The Devil of Knick's Game
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The Devil of Knick's Game
A guy at a basketball game, a Scion TC, and some more fellas don't walk into a bar.
Welcome to Hyperfixate! This is a newsletter about whatever pop culture artefact has decided to sublet the inside of my brain for a little bit. Sign up for free here. Support this newsletter here.
I love it when Charlie Cox is employed! It was announced during Marvel’s big whatever at Comic-Con that our beloved Matt Murdock will be returning for a fourth season on Disney+ called Daredevil: Born Again. I am a born-again Daredevil! Let’s hope DD’s catholic guilt won’t prevent him from showing ass on the Mouse’s streaming service.
He was recently spotted at the Knicks vs. Magic game at MSG. I love it when they put actors specifically on the big screen because for a moment you can see them get flustered. Charlie Cox, precious Charlie, has the cutest little smile plastered on his mug! Makes you want to say shit like “aw, poppet!”
I just hope they don’t reduce our beloved Devil of Hell’s Kitchen into some quippy, Whedon-esque reject to fit inside the MCU’s ever-churning machine of slog. I’m excited to see how he fits in other projects like She-Hulk and Echo. His little No Way Home cameo was a treat, spawning ideas of how many times a month he gets brunch with the late and great Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). That’s all I have on this. I’m glad Charlie gets to bring Daredevil back. This is long overdue.
Comic-Con is Great Again
“Finally,” I say to myself, “the actors I fancied at 14 are in those massive franchises!”
Well, Will Poulter is no stranger tangling with a film franchise, he’s already got Narnia and The Maze Runner under his belt. He’ll be joining the MCU as Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and I’m not ready to share him with the world! That’s my baby! My day one! He’s also really good in Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, a show I got a BritBox subscription for that I forgot to cancel.
Aldis Hodge, my favourite Leverage cast member, will be playing Hawkman in the upcoming DCEU The Rock-led flick, Black Adam. I remembered recently that he had a small role in Supernatural as one of the other magic kids that got bamboozled into becoming the devil’s soldiers or whatever in Season 2. His character, Jake, nearly killed Sam! How wild is that! I think that was the same season Cory Monteith was in.
Not ready to stop (barely) gatekeeping my boys but ready for the world to see The Vision (not Paul Bettany). As far as celebrity parasocial relationships go, I’m most sentimental about these two. And maybe Logan Lerman. I don’t even get like this about One Direction. Or Jon Bernthal. That’s insane to me.
Top Gun: Maverick Enjoyer Steven Yeun
Fellow cowboy and educator for gay rights Steven Yeun was recently on his friend Conan O’Brien’s podcast (anyone heard of this guy?) talking about Top Gun: Maverick. I feel like my ears prick up whenever anyone remotely brings up Top Gun: Maverick. I don’t even know if I like it that much—this joint military and Miles Teller propaganda film featuring Glen Powell’s abs—but I feel like as someone who saw it in theatres and enjoys seeing the cast get the K-Pop Boy Group treatment, I feel like that movie is right up my alley. Also, again, I was promised Manny Jacinto in that film and Tom Cruise’s little crew did. notdeliver on that end.
Steve and Conan were talking about blockbusters, how much trailers give away, and the communal experience of watching Top Gun: Maverick being its biggest draw. And I agree, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed Maverick as much as I did if I didn’t see it in theatres with a friend. I would enjoy it when it comes on VOD with my mum, sure, but that’s because we’ll be watching it together.
I love Steven Yeun and Conan O’Brien together—from Steve’s very first appearances on Conan’s show promoting The Walking Dead to their shenanigans in Korea, it’s one of the more wholesome celebrity odd couple friendships I’ve seen in a while. They just play off each other really well and genuinely seem to enjoy each other’s company. I would like to be the parasocial Third in their relationship.
Nathan Fielder’s Love Island
This week’s episode of The Rehearsal was one for the books. ‘Discourse’ has started up about Fielder’s ethics and manipulation—which I hope are nuanced enough (but I know I’m asking for too much)—and The Rehearsal is essentially Nathan taking on all the criticisms he’d faced for Nathan For You, but an article interviewing one of the subjects on this week’s episode had said that the show and Nathan manipulated said subject’s portrayal and personality.
I thought that was pretty funny. This subject, Robbin, went on a few date with our Rehearsee, Angela, and was invited to join the experiment and take care of a robot baby (for context: this week’s The Rehearsal introduces a round-the-clock child-rearing practice run for Angela).
Robbin and Angela share a love for Jesus and strength in their face, with Robbin finding his way back to The Lord after totalling his Scion TC at 100mph—hence the title of the episode ‘Scion’. Robbin sees angel numbers and signs wherever he goes as confirmation, has three mattresses inside his room, and drives without a licence plate. All these things are tidbits from the episode I thought were funny, but have been contested by the subject himself as well as people online as to how fair this man’s portrayal was. There was a point where Nathan asked him how he felt about Angela’s position on sex and celibacy and Robbin sounded adamant that he’d get into her pants. See, even my own summation of the beats in the episode are already clouded by my own judgements of this guy. To me, he seemed like the kind of person you only hear about through other people’s online dating horror stories. To you? Who knows!
Another thing I thought was quite hilarious was Robbin’s brother coming out and tweeting this:
Is it wrong that I find that hilarious? Is it okay to be laughing at this?
I think a lot of the conversations people are having seem to be the kind of “please, I’m a better person because I have some sort of moral stance on this” masquarading as “discourse” because of those very questions above. I think Nathan’s work has always meant to challenge what it is that entertains us—be it cringe, be it schadenfreude, or levels of absurdity you can only achieve with an HBO budget—as well as how being entertained by these things make us feel. But a lot of his work does center around his own ideas, compulsions, and neuroses about himself and the world around him. Can’t dismiss or forget that either.
I don’t really have a problem with The Rehearsal, in fact I’m quite intrigued by it’s self-reflexive nature and often ethically dubious lengths Nathan and his crew will go for the show. I thought switching the babies out through the window of their bedroom to accomodate for Oregon child actor labour laws was hilarous, ridiculous, and intriguing—I want to see the risk assesment paperwork for this show! And I want to be able to do them myself, too!
I think I’m just sick of seeing a lack of nuance to discussions on entertainment and media—but then again, who isn’t? And can we really expect that from garbage fire social media apps where media literacy and reading comprehension seem to have stayed behind in GCSE Literature? Am I being too cynical? Am I just dickriding for Nathan Fielder too hard? Am I caring too much about how I as an audience member am being percieved for consuming such a programme? Isn’t that why the state of “discourse” is this way in the first place? All this self-consciousness is worth investigating, why have we tied so much of our media consumption to our identities? Why am I lumping in you, anonymous reader, with me in that? Many questions I hope to answer in the near future, indeed.
Whether or not Fielder’s an asshole, which is what I think a lot of people are concerned about given the recent string of Tumblr favourite white comedians being Not-So-Nice-Guys after all, is an only time will tell, thing, isn’t it? It’s all about where that line is drawn, how much we care about the role famous people play in some facet of our lives, if you can call it that. I don’t think he’s an asshole, he’s just some dude. But, again, it’s not like I—or any of us spectators—know him personally to say. Alexa Demie seemed to have a fabulous time with him (I listen to this podcast episode a couple times a month, to be honest with you), and his cats hate him the way all cats love their humans.
I think The Rehearsal is exciting, and I’m glad it’s sparking something in everyone that watches it. I’m really, really enjoying it. I like being able to sit with my own discomfort, or at least that’s what I tell myself. The scale of the show alone keeps me hooked, but there’s so much more to it than just insane long-game schemes that make Nathan For You look like defunct HGTV home makeover shows. Nathan should do a dating show next, since apparently things are going well for Angela and Robbin (pictured above). Maybe he can help me rehearse for marrying (read: trapping) Criminal Minds’ Matthew Gray Gubler, or at the very least help me rehearse for my move to Vancouver.
That’s all for this week! Catch ya next time!
All my love,
Ari