#rewatch projects

Note: This post contains spoilers for Nothing Much to Do.

I'll admit, I haven't been keeping up with the NMTDaily in recent weeks. I'll watch the videos a couple weeks late, in chunks. It feels entirely unlike how I watched NMTD when it was originally released (obsessively, as the episodes came out; I never used subscriptions, so I'd check the channels directly pretty much every day), but entirely reflective of where my life is today, a decade later.

I'll be away this weekend, leading into the 10-year anniversary of Hero's 16th birthday and the radio silence that followed. I'll probably write more about the actual videos when the time comes (hey, remember when I spent hours micro-analyzing a tiny video only for the full-length scene to emerge within that same day? I should be embarrassed by that than I am), but for now I find myself thinking about how the tension ramps up and how the story of Much Ado About Nothing and NMTD's interpretation feels different in 2024 than it did in 2014.

There's a lot that at the time I feel I was less forgiving of, interestingly. Maybe it's because I'm older, but I find myself feeling sorrier for the boys this time around. Claudio's anxiety and self-consciousness feels more... forward. Pedro's need to people-please and "lead". Ben's intense need to be liked and appreciated. Ironically, even as their behavior seems even more "inappropriate" today, I can't help but feel that there's something about it that I better understand today.

Hero herself somehow feels more mature. There's something about watching with the retrospect of a decade that makes the coming punch hurt all the more. It's been long enough since my last rewatch that I'd forgotten so many smaller details, like the way the girls have their sleepover or the fact that Hero has her own charming relationship with the camera independently of Beatrice. (I'm not sure why I'd forgotten these moments specifically, but it's interesting! I suppose it has something to do with the fact that I always clicked with Bea more as a character, but in this rewatch I feel like I'm finally seeing the version of Hero that many of my friends from the NMTD era always saw.)

Hero seems more mature and Bea seems more childish. Ten years ago, Bea was just a few years younger than me; she was immature, but not so different from where I was in life. Now, both Bea and Hero feel like teenagers and I'm very much not a young adult anymore. I look at both of them and think how fragile they are, how much they're taking on themselves at such a young age (independence is wonderful, but do they have the love and support of a good adult mentor?). I think of Bea's discomfort talking about Ben and her fear of being hurt. I think of Hero's open love and trust. I think of how both will soon be heartbroken by the same event, in very different ways.

Hero's birthday is one of those plot points in the world of literary webseries. It's iconic for a reason. And I know that as things "unfold" this weekend (and are only revealed next week), I'm watching it from a very different place than a decade ago and with a completely different mindset. But I suspect that the sadness and anger I felt then will not be completely obliterated. I suspect that I'll still have a moment of anguish for Hero, for Bea, for shattered dreams and the end of innocence.

----

(I also didn't remember the sloth part being quite so long.)

The past two weeks of videos have been about expanding NMTD's world. Yes, all of the pieces were already set in play, but now they start to move in a coordinated, plot-like manner. First we get closer introductions to characters like Claudio ("CLAUDIO"), Pedro ("A Special Announcement"), and Leo ("Introducing Leo"). Then we get a better sense of how this friend group extends, seeing Ben with Claudio and then with both Claudio and Pedro (and I do still love the casual dynamic of that group), as well as Beatrice with Pedro. The story widens further as we get the first hints of the romance ahead - Claudio's mystery crush follows Beatrice's teasing of Hero, but of course we know what's coming up, despite Ben actually not revealing anything on camera. We see Claudio as a bit abashed, uncertain, and heavily influenced by his friends. I'd forgotten how early it shows up.

On Beatrice's end, we still have slightly more structured videos. "Single Pringle" is one of those episodes that's lived in my brain for the past decade, where I can genuinely feel how she's shaped my life and voice. I can still remember almost every beat of the episode, even if I didn't remember the exact quotes. But I had the rhythm down. And it's this that continues to be NMTD's strongest side. "Single Pringle" maps (like the episodes before it) pretty neatly to Much Ado About Nothing, taking scenes from the play and reworking them to a modern context rather brilliantly. But at the same time, they feel real. Bea feels like a teenage girl complaining about something that's come up between her and her cousin. Nothing feels scripted or acted. The rant is performed, sure, but just like any vlog might be. Just like the boys fighting on camera in Ben's episodes feel like teenage boys scuffling, not like something overly scripted. (Huge credit goes to how these episodes are edited, seriously.) Do all of the translations from the play feel as seamless? No. But they integrate shockingly well, as I remembered.

The plot is ticking forward, but it still clearly feels like the beginning. But... we're starting to reach the point of no return with the plot. Hey, didn't someone mention a party...?