~the twink takeover issue~
An extra special edition by budgetjimin
Hi gays! Happy pri(demon)th!!!! I am honoured to be taking over this issue of my favourite pop culture newsletter ever while she goes on a little hiatus. Just like Bitchington, Budget Jimin is here to serve (you the hot goss, reviews and more).
LGTV+ 📺
Series I’ve Been Religiously Watching
Succession S4 (ended)
It’s like Dynasty but very serious and given the HBO treatment, with the occasional The Office reaction shots.
For a show that features ultra-rich white characters with few women and essentially zero queer representation (beyond subtext), it’s actually been such a hoot.
The Roys fuck over each other more often than Maddie from Euphoria says “bitch”. The shocking betrayals, the daddy / mommy issues and witty zingers really do it for me.
I’m gonna miss watching the best season (4!) weekly with Twitter, tabulating the Ws and Ls of each character each episode.
Workin Moms S7 (ended)
I’ve always thought I was one of the 5 people who watched this show. Turns out quite a few gays and girl friends are huge fans too. Well, we’ve come to the final season, much to my misery, and I’ve really been putting off watching the final episodes. This show has really been my comfort comedy show that also has so much heart. It’s up there with Parks and Rec for me.
Yellowjackets S2
Season 2 has been a slow burn, but the finale really blew up. While not as consistent as the first season, there were some seriously insane moments: THAT ear scene, THAT fight scene and the multiple death scenes. Sorry, I can’t say much without spoiling – you’ll have to watch it yourself to see the girls’ slow descent into madness.
The Pictures 🎥
Silver screen showstoppers.
The Little Mermaid (2023): Halley Bailey carried hard in this live action remake of the Disney classic. Just Halle’s voice alone is sufficient to make this my favourite Disney live action remake. Also standouts were Melissa McCarthy’s voice acting and Jonah Hauer-King’s dimples.
Funnily enough, this movie also felt like a Bridgerton spin-off – we have an interracial (and inter-species) royal star-crossed love story with a headstrong female protagonist, a racially diverse cast as an update to the source material, similar male costume design, and even Simone Ashley LOL.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023): I booked my tickets after seeing rave reviews from Twitter and Letterboxd. It holds the highest Letterboxd rating of all time at 4.7 btw; Parasite (2019) has 4.6 for reference. Honestly, it was overhyped for me. I mean… it had a cliffhanger ending and is just the first half that’s supposed to be continued by the third installment next year.
Nevertheless, it’s a really solid animated film that puts many recent Marvel live-action releases to shame with its bold animation style, understandable plot, likeable ensemble of Spider-Men/Women and so much heart.
Pearl (2022): Once I saw that the “PLEASE I’M A STAAARRRR” film was available on streaming, I had to watch it. Mia Goth really shines through in this story set in 1918 about a German immigrant farmer girl in America who dreams of being in the pictures… and has severe homicidal tendencies. I teared up at one point because I felt sorry for her. Look, I know she’s a killer, but god forbid women have hobbies.
Apparently, Pearl is a prequel to X, which I only found out after watching Pearl. A24 is truly good at sweeping their less-than-stellar mediocre films under the rug because this film made no noise LOL. I found it lacklustre after watching Pearl because I was expecting more explanations – but maybe that’ll come in the third instalment coming soon. If you intend to watch both, please watch X first!
X (2022): X is a much more standard slasher film set in the late 1970s surrounding a group of friends who rent a farm to film a porno with the dreams of making big money. It’s a simple formula, and they do it well but I felt like something was missing (see above). Besides Mia Goth, Gen Z It girl Jenna Ortega and Pitch Perfect’s Brittany Snow are in it.
Call Me Mother 🤱
In honour of Workin Moms, here’s a breakdown of my favourite series about middle-aged American mothers/housewives. Its become a TV niche.
Hot goss on TAYLOR. 👱♀️
OK tbh my news feeds have been dominated by Miss Blondie the last couple of weeks so:
Karma is that girl, like... Did Taylor release a remix of Karma with Ice Spice only so that she can bury all the shit Matty Healy said about Ice on a podcast? Maybe.
And they said Speak Now. Hayley Williams and Fall Out Boy will be featured on Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) out July 7. A win for the emos. Also, fans are speculating that the previously-unreleased track “When Emma Falls In Love” is about Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield (the millennial Spider-Man couple counterpart to Zendaya & Tom) in the early 2010s. I’M SEATED.
Cum 2 Brazil. She finally announced her first non-US stops of the Eras Tour in Latin America and Sabrina Carpenter (my favourite blonde of the moment) is opening. Taylor priced them at a relatively low cost of US$153. For reference, her upcoming dates in Chicago are upwards of US$700 for resale.
Come back… be here. Is Taylor coming to Singapore.. Or anywhere in Asia? Who the fuck knows. But look, I have this unshakeable feeling she won’t actually come to Singapore. She’s already set to do 60 shows for US and Latin Am, each one lasting a 3.5 hour fest of several costume changes, sensual chair dancing to Vigilante Shit and surprise songs. Between this and processing the break-up from Joe and the whole media debacle about her new relationship with Matty, I’m not sure she has it in her to do 2 more continents after North and South America. I would kill for her to come to Singapore but I’m staying cautiously optimistic.
Begin Again. Just my two cents – Taylor Swift is on her way to a second colossal downfall – if she’s not careful.
Taylor has done what few pop stars of the late 2000s/2010s have. She’s at a second all-time high in her career. In 2016, she reached a peak in commercial success and critical acclaim, when she won the Album of the Year for 1989 and she was #squadgoals with her supermodel clique. Shortly after, the Famous incident with Kim and Kanye happened and suddenly everyone was writing an op-ed about why she was problematic, from her political silence during Trump’s rise to her shrewd genius by weaponising a victim mentality to her overwhelmingly white supermodel squad.
Over the last 3 years, she slowly picked up momentum and is at the top of her game again, with another Album of the Year, 2 other new well-received albums, and an unprecedented sold-out tour.
And within the past 2 months, headlines are around her dating life updates again– her shocking break-up with Joe Alwyn after 6 years together, and Matty Healy’s behaviour is not doing her any favours.
SO I fear that Taylor’s second fall from grace is almost inevitable. But she’s a smart businesswoman and has learned from her Reputation era, so she may just sail through this foreboding storm if her publicist starts waking up.
Alternatively, she could take a break from making music and go to the Ariana Grande route: after her positions album kinda flopped, she started a beauty brand, became a judge on The Voice and booked a starring role in a major musical movie gig.
UPDATE: I wrote the above before the news broke that she and Matty broke up LOL. Good riddance and she better break this curse.
And that’s all for this week! Have a cruel summer, my lovelies <3
XOXO,
Budget Jimin
NOTE FROM BITCHINGTON:
Hey bitches, if we were on MSN, my status would be Away. Frankly, I’m pretty tired of the sound of my own voice. I’m off to enjoy pop culture as a civilian and come back FRESH. In the meantime, I’m hoping to still publish issues with other voices. If you’d like to do a takeover just like this brilliant one, you know how to reach me. Or just hit reply to this email. You can do just about anything. A deep dive, share your niche fandom, doodle some stuff (doesn’t have to be words!!), or even have a meme edition. I’ve got no rules and I don’t count them. Don’t miss me too much. x