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The following thread is a full translation of the 2023 November issue of SoFigaro. (First posted to Twitter here.)

Bai Yu is fond of taking photos of things that grow upwards.

During his photoshoot breaks, he would snap some photos of trees standing tall and swaying gently in the autumn wind, and some reeds in the distance.

The top of the pine trees in the cold November rain, the city walls that extend upwards, and the ancient corner towers that pierce into the sky…

These are things he likes to take photos of.

Perhaps all these have one thing in common.

Over time, they may seem to be standing tall and still, but in reality, they have been quietly absorbing and silently expressing themselves.

Parallel World

Following the conclusion of the Parallel World episodes, Bai Yu bid Chang Dong goodbye with a group of photos.

During the interview, he explained, "These are the yardangs we encountered along the way. This is an abandoned village, and this is where Chang Dong encountered an incident…" Although filming is complete, precious memories of this story are all carved into Bai Yu's mind.

Since ancient times, the Yumen Pass has always been an important landmark to the poets. It is an important frontier pass established along the Hexi Corridor during the Han dynasty. And today, it has become a heritage site.

To protect the area, most of the filming took place in the vast and endless Dunhuang desert. 'In boundless desert lonely smokes rise straight; over endless river the sun sinks round' (1)… The scenery described in the poem was right before his eyes. It was gorgeous, but they also had to tackle challenges brought on by the harsh environment.

Bai Yu recalled...

"We shot during June, so the winds were strong and it was the sunniest period. It was hard to illuminate the area at night in the desert, so a lot of scenes were shot day for night. Shooting under the scorching sun and in fierce winds did have some impact on performance."

One night, the giant tent the staff had set up securely was blown away by the wind. "The tent was huge, with really thick poles and sturdy ropes holding it down. Who knew that the next day it'd be missing, completely blown away by the wind!"

When time allowed, Bai Yu would drive his car to and from work, driving back to where he'd rest after the crew wrapped filming. "Nobody was around where we filmed, so knocking off and driving a jeep in this vast land felt great."

Whenever Bai Yu wraps up filming for a drama, he gives himself an extended break. Recently, he returned home to Xi'an and recharged with a bowl of hot oil noodles (2). Going back home is something Bai Yu often looks forward to the most after completing a project. After all, fully immersing oneself in a role is a significant test on an actor's physical and mental well-being. "Only when I'm back home can I unload and relax."

This year, Bai Yu also visited Wubu County, where he was born.

"I was born in a yaodong (3) that my parents built themselves, and it still stands today." Beside their yaodong are aging neighbors who could still recognize Bai Yu as that mischievous boy in their memories.

Some feel that the characters that Bai Yu has portrayed in the recent years carry this underlying theme of 'endurance.' We wondered if he felt 'bottled up' portraying such characters for some time.

Smiling, he replied, "A little, but you have to do something about it. So you need to rest properly to adjust." But every time he comes across a good script, he'd still be moved by the very authentic and rich characters.

.

.

.

After all, life isn't a feel-good drama. Struggles and compromises with things that turn out contrary to our wants are part and parcel of life.

Bai Yu had this to say…

"I used to be captivated by exciting stories, but now it's more the details that draw me in. These details should be used to portray a character instead of their embellished aspects. It's these details that let me get deeper into the character."

To Bai Yu now, there are no differences between 'important' and 'regular' scenes. People may enjoy discussing an actor's skill and portrayal of intense emotions in an important scene, but Bai Yu feels that shouldn't be all that makes a character.

"There are too many details happening all the time. It's like when I filmed 'The Long Night'; Jiang Yang is a character defined by many details."

The Long Night

Without a doubt, bringing up Bai Yu makes people immediately recall 'The Long Night.' Hearing this, he only laughed and said, "Then I have to reflect on myself. I don't have another work that makes people think of me this way. I have to keep working hard."

A lot of people say this is the work that successfully transformed him. To this, he responded, "These labels are given by others. I was never concerned with 'transformation' since that's what others define you. At the end of the day, it's about the performance and character, about what I like and what I feel fits me."

Before our interview, we came across something Bai Yu once said. He said that Jiang Yang was the first character that he just wanted to portray no matter what. Often, he would reflect on Jiang Yang afterward, and still felt dazed. It wasn't until the day 'The Long Night' premiered, a rainy day where he walked for a long time, that the weight in his mind finally lifted.

In a flash, the year is ending. We asked Bai Yu how he would sum this year up. He thought for a little while and said, "Never thought about it. I used to think time passes really quickly, so I took a long break this year. When I did, I thought time passed really slowly."

For a period of time, his tight schedule made him stop in his tracks to take the time to rest. To many actors, resting could mean missing opportunities.

"Of course, you could miss out on a good opportunity, a good script. But you need to first understand yourself. Can you do a good job if what you truly need is a good rest? If you encounter a good script that captivates you, that's great. But can you mentally tackle the task? Life is about making choices and sacrifices."

As the saying goes, one must take a step back in order to leap better. To Bai Yu, he has never stopped in his path as an actor, but only rested to make sure he has the energy to meet his next challenge.

Occasionally, the passing of time brings about certain thoughts. "A few days ago, I told my dad that I feel like I'm almost forty. He almost burst out laughing, saying, 'You're just in your early thirties!'" Bai Yu expressed that he felt this way because there are many things he still wants to do. Time has its own rhythm, whether fast or slow, but it shouldn't be a worry.

Summing things up, he said, "You set your rhythm. Don't be too bothered about how fast or slow time is going, just stay focused on the present. Live honestly and respect your own thoughts, no matter what it is you want to do. Just go ahead and pursue it!"

/END

TL notes: (1) From Wang Wei's "On Mission to the Frontier" (王维 《使至塞上》) (2) Hot oil noodles = you po mian (3) Yaodong = earth shelter

Mag link here Mag in text format here compiled by Sweetheart_白宇甜心

He is from the Northwest

Bai Yu said he is not very good at writing poems, but he uses poems to express his heart in the dead of night (x). Perhaps, poetry is the outlet of his emotions. At this late spring and early summer, together with Bai Yu, we arrived at the Chahar Volcanic Group, nearly 500 kilometers away from Beijing. The strong wind rolled up the gravel and dust, and he walked between the mountains and the earth, writing what he saw and thought into a poem (x):

石径埋火种，风卷尘飞扬。

上行路漫漫，山高天地长。

芭绿别春意，斯人何处去。

沙流金石停，吾心忆此方。

(Sorry, classical Chinese poetry is out of my league. If anyone knows how to translate them, please help!)

Bai Yu was born on the loess high slope in northern Shaanxi. This dignified and historical land has left an indelible mark on him. In the eyes of many people, he is straightforward, heroic, and likes to meet all unknown challenges. He is "the most typical northern Shaanxi guy".

His home was built in a traditional cave dwelling (yaodong) on the hillside.

"Half of it was in the earth, and the other half was built with stones. At that time, there was no glass, and all the windows were papered."

He showed us the photos on his mobile phone: "Look, this is me standing on the roof." There were two vegetable gardens in his house. They grew cucumbers, tomatoes, and a vegetable called soft ground (star jelly). It grew in moist soil, and it was also a wild vegetable that he and his friends often ate when he was a child. There was also a willow tree at the gate of the yard, which was planted when his parents got married. This willow tree accompanied Bai Yu through his carefree childhood. Today, the willow tree was cut down by later residents. Time passed by inadvertently.

Bai Yu often shares photos of noodles on social media. For him, noodles are a taste of home and an unforgettable delicacy in his childhood. As long as he can remember, there has been a fixed time every evening, when all the neighbors' children would run out of the house with their bowls in their hands, squat on the rocks, and everyone would chat and eat noodles at the same time.

Now when he is filming, no matter how hard and tired he is, being able to eat a bowl of noodles is his happiest moment.

A few days ago, Bai Yu shared a little-known noodle dish on Weibo: Ge Lao Cai Noodles (x). When he was a child, he would stop in Luochuan for a bowl of noodles every time he was on his way from Yulin to Xi'an. At that time, there were no expressways, and people used the national highway. This year, Bai Yu and his cousin went back to Yulin for the Chinese New Year. On the way, Bai Yu suddenly remembered that they were about to arrive in Luochuan, so he suggested, "Let's go down and eat a bowl of noodles." Although the location is out of their way, "we still turned around to the national highway, just to eat this bowl of noodles."

Good acting is better than anything

When he first debuted, Bai Yu experienced hardships too. At that time, Bai Yu only said one sentence to himself: "You're suffering because you're not good enough yet." He is a person who can easily look at problems from an objective perspective. At that time, there was only one thought in his mind: "If I can do it better, it will definitely not be like this."

There is no shortcut on the road to reconciliate with himself, and Bai Yu has an exclusive secret recipe for this - reading a script. In great contrast to his appearance, he has a very rich "inner drama", and he always likes to imagine various scenes before going to bed. "I would imagine how I would express it if I acted in this plot." At this point, he laughed a few times embarrassedly to hide his shyness, "Sometimes I cry while reading certain part of the script."

But in life, Bai Yu rarely cried. In his own words, these sufferings are nothing, "just carry it and it'll pass." He understands that one can never put himself in the shoe of anyone else, and ever since he realised this, he has carried many things alone like this. "I know that I can carry it, and I also want to see how far I can carry it."

What supported Bai Yu to persevere in such an environment was his consistent enthusiasm for acting day after day. It's not difficult to act in one play, but the difficulty is to be able to gain a sense of satisfaction and identity from the career he is engaged in . "Sometimes I feel an inexplicable sense of satisfaction in my heart after filming a scene. It may be a very important scene, or a less important one, or a scene where I cry my eyes out, or It's a laugh-out-loud scene, I don't know when it will appear, and I've been looking for it."

After becoming famous, what really made him happy was still the inner touch brought by acting. "For example, when I played Jiang Yang, maybe a scene that made me cry would not bring me this feeling, but a sideshow scene would give me a sudden sense of satisfaction. The feeling would make me very proud and I want to continue to enjoy it."

"We all have to find something addictive in our profession. I don't really understand why I feel a sense of satisfaction in acting. I can't control this, so I always seek for it. Maybe there is the day when I figure out why and I can get it under control, then maybe it's time for me to say goodbye to this industry."

"I've lived thirty years now, nothing is better than the satisfaction I get from acting. "

At the age of 30, everyone will undergo some changes to some extent. The biggest manifestation of this change in Bai Yu is that he has become more "selfish". At the age of 30, he has undergone considerable changes in his thinking and personality. In the past, he would worry a lot and care about the evaluation of the outside world. Now he cares more about his inner feelings: "I will strengthen my inner voice, please myself, and face myself bravely. This is where I have changed the most."

"At the end of the day, I am very grateful for my experience. I was born in Wubao, then I went to Yulin, then to Xi'an, and from Xi'an I returned to Yulin, and then back to Xi'an. From child to adult, I've met more people and experienced more things than peers of my age. Why can we tell what is 'good'? That is because we have experienced 'bad', and acting is the same. The reason why we can feel happy is because we have experienced sadness. Experience is really important to an actor."

Speak to my heart, I'll treat you to dinner.

"Poetry is an instant inspiration after encountering something."

Bai Yu described it like this. He doesn't update his social media often. After work, he shared his verses with everyone in the middle of the night. "It's just that I have feelings about something in my life. Those words appear in my mind, and I record them."

His inspiration usually bursts out in those seemingly ordinary and trivial moments. When he was looking at the moon while facing the river, he wrote down his insistence through "松问何几常青绿，唯有一答常似松". Visiting old place, he expressed his feelings by writing "细雨纷落新长安，旧人故游寻旧魂". Bai Yu interacts with fans. Sometimes he published the first line of a pair and let the fans to complete the second line. Or sometimes he asked fans for the horizontal scroll of a couplet. "Speak to my heart, I'll treat you to dinner," he said to fans jokingly (x).

Poetry is not only a language, but also the most beautiful imagination that human beings can describe as a unique individual. “Every time I write a poem, it’s like a flash of lightning suddenly flashes in my mind, and then I can start to write something. When a person has no inspiration in his mind, he cannot write a good work, and things written by racking his brain have no soul." For Bai Yu, poetry is the reflection of the soul, and the soul is the key to poetry.

"We can only write down poems when some events or things really touched us."

Bai Yu's professor once told them: "You can only guard prosperity if you are able to endure loneliness."

"All your prosperity needs to be repaid with loneliness." Bai Yu said.

One role after another, one script after another, this is the "prosperity" in Bai Yu's heart. "I have played so many roles and dramas that I like. For me, this is prosperity." In this world, there are so many people with dreams, but only a small number of them can connect their love with their careers. About this, Bai Yu signed, "I think I have been very lucky since I was a child, especially after stepping into this industry. I'm lucky and I'm feeling happy."

The writer Mu Xin once said: true maturity is that you can still separate your heart from the world after you have experienced many things. This is why Bai Yu remains simple in the face of the complicated world, "I can see many things quite clearly, but I don't want to be blunt about them nor do I want to go with the flow. I can think about all things in a complicated way, but when I do it, I will still do it in my simplest way.”

Enduring loneliness and guarding prosperity in this complicated world, the hard part is that Bai Yu can still keep it simple. He accepts all honors, disgraces and disputes. He doesn't worry too much, but focuses on the present moment. Now Bai Yu is enjoying every moment of his life, because life itself is the source of poetry.

Q&A

Q: What do you usually do at home?

A: Recently, when I stay at home, I tend to lie down on the sofa, think about things randomly, watch dramas, play with my mobile phone, read scripts, and listen to music.

Q: You have been snowboarding recently, for a long time.

A: Yes. Snowboarding is my old hobby. After so many years, I finally had a relatively long vacation to immerse myself in it. This year, I have been in the ski resort for almost a month. I went there three or four times intermittently, and each time I went for about five or six or seven days, and I stayed for more than twenty days in total.

Q: What is the reason for liking this sport?

A: Freedom. Because I am really relaxed in the ski resort, I need to wear a helmet, goggles, and wrap myself up, which makes me feel very safe. I can play what I want and as I want, and I don't need to care what other people think of me. More importantly, I like snowboarding, just like I like riding a motorbike. When you slide, there is a sense of freedom similar to riding.

Q: Between freedom and feeling at ease, which one do you yearn for more?

A: You can't have the feeling of freedom all the time. It's enough to have it when riding a motorbike or snowboarding. It's very important to feel at ease, especially when acting. Only when an actor is comfortable at performing can it feel realistic.

Q: Which character do you feel more comfortable and more at ease in the process of playing?

A: Every role has my comfortable side and my real side. But after all, the role needs to be shaped by the actor: If I am completely at ease, then the role is just me, not a work completed by me and the character. You must and need to be at ease, but you can’t feel very comfortable all the time, unless you have completely integrated the character with you in the later stage of the performance, and the logic and behavior of the entire character have been symbiotic with you. By then It's okay to be completely at ease, but the actors can't be feeling so comfortable in the early stage of the acting.

Q: Is there anything you haven't tried but would like to try?

A: Many, there are too many things that I haven't tried in my life. I really want to be a civil servant for a day, an anti-drug policeman for a day, and a doctor for a day. For example, when I was filming "Grow Up", we went to the hospital for an internship. Just one meter away from me, there was a real person lying in front of me. He was anesthetized, had his chest opened and pleura cut. With a pull, the patient's heart was revealed, and I could even smell the burning smell of the chainsaw sawing human flesh. The best cardiac surgeons in the country finished the heart surgery calmly. What a strong mentality and confident professional ability! Usually we need a (leaning and adapting) process when acting, but what is the real process (of this profession) like? What kind of environment do they face? I actually want to try and understand these things. I also want to try to be a world traveler and navigator. I have so many things I want to try. Maybe I will accomplish them step by step after I retire.

Q: Have you ever done anything romantic? What state or thing do you find romantic?

A: For me, I think one of the more romantic things I did recently was a few days ago when I went to Sanya with my family, I sat by the sea in the middle of the night for a while, alone. I didn't think about anything at the time, just sitting there, completely in a state of emptiness, and I don't know how long I sat there, and it's quite strange in retrospect. The next day I even thought that I had never been to that beach, it was like a dream.

Q: Have you thought about what career you would choose if you were not an actor?

A: To be honest, I haven't thought about it. I wished I was an e-sports player or an extreme sport athlete before (becoming an actor), but I didn't really think about what I would do if I wasn't an actor. I can't think one as I am already an actor. Even if I decided not to be an actor now, what I would want to be must be different from what I wanted in the first place.

-END-OF-THE-INTERVIEW-

Some poems/verses Bai Yu has posted on Weibo:

Hello my 31th: x (rough translation: Let the flesh grow, leave the soul to walk. Hello, my thirtyfirst.)

Verses written in 2016 with a photo: x

Asking fans for a title: x (To this, Yao Chen answered: "A Drunken Night" 🤣)

Classical poem written for wrapping up The Long Night: x (the last line contains the phrase "White Snow in the Sunny Spring". The Chinese phrase is used to refer something very high in aesthetic but in the the novel of The Long Night it refers to the characters of Jiang Yang and Zhu Wei)

To Jiang Yang: x

Classical poem written for wrapping up The Wind Blows from Longxi: x (each line of this poem starts respectively with the word "Lu" (as Lu Yang), "Kun" (as Chen Kun), "Yu" (as Bai Yu), "Long" (as Longxi)

Classical poem written when on vacation while looking at the moon along the riverside: x (Note: "Someone asked me why do I like writing poems... I can only say I have the soul of an Old Qin people.")

Classical poem written when visiting hometown city Xi'an (aka Chang'an): x

[ENG SUB] <West Out Of The Yumen> NEW trailer: starring Bai Yu & Ni Ni etc.

Tencent's adventure romance drama <West Out of the Yumen> releases special teaser with behind the scenes footage. The show is based on the original novel by Wei Yu, starring Bai Yu, Ni Ni, Jin Han, Meng Ziyi, Zhang Yishang, Zhao Da, Xia Meng, Li Yunrui, and Lu Yuxiao.

[ENG TRANSLATION] Bai Yu's friend from college, actor Ying Daizhen, talking about their college days:

"Nowadays I'm not in contact with Lao Bai as much, because Lao Bai is really busy at the moment. Our communication isn't as good as it used to be. But I think the feelings are still there.

We all used to be very close. Back then I think I used to be quite bad tempered, didn't treat my friends well, very selfish. But our friendship was still there. And he (Bai Yu) was a very good person. A very good class president. Not just class president, a very good brother.

He's also a very dedicated person. Back then, we were often thinking long and hard during the nights in order to get homework done together. But then the next day we realised that we were the only ones in the entire class who handed in the homework. It was quite an enjoyable time.

The Wind Blows from Longxi still photographer released a previously unseen photo of Bai Yu on her Redbook account and she has this to say about Bai Yu:

I really love Yu Ge (Bai Yu). He's such a nice person and a good actor. I remember he used the 1st still to say goodbye to the year 2021 and I'm moved!

Xun Xu is really my white moonlight (a term to describe a cherished memory of the first blush of love, pure and unsullied by reality).

Comment 1: Wow, you're such a good photographer. Xun Xu is so handsome.

Reply: Bai Yu himself is more handsome. He's both tall and handsome.

Comment 2: Every still of TWBFLX is full of quality and I saved every one of Bai Yu's. Sister, you're so good.

Reply: Thanks for liking them!

Comment 3: I really love the scene featuring Xun Xu escaping from the cave. It's full of tension. I imagine you enjoy photographing those very much.

Netizens: Did he come here to buy GQ? 😎

FYI: Mr. Bai's actual company (work studio) is called 松照新雨 (sōng zhào xīn yǔ), whose name is taken from a poem by Wang Wei from Tang Dynasty.

Bai Yu and his poetic mood. while he is in it, sometimes he'd post a poem he'd just written on his weibo in the middle of the night. Why does he like writing poems? He jokes that it's because he's a descendant of old Qin. 😝

空山新雨后 After the rain freshens the empty hills,

天气晚来秋 The autumnal dusk deepens the chills.

明月松间照 Through pines the bright moon glows,

Damien Merlin!AU

| 😐Not My Type😐 | Alright | Cute | Adorable | Pretty | Gorgeous | LORD MERCY |

*dodges sharp objects and runs into hiding*

I know, I know!! 😫 Just hear me out on this one, OK? 

First of all, let me just make it clear that this was absolutely deliberate on the show’s part. The whole point of this character (characters?) is that they are physical perfection and should be so hot, they would set the scenery on fire wherever they pass, yet they are so fantastically creepy, the hotness is just lost and you are sitting there, laughing uncomfortably, going what the everloving fuck?? 😅

Also, let me make it clear, this is yet another role where we see just how absolutely talented Bradley is, he is just gifted when it comes to comedy (not that he doesn’t do the serious, dramatic roles perfectly too, as we all have Damien to attest to that). 

All the characters in this show are caricatures to a greater or lesser degree, the villains are all ridiculous and hilarious. The Sherman twins are so incredibly unlikeable in every possible way, but they are absolutely entertaining! At one point, Leah describes them as “these creepy twins” and it couldn’t be more accurate! When I say “not my type”, I mean, they are exactly what you would expect a cartoon villain in a cartoon to be like; they are obscenely rich, live in this bubble of privilege and self-indulgence and are completely devoid of all empathy and conscience. Of course, this is carefully tailored to provoke a certain level of disgust in the target audience, considering the sociopolitical climate we are currently living in and the outrageous, ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor. The Sherman twins are a cardboard cutout of the sociopathic billionaire we all reserve our unrestrained loathing for. 

Mind you, physically attractiveness aside, the moral failings of various kinds of villains have never stopped anyone from thirsting after them (Kylo Ren and the clown from It come to mind, but hey, I have a loooooong list of my own guilty sins so I’m really not judging). However, one thing this show is extremely good at is taking obviously hot people and situations that should be sexy by all established norms of modern media and making them as unsexy as they possibly can in the most obvious but understated ways.

The Sherman twins are such a great example of this. Let’s start with their introduction scenes; the fencing duel is such an obvious, tropey thirst trap! It’s written and designed in a way that should (stereotypically) hit all the right buttons. Like, Bradley, goddamn: 

But then they go and do *this*: 

Poof! All sexiness evaporated (and everyone who has watched this show will know exactly what I’m talking about 😂😂)!

Also, let’s talk about the incest. I was expecting the subtext (I’d seen all the stills and gifs, after all), but come on now, that is not subtext, it couldn’t be more obvious and there is not a single scene with the two of them together that does not rub it in! Mind you, sibling incest, especially twincest, also never stopped anyone from thirsting (yours truly here pleads the Fifth, not that her AO3 is any kind of evidence against her or anything 🙄🙄), but these two are just so goddamn creepy as individuals and as a pair. 

With all that said and the general understanding that the Sherman twins are the actual worst, Bradley James himself in this role is: 

| 🔥🔥LORD MERCY🔥🔥 |

I mean, this man is a Greek statue, OMG 😭 If he was born in the ancient times, I’m convinced he would be worshipped as a demigod or something: 

Honourable mention to these strategically placed flowers: 

And the infamous handjob scene: 

(When this happened, I howled, I can’t believe they actually went there! Anyway, yes, the resulting mental imagery was very much appreciated! 😂😂)

In conclusion: Bradley James is perfection, news at 11, but I am going to take this opportunity to warmly recommend this show to anyone who has not seen it because, sadly, it doesn’t look like it’s getting much traction and I was shocked by how vicious the reviews on IMDb were when this is, hands down, one of the best things I’ve watched recently. 

The show is just hilarious, almost the entire cast is amazing, I loved every second and binge-watched the first season without even noticing! There was not a dull moment for the whole six episodes! It was such a breath of fresh air in all the cliched, poorly written, depressing nonsenseI’ve been watching lately and the pointless violence and unapologetic misogyny masquerading as being ‘gritty’, ‘edgy’ and ‘realistic’. 

Don’t get me wrong, Bounty Hunters is both shockingly violent and incredibly filthy (seriously, I did not expect that amount of graphic, brutal death going in), but it works. I am also not a fan of comedy in general, humour very rarely clicks for me, but this had me sobbing! The characters are so vibrant, vivid and interesting (with the exception of Nina’s niece 😫 Seriously, who did that girl have dirt on to get hired, she can’t act to save her life and was, beyond a doubt, the worst part of the show and her scenes were the only ones to pull me out of the story, but they managed to do it every single time, she is that bad 😖)! 

The main villains were all delightfully unlikeable and evil (with the exception of the ISIS bunch, who had zero charisma or interesting points and were just kind of… there). The Sherman twins were terrible but hilarious, the cartel was one of my favourite things in the show, Barnaby’s father was just so sleazy but I think that particular actor could make me laugh at anything! Barnaby and Nina are the only actual ‘goodies’ in the show (their words 😂😂) but they are so flawed and ridiculous and not afraid to laugh at their own expense! I just loved them! (Also, their mothers were a piece of work, Barnaby’s mother in particular, that woman is gifted, I swear 😂😂)

And I am really digressing here, but I just have to talk about those reviews on IMDb because I personally found the worst of the complaints completely ridiculous and something I couldn’t disagree with more! They mostly seemed to have an issue with the unapologetic violence, but for me, that was a part of the charm and there is no rule that says that comedy should be kid and family-friendly. I thought this was sufficiently grim without going overboard into exploitative and gross, and in spite of the dark undertones, the overall theme of the show is family, loyalty and love. Also, the second thing that really stuck out to me is that some people really seem to have an issue with the lead actress being an older woman, some complete moron called her a grandma in a derogatory fashion and said that she cannot be ‘a badass woman’ because of it (or a romantic interest, I imagine). Personally, I loved the unusual age difference, where, for once, the woman gets to be the older, more experienced and the more badass one, and the man gets to be young, pretty and naive. They don’t actually get together in the first season (I don’t know about the second one, I haven’t gotten around to it yet), but I personally enjoyed their will-they-won’t they and all the banter (seriously, I have not actively shipped the two het m/f leads in a show in ages). Besides, Barnaby and Nina have crazy amounts of chemistry together and I could totally get behind the two of them having all the filthy, kinky sex they can physically manage! Not to mention, I find it so incredibly offensive that an older woman somehow can no longer be hot of badass (and Nina is so, so hot and badass) and it is depressing that in the year of our Lord 2020 we still have to deal with this sexist, ageist, misogynistic tripe. If the ages were reversed, I promise you, nobody would be complaining! /end rant

And since I’m already way, way off-topic (and the general topic is all about hot people, after all), I’d just like to gush about these two 🔥🔥 LORD MERCY 🔥🔥 individuals, because goddamn: 

This is Charity Wakefield, she plays Leah in the show (who is an absolute delight), and she is, IMO, one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen 😍

And this smouldering piece of perfection is Christian Ochoa:

And these two stupid hot people somehow manage to have the least sexy sex in the history of TV (multiple times!!) and make a demon baby together (I hope, but like I said, I haven’t season 2 yet) 😂 As I mentioned earlier, this show loves to mess with our expectations of perceived hotness and I found it so refreshing and hilarious! 😂😂

This

Is

Pure

Bliss 🥺😍

This was meant for female celebrities and I dont even wanna know how he ended up being nominated but here we are hahaha He’s not even just “winning”, he’s literally leaving everyone to dust that you gotta add 3 other women’s votes to equate to his

And I just wanna say 2 things —

1) IT’S WHAT HE DESERVES BC HIS 22 INCH WAIST IS CRAZY

2) the only thing thinner than his waist is my (and long ge’s) urge to shove more food in his direction sjfnsjxjs dont be fooled by the beard and the baggy clothes — there’s a reason he’s donning them LMAO