POPTICS

Maybe! JK. But maybe! 

Fifteen-minute episodes are hard, for how I like to watch my web series—propped up in my kitchen cabinet as I make coffee in the morning, but they don’t feel long enough to consciously sit down and WATCH.

That said, I will shill here one more time for itsamemyleo, who last weekend posted a TWENTY minute meandering night-time wanderings video WITH a tour of his uni flat that slowly morphed into an actual short film about being the last human on earth, so. I can’t say with any honesty that I didn’t love LLL’s own meandering TOWN video. I did. It was fun and lovely. And then, surprisingly, plotty!

Melissa: Oh, there’s no doubt that I liked that video. It was fun, getting to see the kids out on the town. And Wellington looks like fun! Everyone definitely looked like they were in their element being out and young and having fun. It was a nice change of pace, compared to their other videos. It especially reminded me of Ursula’s videos from NMTD. I also liked the little ways it drove the plot forward without it feeling forced. It helped give more credit to your theory that Peter is trying to make for last year and his role in Hero’s birthday. His monologue was appropriately drunken and revealing.

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Alexis: Yes! I really loved the addition of a whole new genre of video. Can it be called a genre? Style, I guess. But I do feel like the meandering night out with lots of editing and atmospheric music is a vlogging genre. Anyway, it is a nice break from the talking heads/bathtub/guerilla/musical videos we’d had until then (oh man, that’s already a lot of genres! good job, Candle Wasters!), and it was very enjoyable, regardless of length. Plus we  got to meet some new characters! In a way that felt exactly like running into tipsy friends, and not like “Here is Character Q, Please Get Acquainted Now.”

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Heyyyy girls!

As for Peter’s monologue—yep! Exactly what I imagined was happening in his head since last year, which, hearing it in his own drunken words, was both satisfying and depressing. He’s so wrong! But in the truest way. Oh, kiddo. Let’s all just hug it out. Except not, since (as Freddie et al point out) you are NEVER EVER HOME.

Melissa: I’m not even ashamed to admit that I loved the drama at the end of the video. I KNEW it was coming - drunkness always helps that along. But it was a great way to get everything out in the open! We’d seen hints of everyone being unhappy, but it great to see everyone admitting their true feelings, even if it was at 4am. I was proud that Balth finally stood up for his feelings, that Peter had a legitimate reason to get angry, that Freddie stood up for herself as the only female in the flat (which must be hard), and that people are FINALLY calling out Ben for this video nonsense. It’s hard to live with friends, and sometimes they do stupid stuff (like Peter saying there are no consequences in Uni - FALSE).

Alexis: So false! But, like you, that was a lot of why I liked the fight. Everything was so real! And everyone had a fair point to make!

Balthazar is right to be unhappy about why, how, and how much Peter is drinking and screwing (literally and figuratively) around; Peter is right to be unhappy that Balth (et al) didn’t say anything about it to him directly before now, in a blow-up, on camera. It was understandable that Balth (et al) *wouldn’t* address him directly, because he has been blatantly closed off to any direct interrogation of or concerned judgment on his life choices this first year of school; it is also understandable that Peter would be pissed that other people feel entitled to an opinion on how he lives his life and who he spends his time with. Balthazar, though, is correct in scoffing loudly at Peter’s assertion that his decisions don’t affect anyone else in the world, and have no lasting consequences, and Balthazar and Freddie both are justified in requesting a bit more consideration from Peter when living his wild life in the middle of a shared flat, and Freddie justified in blowing up at them for starting a shouting match at 4 in the morning. And they are ALL justified in threatening to punch Ben in the face if he keeps filming private interpersonal moments.

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Living with people is hard! Growing up is hard! Well done fight! And a very good segue into the Love’s Labour’s Lost plot—i.e., RULES.

Melissa: The RULES. I am ANNOYED WITH THE RULES (does the all caps help convey my irritation? ‘Cause I’m irritated). It just makes the overall plotline feel so contrived. If you want people to stop coming over to the house, don’t ban dating, just ban people from coming over at specific hours. Or from sleeping over. I know plenty of group houses that have rules regarding when people can and cannot visit. Completely banning relationships does not seem like the way to solve this specific issue.

Freddie’s extreme rules also seemed so weird to me. Maybe we don’t know her well enough, but laying down some of these extremes do not fit in with the image I have of her overall. It also doesn’t make for a conducive living situation. Something’s going to happen sooner or later that will cause larger problems, which might be cool to watch? But I was just so frustrated with everyone by this episode, and annoyed that the overall plot for the series was so forced. It wasn’t natural at all, in my opinion, which directly contradicts the previous videos and what we were just saying about the style of this series.

That being said, Bea is NOT going to be pleased with this development, I’m sure. Maybe that will be how she ends up in Wellington (like the trailer mentioned).

Alexis: Ha, yes, it does seem like a very Bea thing to do, “not DATING not even BEA well SCREW THAT!!!”

As for the RULES, I’m torn. So many of their flat meeting discussion points were 2 REAL, so the impetus for the establishment of the rules felt completely natural. Overspending your budget on fancy food! Guilty. Being threatened by parents who are helping you be “independent” that they will take away amenities if responsibility doesn’t ratchet up! Definitely a real thing. Less comprehensible is that the whole FLAT shares a budget? Maybe they were really on the ball when they first set up house and at least established that rule. Although, considering the way in which Freddie signed the lease without actually discussing it with Ben first, that seems unlikely.

Anyway, when it came to the rules themselves…well. It could have been worse! I definitely feel like anyone at that age is VERY BAD at making decisions, especially when you feel like you have to be Adult and make Adult Decisions but you aren’t able to come from a place with enough experience to make those Adult Decisions and so what you end up doing is just being sooooo dummmmmmb.

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And the thing here is that the rules are not for everyone—they are for Peter. They are the flat’s way of manufacturing a living environment in which Peter can’t be himself, so that they don’t have to take on the responsibility of being straightforward. I did that! My freshman roommate had a very bad habit of sleeping with people in our room, while I was there, and rather than talk to her about it, I made this big deal at semester break about rearranging all of our room’s furniture so that instead of a wall of desks and bookcases between our beds, there was this very open concept with my bed directly facing her bed, and her bed directly next to the door.

Spoiler: it didn’t work! She still slept with people while I was in the room/had to return to/exit the room, and then I was stuck either facing them with NO BARRIER, or walking past them on my way in/out. It was worse than our first arrangement by a MILE. Just like these very contrived rules, which really are contrived to control Peter against his wishes, will make things worse by a mile.

Melissa: I’m not saying they need to live in ANARCHY - that would just be terrible. My group house lived like that a bit, and I came home one day to see our entire garbage can covered in ants (and not the tiny ones, the giant scary monster ones). So I get where they’re coming from for a lot of it, and the rules that you mentioned make sense! Except the flat budget - that is weird. College kids, y’all need to CHILL.

I don’t mean to be a grump about these episodes, really, I don’t. But in terms of what we’ve seen from the Candle Wasters do in NMTD, it just feels like they’re pushing the whole “no dating thing for the sake of the plot” too hard. In my brain, I understand that the rules are for Peter. In my heart, as a person who is watching this show that has so far portrayed a natural situation between roommates, I can’t buy it. There’s no way Peter would allow himself to get steamrolled like this, Balth is too nice to impose such insane rules (even if his feelings were hurt and he’s trying to rectify it), Freddie has never seemed so demanding, and I CANNOT believe that Ben would throw away his relationship with Bea just because they’re annoyed with Peter. I don’t like it. I’m intrigued enough to keep watching for a bit, but I hope we get back to flow that the previous episodes had.

Alexis: You aren’t a grump! Well, you are a bit. But entertainment is subjective, so your reaction is your reaction. I’m still on board, because contrived rules feel pretty right to me, and if they get to a point where they don’t…well, it’s a Shakespearean comedy. Contrivance is the name of the game. I’m down with it. I just hope you come back to the lovefest!

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Additional thoughts:

Melissa: In relation to the dramatic episodes of the week, the rest just served as filler. We started the week with TAPAS, in which I disagree with Ben about hating tapas, but love the giant stack of toast he made. The flat tour was fun (New Zealand looks really cool), and as I previously mentioned, I was exhausted by the time we got to the Balth in a Bath video, so I stopped paying attention.

Alexis: This particular Balth in a Bath interlude showed some more background progress on the Peter+Balthazar relationship, and I’m still intrigued to see how that rolls out relative to how the present-day story rolls out. Beyond that, Meg is really falling down on her end of the vlogs. Right? And it seems like she (and Bea) would have some pretty firm opinions on Ben’s thoughtless Rule Making and Signing from several videos ago that one would think would have been quick to be posted. Come quicker, new episodes! Except don’t, or Melissa might give up entirely…

Previously: Episodes 8-12