We are watching season 2 of the UK version of the show The Traitors, and I don’t know if I should recommend this show to you or not. I felt as if I had already seen allllll the reality television I ever wanted to see with Real World and Big Brother and The Swan in the ‘90s/’00s, but Paul talked me into trying it by saying he’d watched most of the first season and that it was MESMERIZING to see all the wrong ways people THINK: the way they use bad logic while being CERTAIN they are using good logic. He further argued that British people are more pleasant to watch than United States people. Plus I was on 0pi0ids at the time, and not very mobile, so if someone put something on the TV I would sit and watch it.
Anyway we watched the first season, and it was indeed mesmerizing, and I found it a nice DISTRACTION as well: I can think about those dynamics, and about the most recent twist/cliffhanger, and about what will happen on tonight’s episode, instead of about Other Things, such as the way an unelected asshole billionaire is illegally and unconstitutionally dismantling our crucial governmental institutions. I will say, however, that in the final couple of episodes of season one I was WEEPING and saying “This is a BAD GAME.” Nevertheless, I agreed to start a second season, which should be informative, especially since I am no longer on 0pi0ids. William and Henry have found it riveting as well, and we keep having to pause it to talk about developments and what they mean, and after each episode we sit around for like half an hour talking about it, and it is a lot of fun to do that with kids who normally flee the scene right after dinner.
I also have two books to mention.
(image from Target.com)
One is Asunder, by Kerstin Hall (Target link; Amazon link). It is the kind of book I think I’ll like when I read the flap and see the blurb by one of my top favorites Ann Leckie, and then I start reading it and think I don’t like it, and then I end up loving it. It’s set in a different reality where small gods are real, and there are unfamiliar racial/political divides and prejudices, and people do spells for real. But when you start reading it, everything is super confusing and people are referring to things you don’t know anything about so it makes no sense, and I got kind of bogged down, and kept realizing I was skimming and missing things and had to go back and re-read. But anyway I persisted and now I really really really really want a sequel: now that I understand this world, I want MORE FROM THIS WORLD.
(image from Target.com)
The other is Beautyland, by Marie-Helene Bertino (Target link; Amazon link). I was put off by both the cover and the title, and read it only because it was recommended by someone whose reading tastes overlap strongly with mine (I was going to link here to Nicole ((HI NICOLE)) but then I went to her site to get a link to her post about Beautyland and couldn’t find it, which leads me to the potential conclusion that I read a book because I IMAGINED/DREAMED Nicole had recommended it???)—and even so, I kept letting it slide down the library pile. This is the kind of book I think I won’t like, and then I start reading it and I love it and want to recommend it to everyone, and then I get to the end and am not sure what I thought. I enjoyed the entire experience of reading it, but I like More Ending. I don’t like to feel as if I’m not entirely sure what was going on or what eventually happened. I still hugely enjoyed reading it and would read it again.
I started reading this and thought “I already read this” but then I kept reading and I didn’t read this. One of my other friends wrote about this show yesterday. Maybe that will be enough for me to watch it.
Hmmm this show sounds potentially appealing… but when combined with your description of “riveting” I want to watch it immediately.
Leave it to Nicole to recommend books via dream. 😉 But if you and Jen and Dream Nicole all say it’s worth reading I feel like I should probably read it.
You sold me on Asunder!
I started to watch the first episode of Traitors a week or so ago, because it was recommended and I do like a nice challenge show, but then it seemed like it was going to be all drama and back-stabbing/plotting and schemes and not the nice relaxing ‘watch someone hang onto a branch for as long as they can, last one to fall wins’ that I wanted, so I noped out. I like individual challenges, done in a team environment. Interpersonal drama stresses me out so much that I even skip the Restaurant Wars episodes of Top Chef.
I love The Traitors. I’m watching it with two of my daughters, and occasionally the third will facetime in to watch with us.
HI SWISTLE! It wasn’t me! I have not read that although I will look into it, as our reading does overlap!
It’s so interesting you mention the Traitors, I heard about it on a podcast this morning and I thought they were talking about Traders, and then they said it involved reality stars, and I was a bit confused. But it’s so funny, what is that, the Baader Meinhof effect? When you hear about something and then you HEAR about something?
Oooh, based, I think, on your mentioning it on Twitter, I checked out Asunder via Libby (there was quite a hold list) and just started reading it today. It is very much the type of book that I’ve been gravitating toward, lately, though I don’t seek them out so much as they seem to find me. That is, books that take place in a fantasy world that just dumps you right in it, with its world-specific terminology and religion(s) and magic(s) and goofy made up names for people, places, and things. I feel like reading books like this is sort of like exercising a muscle, in that the more you do it, the more you get used to authors treating you like the world is just a given and not something that should confuse you at all. It does require just accepting that some things are not (yet) necessary to understand, though!
I know you said you’ve about had all the reality show drama you can take. However, I wanted to recommend “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test”. They just finished their 3rd season & all 3 combined are only a total of 28 episodes. I started watching the first couple episodes just to check it out & got hooked. It amazed me how far some of the people you’d expect to wimp out, lasted & who gave up almost immediately. Very few are eliminated by “Staff”, but they can decide to give up if they feel they’ve had enough.
Here’s the description: Various celebrities (athletes, actors, reality stars, etc.) endure some of the harshest, most grueling challenges from the actual Special Forces selection process. There are no votes & no eliminations – just survival. These celebrities quickly learn that what they did or who they are, does not matter. They need to follow instructions “to the letter” or they & their fellow competitors both, may pay the price.
question — is the Baby Names blog ended? I know of course that you aren’t updating now due to your surgery, but I don’t think it’s been updated since last summer. I have a list of blogs bookmarked and I’m just wondering if you expect to ever get back to it? I miss it :)
It isn’t officially ended—but it’s true it’s been a long long time since I’ve posted there. I don’t know if it will end up being over, or if this will just be a lengthy hiatus.
ok, thanks for the response. I appreciate that life changes and evolves and our interests also change. I’ll still be watching this blog!
Yes! Traitors! SO I heard about it because I listen to BBC radio 2. (Being a British immigrant to the US.) So we subscribed to Peacock so we could watch it, but at the time I think we could only watch the US version? I don’t really remember. It’s such an addictive show. I just was in the UK and was able to watch the 3rd British season, all at once on iplayer – also very entertaining. I do not enjoy the US version as much, mostly because it’s not regular people but people from other reality shows, who I don’t know and who already come with some drama and alliances between the contestants based on the show they originated from. We also watched an Australian season and the contestants were not good at figuring out the traitor on that one.