Sexy Sauron

you know, like a Virgin episode next week. And this week we're really just gonna talk about current events because this is like a Virgin the show where we give literally yesterday's pop culture today's takes. I'm ros Dam and I'm in Toronto, so catch me up, gurly, what has been going on? We are back from vacation officially like a Virgin, it's back to school vibes today. We've got spooky season around the corner. I have a thing of pumpkin spice almond milk creamer in my fridge. I absolutely do.

I'm not really a pumpkin spice girly but you know what I love. I actually asked you to buy this for me when we were starting on our road trip to San Francisco is the almond crisp machiatto from Starbucks that slaps well. Rose. You know it's been a lovely break. You and I have taken some long, much needed time away. Phoebe has taken some much needed time away. Ye, Phoebe, who's apparently in a band in a band, joins to

me on you and I drove to San Francisco. We or San Franz Squish go as you and I had to butch it up to fix my car on the roadside. Okay, girls, girls, days days, everyone else, let me tell you. We went to San Francisco and truly, twenty minutes outside of Los Angeles, Franz car started overheating and we pulled over and literally the first thing I did was open TikTok and search out to fix school and tank like king, not joking, and it helps us, it immensely, immensely like that is

that is where I problem solved. That is where I go for everything. We tried to fix the problem ourselves. I felt very butch. I popped the hood on your jeep incredible, and then we drove very quickly to an auto shop about a half a block away, which I want to remind you was the thing that I said we should do first us. Well, yes, but I you know, am am toxic and I don't like accepting help. And when we did inevitably accept help from the auto shop, I did ask a lot of annoying UM questions. But

they were really nice. They were really nice, really um. But it got fixed. We got on the road, We went to San Francisco, had a fun couple of days, had some really great food, some also really bad food. Bad pizza. Oh my god, that pizza girl despicable. You still need to send me a Venmo request for that. Actually, oh do I really thank God? Because I don't want to pay for that. UM. I also think we could dispute it because it was so bad. Let's dispute, Let's dispute. Um.

You know it should be said. Yeah, we've taken a few weeks off. We did UM do a kind of bonus episode that we posted to our Finsta. You should follow our fins to like, well, we we went live. While we were driving UM to San Francisco, we were like in the desert driving through grape fields, um and went live on Instagram. It was very fun. Um. You should check it out. It is, as fran said, saved

on our Instagram. And if you are listening to today's news recording and wondering why aren't they talking about this? Why aren't they talking about that? Chances are we probably talked about it on our lives, So go check it out there. It's like it's basically an hour long bonus app Also, chances are that just a lot has happened in the world over the past couple of weeks. I mean a lot of things related to last week alone

was just insane, the amount of things that happened. And I just I think there are some things that we truly like don't need to comment on, like we're not talking about Don't worry, Darling, I know we are. I mean we are going to no, no, no, even moved. Harry is already promoting a different movie at TIFF, another movie in which he apparently does a really bad performance, Oh My Policeman. Marie falls in the with a cop

or does he play a cop? He plays a cop and maybe also falls maybe he falls in love with a fellow cop. I don't know. Yeah, I mean I actually don't have opinions on the dirt don't worry darling of it all. I I think that it's just a delicious celebrity gossip um and mostly like gay Internet making big leaps to like come to weird conclusions about a

movie that probably is not going to be that good. Yeah, I mean, I can't believe we had Harry Styles spitting on Chris Pine and then the queen getting sent straight down in the same in the same couple of days. But girl, Rose not to call you in here, but like you can't be like stop talking about don't worry darling, blah blah blah when like during spit Gate, I think

you tweeted like once every four minutes. I know, I'm I'm aware, but what I'm saying is like, it's been a week since that happened, and what else is there to say about it? Right? What else is there to say beyond what I said exactly? We were all participating, and it was most you weren't because you were like in I was like in the woods, thank god, I was like unplugged. I wanted to ask you, have you

listened to ethel Caine at all. No, okay, but she's been coming up a lot on you know, on my social and I t l people talking about that in concert. It's very like, if I can assess correctly, like Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy dacis adjacent like sad girl rock, yes, but like specifically through the like through almost a like Lana del Rey Americana filter, but from like a Floridian perspective, because she's I think she's from Florida or like she's from the South, so like obviously that hits me right in

the peninsula. Um. And she also like has a very sky fer Era kind of sound, like literally like she there are times on her album Preacher's Daughter where she sounds almost exactly like sky Ferrera. Um. She's also trans, which is you know, love to see the dolls, the dolls out here making great music. And yeah, the the album is really good. It's a very um, it's like

very Cynthian moments, it's very rock and moments. Um. And it is really leaning hard on this like all this religious imagery, this like Southern Americana imagery, but from the perspective of you know, a trans woman who is from that place in our country, and I just really have been obsessed with albums so since I started listening to

it like a week or two ago. And it also kind of feels like she just is having a moment, like she's a fashion week hanging out with har Enough and you know, like she's like one of the girls now. And I think in a way that I think she has been building too for a while and now it's reaching critical mass. Like she had a show in New York recently and someone said it was like the gay Twitter convention, um, which sounds about right. So I think you should check her out. I think you would really

like her. Um. And then also just another music thing, um, Kalila finally dropped a new song and music video this morning, and I I am so happy that I have finally have a new song to add to my sex playlist. She makes sex music for sure. I thought it was really funny the way that she rolled out this new track, because for a couple of days she's been posting these videos of everyone's like really funny tweets and memes of

like where's Kalila? Like when the world needs most, she vanished. Um, she like made a video with like a bunch of like really funny Internet people in it. Um, and so I like that she's in on the joke. Um. And then like did that and then dropped this truly breathtaking music video and like it's it's a very slow song. Um, but she did assure that there are bangers coming and the visuals are like insane insane, and like she looks

like she's in dune. And also Kalila should be in Dune and should like maybe be on the soundtrack for she should be on the soundtrack. She also should act like she's stunning and she's so cool. She has such a mystical kind of vibe that's still like sexy and contemporary. Um, it should be said like taking apart Um has one of the best remix albums like ever created. That remix

album is so good if you've never checked it out. Um. Yeah, I'm I'm such a Kalayla stan and u uh something that I'm not really a stand up in the music world. Did you listen to the new Rena Sawayama ep? I haven't, actually so okay, I have to, but I love Rena A huge fan of her as like an artist and a celebrity, huge fan of her on the community level and like her perspective, rooting for her. These songs to me sound very just like generic, like I can't differentiate them,

and I can't letch onto the production quality. And I'm I'm bummed because I love her voice and I love like her ethos, but I can't really hook into what she's doing. And I maybe a little bias because I really hate that Chosen Family song. I'm not gonna lie. That song is an incredibly low point. It's kind of unique to calm down levels of like anthemmy, like poorly

written like Ally stuff. But even though she's I know she's not an Ally, I know she's queer, but it's just it's like it feels like you just google Chosen Family and like that was. I don't know, I do think so. I haven't listened to the full. I think it's an album, not an EP. I thought it was an album, but it's any or it's at least it's an EP. Now maybe it will be an album. I the only song I've heard is in full is this Hell,

and which I like. But I think, you know, this is very indicative of I think maybe what we're seeing is you know, when one of these pop girlies comes out and there's just so much momentum that they don't have the time to take a break and like sit and have life experiences that like lead them to write good music and instead just kind of like may just make music like that. They just do it and it's like not kind of at the level as their previous

stuff was. So maybe that's what's happening, because she has been going pretty NonStop since her her first album came out. Yeah, and I love her collapse love her on the fashion level. When you listen to the EP, you know, circle back to me and then we can chat about it. Um. I watched two things that you've already watched since we last spoke, and I would love to chat briefly about them. I watched I watched Prey, which I've never seen any Predator movies in any other or Alien, any of the

Alien movies. Not that that matters, um, And you don't need to you really need to watch Alien, I will, I will, UM, but to watch Prey for the virgins, you don't need to watch any of the other movies, and strongly recommend it as a standalone I'm pretty sure it's already the highest rated prey movie on it not only that, it's the most watched original thing Hulu has ever made. WHOA, I did not know that. Um. I

just you know. Top line action sequences, phenomenal, completely indigenous lead cast and story amazing, really good violence, really scary, high suspense scenes, great action, great kills, and compelling acting from extremely first time actors. You know. A very simple story about a girl who's like trying to prove herself and then just gets put in these really you know, crazy circumstances. She also has a really hot brother. I

was just about talking about it. He so sexy and I was reading that he was like, he it's his breakout. It's just I think his first role. He was like working at TJ Max before he got this gig, and he's so good in addition to being hot. UM and I feel like, just for the virgins, I forgot to top line the plot. If you basically the predate the Predator is that what it's called predator UM is this

like alien alien, alien hunter being. Yeah, that has descended upon Um, a commanche kind of tribe land in the early seventeen hundreds, and um. Around the same time, there are French fur traders that are kind of colonizing these land, and the Commanche tribe is basically encountering both the fur traders and the predator at the same time and trying to figure out how to kind of like sort through protect their their tribe. And um. It's just a great,

great story and something that really kind of struck me. Um. Not to get all political or this isn't even political, it's just like good content. Is that the entire movie offered Commenci subtitles and dubbing, So if you wanted to watch the entire movie with a commen she dub like, which can you think of any movie that has ever

done that like that? It was originally going to be fully in Comanche with English subtitles, um, which you know, I think it's probably good for the accessibility and like kind of the mainstream accessibility of this film that it was in English. But it's also amazing that they did

not sacrifice having an available with that that dub. Um. Yeah, I don't think all of the actors are actually I don't know if any of the actors are like Native Comanche speakers, but like I that might have been part of the reason, but I just like, you know, as long as it's in the language a language that's just going extinct, you know, the languages that in indigenous languages that are going extinct. I was like, that's sick, and that's exactly how we should be making things that. This

movie is like completely not political. I must also say, like it's just violent, good action, like really stunning character portrayals. Like it's just it's not like about the indigenous No Clarence, you know what I mean. It's not, like I said, it's a very thing. It's a very simple story that is really well made and super fun to watch. Um, what's the other thing? The other thing that was not so fun to watch was the Jurassic Park movie. Oh my god, I forgot that Laura Dirt was in it.

That's why was it about bugs and corporate espionage? I have to say, you know, it was definitely a hundred percent about bugs and corporate espionage. And like the villain of this movie looked exactly like Tim Cook. That's so distracting. That's so weird and distracting, and like, I don't know, it's kind of like when we watched Don't Look Up, and they had that kind of Jeff Bezosie and Elon Muskie like CEO for yourself. I did not watch Don't

Look Up. Yeah, seriously, um, that movie. You know, actually, I thought had some pretty good action sequences and some you know, the the bugs only you know, we're just gusting. Even though the movie was about the bugs. The bugs were only like in two big scenes, but there were there were so little dinosaurs in it. And the thing that I found so frustrating about that movie is it has this very interesting premise of dinosaurs are now living

in the world, and it abandons it almost immediately. It's there's like a like a highlight reel of news stories right at the beginning of the movie, and then it never deals with the implications of that. Yeah, it doesn't. And also just like the Clone Girl, like there's nothing compelling about her. There's nothing like the fact that this Clone girl has these adopted parents that aren't even that's Chris Pratt and the Red Heat, and it's like it's

just completely unearned. It. There's no emotional attachment between the three of them at all, and it was Honestly, I'm not gonna lie like some of the laziest writing I'd seen in a movie in a very long time. Like it felt like it was written in a weekend, or maybe like rewritten in a weekend, which is probably more likely. Babe, you want to talk about bad writing? Oh, I'm scared. What do you? What are you gonna say? I watched

this show so Um. Last week after we were in San Francisco, I went um to Florida to see my family and UM spend a lot of time with my mom, and one night she was like, there's this show that all my friends are talking about on Facebook that we have to watch. Um, which was not a good way to start a sentence for me. UM, But I was like, Okay, I guess. UM. So we watched this Netflix show called Partner Track. Have you heard about it? I'm not surprised.

It's like incredibly basic. It's about this girl who works at a law firm and she's trying to make partner. She's Asian American, and she's like having a really good time, a really good time. She's having a really hard time, you know, going up against the you know, like the white patriarchy that very much is in power in this law firm, and she of course has you know, some like romantic stuff going on. It is the some of

the worst writing and acting I've ever seen. That being said, my mom and I watched five episodes at once Jesus, and we were both like, this is horrible, but bea we're kind of into it. Yeah, so I we watched more the last night I was home, and then I finished it when I got back, and it was so stupid and so bad, and I would watch a thousand

more episodes of it. Speaking of stupid and bad, I'm a little mad at you because a week or two ago I had this kind of realization when I started to try to watch Making the Cut, which is that kind of like Project Runway spin off that time. I haven't watched the new season. I don't don't, don't don't. I started watching it, I was like, why is the music still is terrible? Um, yes, but the design, the fashion, the music supervisor on that show should be tried as

war criminal. The fashion is like slightly better this season. Like I feel like Making the Cut is so bad, but like, anyways, when I was watching the show, I started watching it, I was like, why am I watching this? I'm not enjoying it. I'm barely paying attention. I I'm I'm just like consuming it for the sake of consumption. I was like, I'm going to set an intention to

just like watch things that I'm engaged in. Like I have a really bad habit of just watching things on background or watching things because I don't have anything else to do and I need to just watch less trash. And then you told me to watch selling doc. Okay, but that's not the same thing, because is incredible, it's it is, It's okay, it is it's an interest because it's really good, it's really quality. It's trash, and I'm

Oscar the Grouch. It feels like it's worth watching. But I am still I don't know regard it is at the level of it is at the level of selling Sunset. I would actually say that it's better than current seasons of selling Sunset. O g selling selling Sunset. Sure they're going to do get Out. It's definitely better than current seasons of selling Sunset. And you know why, you know, one of one of the reasons why I think that is is because there's men. And I hate to say that.

I hate to say it, but I just think like, obvious, obviously men, we gotta get more men in here. Am I invading women's spaces? I invading women's I JK rolling on this, Okay, she I like obviously love you know shows where it's a bunch of women having interpersonal drama.

But I do think that the men on selling the O c Ad an element of drama that is just very different from selling Sunset, And like you have someone like Geo who's such a fucking asshole, and then everyone else who's like, like, all the guys are kind of gay, except for the bisexual one who, as soon as he talks about being bisexual, is totally written out of the show. Yes, completely glossed over. All the girls kind of dissociate and

look away because they live. The women literally talk about like how hot all the guys in the office are and how much they want to suck them, and don't mention him once, not once they are there's nothing about him that is sex because they're like, well, he sucks dick, so he's disgusting. He's disgusting. Um Yeah, I I so okay on your men comment, I kind of agree with that.

I think that they're because they're so truly like they have a machismo that just cuts through the bullshit with assholary as opposed to win the you know, the women in the cast just kind of like go around and whisper to each other like over and over again. It gets really repetitive. Um, so it's I mean, I don't know. And they're all gay. Yeah, they're all gay, and like the one who's by except for the one who's by.

And I love the Alexandra's. I love that they're like nine characters that are named alex and then then and I love the Alexandra's um, which is like if you don't if for the virgins. They're like these kind of um these like this like girl Boss partnership of real estate agents called the Alexandras, and they're like the top

everyone hates who everyone hates. And also I think the houses are nicer than than the l A houses, Like they're better, they're better taste, they're like and the views are actually nice because they're not like looking out over disgusting Los Angeles. Yeah, I'm only like five or six episodes in, but I have to say, only five or six episodes, Oh my god, I'm only I'm only I've

just finished four. I think, okay, okay, So I don't know if you are where I'm at, but I just have to say for the Virgins that I am unwillingly team Kayla. I don't. I think Kayla is like a total flop. I don't think she's good at her job. However, I think all the other women are way worse and like they are, you know, attacking her for no reason.

I mean some reason, but like they're making it about themselves and they have like the weirdest, most puritanical lens on, like the whole like cheating thing that just like I think it's stupid. Anyway, I don't know about that. I haven't gotten there yet. Yes, you'll see, you'll see, and you'll report back to me. Maybe we can do a little another little recap next week. I would love to. I will. I will be watching more. I know we have. There is something we're building to before before we go there.

I do just want to break in and talk about some stuff I've been reading. I also recently on our Finsta did share my good Reads profile and I've gotten a lot of new followers, which I didn't even know you could follow people on good Reads. Um I don't really review things, so I guess good luck to you, but I guess you can at least see what I'm reading. I'm back on my gay historical fiction bullshit, no surprises there.

Um I needed rippers, God pace rippers. I needed some lightness because the next thing I'm reading is my therapist told me I should read All About Love by Bell Hooks, So I'm going to start that later. But over the past week, I've read like five books by the same author who I think I've mentioned for their name is

kJ Charles. They write a lot of historical gay MM romance, not MM and the I just read this, um this trilogy called The Society of Gentlemen, and it's kind of the same as other things they've done, where it's like a group of people and it's kind of Bridgetain ask whereas each book focuses on one of their different love stories, but they're all part of this larger friend group and there is a kind of larger plot that carries through

all of the books. But it's very interesting because it does kind of deal with like the radical politics of the eighteen hundreds in England. And um, I really enjoyed it. My favorite of the three was the last one, in which a lord falls in love with his valet. Um, it was very very sexy. What's a valet? Like? A valot is a person who gets you dressed. Um, it's not the guy that does the part that like parks parks.

They know they're like your personal like the closest person to the lord who literally, like in the morning, wakes you up with a cup of tea, like shaves you, gets you dressed. So obviously if you want to suck that person, it's very sexually charged. Um. So I definitely recommend those if you need like something smudgy to read. I literally read like that book I read in an afternoon. The time has come, The time has come, The time has come to wall reset to talk of many things

wrong fantasy, wrong fantasy. We have been obviously building up to this for a while. Um, The Lord of the Rings, the Rings of Power is out, has been out, and I actually people will be surprised to know I didn't even watch the first three episodes until yesterday. You were putting it off because you putting it off because I was nervous, because I like felt like I didn't have the time to really fully commit to it. I'm glad I waited. I watched it. Today was a day where

I like set aside to really do nothing else. And first I want to hear I want to hear your thoughts, because I do think, just based on our text, that they're different. And for anyone who doesn't know what The Rings of Power is, it is Amazon's new fantasy series.

It's said in the same world as The Lord of the Rings, but it is set thousands of years before the Lord of the Rings and is about um the Second Age of Middle Earth, UM, during which the Rings of Power, one of which would become the One Ring and Lord of the Rings, were forged and not what this is all building towards and you can help me flesh this out, but from what I understand, they're basically truncating like a thousand or so years of history into

like a few decades. And they also very specifically do not have rights to any of the Lord of the Rings trilogy stories. Yes, well what they do not have rights to some of the Yeah? What what what is the t on the rights so they have? They do not have the rights to anything except what is in the appendices of the Silmarillion. These there. Literally, there is a billion dollar franchise being made of the appendices of

a fantasy novel written earlier in the last century. And that's just how much lower Tolkien wrote to flesh out this world. So that's kind of why in the show they talk around a lot of things, and it's not as though it does not have a lot of exposition, because and I think this might I would take a

gander that this might be one of your complaints. And why you why you might think it's a little slow is that there's so much exposition, but they're still like not really explaining a lot, Like you know, they don't explain who more Goth is, and like they don't explain what the Silmarills were because they literally don't have the rights to it. They only have the rights to what's

in the appendices. But thankfully there's a lot in there. Yeah, I mean, without getting into the nitty gritty, I think my top line take is like a really emotional and esoteric one, Like I have a kind of childhood attachment to the Lord of the Rings movie franchise, And of course they're going to be compared because they used a lot of the same team from the Lord of the

Rings franchise. They are lifting and building on two worlds that Peter Jackson and that team has already created, even if they can't explicitly do so, and even if they also do take their own path and and invent new things to um And so I kept catching myself being like, oh, but it's not like that in the trilogy, which is like the wrong take and the wrong like way to go about it, right, But that is my natural kind

of reaction is to kind of recare. The kind of things that I loved about the show were the parts that had a kind of contemporary emotionality, like I love. I liked the inter I prefer the kind of interpersonal drama between the characters in this franchise, which feel a little more human and a little more real, versus the trilogy, which is the stakes aren't quite as high. Yes, you go into Lord of the Rings and the steaks are almost immediately literally end of the world, end of the world.

And in the trilogy, even though there's a lot of fun and a lot of joy, it's all like melodrama, serious stoicism, looking off. Literally, it starts with glad I feel it, And that is my my number one complaint about Rings of Power is that our leading lady is boring and sorry, does not do anything different when she is not you know, fighting, swimming, climbing ice picks. I think her action sequences are dope. I think everything I think her as kind of like a warrior is amazing.

But I think that when she is acting, it is a o en levels of boring and like I mean this actress as well. It's like all she's doing is just kind of like like every any kind of like look, any time you see Galadriel just like just like waiting for her mine or like in conversation with someone, she's always just like looking off in the distance, like you know, like she kind of breathed deep and her hair is like whisping, and it's like, do you do anything else?

Like her mouth is always turned the same way, her eyes do the same thing, and it's like you can do that if you're Cape Blanchet. But I feel like she's doing Cape Blanchet drag and she's not pulling it off because very few people can do what Cape Blanchet does, you know what I mean, I would disagree. I don't

think she's doing Cape Blanchet drag. I think she knows the part she's playing, but I actually think she is doing a pretty good job at being a younger version of a of a character who we know so well and who carries so much cultural weight, and also who we are used to seeing as this a very wise, powerful figure who is thousands of years old, and this is a much younger version of her, who has a lot of growing to do. I hope that the show

continues to open her up. One of my favorite moments in episode three is when they go riding and she just like the joy on her face while she's riding a horse. I thought that was like, really beautiful, and I think that speaks to what you're talking about, is like the smaller moments where you get an idea of

who these characters really are. I think what is working about the show, and that's why the first two episodes, when there's so much exposition to get through and so much setting up of who these people are where they are, I won't say it's boring. I didn't find it boring, but it's very dense um. But by the third episode, I felt like I really had to handle on who the characters are. I felt like the places they were in were very tangible, and I started to get an

idea of where the stories we're building too. And I'm sure there will be lots of twist and turns along the way, but like I think with the reveal in the third episode that, um, you know, like the south Lands are kind of where everything is is going towards. Like I think that's they're building more door in the South Belds, Like that's what what happens. And when you have those moments of revelation as someone who knows about

Lord of the Rings, I think it's really cool. Like the same way when they introduced a sealed door, I was like, oh my god, that's a sealed door. Wh who you know cuts off the ring and like that is corrupted by it, And like those moments are so cool and so exciting, and yet I I think the show like sprinkles them in enough while still letting this story stand on its own. Um. And it's so beautiful to look at. The music is incredible. Score, The score

is insane. I so so good. I had seen so many people saying like, watch this in the biggest screen you can, like, so when I watched it yesterday, I turn all the lights off. I like, closed the blinds of my apartment, tried to make it as dark as possible, turn the sound all the way up. And I'm really happy I did because that made it such a better viewing experience. And I was very like moved by how

beautiful it was. And obviously like New Zealand is beautiful, there's lots of beautiful people, and You're right, a lot of it is stuff we have seen before. Is like it's very familiar, it's speaking in the language of Lord of the Rings. But I also really liked how New Menoir is a place that feels very different from anywhere we've been in Middle Earth, because the thing about Middle Earth.

I was reading a recap of the episodes and on Vulture, and the recap or said something like, you know, Lord of the Rings takes place in this really interesting fantasy world, which is like medieval England that never her progresses um.

And what I liked about um New Manor is that it feels like a place where there could be like technological advances are like that they might have a different age, but if you know anything about the lore of Lord of the Rings and still Marillian, like I think spoiler alert, that's not going to be around forever. So maybe that's why Middle Earth keeps having these like huge world ending wars and that's why they never progress. But also probably just because like it's fantasy and it is what it is.

While we're getting into the nitty gritty here, um, I love the set design in general. I love the visual effects um, from you know, the seaworm to their portrayal of the undying lance and the birds coming out of that like light Vagina in the sky. It's very cool. But I also like the birds felt kind of sinister. Yeah, they felt Yes, I love that. And I loved when like the light Vagina closed and it was all dark, like it was so like moments like that. Vagina. It

is vain, it is. I think it's supposed to be like a current. I think like in the in the actual text, it's like a curtain of light or something like that. But it makes sense Vagina, Yeah, it does. And I like the whole of you know whatever gender. Yeah.

And I think that kind of the kind of esp the kind of distrust in every episode and the corruption that we're smelling and the little ways that certain characters may or may not be evil or that's so that's objects is all about how evil is constantly trying to corrupt good, yes, and I and for me, in the good and evil of it all, that's actually usually the

least interesting part to me of the original trilogy. Like I think Tolkien's ideas of like good and evil are like so flat, and that that was something that Game of Thrones was trying to I mean, not amend, but like it's something that they did different. Yes, like everyone in Game of Thrones is is complicated and bad and

um makes mistakes and also does good things. And and that's why I wish that, you know, Tolkien had a little more of that sensibility, which is like maybe we have a little bit of that in in brings the power more and so I appreciate that. But I will say as much as I love the visual effects and the kind of set and all that stuff, and like just the way they build the Elvin City and New Menoir and all this different stuff, the hair and makeup

is a flop to me. I think that a lot of these costumes as well look very fresh off the Broadway clothing rack. Not all of them, but a lot of them. I love that they got the original costume designer and the original like prop prop designers, you know, shout out to what a shop whatever to like make the swords and stuff. But it just it's I think that the costuming is actually emblematic of kind of the larger issue that I'm having with the show. And I'm loving it and hating it, and the say it kind

of feels like and just like that. To be honest, like I watched and just like that, I loved every second of it, but also every second of it I kind of had a little ring power. Only time will tell probably Duran, right, Oh my god, the way the way L Rond and Duran our ex boyfriends. They were fucking and sucking and you cannot tell me different they are.

They are Lego Loss and Ghimli the prequel. I L Rondon Duran are high key like long distance x Is and absolutely parked during the war and aren't talking about it. And I bet you the wife knows and was vuying for a threesome, which is why she totally wanted them to be a threat. That actually, like when you're talking about like set in costumes, I do think the places that felt the realist to me and where I thought that stuff was done the most effectively was in UM

the Dwarf Kingdom. I thought that was really beautiful UM and the Dwarves felt their their hair and makeup and prosthetics I thought were really good. And the hard Foots, who are like I think ancestors of Hobbits or like kind of a different branch of Hobbits. I think their world feels very lived in and real. These this sort of like nomadic tribe of you know, like little Um, you know, people scramping around and like stealing berries and stuff. UM and I love like all the stuff sticking out

of their hair. And I thought the way that they in the most in the last episode UM show Ode instead of telling about how their society works, I thought was really effectively done, like this whole idea of you know, if you can't keep up with us, we leave you behind and like we're very sad and we'll remember you. But like by UM, I thought that was like really well done. And I actually find the scenes with the hard Foots I think some of the most moving and

the most emotional. I really like Nori as a character UM. I think obviously the stranger I think is clearly a wizard, right I think, I mean that's the first thought. I mean, he could be. I was, I was, you know, of course that's actually something that I have to give it to. The show is like I'm now consuming like conspiracy theory podcasts and like reading about reading like the l O

t R wikis. Meanwhile I'm watching I'm watching galadual edits set to Brooklyn Baby and Buttons by the Physic Cat Dolls. I love. I love that we are living in a time where, like Lord of the Rings, that we're getting new Lord of the Rings content while people are making fan edits. I'm so happy. Yeah. So I the power to the series is that at least it's like making me so interested and invested that I need to know and learn more about the world that it it revolves around.

And so yeah, I kind of there was a conspiracy that it's maybe the Blue Wizard, or that it's maybe radic as question Mark um again, and you know, I don't know TBD because I think the kind of man falling from the sky comment is like completely fabricated, Like I don't think it's from Tolkien, um, which is cool, Like I I the hard Foots are apparently not supposed

to be in this part of the history. They inserted them there, and the kind of hard foots hiding from society is their solve for It's like, so if Harfoots were hiding from society the whole time, of course they weren't in the history, which I think is so smart. When it's cool the way that they're ling in the gaps, you know they're using what they have access to. And then there this world just is so rich with things

to play with and to create exactly. And I for me, I totally agree that the Hartfitts maybe had some of the best like hair and makeup. The thing that I liked from them that I wanted on everyone else was this kind of like effortless, kind of like weather. I wanted it to look weathered, like I wanted their hair and stuff to look like it had been lived in. And that wasn't everyone else does look a little bit

to put together. The only time someone didn't was so like Galadril spends like the whole second episode in like a sheet. Basically she was like she was like truly pussy out on that raft in like a sheet. And then by the time they got to Newman or like her hair does look a little frizzy from their long sea travels, but you know, they're they certainly are not

as weathered as they could be. Although her um hall brand is that the name of the guy that she's with, Slasher, I don't remember who now is a king who I think it's hot. He like he didn't look great for you know, having been on a raft, but he could have looked worse. He could have looked worse. Um. Yeah, but the hard Foots when they when they had their moment when they like kind of emerge from the ground,

I did get really emotional. And even though they're not, you know, Hobbits, they're like one of the breeds of Hobbits. It was the first time where I was like, where in Middle Earth? This is the fantasy that I came for. And the thing that makes Tolkien Tolkien is heroism from the unexpected, and how Hobbits are emblematic of the smallest person can make the biggest change. And that was so beautiful. Um.

But yeah, with the um. While we're on the hair and makeup of it all, we have to talk about the fact that l Rond has a Sally Hirshberger blowout for like a lot of this movie. I mean, look, he looks straight up like an inbred version of Steve from Stranger. Oh my god, so okay with Like there's some scenes where like his hair is like really high, like significantly higher than like other parts of the series,

which is kind of distracting. But the parts where it's really high, I was like, he looks like Jane von look looks very modern, and the girly who he's now working with, celebrantor the Smith also has like just looks like someone who was alive during nine and Weaven Like, there's no way around it. It's not it's not good.

I I really do not like that wig. But I loved back to the point that you made earlier, the Duran and l Round moment, because I felt like it's I thought it was the best example of the thing that I love about Rings of Power, which is the you've been gone for twenty years. You missed the me marrying my wife, you missed me having two kids, like we're worrying suck my dick. But like that conversation is

so in the present day. It would never have happened in the Lord of the Rings trilogy est and I think in the present day, but through you know, fantastical circumstances, because what he's saying is like, you missed all this because you're this immortal being for whom twenty years is like the blink of an eye, right, And I thought that was so real, and that emotional realism is something that,

in my opinion, is missing from the trilogy. I'm not one of those girlies that thinks that the Lord of the Rings trilogy is like perfect or whatever, like I love it to death. Shut You're like, well, I love it to death, but like I think you know AO and is boring. I think a lot of plotlines are boring.

I think that there's no emotional realism. I think the last like thirty or forty minutes of Return of the King are just like put it in the garbage, Like I really there are a lot of things that I don't like about The Lord of the Rings, even though I'm a die hard stand um. But with Rings of Power, I think I just appreciated those moments that just feel like they're set a little bit more in the emotional realism of two because you get to do that with a TV show well, I also, I mean and not

even like feeling contemporary, but that just feel earned. Like the anxiety of Norri's family realizing that they might be left behind by their community like that, like that really got me. Um And I loved that she, you know, Noori as this character who feels like she's being destined to help this person, and she went to him and said like, hey, I can't help you anymore. I have

to help my family. But then she did still try to do something heroic, and then I loved the way that this like being gets folded into her story as the thing that helps save her family. By the end, I'm just I'm very interested to see where it all goes. I you know, I think we're going to get sexy Salaron pretty soon. Is that like a thing? Is that? Like? Yeson is like a character in the show. I know that,

but he's purported to be sexy. He's sexy? Yeah? Well yeah, I mean Suron was always like historically in Tolkien, like was beautiful? Um so was he was? Was he as they say? Fine fine foot fine foot fine fine fine? Yes? He was? Okay, So I have not been loving the stuff with I don't know his name That's the thing about this Like everyone's names are like what are they? Um?

The elf who was in the tower and is now being held prisoner by the Orcs, I thought, I thought his stuff was like a little boring um, Like I didn't really care about his you know, will they won't? They vibe with the healer from the village, although obviously that kid is his son, right that was my theory. And I noticed that, like his ears were always covered by his hair, So I was like, did they fuck? And that's his son? I was maybe least engaged by

this plot. I was. I was as well until this episode when they're not prisoners in the Orc camp and the action sequence that happened when they tried to escape was so good. It was so good. I think the action in general is like really stunning and well done. I think it's honestly better than a lot of like

the acting and when they try at melodrama. I think some of the shots, like in the second episode when Galadriel falls into the ocean and sinking and then the guy comes down to save her, like it is beautiful and you can you can tell how much work went into making this show beautiful. And I really appreciate that. I mean seven million dollars where more than more than that? It is seven fifteen million dollars. I thought it was over a billion. Oh really, I mean the report the

reports say seven. It's still the most expensive show ever made. I believe it's probably seven. Maybe that's the production cost, but with marketing, it's over a billion. I think. Well, actually, regardless, I think it's very cool for them to spend you know, seven hundred to a billion dollars on the rings. I think it's amazing that they're you know, spending that much on the Rings of Power and then only spending you know, like four dollars on their like user interface. Like it's

like really a kind of a juxtaposition. I don't quite understand, um, but I feel like although one of the things I like about the interface is that every time you pause on Amazon Plus, the name of the character and the actor pops up, and it is a nice way to keep track of what's going on, because sometimes I get I start getting confused. I yeah, I mean, no other

service does that, which I think is kind of cool. Um. They and they do have little factoids as well, in in those little those like overlays um, but you know, it's just it's it's still is the worst streaming service like interet, I mean not not the worst. Sling TV is the worst. Um and Roku is the worst. Is pretty bad. Some some people have gotten lost in Rocus City and are never coming back. Yeah, if I can offer you know, my kind of key takeaways how I'm feeling.

I started saying earlier that my issue with like the hair and makeup is kind of emblematic of a larger problem with the not problem, a larger thing in this series that I keep kind of getting bugged by, which is that there is a kind of generic, if not almost soap equality to the costumes and therefore the overall feel of Rings the power sometimes that is just not on the same level of fantasy that of the Rings created.

And again I hate to compare them, but it's just like I feel a lot of the time that the things I'm seeing, from some of the swords to the Elvin garb to the way their wigs are done, is just a version of what Peter Jackson would have done, but like a little less memorable because it's been done, you know what I mean. And I and I think that part of what I'm part of the parts that there are parts of what I'm watching where I'm like, I feel like this is kind of something that I've

been watching before. Like I think it's really cool that like, you know, l Round went down to like Maria to like you know, chat with a dwarf. But like when he had to like you know, speak friend to open the gate or whatever, I was like, we've we've done this, you know. I think it's really but but it was done in a in a different way. It was which I actually think is like a nice subversion of showing us something that we are familiar with, and then they

actually turned it into something funny, which I appreciated. Yeah, I liked the comedy. It's just that it doesn't the line readings are not there. I don't think the melodrama is there yet. I think that it has some great writing. I just like it doesn't I mean, like think about like when like when Gibley enters more and he's like, oh mine, like there's so many Like there's a star quality.

This is what it is. There is a star quality in the cast of The Lord of the Rings, and a lot of those actors were it was their breakout role, right of course we have, which is the same as as this show. Most of the people are unknown. Well no, I mean no, because like in Lord of the Rings, we had you know, Queen Ian McKellen and King Kate Blanchet.

Because they had those A list celebrities, and because those were kind of the narrators and arbiters of the story, it brought a lot to the rest of their performances. And yeah, like the the all the guys that play the Hobbits, Um Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen, Um Live Tyler like they were eating these lines. And I just feel like a lot of the casting in this show is giving TV like it's it's not it's the TV show. I think that's what we have. The speech TV, I think.

I think the visuals are giving prestige TV. I will give you. I will give you that. The writing is not quite there, especially the dialogue, Like sometimes someone will say something that's clearly meant to be very like weighty, and it's just like not quite giving what it's supposed to give. But I will I. I keep reminding myself it's we're only three episodes in. We have a whole season to watch. And hopefully more seasons after this, because I do want this to continue. I will always want

more Lord of the Rings content. Um, I don't know, Like what is the metric by which they measure success for this show when they have spent so much money on it doesn't even matter to Amazon? Like is it about awards? Is it about how many people watch it? Like is it about how much it's talked about? Because like, I don't really see people talking about it. People are

really talking more about House of the Dragon. And it's very interesting that these two things are airing at the same time, especially because, as we talked about before, Game of Thrones is literally meant to be a deconstruction and a subversion of fantasy like Lord of the Rings. So it's interesting that they're airing at the same time, and people do seem to the House of the Dragon is much more talkable. It's much more a meimable. Um. I just don't see people talking about it the way talking

about Rings of Power the same way. But after watching it, I'm I'm hooked, and I I don't feel the same way I did watching the movies, but I didn't go into it expecting to, so I think I have managed my expectations enough to be really pleased with how it's going so far and excited to see where it can go.

Because I of the episodes that have come out so far, the third one was my favorite, and so I feel that's promising because it was the episode that felt most like the story was finally moving along, like the exposition had been done, the we had all the players kind of laid out, and now like we're getting going. So I think in the coming weeks, as it really picks up steam, like hopefully some of these other smaller issues

will be less, you know, less of an issue. Yeah, I'm excited to see what we can get from like Galadriel in general. Like I haven't like totally foreclosed on her. I want her to be a badass. I just and I know that she the actress Morphid. Something she was in that movie St. Maud that I never actually saw because it was supposed to come out right when COVID happened and then it was released on streaming and I just forgot to watch it. But I have heard really

great things about her. I think she's doing a good job. I want to see more from her. Obviously, I think she is really captivating, and she has really good chemistry with all of her scene partners, almost in fact where I was like, is she gonna fuck like the the the Pioty guy in in You do kind of think that about every time to characters, Yeah, I mean less less so in Lord of the Rings because let's be real, the Lord of the Rings is ace, you know, yeah

kind of yeah, but violence, yeah, I do. It's because you were talking about Game of Thrones, and I think that it is kind of It's not Game of Thrones and violence, but it is taking a page out of Game of Thrones books with these occasional violence. Well Game of Thrones took a page out of Lord of the Rings. Well, Lord of the Rings wasn't violent. They would not show blood or that, but there was still it was still

great action and stuff like that. Yes, amazing action yeah, yeah, yeah, And I think there's really good action sequences, like again, like I think that action sequence in the Orc Pit was amazing. Yeah. I hope we get to see some more dwarves. Um, I hope somebody fucks behind. No one's gonna suck. You don't think anyone's gonna fuck. I don't think anyone is gonna fuck. I hope we get sexy suron very soon. UM, and I will be posting suron

war goth fan fiction on our burner. We will be back next week in discussion with be Live Houston, who is talking to us about Sailor Moon and also a bunch of other things too. Um. You can maybe telling us a little bit about Yellow Jacket season two. JK. We did not get them to spill any tea. No, they cannot. They cannot, Um, but you can tell us what you want us to talk about next, whether it's a book or a show or a cultural phenomenon. D m U s at Like a Virgin Fore you can

leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps us so much. I'm your co host Fran Toronto. You can find me at France Squish go wherever you want. On social I'm Rose Damn You. You can find me wherever at Rose Damn You. You can subscribe to Like a Virgin anywhere you listen to podcasts. And this is an I Heart Radio production. Our producer is phoebe Unter, with support from Lindsay Hoffman, Julian Weller, Jeess Cranechitch and Nikki Etre Until next time, see you later. Virgins might saye