Content Consumed: SZA, Abbott Elementary, and Baker Mayfield
Finally freakin’ Friday. Happy weekend to you and yours!
In today’s edition of Content Consumed…
🎼 SZA’s iconic new album
🚌 Abbott Elementary’s perfect midseason finale
🏈 Ode to Baker Mayfield
🎬 Should Taylor Swift be directing?
Don’t forget to come back here Monday morning for the White Lotus finale (!!!) recap and review! Here’s last episode’s if you missed it.
SZA’s new album, S.O.S.
I’d say I’m getting to be fluent in SZAese. You know, how she strings words together and pronounces things you’d never imagined could be pronounced in such a way.
You’ve gotta Google lyrics, and they’re absolutely worth Googling, because it’s SZA and SZA has retained her status as a Voice of This Generation with her second official album, S.O.S., released last night.
And it’s twenty-three songs.
“Seek and Destroy” has me dancing around the kitchen at 10 a.m. in the morning in a way not much music could do. “Kill Bill” will be the one that everyone, collectively, decides is probably the best of the album. “Low” was made for smoky clubs and cig breaks outside them, and “Love Language” right after falls into classic R&B slow jams (even referencing the genre within the lyrics).
Find the rest of my review here!
Gregory and Janine, get it together!
…But I do love a slow-burn sitcom romance.
Abbott Elementary’s mid-season finale aired this week and people are buzzing about it. Gregory and Janine have often been compared to Jim and Pam in their slow-moving, near-misses romance. When one of them is in a relationship, the other is pining. Visa versa. But let’s be real: they’re constantly pining for each other. And this season has built it up beautifully.
And where else would their current story arc climax than at a Philly club where Principal Ava is also getting her groove on?
The R&B slow dance, Janine scooching tighter to Gregory—it was romance! Until Ava, naturally, cut off their good time.
We almost had it. The first kiss. In the snow. Tropes and all, like Gregory saying “beautiful” and Janine thinking he’s talking about the snow but HE’S TALKING ABOUT HER and I’m swooning again.
But damn what’s-her-name. Gregory’s girlfriend. Texting him and ruining what might have been. Honestly, I haven’t bothered to learn her name because I know Gregory and Janine will end up together. Right? Right?
One thing’s for sure: Quinta Brunson (showrunner, writer, producer, lead actress) can afford a multi-season slow burn. Abbott Elementary is crushing the TV ratings and I predict about five or six seasons.
Gregory and Janine might not get together this season. That’s okay. We’ve got time. It’s a beautiful slow burn.
On another note: my nomination for Line of the Season naturally comes from Ava: “Not my work husband grinding up on my work nemesis?”
Final thing: this is how you do cameos. Vince Staples and Andre Iguodala killed it.
Baker Mayfield’s still got it!
Sure, maybe he couldn’t find the Rams locker room after the game.
But give the guy a break, he just got there two days ago.
In a stunner of a Thursday Football Game (in a season that’s had lousy TNFs), Baker Mayfield showed the hell up for his new team. The 17–16 comeback victory against the Raiders (a shitty team, to be fair) served as a nice f**k-you to both the Panthers and the Browns.
Mayfield’s Rams had trailed by 13 points in the final quarter, but he (very quickly) led the team on a 98-yard game-winning drive, ending with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Van Jefferson with just 10 seconds on the clock.
It was electric. Impressive. All that. But most importantly: screw the Cleveland Browns. For letting Mayfield go, but most importantly for hiring sexual abuser and evil man Deshaun Watson.
I hope the Browns continue to lose and I continue to see Sean McVay go apeshit on the sidelines because he’s very goofy and reminds me of a character from Surf’s Up and I love him.
Should Taylor Swift be directing a movie?
Taylor Swift is being featured in Variety’s Directors on Directors series, where two directors who have released projects within the past year are given the opportunity to interview each other about their respective careers.
Yes, Taylor Swift is on the twelve-person list of directors to discuss her 14-minute music video for “All Too Well”.
First assumption: She’s grasping for the EGOT and wants to put her music video in the running for an Oscar. That’s already an annoying thing, but it’s also frustrating that she’s taking the place of another talented director who could be included in Variety’s series. Maybe there’s someone else more deserving, a filmmaker whose project should receive more attention or deserves to have a bigger platform, more of a media light shown on it.
Then came the news that Taylor Swift will be directing a feature film with Searchlight Pictures. Apparently, she’s written an original script for it. Maybe, considering she’s acted before—in movies that *bombed*, like Cats and Amsterdam—she might even cast herself to star in it.
It just doesn’t feel right to me.
And that’s it for this lovely Friday! Thank you, as always, for reading. See you next week—with a White Lotus finale recap and review on Monday morning!
Cheers,
Casey
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