American Horror Story: Shows and The Interview

First I'll share my thoughts about this week's episode of American Horror Story.


American Horror Story: FreakShow

All week I'd been waiting to see what crazy deeds Dandy would do next But alas, they chose not to include his storyline this week.

That's AMS for you.

I came into the series at Coven but even then, I saw what they would do and should have expected it. Just when you get entranced by a specific storyline, the writers switch gears and do something else.

Pepper's story on FreakShow was fine. However, it felt like filler after the past two weeks of mayhem. The story is creepy and certainly was well done. I hadn't seen Asylum but I figured that this was one of the tie-ins that I'd read about in the past.

I'm not sure if it matters what happened to Pepper.

I'm not sure I really cared about the story. I kept waiting for the "real" plot lines, the museum, crazy Jessica, the other freaks, and of course, Dandy.

I liked the story of Pepper. However, when I know that this season is near to the finish line, I wanted to stay with the other stories.

I'm of two minds about the episode.

I'm looking forward to the addition of Neil Patrick Harris as a psycho ventriloquist.


The Interview

Was it a publicity stunt?

Is Hollywood really bowing down to the whims of a political figurehead of another country?

Even days later, I'm of two minds about what should have been done about The Interview.

It seems ridiculous for a political leader to dictate the entertainment content in another country. Sony should ignore them despite the hacking.

On the other hand, Sony has a social responsibility for its customers. In this day and age, one can't be too careful about threats. There is an uproar because they cancelled. There would be an uproar if something should happen, whether related to the threats or by an unrelated lone wolf.

Sony is in a difficult position and I don't envy their task.


My Five Wives SisterWives

I should have placed bets.

When I first saw the trailers for the show My Five Wives, I had the fleeting thought that Kody of SisterWives would take a fifth wife to keep up. After all, that's what a narcissist does. And who knows? Maybe Brady will take a sixth!

I'm not certain if Kody is really taking a fifth wife or if TLC is just teasing us and its really a sister or an exchange student or some other visitor moving into the Brown's. I'll Google it later. Who knows what's going to happen with the Browns in the new season in January.

As for My Five Wives, all I can say is that I'm surprised Brady didn't have a heart attack earlier. However the stress of five wives, one pregnant, twenty-four kids, job, and school, he has a lot on his plate. Since he was tweeting tonight, he obviously will be okay.

Happy Solstice!

My Five Wives Makes My Brain Blow Up

As many people know, I watch a few reality TV shows. I mean, I don't sit and stare at them, but they play in the background while I work on things that don't require total silence.

I watched Sisterwives. Now I've been watching My Five Wives.

I'll begin by saying, I have no issue with alternative lifestyles. If people want to marry one, two, three, or more people, go for it. But...the way Kody's Cult and now Brady's Bunch are being edited by TLC, these two families look more like Gaslighting Nightmares than Happy Families.

The more I watched Sisterwives, the more the blatant narcissistic tendencies of Kody began to leak out. It really is a fascinating study for those who want to examine a live narcissist in action. He doesn't have to say a word as he smugly sits  surrounded by his harem, each wife puffy and sad, even when she smiles.

As this season of Sisterwives came to a close, commercials began to play for a new polygamist family show called My Five Wives. They were cut in a catchy way to Bowie's "Modern Love," looking clean and cute and fun. It was even hinted that this family was more open with their marital relationships with each other with coy snippets of dialogue and lots of smiles.

I laughed at the use of "Modern Love." This is not modern love. This is just another family run by a misogynist narcissist trying to keep his wives in the dark times. Polygamy is an ancient custom, nothing about this show is modern except that it takes place now.

If you thought Kody was selfish, hang on to your hats when you meet smarmy-smiled Brady.

Brady has five wives. Well, he has one legal wife and lives with four other ladies. They rotate nights, so each wife gets Brady to herself one night in five. Unless of course there's an anniversary or something. Then the lady of the hour gets to take someone else's night. There are no make-ups. A wife pushed from her night doesn't get the next night. She gets to wait five more days for her husband's attention.

In the most recent episode, Brady missed a wife's anniversary by a real long time. However, another wife got her anniversary on the show we saw Sunday and no one cared about the wife who had been missed. Then the missed wife had to miss her regular date (sex) night with Brady because Brady had a bee in his bonnet about one of his kids dating and even though she was home by nine, Brady blew off the blown-off wife yet again to stay with the dater's mom, one of his more favoured wives.

It seems to me that even though there are rules and schedules, Brady can break them at will and everyone has to suck it up.

The things that BLOWS MY MIND in both of these shows is the whole children thing.

In Sisterwives, wife #1 keeps talking about adoption even though there are 19 kids or something in Kody's family. I thought that was ridiculous. If she doesn't want to be an empty nester while her husband plays with three of his other wives and their kids, she could get a divorce and marry a man who loves only her. And since she's the only legally married wife, she'd probably do pretty well with a settlement. All she has to do is say she was on the show and the world has already seen how Kody mind-games her endlessly.

Anyway, back to My Five Wives.

One wife wants to adopt a baby since she can't have any more children. She is sucky and whiny about it. She already has kids. Brady has 24 kids. She has a full-time job. Brady wants her to quit her job and hang around the house all day. He says he'll support her, he doesn't want her working full-time. She says she loves her job and doesn't want to quit. He pretty much demands it. She says she's lonely because she doesn't see him much. Yeah, no kidding, once every five days! But even so, he wants her to quit working so she can be paying attention to him. He pretty much said that. It was absolutely jaw-dropping.

He wasn't terribly on-board with looking into adoption until he discovered that they weren't allowed to adopt because they were a polygamist family. This doesn't suit King Brady. He demands to be allowed to adopt a child. And I'm sure the rest of the season will be him on this expensive mission for a trophy. How does he have time to properly father the twenty-four he already has created? And FIVE wives?

Oh yeah, he's also getting a masters degree while working full-time and juggling twenty-nine people.

Oh, what a circus, oh what a show...!

So, he tells the wife they're going to do this adoption thing and she needs to think very seriously about quitting her full-time job.

Then there's another wife. She wants to have another baby. She already has a litter but as the show progressed, it seems like perhaps one reason women want to have a lot of babies is because once they "decide" to make a baby, the husband gets to be with the wife not on her night. I'm not positive if that's true, it wasn't really clear. But it provides pathetic motivation.

Brady says he doesn't want to have another baby, he can barely afford the ones he has now. He keeps putting her off, but at last, she wins. Then she's all worried about telling the other wives in case they realize they're having sex.

Uh, duh. She makes no sense. She acknowledges they all realize they likely have sex with Brady but to announce a baby makes her feel as if she's throwing it in their faces that she's having sex with him. Since everyone kisses and hugs in front of each other, it's pretty obvious Brady is the rooster in the hen-house. So bizarre.

Brady is such a control freak. He micromanages everyone's lives. He has to know everything about everything.

But as with Kody, you can't totally blame Brady. Part of it is the culture most of them were raised in. I would say  most of it is low-self-esteem on the women's parts. You don't see any famous people in a polygamist marriage. If I'm wrong, correct me. Women are not people in these marriages.Not the way they are edited on TLC. Both men claim they are open-minded and forward-thinking but they are not. They are classic examples of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

I can see the pluses of polygamy for sure. Joint finances, joint raising of kids, joint chores, instant parties, taking care of each other, loving each other, lots of great sex with each other.

But to me, a true polygamist marriage is one where everyone has a voice. Where a wife can have five husbands just like her husband, where several couples can sleep in the same bed if they want once in a while, a situation where if there's jealousy, there's work to fix it by respecting each other's feelings and being certain no one is being shunned or shafted. An organic blending of families and sexuality in a committed arrangement certainly has its appeal. But not how it's been depicted in these two shows. The men get all the sex, all the say, pretend the wives have a voice, and have ulterior motives for almost all of their actions including being on a reality show to begin with.

If this is God's will, then why is everyone so sad? Why is it so one-sided? Why do we feel like these men are building communities for their own visions of God at the expense of women and children who either don't know better or are too trapped to get out?

Every single wife on both shows declares her love for her husband and sisterwives. They say they freely choose this life and can leave whenever they desire. Yet even when they smile, one can't help notice the air of sadness and jealousy that hovers over both families. Edited or not, as a viewer, that is what I see.

I had hoped My Five Wives would provide a more progressive look at polygamy than the Browns show does. I was wrong. My Five Wives is like a tragedy. Five depressed, jealous wives, one selfish controlling man, and twenty-four children who are trying to make sense of the world.

What do you think about Brady telling one wife they can't afford to bring any more children into the family and telling another wife to quit her full-time job that she loves and adopt a baby?

Pictures are copyrighted and not to be copied, shared, or used in anyway without written permission. 2014 Sephera Giron


(photos are selfies on the set of "Zombie Love" for the I HATE TODD band video.)

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo Child!

Honey Boo Boo

In case you don't know who Honey Boo Boo Child is, you can click the above link or just Google. Lots to see if you Google!

Honey Boo Boo, whose real name is Alana Thompson, was first spotted on "Toddlers and Tiaras," a show that I'm weirdly addicted to.

I watch "Toddlers in Tiaras" for a few reasons. I was a dance competition mom but since I had a boy and our studio was run by a sane fair woman, I wasn't all crazy like the pageant and dance show moms. But I've seen seen a few in action.

So when I first spotted Toddlers in Tiaras, I was mystified, hypnotised, couldn't look away...I should add that when I first started watching the show, it had already been on for a  year and I was going through a difficult time in my life. I watched an ALL DAY MARATHON to block my brain from reality troubles and dropped right into glitz and glamour crazy of child pageants.

Instead of worrying about the wrong turn at Alburqurqee my life had gone down, I had to scrap my jaw off the floor as I watched little kids getting spray tans, false finger AND TOENAILS, waxed eyebrows, and other feminine rituals that I myself at age fifty have still never had done nor can afford to have done....

I grew attached to Oliver Reed incarnate MaKenzie or however she spells it and she's still my favourite to this day. Alas, I guess MaKenzie, though featured a few times, wasn't crazy enough for her own show though I'd certainly watch it.

However, Miss Holla for a Dolla has redneckanized America. Little six-year-old Alana Thompson and her amazing couponing mom, June have us transfixed in their spell of redneckery pagaentry.

Dad, Sugar Bear, works seven days a week to afford his brood of four obese daughters and 309 pound June and a grandbaby on the way.

In watching this family bond over cheese balls for breakfast, participating in the Annual Red Neck Games such as bobbing for raw pigs feet and belly-flopping in the mud, I realized something.

This family loves each other.

We can judge their "ways" all we want but at the end of the day, they do things together, whether it's driving those jeep things around or going to the pageants or listening to the pregnant 17 year old's baby's heartbeat.

They are a real family. Trying to have fun, a good life, make ends meet, and keep the kids entertained.

Much like when I watch Sisterwives or 19 Kids and Counting, I sit there with my mouth agape at these people oh so different than me.

Yet, here I am, alone in my apartment with my sons and no spouse. Yes, I myself still have two married living parents and count myself lucky with my own middle class childhood.

And all these reality show families have more than I do. Committed spouses, no matter what weird rules they have, a family that does things together. Bonding, rituals, togetherness, two parents.

These people live life and love life. They don't blame anyone else for their choices.

Although I will say, I have to laugh at that poor Glitzy the screaming pig. That poor pig will no doubt be bacon one day but in the meantime, it gets to have its toes painted and no doubt, a bunch of outfits will be donning that little pig who Honey Boo Boo sleeps with in a playpen.

What did Glitzy think of the pig feet dunking game? Will her feet be next? What does that pig feet water smell like in 100 degree heat before you plunge your head into it and pick up a raw pig foot with your teeth...?

I think I'll go vomit now...I don't have the stomach to be a redneck.

But I'll be watching Honey Boo Boo.

Here's a link to a spoof about Honey Boo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFwogaNPKhs

Here's a link to a spoof about Makenzie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8bD6D_zXA4

What do YOU think about this Honey Boo Boo business?

Sisterwives Dodge the Law

In case you don't know, there's a reality show on TLC called Sisterwives about polygamy.

You know, most of me says grown adults can do whatever they like.

Who am I to judge?

However, when it comes to a show such as Sisterwives and they present themselves to the world, well, it's hard not to judge.

I still say, hey, do what you want.

My own questions stem from envisioning myself in any of the wive's shoes.

How on earth do you not get jealous?

How deep "in your faith" must you be to continue to have children when there is constant worry about money?

Where on earth do they get the money to build four houses side by side?

I don't watch the show very closely or religiously so perhaps these questions were actually answered along the way.

I myself don't see a happy commune when I watch the show. I see plump sad women who try to logically put their normal human feelings into boxes dictated by their faith and it's hard to watch them struggle with themselves. It's not what they say, it's how unhealthy they look. They looked unhealthy from the start so it's not like sudden tv fame is taking it's toll, though I'm sure it is. And maybe tv fame has accounted for some of the financial influx.  

It also amuses me to see how they own a gym. A gym? Really? Or did I dream that. Imagine the bucks that gym could pull in if the Sisterwives created some Mormon weightloss formula and they all got svele working out at their gym and selling their product.

Maybe in a few months the Sisterwives will be healthier in their new houses with their ever expanding family.

Kody must be one massive charmer in real life, that's all I can say.

At least the law is wisely keeping them from jail.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/01/sister-wives-bigamy-lawsuit-kody-brown_n_1561962.html