Content Consumed: HBO’s cancellations and peak cringe Drake

Hey, hi! How are you guys today? Hope you’re all having a lovely Tuesday with warm drinks and cozy sweaters and snoozing dogs. Hard for anything to be that bad if you’ve got those three things.

In today’s edition of Content Consumed:
🎥 HBO’s bizarre strategy (bye Minx and Westerworld!)
💊 Nurses shouldn’t have “icks”
💎 Drake reaches peak cringe
💉 Buccal fat removal, all the rage

P.S. Missed yesterday’s White Lotus finale review and recap? Here it is!

What the f*ck is HBO doing?

It was announced (right after the White Lotus finale, mind you) that HBO was immediately cancelling Minx (two days after they finished shooting all of season 2) and taking record-breakingly-popular Westworld off their platform (along with more HBO original shows).

Why…? How could they possibly save money doing this, taking popular shows with mass appeal off their platform?

Well, the removal of the shows from the streaming platform technically means that HBO’s parent company, Warner Bros Discovery, can save money in residuals paid to cast and crews of these productions, plus obviously the money saved by not continuing to produce the shows.

But… that must be a lot of money down the drain, to have already full shot season 2 of Minx and simply… not air it? Minx, a critically-acclaimed show that inspired millions of memes (mostly thirsting over Jake Johnson), is about an earnest young feminist joining forces with a low-rent publisher to create the first erotic magazine for women. Feels ironic, somehow, that this particular premise is facing early cancellation from the powers that be at HBO.

It doesn’t feel too unusual to renew or kill a show in development. But in-production and post-production… seems like a money burn.

So, where will these shows go?

No one can find Westworld or Minx right now. Maybe they’ll end up on another streaming platform like Netflix or Hulu or even Showtime. Lionsgate said they’d try to get season 2 of Minx finished and published *somewhere*. Ugh.

Maybe nurses shouldn’t have “icks”?

You might’ve seen this TikTok video circulating last week, where four labor and childbirth nurses described what their patient “icks” were.

Ick, being defined as a turn-off (romantically, in friendship, whatever) or something that makes you uncomfortable or weirded out.

So what were the nurses’ icks?

Oh you know, things like patients coming in for an induction and asking if they can “shower and eat,” patients saying they don’t want any pain medication despite being at an “8 out of 10” on the pain scale, and family members coming to the front desk “every five minutes.”

Is it (a) disrespectful against patients, (b) unprofessional of the nurses, (c) almost dangerous to have these opinions and publically share them as a healthcare professional, or (d) all of the above?

If you answered (d), you’re correct!

According to the Washington Post, the nurses who made the TikTok no longer work at the hospital, but it’s unconfirmed whether the nurses left voluntarily or if they were fired.

It feels like everyone should know this general rule of thumb now: don’t talk about your work online! Especially via video! Especially as part of the healthcare industry!

Easy. Common sense. Get it together, folks.

Drake finally reached peak cringe

He’s pushing 40 and still pushing cringe. That’s Aubrey Drake Graham for you.

It’s being reported that Drake purchased a new custom diamond necklace (called “Previous Engagement”, apparently) made of 42 engagement rings, representing the 42 times he thought of proposing to different women but decided not to.

Now my first thought: how many of those 42 times were just for Rihanna?

My second thought: he’s admitting he’s thought about proposing 42 times and it never worked out or happened? And he’s making a necklace to remember that, to commemorate it?

And let’s just return to that number: is it 42 different women? Or like 7 women, 6 times each? How does the math play out here?

A fascinating insight, a true revelation, of a man who needs real therapy.

Alright, let’s talk buccal fat.

“what the fuck is buccal fat how are they still inventing new flaws for us” said Twitter user trash jones.

And I stand fully in agreement!

*All the celebs* are getting buccal fat removal to thin and hollow out their already-low-fat cheeks. This week, Lea Michele “stuns in a new selfie” which basically just shows her new face surgery (though Lea, of course, wouldn’t say or admit that). Zoe Kravitz’s face was completely different at a red carpet this October. Zoe might as well have been the pioneer for this trendy surgery though, really, since 2015. Emily Ratajkowski and Megan Fox have also been accused of having the procedure this year.

It’s depressing as hell, because they’re either having these surgeries or they’re getting so skinny that their cheekbones are unnaturally protruding.

Now normally, I’m a get-whatever-cosmetic-procedure-you-want kind of gal, but this heavily contradicts my other stance of for-God’s-sake-you’re-influencing-young-women.

It’s frustrating and terrifying, when every month brings a new cosmetic procedure “trend.” Those of us who aren’t millionaires who could fall for these trends won’t have thousands of dollars to reverse them years down the line. Because we don’t know what happens to these new faces in a decade, two decades. Lea, Zoe? They can afford to fix their cosmetic f*ck-ups later. The young women they influence… it’ll be harder.

And that’s it from me today. Thank you for reading! I really, really appreciate it. I’m so close to 250 Medium followers and that’s so lovely.

Cheers,
Casey

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