as a musical and saying it’s a “comedy film with music”. Because this is a full-blown musical. If they had to teach a large number of people choreography, and there were specific big musical numbers that look like they could be in Glee – it’s a musical. A movie that also just happens to have singing to me is a movie with less than five songs. And in the first twenty minutes of this movie, there were about four songs…so ya know it’s a musical.
And I think if you already know it’s a musical going into it, you definitely enjoy it way more. At least, I did.
The songs were fun and honestly Regina bobbing in and out of people during “Someone Gets Hurt” was hilarious. And naturally, “Revenge Party” was a fave. Can’t beat a bright set, confetti and fun costumes.
One song I didn’t care for was “What’s Wrong With Me?” the placement was a bit random to me. Like random and out of place for a musical. But overall I loved all the songs. I do wish they had included “Let’s Do This Thing” because I think it added to the Mathletes but it’s fine.
I was also worried that they would’ve changed too many things so it wasn’t going to be Mean Girls but they had all the good things going for them. The iconic quotes, the callback to the O.G costumes, Ms Norberry and Principal Duvall. Loved it.
As for the rest of the casting?
Well at first, I didn’t see Christopher Briney as Aaron Samuels but when I saw the trailers and how he played it I saw it. He is a Gen Z heartthrob. I just wasn’t sure if I could see past him as Conrad in The Summer I Turned Pretty. But in this, I was thinking Conrad who?? He had the vibes. Despite having probably five lines in the whole movie, he looked the part and that’s what counts.
The casting for Cady was eh for me. I just feel like there was no acting lol. Well, I kind of felt that for most people to be honest but Cady was flat for me. Even the singing. And compared to Lindsay Lohan, it just wasn’t there. Sorry, Angourie Rice…
Renee Rap as Regina George though sold it for me, her voice is amazing and the attitude was on point. I wish we had seen more of her being bitchy and in control though. I feel like a little something was missing to sell it fully to me but I think it had more to do with the way things played out than Renee herself. Still slayed it though.
The casting for Janice and Damien was great, loved them. Can’t complain. Gretchen and Karen were fine but they had such a little part in this I wasn’t focusing on them too much.
Also, I was trying to figure out why this movie felt so different to me and I only realised it when Cady was leaving Regina flowers towards the end – they didn’t have Cady do any voiceovers. This makes sense since Damien and Janice were the narrators of the story but I was missing it. Like I needed some more commentary on situations I think, plus there was no word vomit…I mean initially when Cady was talking to Aaron there was a little but like not as much as I expected. So if I had to say anything was missing that would be it.
Overall though, highly entertaining and fun. I thought the TikTok references and things would be annoying but I actually didn’t mind it that much, it’s just part of the times and I feel like they didn’t do it in such a way it was overwhelming. I guess the only thing that would have made it better is if we saw a glimpse of the OG Plastics at least once. We did get that Lindsay Lohan cameo though and I did think that was great.
I definitely recommend this to Mean Girls fans, especially if you loved the musical and also if you are looking for a fun and non-serious movie. I feel like recently cinema has been so serious and super-hero-y. We need these kinds of movies that are dumb and a bit trashy, I want the chick flick era of cinema to return.
In the meantime, I think it’s time for a rewatch of the OG Mean Girls movie. It’s been a while and as the movie tagline says – Plastic is Forever.
It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged about anything but I am back to share some of the TV shows that I’ve been watching recently. Since the writer’s strike had been going on and a lot of TV shows had been put on hold, I thought it was a good time to catch up on some new stuff that’s been released.
Below Deck Franchise
Okay so, I’ve actually been binge-watching Below Deck since April this year but it deserves a mention here because I am so obsessed haha.
My boyfriend and I started watching Below Deck: Sailing Yacht on a whim on Netflix and have become hooked ever since. I just never knew about all the drama that could come about from working on a superyacht and it’s so GOOD.
The funny thing about the binge-watching though is that we haven’t actually watched the original Below Deck, we just watch all the spin-offs lol. I mean it really started with the Adam/Jenna drama of Sailing Yacht and me doing a deep-dive and finding out that Adam had been on Below Deck: Med. From that, I found out about Hannah being fired due to her valium and I was like “Oh well we need to see how that happens”.
So since April, we’ve seen seasons 2-5 of Below Deck: Med, all seasons of Below Deck: Sailing Yacht and Below Deck: Down Under. We did try to watch season one of Below Deck: Med but the captain was not our fave, so we gave it a miss.
The latest season I’ve been watching has been Below Deck: Down Under and it was wild. Between the employees being fired due to sexual misconduct and Joao making a surprise reappearance in the series it’s been a journey. Sad it’s over but we still have two seasons of Med and also the adventure spin-off to watch, not to mention a new season of Med coming basically this week lol. So I’ll never have a shortage of Below Deck in my life.
Cruel Summer Season 2
I was unsure about going into season 2 of this show considering they were going to be changing up the cast and it was going to be a different storyline. The first season is so strong that I think that whatever came out next was going to be a bit of a letdown.
And I was right, season 2 did not hold the same appeal to me as season 1. I think I just really liked the storyline of season 1 more, I mean an unpopular girl steals the life of the popular girl after she disappeared? More interesting to me than a mysterious girl moving to a new town and the boy-next-door ending up dead. I mean written like that they both sound good. I think it was just how everything played out for season 2 was less satisfying. Season 1 really gave me everything with all the reveals and stuff.
I have to say I do like the format of this show though, I think it’s interesting. That being said, I don’t hate how drastically different the filters are for the show. I mean it makes sense, to tell the timelines apart but at the same time, it’s so extreme. Plus the main character’s appearance always completely changes too and I don’t love it. Give me a more subtle, 13-reasons-why-Clay-giant-gash-in-his-dead vibe than a complete emo makeover please haha.
I mean, in season 1 it made sense for Jeanette to cut her hair off after Kate came back to try to prove she wasn’t actually trying to steal her life etc. but with Megan in season 2 her look is just ugly and the slicked back hair and eyebrow ring really bothered me…
But anyway, I’m hoping there are more seasons because it would be interesting to see more things done in this format.
XO, Kitty
I was hesitant to start this, only because Kitty is so annoying in To All The Boys, I didn’t know if I could handle a whole show where she is the centre of attention. And Kitty was still being annoying in this series lol though to be fair less annoying as the episodes went on, but I suppose that’s just a reflection of her growing up.
I didn’t know what to make of the show on the first episode because I think they played too heavily on KPop for me. I’m glad it was only the first episode because I could not get into a show which is trying to have serious moments and then they blast BTS just because. That being said, I loved that they used Seventeen in the pilot because they’re one of my fave bands.
I also don’t know what audience this show is even meant to be for because they have these cute tween moments with Kitty and Dae etc and then also have some serious topics going on like Kitty’s mom possibly having another child and everything. Plus the aesthetic and the characters also lean on the younger side. I’m not saying older people can’t enjoy it too, it’s just not clear who the target demographic is actually meant to be.
Aside from that, I did end up enjoying this show and the characters grew on me. I am looking forward to more of it and seeing where it goes. Also, I know it’s not about them, but I wouldn’t hate if Lara Jean and Peter made an appearance…also love that Kitty’s Dad is too busy playing Aiden in the Sex and the City reboot to care that his daughter was caught up in a big under age drinking club night in Korea but that’s a whole other thing lol.
The Summer I Turned Pretty
First off, I appreciate any show where Taylor Swift music is featured prominently. I think it fits the series super well.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this or not based on the cliche that it is. I mean come on, a girl who wasn’t pretty has a glow-up and finally gets the attention of the boy she has wanted to date since forever? Not my fave trope. Also didn’t know season 2 of this came out this year so I binge-watched both seasons in one go.
I liked the first season, it was cute. But I think I could have left it at that because season two was not my fave. I mean first of all it got so dark so quickly lol I literally watched the finale of season one and then BAM season two had Belly and Conrad breaking up and Suzanne dying? Yikes. I hadn’t read the books so had no idea where we were going with this.
I personally would have liked if Belly had chosen Jeremiah all along. I hated how in season two, she just flipped and went to be with Jeremiah after the Conrad fallout. Mainly because she’d already purposely rejected Jere for his brother and now was doing the exact same thing to Conrad. Oof. Not cute.
AND ON TOP OF THAT, I heard there was a season 3 and so I looked up the synopsis of the third book AND BELLY GOES BACK TO CONRAD AGAIN. Ugh. No. I hate that even more. Like just give up on the boys at that point, there is too much switching between brothers and it’s weird. There’s a reason it didn’t work out with both of them and I think y’all are better off as friends.
So yeah, safe to say if the third season goes the same way as the book I won’t enjoy it lol. I like the idea of the show and everything in that it’s coming of age, first love and cute and all but the actual love story is not for me.
The Flatshare
This was so cute! I normally dislike when a movie/TV show is exactly the same as the book but I really enjoyed this one. I think because it’s been a while since I read the book, but the story is fun and I think the adaptation played it perfectly.
Honestly could not recommend enough if you love the book or haven’t seen it. I feel like we need more of this kind of rom-com stuff in our lives. They don’t really make movies/TV shows like this anymore. I don’t have much to say about this but that’s just because it was so fabulous.
And that brings us to the end of my current “to watch” list! I am not sure what is next for me, I know there is a new Love is Blind season but I don’t know if I am quite ready for more of that as I feel like I’ve watched a lot of LIB recently. But I do wish there were more shows like the ones I mentioned here in general. Like where are my girly light chick-flick-y type things? If you have any suggestions for shows I might like please let me know!
In the meantime, I’ll probably be rewatching something like Gossip Girl or Gilmore Girls. Heck, I’ve even been considering rewatching Vampire Diaries recently…but that’s all for now. I’m sure I’ll be back soon with something else I need to share my opinion on very soon lol.
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