S Reignite

  Love Island used to be what some planned their summer’s around. Making sure they were free at 9pm Sunday to Friday, watching in groups, live-tweeting rapidly. But for years, the British reality show has been losing it’s grip on the nation.  It’s seemingly reached it’s peak this year as the American version of the show has become the focus of social media discourse. Even the American bombshell on the British series is the focus of the villa.   Since the seventh season of Love Island USA started in June it has been dominating everyones social feeds as viewers sared clips of sweet but more often questionable actions by the couples. Most of the conversation surrounded the outbursts of islander Huda during her time on the villa as well as a now viral meme with her, revealing to fellow islander Nic that she is a mother. Even people in the UK have been weighing in despite the fact the series isn’t available to watch yet. The Americans continued to be the topic of conversa...

  MrBeast is one of the most popular YouTubers on the video platform with over 154 million subscribers on his main channel alone and I find his videos …. incredibly boring. I used to watch his videos at the height of the Team Trees project which was a campaign that saw the influencer plant trees for every dollar donated. But quickly I grew bored of his videos. The big production videos MrBeast and his team create are an impressive feat but often when I try to watch a video I end up clicking off because I’m not interested nor invested in the people starring in the videos. Many of MrBeast’s, real name Jimmy Donaldson, videos feature his subscribers who he regularly gifts substantial amounts of money. The only somewhat constant in the videos are MrBeast himself and his childhood friends who operate as supporters and jovial distractions for those competing in challenges. But still for me these big budget videos lacked personality.   Despite the tens of videos I’ve watched by...

  Earlier this month, the 65 th annual Grammy awards took place in Los Angeles and saw former member of One Direction and now successful solo artist, Harry Styles win Album of the Year for his third album Harry’s House . After he won there was immediate debate online about whether Beyoncé’s sixth album Renaissance was snubbed for the award. This argument was fuelled by fans who noted Beyoncé has never won the Album of the Year Grammy despite her influential albums Beyoncé (2013) and Lemonade (2016) being nominated in this category. In my opinion Beyoncé isn’t being snubbed by the Recording Academy, she is being pigeonholed. Although Beyoncé is the most decorated female artist in Grammy history, many of her wins have come in the R&B categories including, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It), which to me is clearly a pop song. Adding to this, in the summer when Renaissance lead single Break My Soul came out, I was surprised t...

  When I went to watch an early screening of The Woman King , one of the trailers they showed before the movie was for Sky Atlantic’s new six-part series This England which satirises the actions of the British government during the pandemic. Poster for This England. Credit: Gadgetonus Firstly, the trailer has confirmed one of my long-held beliefs – when they say that the previews have been selected based on the movie you are watching, that is a complete lie. Secondly, I question the industry’s desire to rush to produce media about recent current affairs. The government flouting their own Covid-19 guidelines in incidents which included Dominic Cummings driving to Durham while experiencing Covid symptoms and the revelation that the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, attended multiple large gatherings, one of which was to celebrate own birthday, are recent events from within the last two years. This means that these incidents are still fresh in the minds of the British public...

  ‘Life was like a pop song, and we knew all the words.’ – Julie From late 2016 to early 2018, before he completely went off the rails, I was somewhat obsessed with Logan Paul’s vlogs. I watched every single one of his videos which broadcast his LA antics to millions of viewers daily. I watched him prank his younger more notorious brother Jake Paul, be pecked at by his parrot Maverick, smash a copious amount of plates and vlog his days on the set of Valley Girl,  the remake of the 1983 romcom , in which Logan stars as Mickey  Julie’s boyfriend and  the most popular boy in his high school. I wouldn’t have known this remake had existed if it wasn’t for Paul. The original Valley Girl isn’t a film I’ve ever heard talked about nor do I think it is one that is shown on British screens ever. I’m sure when he was first cast, his social media success and international appeal were selling points for the Sneak Preview Productions and the others involved, but it was this ...

On Monday, I finished watching the second season of I Love a Mama’s Boy and quickly did my routine Google search of the cast to see what they’re up to now. The show follows several couples where the male part of the relationship has an overly close relationship with their mother which constantly threatens their relationship. Surprisingly, I found, barely any articles about what I am calling TLC’s new hit show, so I’m here to give share my opinion on how things ended for each couple. Kim, Matt and Kelly First of all the fact that I have to include three people in each of these relationship sub heading tells you even without watching the show the messed dynamic for most of these couples. My biggest problem with the mama’s boys on the show is not that they are in fact mummy’s boys but the lack of support they give their partners, the women they claim to love and want to marry. They allow their mothers to undermine their girlfriends and expect the women to get on board with it. That b...

  After being out of reach for Americans for one year, The Office (US  ) is now available for Americans through NBC owned streaming service Peacock. Based on Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s short lived British original , the mockumentary style show is centred around colleagues at Dunder Miflin Paper Company and all their office antics, spearheaded by their loveable but unqualified manager Michael Scott.  Each character having their own quirks is one the many things that has allowed the US version to out live its inspiration and have a large cult following since its inception. Every aspect of the show is well thought out and laugh out loud funny. The details they choose to remember and emphasise are ones that we are accustomed to other shows forgetting. Casually, Meredith mentions that her son Jake has a face tattoo in season eight and this detail is remembered for the rest of his scattered appearances on the show. This is a detail that may not have been notic...

‘No wonder you’re always so pleased with yourself‘-Harriet Wilson After Luce writes an essay that takes a disturbing turn, his adoptive parents and his teacher start to question who he really is. From the jump, Luce is the picture prefect student that you literally only see in movies, so I never trusted who he portrayed himself to be. But for everyone else his perfection is nothing to be questioned, because what’s better than an a child who you saved from a war torn country becoming the perfect son. But Ms Wilson’s revelation causes his mother to start to see him differently and wonder who her son truly is. Luce is so skilled at hiding who he is, that it’s difficult to trust anything he says and does. And that’s what makes him truly scary. Ms Wilson thinking that she, unlike everyone else, knows the real flawed Luce, still doesn’t stop her being fearful of him and his mind games. In return he invades her personal life and uses that against her, but Ms Wilson is no stranger to...

                             ‘One escaped the other was trapped forever’ – Narrator Celeste Ng gives an insight to the Asian – American experience, which is often looked over, in her debut novel Everything I never told you , where the death of middle child Lydia unravels the entire Lee family. From the first chapter it is evident that the Lee family’s lives revolved around Lydia with James being referred to as only ‘Lydia’s father’ despite having two other children, and Hannah being described as ‘Lydia’s sister’ or otherwise she would be forgotten beneath family trauma. Ng wastes no space on her pages. Everyone being filled with valuable detail about the characters and their perspective. Ng’s debut novel is set in late seventies but unfortunately the social pressures placed on Lydia by her parents remain timeless. Both parents place their failed dreams on Lydia. Her father’s unrealistic mental...

'I'd rather dad was a coward and still be here than a hero and dead.' – Danni Before I started watching Final Score, I expected a typical action film and that’s exactly I got. In Final Score former American soldier Mike Knox travels to London to take his niece to a West Ham game but ends up being caught up in the reemergence of a Russian revolution. This film is a part of Sky’s plan to create original films that their customers can watch on demand and at the cinema at the same time. Although the company has produced some interesting film projects with star studded casts, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile springing to mind first, Final Score is one their least innovative. For the most part Dave Bautista gives a typical portrayal of a macho military man but there are moments that an emotional side is shown such as when Knox becomes visibly upset at his downfalls as an uncle to his former comrades daughter in his quest to protect the stadium.  Sl...

‘there is incredible power in subjects that don’t seem to pertain to you.’ Charlamagne Tha God In Charlamagne Tha God’s autobiography he looks back to his turbulent journey in becoming the well-known radio presenter he is currently on Power 101.5.   With every chapter of his story he attaches a privilege to teach to reader what they can gain from embracing their own ‘privilege’. Charlamagne writes his autobiography in the blunt and shocking manner that he speaks in on the radio and seemingly all the time. Not only does this help him to come across as authentic, but it is also great for creating discussions around each of his eight principles. He even anticipates some of the responses to his outlandish statements but still he stands strong on his point of view. It’s obvious from the start that Charlamagne is a student of Hip Hop with no page being without a reference or influence from the genre, Charlemagne does admit that at times his preferred musical genre has been ...

‘ A woman doctor, impossible!’ Sherlock Holmes The comedic due from 2008 blockbuster ‘Step Brothers’ have returned a decade later and have once again brought their flare and charisma to the latest adaption of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most known and loved characters of Sherlock Holmes (Will Ferrell) and Doctor John Watson (John C. Reilly).   I use the word adaption loosely as its clear that the focus of this American version of Conan Doyle’s characters is to make fun of old-fashioned ways of thinking whilst simultaneously critiquing current affairs. This was well done in my opinion by both the screenwriter and director of the film Etan Cohen and charismatically brought to screen by Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. When watching the film I was really fascinated by how well the characters were brought to life and words on a page can result in such an hilarious result, by consequence I was more concerned with the behaviour of the titular characters than the actual storyline...