Opinions - Pop Culture

New TV shows

I've found some to my liking, but most seem to be too dark and gritty for me. For example, why the heck did they reboot Fresh Prince as a gritty drama? And I've heard that that's a trend! I much prefer the shows of yesteryear that feel warm and happy, like the Golden Girls, Murder She Wrote, Designing Women, etc.

New teen TV shows

This is one of the things that I don't think I will ever get. Why do new teen TV shows seem to be so mature? They're talking about sex and drugs and murder all the time, and these are supposed to be about teens. What kind of teenagers do these writers know? Seriously, whatever happened to Blossom? That, at least in my opinion, was one of the most accurate depictions of the teen experience, even about thirty years later.

Backstreet Boys vs NSYNC

Sorry NSYNC fans, but I'm Backstreet all the way. NSYNC was basically Justin featuring some backup singers, while all the Backstreet Boys shine relatively equally in their songs. Plus, there's something to be said for the Backstreet Boys staying together for over 30 years and still releasing new music and touring together, and even surviving one member leaving for a while. So yeah, Backstreet for life!

Dogs vs. cats

Honestly, I'm half-and-half. I feel like there's a nice balance sometimes, because dogs can be over-eager and cats can be under-eager. Whenever I go to my grandparents', who have like ten dogs (including my aunt and uncle's dogs, they live nearby and have free roam since they're in the country), a lot of them swarm around me and I feel like a celebrity trying to get away from the paparazzi. But I digress. I like the more mellow, yet still friendly dogs, and the friendlier cats, like this cat that my mother's friend used to have named Muffin, who, for quite a while was always really eager to see us when we visited! Anyways, I like both. Especially corgis! I'd love to have a corgi and a cat--I think their personalities go well together.

The Smashed Pumpkins - requested by Elliott on my guestbook!

I've never heard of them before, but I just searched them up and listened to clips of a couple of their songs. Personally, they're really not my style, but their music does seem somewhat interesting.

Psychedlic Rock

Okay, so I have a history of rock and roll class this year as my first semester elective, and as I'm writing this, we're just getting to the part where everyone starts doing all the drugs, so naturally, we'vee listened to some psychedlic rock in class. Specifically, we listened to this song "A Day In The Life" by the Beatles, and nothing against the Beatles or anything, but I think I'm scarred for life. Joking aside, not at all my thing. Maybe it's just too intense for my k-pop pallet, like how I'm so white that anything with the tiniest bit of spice makes my stomach explode and steam blow out of my ears.

Poetry

(Warning: old, outdated opinion; update below!) Honestly, this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I really don't like 99% of poetry. Sure, there are good poems here and there, but 99% of it feels too pretentious and/or is too shrouded in metaphors and symbolism for me to appreciate and enjoy it without ripping it apart like I'm in an English class, which, at least for me, already kills a good amount of the ennjoyment in a piece of literature. In my opinion, symbolism in literature isn't a bad thing, but it shouldn't be difficult to comprehend, and it should be at least somewhat easy to decode. So yeah, I'm not a fan of most poetry.

2025/06/05 Update: Uh, so yeah, that's definitely changed! It's been probably two or so years since I wrote that, and taking AP Lit in high school and British Romanticism in college has opened my eyes to poetry. I really appreciate the different layers of a poem now, especially when some cool rhetorical choice clicks and I'm all like "OHHHH!". I think my previously stated opinion stemmed from my dislike of a lot of free-verse poetry, though. I prefer poetry to have at the very least a generally consistent meter and/or a rhyme scheme. I think the structure there, and the challenge the author faces to put their sentiments in that format while still being able to play around with it, are what make poetry special. Plus, most free-verse poetry I see (admittedly, I'm not seeking out much) has a massive "I'm 14 and this is deep" vibe. And if I wanted to read something without that kind of structure, I'd read prose.

James Herriot books

I freaking love the James Herriot books! They're the best combination of heartwarming, moving and funny, and I think that five books is just the right number so I have my fill but don't feel like he overdid it. Really, it's an absolutely amazing series and perhaps the pinnacle of autobiographies/semi-autobiographies. I recommend that literally everyone reads it! And for those wondering, my favourite animal-owner combo are (of course) Tricki Woo and Mrs. Pumphrey.

The Office

I first watched the OG British version ages ago, and always really liked it. (Big Keith's appraisal and "Gareth Keenan Investigates!" will always be comedy classics!) I especially really liked Tim and Dawn's arc! It was a lot less agonizing than Jim and Pam since it was so much shorter, and the ending to their arc in the Christmas special is enough to make me tear up. I used to be an Office UK-only type person who would die before I watched the US version, but I started watching the American version recently and I really like it! It's like comfort food. All the characters are such personalities! I might expand more on specifics eventually, but for now: I really like the US version! And Jim is very handsome. :)

TVXQ

I think they're really a great group! I haven't listened to a tonne of their music, but from what I've heard it's really lovely. Hi Ya Ya is one of my favourite summer songs! Plus, I feel like they really shine with their slower ballad/R&B-type songs, especially as 5, like "Picture of You" for example! Their harmonies and group vocals are so powerful and lovely. They're really cool! Although, I'll admit that I've only listened to some of their early music---not nearly all of it---and only a couple post-OT5 songs. But I look forward to discovering more!

2025/06/05 Update: I've listened to a bit more of their discography now, and I think I solidly prefer them as 5. They just had this magic as 5 that I don't think they've been able to replicate as 2 members, at least in my opinion, and Jaejoong is easily my bias.

Kep1er

I'm really not quite a fan of their music in general. I think they have huge talent and potential, but it's not used in the best way possible. I mean, "Wa Da Da"? "Up" and "We Fresh" were better, but then "Giddy" just sounds a bit too Le Sserafim for me. But then "Back To The City" is such a stellar song! (Get it? Because they're named after Johannes Kepler?) I love that song so much, and it shows me they have such beautiful potential if only their company would use it. To their company: please give them more songs like BTTC!!! (Also, side note---I think a galactic concept with a dreamy/retro sound would be such a cool concept for them and would fit with the whole space thing as well!)

Live Albums

OK, this is something that I don't really get. I feel like it's halfway between a normal album and a concert film, but it's kind of the worst of both world in some aspects. You don't get the visual aspect of going to a concert, which is the main thing about concerts in my opinion, and so it's harder to get the energy or feel like it's there. I admit that they can be fun to listen to, but it feels like the kind of album I'd only listen to once or twice and so I really don't want to spend money on one. My reaction whenever I come across a live album in a store is often literally "I have these songs at home" or some variant thereof. The only group I might buy a live album for is Verivery, but then Verivery could put out a line of Verivery-branded makeup removal wipes and there'd be a non-zero chance of me buying it. So I concede their merit somewhat, but I don't feel like they're really worth the money in general.

Physical vs. digital media

Personally, I think people sometimes make a bit too large of a distinction between physical and digital media. It's often very easy to go between the two---very often if you buy it one way, you can rip/burn it to the other, or you get a code for a digital copy with a physical copy. Now, I feel like the anti-digital arguments hold up better with DRM and streaming services (the latter of which I think I've complained about already somewhere in this section of my site), which are both pains in my derrière, but I don't tend to patronize either type of on-line storefront anyways for the most part. It's also harder to transfer older types of physical media, like vinyl records, to digital media, but it's generally still possible.

I do, however, understand really well the argument for having a physical copy of my favourite music, TV shows, etc., because it's just cool to have! And if I really want a CD, or I come across something interesting for cheap, I'll buy a physical copy right off the bat. Plus, physical media is easier to concentrate on for my ADHD brain! But I tend to import everything into iTunes anyway, so most of the time I just default to digital unless physical is cheaper and convenient.

On-line fandom

You know what really grinds my gears? Fandom these days, especially in k-pop circles, sseems to have migrated to exclusively be on social media. Even forums are few and far between, and only for big groups. I seldom see any actual fan sites anymore, either. There's a lot of fun, cool interactions I could have, but they're all on sites I hate that were designed not to bring people together, but to isolate them and addict them. These aren't where fandoms should gather on-linem, in my opinion---we should be gathering in warm, welcoming spaces, made by fans and for fans! Fandom spaces should have style, should have personality, should have community, should have a soul! Maybe I should go try and revive Verivery's allkpop forum... we surely need it!

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

I just watched this tonight with my parents! Apparently reviewers thought it lacked heart compared to Mary Poppins, which I can honestly see and agree with somewhat, but despite this I still quite liked it. Who doesn't like a nice story about British people whooping Nazis in the butt? And of course, Angela Lansbury was a dame for a reason---she did quite splendidly in anything she was in, from a murder mystery TV show to a Disney movie. It wasn't the best movie ever by any means, but it was still solidly good.

Harry Potter and JK Rowling

Hold on to your hats everyone, because this is probably the spiciest take I've got on this site! That's right, as a trans person who is NOT a Harry Potter fan, I don't really give a hoot (haha get it because Harry Potter has owls?) if someone likes Harry Potter. Yes, JK Rowling has said and done some things that I thing are really bad, and it may even be that some of these things reflect back poorly within Harry Potter. But honestly, to say that people shouldn't be allowed to like it at all or whatever would be like saying that you shouldn't be allowed to like Victorian literature because some Victorian authors were racist--imperfect, even bad people can make flawed yet good things. I don't know--it just really doesn't bother me.

Music Trends (K-pop)

You know what I'm sick of? How music concepts in the K-pop industry are always ebbing and flowing in trends, so cute concepts will have a renaissance until they're overdone, and then girl crush, and so on and so forth. I just wish there would be some popular cute groups at the time, and then some that are darker, and some that are versatile, and so on, all at the same time, so there's always new music coming out that every person can like and everyone has their niche, you know? Also, I don't like when groups have a niche and abandon it to go trendy and do poorly. At least when like VERIVERY did it, their Face It series was great, but then TWS had a new concept with their latest concept (as of writing this) abandoning their amazing "boyhood pop" concept for generic rap-esque stuff that's just so underwhelming and sad and depressing. But I digress.

HYBE

Where do I even start? Well, let me start by saying that I'm not trying to bash any of the idols or the groups under HYBE; I'm a fan of some of them and I don't have grudges against any of them. But you can't tell me that HYBE isn't an evil conglomerate, à la company from the Lego Movie. They're trying to get a total monopoly over the K-pop industry and they're destroying everyone to do it. I won't forget how they disbanded GFRIEND or how they tried to take over SM. And come on, Scooter Braun? I forget if he still works there but the fact that he did says a lot.

But my biggest problem with HYBE these days, or at least the one that's on my mind the most, is their vocal processing! All their groups have really good vocals, but they put this HORRENDOUS autotune on the vocals of all their boygroups, except TWS and (to my knowledge) Seventeen. It's even infected the girl groups: on their song Season of Memories recently, they had this autotune sound too. If you odn't know what I'm talking about, go listen to a recent title track or two from BTS, TXT and Enhypen. Not only is it hard to tell the members from one another--even if normally they have very distinct voices--but it's also hard to tell the groups from one another, at least for a casual observer. It makes them sound generic and robotic, and even in some songs whiny (for some reason).

That autotune has ruined multiple perfectly good songs to where I can't really enjoy them anymore, and even made some unlistenable. One example is a recent Jimin solo song--I really like him and his voice, but for some reason they turn the autotune up from 200% to 400% for him and it made his title track from a few months ago unlistenable. I saw a forum thread saying that this was just an "excuse to hate on groups" from "pressed antis" or whatever, but this is honestly just a massive pet peeve for me. It especially hurts when if the company let the idol's organic vocals shine through, the song would be a 10/10, but with the auto-tune it just... isn't. The same forum poster complained about "wow people are complaining about autotune on pop music", but pop singers have thrived for decades now without excessive autotune. HYBE, get it together and let your idols' vocals shine!

Mean Girls

Okay, honestly? I like this movie. But I don't adore it. I think it's funny--I mean, it's written by Tina Fey. It has a good message, and lots of funny and iconic moments. But I wasn't able to connect with it like I have with movies/shows/books I like more. I want to fall in love (or hate) with characters, or at least become interested in their life, and for whatever reason this movie just doesn't do that for me--it's kind of just okay and funny, and I don't get why it's everyone's favourite movie of all time. Can anyony enlighten me, please?