Aca-scuse me?

I posted about this little project on LinkedIn yesterday which was tres embarrassing, but I’ll truly subject myself to anything for the sake of the Stack.

And speaking of Stacks, here’s this week’s poll!

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Rough Cut

Movie review, TV binges, etc.

Last week, Hulu rolled out a new comedy titled Reboot, a meta approach to revitalizing the sitcom genre that’s largely faded away with the advent of streaming.

The logline: Millennial TV writer Hannah (Rachel Bloom) embarks on an edgy, modern day reboot of the fictional 90s sitcom Step Right Up, where this time, the picture-perfect characters are flawed and make unsavory but human choices. But the original creator demands to be part of the process, snafus ensue.

What else?

The cast of the OG series signs back on, and much like adult children returning home for Christmas, they quickly regress into their old juvenile dynamics.

Reed (Keegan-Michael Key) maintains his same condescending Yale Drama superiority complex, Brie (Judy Greer) gets insecure about her younger competition, and Zack (Calum Worthy), a former child star, still brings his mom to set with him every day.

The show toggles between the interpersonal drama of the actors and the ever-present tension in the divided writer's room, as the clashing factions of the young and the old both try to force their visions into existence.

The yasses: 

• It’s clean and versatile. I recommended this to my Dad, but I would also recommend it to a colleague if I ran out of other small talk.

• I’d mostly known Rachel Bloom from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which was a campy musical-dramedy where she played a high-strung lawyer with borderline personality disorder. It was a very specific, over-the-top role, so seeing this restrained, dialed back performance from her was refreshing.

The nasses: 

• Given the nature of the central conflict, there’s a lot of “humor” surrounding generational sparring, but it all feels like low-hanging fruit: old people don’t know what NFTs are and make racist jokes that millennials are offended by. Floralsforspringgroundbreaking.

• I can’t tell if this is intentional as another cerebral, meta choice, but the tone of Reboot seems antithetical to Hannah’s thesis for the new Step Right Up. Although all the characters are heavily flawed, every episode is tied up in a neat bow touting “learning to compromise” as the overarching thematic moral.

Closing Thoughts: By the end of episode three, it seems clear that the show is willing to throw enough curveballs to keep us from losing interest and reverting back to a House Hunters marathon. But it remains to be seen if they’ll present anything truly breakthrough, or if they’ll continue to adhere to the same tried formula their protagonist mocks.

You should watch if you liked: Mom, Great News, 30 Rock

★★★☆☆

Villain Edit

Girlbosses, toxic cool girls, scammers.

If you were forced to Google “What’s a Try Guy” this week, you were not alone.

On Tuesday night, literally every entertainment publication covered the news that Ned Fulmer, part of the ex-BuzzFeed creator group The Try Guys, was excommunicated from the squad after it came out that he cheated on his wife with a member of their production team.

This is the type of story that I would assume would only be covered in like, JustJared, but it was in legitimate trades. Which means this is now my second week in a row talking at length about unfaithful men.

Part 1: A BuzzFeed Story

We have to go back to the year 2014, when BuzzFeed was the hip millennial utopia where we all wished we worked so we could spend all day writing listicles and eating from the giant M&M dispensers in the office kitchen.

That was the heyday of their original content — when Quinta Brunson, who just won an Emmy for Abbot Elementary, started her career with them, which gives you a sense of the caliber of young talent they attracted at the time.

They X-factored together the One Direction of BuzzFeed to assemble The Try Guys: Ned Fulmer, Eugene Lee Yang, Keith Habersberger, and Zach Kornfeld. They started making YouTube videos that at the time were probably the pinnacle of internet comedy — their top performing hit was “The Try Guys Try Labor Pain Simulation,” which amassed 35M+ views.

Part 2: Going Solo

Like any great boy band, there comes a time when your individual success is too powerful to ignore. For The Try Guys, they decided go independent in 2018, splitting from BuzzFeed under their new LLC, 2nd Try.

The move was successful — their loyal fans were eager to follow them to their new YouTube channel, which as of now boasts nearly 8M subscribers.

[To make sure this article was thoroughly researched, I watched their latest video where professional chefs give them directions on how to make chocolate eclairs from a remote phone booth. Once I got past the corny editing, I actually thought the concept was pretty fun.]

As the guys got older, their content evolved to include more of their lives beyond just binge eating everything off of the KFC menu. Ned, the TG in question, hosted multiple miniseries alongside his IG influencer wife Ariel, like Date Night cooking challenges, as well as special episodes about fatherhood — making husbanding a critical part of his personal and collective brand.

Part 3: The Scandal

Earlier this month, Ned was seen on video making out with a woman who Reddit sleuths hypothesized was Alexandra Herring, a TryGuys producer and star of the spinoff franchise Food Babies (she is also engaged).

The people who took the videos sent them to Ned and Alexandra’s respective partners before they were ultimately leaked. You can read the convo in this Twitter thread — it’s super awkward because the affair whisteblower is being way too overly friendly with exclamation points and “have a great nights.” Like ma’am, you are delivering devastating news that will leave this person emotionally damaged forever, not coordinating a Facebook Marketplace handoff. . .

At first when I found out a dude was getting fired for having a consensual affair, I was kind of surprised — it’s not like Adam Levine is going to get fired from the radio. (Of note, huge W for this Ned character to be in the same breath as major pop star and huge L for Adam that his scandal is now being compared to that of a YouTube dweeb).

But with the added context of the role that Ned’s wife and child played in the franchise, it makes sense why the damage to the squad’s nice guy image would be completely unsalvageable if Ned wasn’t cut loose.

This is the statement The Try Guys put out:

Ned Fulmer is no longer working with The Try Guys. As a result of a thorough internal review, we do not see a path forward together. We thank you for your support as we navigate this change.

I feel like “internal review” is a way too corporate term for what probably boiled down to a “you’re wearing sweatpants, it’s Monday, you can’t sit with us” type moment.

It seems like the group will continue making content sans-Ned, which begs the question, is there a place for a replacement Try Guy? And if there is, who is getting Jake Novak on the phone?!

Money Talks

Credit card debt intensifies. . .

Last week I did a massive Trader Joe’s haul to celebrate fall in the way God intended. And I had the classic TJ’s experience with the chatty cashier who tells you how much he loves everything you’re buying and comments on the cute Narwals on your grocery bag because that’s customer service.

Here’s the autumnal scoop:

• Pumpkin Joe O’s. These slaaaaaap! The aroma hits you right when you open the package. They’re really good, maybe even better than a classic Oreo.

• Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese: I ate this for lunch for the novelty. As frozen entrees go I think it’s probably better than most — I would recommend eating this when you’re a little drunk or high.

• Pumpkin Ravioli. This was edible but not particularly enjoyable — the butternut squash rav is a much better fall choice.

• Maple Oat Milk. This works amazing in tea with honey, I think because you don’t need to use that much. When I made lattes with it I still got that weird oat milk mouthfeel? But I think the Oat Milk Girlies will be rejoicing overall.

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Skinny Soundbites

Half-baked mini thoughts

• America’s favorite cool girl Hailey Bieber went on the infamous Call Her Daddy pod this week, and she spoke openly about Justin’s storied relationship with Selena for the first time. Except nothing interesting is really uncovered — she says all the right things: she respects her, there was no overlap, blah blah blah.

• Emma Chamberlain did an Architectural Digest feature, and it will make you cry in studio apartment tears for the next week and a half.

• I knew Planet Fitness was sus. Reports came out yesterday of not one but two cases of vouyerism, one involving an employee recording a patron in a tanning bed from INSIDE THE CEILING TILES.

• The M&M people are the definition of doing too much. After nunning up the previously sexy Green M&M earlier in the year, they’re back in the headlines with an all-new Purple Peanut M&M. The character is “quirky, confident, and just a little awkward.” Like, okay??? There will also be no purple peanut M&Ms in actual packages, so the update is just for shits and gigs apparently.

Prekend Wrapped

What the fuck is a prekend?

• Watching: They lowkey got really famous people to come on celebrity Jeopardy this year. Is it weird if I watch that?

• Reading: The Time100 Next List — It’s go Sydney Sweeney, Joel Kim Booster, Ayo Edebiri. . .lots of hot people who have achieved so much to remind me that I’ve achieved so little :-)

• Eating: There’s a new food trend right now called Butter Boards. . .it sounds simple on the surface but it is aesthetically advanced.

Sound On!

Hit me with your best thot.

Pop culture is more fun with friends. I want to know:

1. Have you ever worked in a professional setting with a family member and how did that end for you?

2. If you had a 2010s millennial YouTube channel, what would your niche be?

3. If you were featured on the Time100 Next list, who would you want to write your blurby ode?