Faulkner

I found the third part of the reunion terribly sad. They’re all horrifying human beings, Ariana included, and at a certain point, it felt monotonous for the left side to be so vicious and self-righteous after all we’ve seen of them over the years and the way they’ve lived their lives. Lala and James felt lucky that the Scandoval gave them cover for their own [!@#$%^&*], and, I’m sorry, they shouldn’t have been allowed to shout and curse over people. Their loud, attention-seeking (and, in James’s case, likely drug-fueled) behavior should not have been rewarded. And I get that Ariana is angry, but her lashing out was hard to watch. Understandable relatable anger but still gross and ugly. I’m not interested in seeing her turn her victim status into gold. I’m not rooting for her. She’s never been likable to me and this scandal hasn’t changed that. Scumdoval’s comment about Ariana keeping her T-shirt on during sex. Low. He’s right that he’s not a serial killer, but that’s the lowest of low bars. No words for Raquel and that meltdown in the final five minutes. She is a DARK frightening person. I don’t want her on my screen. I walked away from all of that feeling icky. I’m almost wondering if this huge surge is too much for the show to take on moving forward. I feel there’s an inevitable letdown coming. It was a well-produced, entertaining, dramatic season that felt very real in ways these shows rarely are, but, ironically, in some ways exposed how barren VPR has become after all these years. I don’t see how this story moves forward in any credible way. These relationships should be irreversibly broken and to force them would be embarrassing and ghoulish. To just show their isolated, fractured lives as broken humans doesn’t seem like a way forward either. And they’re all too old for this. Maybe the show’s trajectory towards cancellation (before all of this) was a blessing, and LVP at least now has a potential off-ramp with her new series.

So many groan-worthy jokes, ugh. Like sub-Dad jokes.

What was it?

I’m seriously curious what happened here, even though we can assume, but it does strike me as particularly bad optics in today’s climate unless it’s merely coincidental and Davis/Giddens/Brown all booked other projects, or a combo of booking other gigs and bad fits for the show, which is indeed possible. But it is curious.

Gotta get the legs in there!

Oof. Old Sabalenka reared her ugly head. Incredible unraveling to hand Muchova the match.

I’m not watching but people are saying the Muchova/Sabalenka match is great.

Rayan Ricci from France 🇫🇷

From the NYTimes homepage.

It’s funny that a lot of people expected Coco and Casper would embarrass themselves, be out in the early rounds, and lose a gazillion points they defended from last year’s finals. They acquitted themselves pretty well, with Coco losing in the QF and Casper advancing to the SF.

It’s worse here than yesterday. I’ve been having a headache (haven’t been outdoors but air definitely gets in my building from outside) and this might be why:

All of NYC and much of the Northeast look like they’re under a sepia filter right now due to poor air quality (the result of smoke from wildfires in Canada). People are recommended to stay indoors:

I’ll miss the little zooms with the whoosh when the housewives appear with their names, but at least they kept the gate.

Well…

If points counted from Wimbledon, a lot would be different.

Wendy’s son Kevin has done an interview with The Sun 😬 and blames her inner circle for her struggles, says her alcoholism could be fatal.

Totally agree. AL isn’t suited to Summer written this way (which is, truthfully, in character). HK wasn’t credible in the boss-bitch moments, which AL plays more easily.

Cancelled after two seasons.

Bouzkova and SST’s Instagrams have been inundated with angry comments. They lost to Perez/Melichar in the QFs.

Alcaraz just humiliates Stef any chance he gets.

Bali is beautiful, so I’ve heard!

Tama from Indonesia 🇮🇩 @AbcNbc247