Just a quick note of some of the funnest online content I watched this month (in no particular order):
– TV Guide challenged D’Arcy Carden to rank every iteration of her character ‘Janet’ from The Good Place, and thus provide an endearing glimpse behind-the-curtain of the show from her perspective.* Meanwhile, the show’s official YouTube channel posted a 9-minute-long blooper reel for the fourth/final season. Fork yeah!
– Morgana Robinson posted a (NSFW) skit on her Insta, featuring a fun new hippie-chick character called “Annabel”, who’s attempting to get to the bottom of what Mother Nature is trying to tell us (besides, y’know, “Get off my lawn!”)…
– Jenny Nicholson posted her epic, lifetime-in-the-making dissection of the “Brony” phenomenon, informed by her own experiences as a wide-eyed horse-girl who got caught up in the whirl, but remained an excluded outsider/observer. Caution: This documentary contains words and images that you can never unhear/unsee…!
– Billy Eichner guest-hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live for 2 nights running, and his opening monologues were posted on YouTube for all to enjoy.
– Actor/author Meg Tilly started posting a daily (now bi-weekly) “vlog” in which she chats to the camera over a “cosy” cup of tea, answering questions on a variety of topics from overcoming “writer’s block” to how she reacted to seeing herself onscreen for the first time. Her train-of-thought can zig-zag quite sharply at times, but that just adds to the videos’ off-the-cuff, chatty charm… you also get plenty insights into her close friendship with sister/fellow-actor Jennifer Tilly, so it’s great fodder for her fans too!
– Inspired by the above, I’ve been trying to watch more of M-Tilly’s work, and was excited to find that she’d appeared in an episode of a (short-lived) horror anthology series called Nightmare Classics (or “Shelley Duvall’s Nightmare Classics”, if you’re fancy), which aired back in 1989. She starred as ‘Carmilla’, the eponymous, er, anti-heroine(?) of one of the earliest vampire stories ever published… in fact the original novella (by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu) predates the release of Bram Stoker‘s Dracula by 26 years! I’m not sure why it isn’t better known, although the fact that it’s basically a (doomed) lesbian romance might have something to do with that…? Either way, this show relocated the story to an American Civil-War-era plantation, and is pretty engaging overall, despite the limitations of the budget/medium. Sadly it has only ever been released on VHS tape, but Tilly’s seductive performance and goth-y beauty transcend the low-resolution blurriness!
– While Googling for Glee songs, I chanced on the YouTube channel of Megan Nicole, a young actor/singer who’s posted literally hundreds of cover versions (and a couple original pop songs to boot) over the past decade! Apparently she’s also starred in a musical movie (Summer Forever (2015)) alongside Alyson Stoner, but remains “unsigned” as far as I can tell. Then again, I know people can make bank from monetising their YT videos, so maybe she doesn’t want/need to be shackled to a record label…? Regardless of the outlet, she has a great voice, and I’m glad she’s sharing it with the world.
– A couple months after Frankie Boyle’s highly enjoyable (adults-only) Tour of Scotland travelogue, the Beeb has finally uploaded the full stand-up show that we saw snippets of in the final episode. Hurrah! Again, it’s not going to be everyone’s cup-of-hemlock, but if you’re a fan of his scorched-earth style of satirical humour, then this provides a bracing slap to the brain.
– Renee Plaza posted a video of herself dancing to Blanco Brown’s “The Git Up” on her Insta, which I found oddly mesmerising/hilarious (though an unfortunate side-effect of watching it too many times is that I now have the song engraved into my brain, along with the clip of Miley Cyrus’s “Hoedown Throwdown” that she uses as an intro!)… and yes, fyi, she is related to Aubrey Plaza (sisters, apparently), which is how I discovered her in the first place…
– Seth Green “broke down” some of his career highlights for Vanity Fair, from his early years as a child-actor to his recent directorial debut (Changeland) as a 40-something! I was a big fan of his back in the day, but never realised how seriously he takes his craft, even when appearing in seemingly silly shows… so this gave me a whole new respect for him, and the iconic characters he’s brought to life.
– And on a more serious note, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivered an epic response to being accosted/insulted on the steps of the Capitol by a fellow Member-of-Congress (and the pathetic non-apology that followed)… which, among other salient points, reiterated the fact that simply marrying, fathering, or being related to a woman does not in itself prove that a man necessarily understands, respects, or even particularly likes women.
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* Not that anyone asked, but my personal “Top 5 Janets” would be: Bad Janet, Jason-Janet, Bad Janet, Bad Janet, Bad Janet. [Fart noise!]
Valet of the Ultra-Vixens 
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