What’s Hot? 29/01
This week, we’re encouraging you to listen to Jake Gyllenhaal, drop Liz Hurley a follow, and watch It’s a Sin. We’re also explaining this week’s Big Short and talking about how much we love to Lol.
The show we didn’t know we needed: The Great Gatsby
Well, I guess it is the roaring 20s (I mean we are all screaming to get out right?)… This week, news broke that Vikings creator Michael Hirst is allegedly creating a TV show based on The Great Gatsby. It might feel odd to remake it so soon – after all, the Leo-Carey-Tobey version only came out in 2013. Additionally, The Great Gatsby is a tale as old as time, and it’s rare to find someone who doesn’t know the plot as it’s literally only nine chapters long. If you somehow missed the boat on this one (that’s a joke about the final line of the book) you can also listen on Audible, where it’s inexplicably narrated by Jake Gyllenhaal.
If GCSE English and the song ‘Bang Bang’ have ruined the story for you, fear not, this version won’t be Gatsby as you know it – it’s rumoured to explore the Black community during the roaring 20s, along with the musical subculture, all wrapped up on one big American Dream.
The fight we loved to see: Liz Hurley claps back
To celebrate the UK’s blanket of snow this week, Liz Hurley took some braless pictures in her garden. She wasn’t totally topless – she was wearing a warm furry jacket, which was very weather appropriate. It was pretty classic Liz, and we celebrate it – if you’ve got it, flaunt it, right?
The next day on Good Morning Britain, Piers Morgan mocked Liz for posting the pictures, and even suggested that her son took the photos. Liz retaliated by re-sharing the images and letting Piers know that the images were in fact taken by her 80 year old mother, questioning whether that would put his mind at rest. Brava.
The customer service not everyone ‘lol’d’ at: Amazon
I love the word lol. It’s just so versatile. It’s a quick response to whatever weird meme my mum has sent me. It’s a great prefix to a text to warn your friend that they’re about to start reading a hilarious story. It’s the great ending to a text where you spill your guts and worry the deep fears you’re sharing will stress out a friend, so you end it with a little “lol” so they know you’ll probably be over it in an hour. It’s fun to say out loud in response to something that isn’t funny at all.
But, lol is not always something you want to hear from a customer service representative when you’ve just let them know your parcel is missing. Which is exactly what happened to Lucy Harrison this week, when dealing with Abigail at Amazon. Lucy’s tweet massively divided opinion, with some calling Abigail rude, and others saying she simply “tried to match Lucy’s energy”. Lol.
The film you wished you’d seen: The Big Short
This week, it feels like my entire Twitter feed has been harping on about Gamestop. If it’s not an explicit mention of Gamestop, it’s someone mocking traders, or it’s a meme from The Big Short. I’ve seen lots of people saying they wish they had seen The Big Short, so they could understand the drama. Let me confirm: I believe myself to be of reasonable intelligence and I have watched The Big Short, and I could not understand what was happening.
Luckily for me, Twitter user @_jimmykelly shared this explanation. In summary, someone on Reddit noticed that a hedge fund had taken ‘shorts’ on Gamestop, as a way to make money. The Redditer realised that if they encouraged enough people to buy stock and drove the price up, they could make serious money – and drive a hedge fund to bankruptcy. Now Wall Street is arguing that the public shouldn’t be allowed to rally together to do something like this – but as Jimmy eloquently puts it “they just lost at their own game.”
The series to watch: It’s a Sin
Channel 4 dropped a truly impressive series this week – It’s A Sin. The story follows a group of friends, during the AIDS crisis. (No spoilers)
The show follows them living in the pink palace, exploring their identities, living their lives and developing amazing friendships in London in the 80s (accompanied by the most amazing soundtrack and fashion). The characters escape smaller communities from South Wales and the Isle of Wight, and finally have the opportunity to be themselves. At the same time, the show demonstrates how deeply the LGBTQ+ community was impacted by misinformation and homophobia, in a scary and dangerous time.
That’s all we’re saying for now – we simply couldn’t spoil a show as educational, interesting and heart-wrenching as this one.
