Good news! It looks like That’s Hot… This Week is here to stay. I’m going to try and make these a weekly Friday dump. You know, unless I get busy. Or tired. Or am taking the Friday off because I’ve overwhelmed my limbic system with alcohol and bad hinge conversations. But otherwise I am totally committed to getting you these weekly installments. Totally. Committed.
I’ll still be doing longer deep dives into pop culture topics but those will be released on more of a monthly basis. A little treat to reward you for sitting through my weekly rantings. So, what’s on the docket for this week? This week I’m talking about TLC’s gift to humanity, my substack crushes, and the vampire Renaissance!
What I’m watching…
90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way. Some of you may know this already about me, but I recapped The Bachelor—and all its demonic spin-offs—for many years of my life that I’ll never get back. I would say my one flaw as a person (and there’s only one!) is that I’m a sucker for the human condition, and thus, have never met a reality television show that I didn’t like. What can I say? I’m an empath. When someone cries on TV, I feel their pain from my couch, shrug it off, and gleefully raise the volume until their anguish is vibrating the walls of my living room.
And no network is committed to showing us humanity in its rawest, truest form quite like TLC. TLC, aka The Learning Channel, has been educating the American public on the complexities of the human condition since the ‘80s. They said give us your tired, give us your poor, give us your circus freaks and made reality TV gold out of it. Perhaps my favorite thing to come out of the TLC multiverse is the 90 Day Fiancé franchise. Haven’t watched it yet? What’s the matter? You don’t have 2+ hours three times a week to devote to watching people desecrate the sanctity of marriage? You’re not better than me.
The thing about 90 Day Fiancé is the stakes are so high. Not only is a legally binding marriage (and eternal happiness, blah, blah, blah) on the line, but these people are leaving behind their families, their cultures, their countries—all in the name of love. It’s absolutely riveting to watch. Currently I’m watching the spin-off, 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way, in which Americans move to foreign countries to be with their lovers. Talk about some American Tarts. The stakes are less high (they can always go back to America) but more fun to watch because, despite moving to a whole-ass other country, these people have seemingly done zero research about said country and would rather painfully blunder their way through normal, everyday situations. Delightful!
What I’m reading…
Substack crushes. Fun fact about me is that I graduated from grad school last year. One of my favorite parts about grad school was being surrounded by like-minded people who were into reading and writing that extended the length of 180 characters. Part of the reason I created a substack* was to feel a part of that writing community again. So I figured why not brag about the cool writers I’m subscribed to in case you, dear readers, might also be interested in following their work.
First up: Alise Morales’ Not News Letter where she talks about, well, not news. Alise actually inspired me to do my own newsletter. She also writes for Betches and is a very funny NYC comedian who almost made me pee my pants once during her special The Roast of My Teenage Self. And that show title should tell you everything you need to know about her brand of humor!
Also, Iman Hariri-Kia’s Cherry Picked is quite good. She’s a sex & relationships writer turned novelist whose debut novel A Hundred Other Girls released last summer. Things I love about the substack: the aesthetic speaks to my deranged early 2000s soul, her merch (the “I like to read but I’m still hot” crop top I wore in Ireland is one of her creations!), and she does a great mix of pop culture commentary and personal introspection. She’s great! Y’all should check her out.
Book update: as mentioned last week, I did finish Happy Place by Emily Henry. It was good, not great. *waits for the romancelandia to smite her* I would rank it somewhere above People We Meet On Vacation and below Beach Read. It read a little too much like Carly Fortune’s Every Summer After for my tastes, but I guess I’m just not a fan of heart-wrenching** second-chance romances. I think Henry is at her best doing enemies-to-lovers banter and writing about book people. And I really wish she would quit it with the dual timelines. Please. I beg of you. Stop it. But I still had a great time reading it! And would recommend it if you're looking for a fun little romp to read by the pool.
What I’m rooting for…
The Twilight Reboot. Have you heard? In addition to a Harry Potter reboot that no one asked for, the universe has answered one of my generation’s silent pleas (so silent, in fact, it’s like we didn’t ask for it at all!) by gifting us with a vampire renaissance. Yes, it’s true, Twilight is getting a reboot. May god have mercy on our souls. I personally can’t wait to see how 2023 attempts to explain Stephanie Meyer’s early aughts Mormon agenda. I mean, Meyer made a sex symbol out of Edward Cullen. Edward who was a 104 year old virgin living with his parents and getting turned on by Bella’s B.O. and we were all just like, fine with that? And worse, sexually awakened by that!!
This makes it sound like I’m not in support of the Twilight reboot—I absolutely am. If low-rise jeans and cargo pants are allowed to come back in style then so too must our deranged childhood crushes. It’s only fair!
And that’s what’s hot this week! More coming soon!
xo,
Ry
*Footnotes & Afterthoughts*
*If you’re like “wut is a substack,” well, substack is the site on which you’re reading this newsletter. Basically it’s a platform for writers to invest in and share their own writing. It’s not quite a modern blog because you can monetize it (i.e. paid subscribers). In planer terms: it’s an Etsy for writers. If that makes sense. If it doesn’t… idk. Google it.
**I’d like to note that heart-wrenching is very different from angst. Angst, I’m a fan of. Angst, I love. Heart-wrenching implies a feeling of loss about something that should rightfully be yours. In this case it applies to a couple who are right for each other, meant for each other, but are separated because of circumstances beyond their control. Angst implies a feeling of loss about something that has no business being yours, and in fact, goes against your better health and judgement. For example, angst could apply to a couple who are not right for each other, have every obstacle in the world thrown at them, and are separated by their own idiocy. Angst, I’m telling ya, is far superior as a trope to heart-wrenching!!