#002
Welcome back to HYPERFIX and thanks for your positive comments on this new format. It’s been fun moving all my thoughts from Twitter to a long-form platform!
This week’s fix is for paid subscribers. Let’s get into some reality TV show thoughts, whether my dentist lied about mouthguards, Ozempic, pot and some docs.
Also did you know Tim Allen is on TV again? Why?
MUSICALS
I love musicals. Watching them, singing along, performing in them: I’m a nerd for musicals. I drove up to SF Sketchfest last weekend to perform at The Crossword Show (one of my favorite shows, you should check it out).
If I’m driving, that means I get to pick the music. And if I need to stay awake to drive for 5.5 hours? I’m using musicals. A Chorus Line, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Sweeney, Falsettos, In Trousers, Company, I will run it all down. I will replay songs so I can do multiple parts. I genuinely believe I was put on this earth to play Yitzhak from Hedwig or like, at least the lesbian doctor in Falsettoland.
Anyway, I also tweeted that I thought the Wicked nominations were silly. I’d link to it, but I’m not sharing twitter links anymore because I don’t want to encourage people to be on there. People got very angry. I liked the movie! I’ve just also seen the stage version so, y’know, it didn’t blow my mind.
It definitely didn’t seem Oscar-worthy. It was just a good time! There are a lot of movies that are good, but don’t deserve Oscar nominations. Wicked is one of them.
Here are some musical moments I think do deserve Oscar noms:
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
The Lincoln Center recording of Falsettos some guy uploaded in 2018
The illegal recording of the 2006 Company revival at the Ethel Barrymore
The illegal recording of Andrew Rannells singing “Being Alive” at Carnegie Hall
The British cast recording of Sweeney Todd my theater teacher showed me in high school
All That Jazz
I also ran a Twitter poll asking if people like Stephen Sondheim or William Finn more. Sondheim won. And sure, he is more popular and a nicer person, but have you listened to A Breakfast Over Sugar??? It’s not an easy question.
Anyway, musicals. God they’re great.
DOCUMENTARIES
I watch too many documentaries. Here are my thoughts.
Crazy Love, 2007 (Tubi)
I’m including a trailer for this one because it’s almost too insane to explain. It’s the story of Burt and Linda Pugach. The two met in the 1950s and quickly fell in love. There was one problem: Burt was already married with a kid. When Linda found out, she left him and went on with her life. Burt lost his mind.
After harassing and stalking her, Burt finds out she’s getting married and decides to hire someone to throw lye in her face. The attack left Linda bald, permanently blinded and partially disfigured in one eye. Burt and the attacker are arrested, but Burt won’t stop contacting Linda. She moves, changes numbers, nothing helps.
She eventually learns to live her life again. With wigs and a pair of swanky dark sunglasses, no one can see what happened to her. She struggles to date, though and eventually ends up living alone in New York.
This is when the story gets fucking crazy: her relatives decide she’s lonely and too much of a burden to care for so they encourage her to get back with Burt, who is still obsessed with her and free now. In 1974, they got married.
Do you think things worked out for them?
Also, this doc was made in 2007 and features people who do not know this could make them look bad. They are brutally honest. They say racist things. At one point Burt is like, “unfortunately I got a Jewish lawyer” and it’s like, oh, yeah this is just an awful guy.
The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell, 2019 (Hulu)
Real True Crimeheads know about this case, but I was busy graduating from high school when this was all happening. Susan Cox Powell disappeared from her home in on Sunday, December 6th, 2009. Her sister and mother-in-law turn up at her home when she failed to bring the kids to daycare or show up for work. When they get there, everyone is gone. Susan, the kids and her husband, Josh Powell. The sister-in-law, Jennifer, manages to get ahold of Josh and tells her Susan is missing. He says he’s at work.
When investigators try to reach him, he says he was camping with his kids and had no clue Susan was missing. Yes, his alibi is that he took his kids camping at 1:00 am on Monday in the middle of December because he “forgot it was Sunday and not Saturday.” Obviously, this is suspicious. Josh also swears Susan didn’t go camping with them, but when his 4-year old son is interviewed, he says “Mommy went camping and stayed where the crystals and flowers are.”
Now cops are pretty sure Josh has done something to Susan, but they can’t find her body or hard evidence. Josh also has a really weird family that keeps insisting Susan is still alive and has just run off with another man. Even though Josh says he has no evidence Susan ever cheated, he and his father, Steven Powell, keep insisting that she was a “sexual person” in interviews.
It’s weird! So fucking weird! Steven and Josh claim they have old diaries of Susan’s written when she was a teenager that prove she was a “flirtacious.” Yeah, it turns out Steven, Josh’s 50-something year old dad, stole Susan’s diaries from a storage container unit 8 years earlier. Over this time, he has been reading them obsessively, photographing and videoing Susan without her knowledge, writing about her constantly and he steals her underwear and tampons.
He believes he’s in love with Susan and she’s “in love with him.” She’s a cosmetologist and when she learned to wax legs, she asked people to feel how smooth her legs still were a week later. Steve took this as her declaration of love. By 2003, he confesses his love to Susan who says she has no idea where he’s going with that, she’s married to his son and should be like one of his children.
I will warn you: you will get angry. You will want to time travel to kill these two men. This is one of the most haunting cases I’ve read about and it sticks with you.
I don’t want to share much more than that. Once you watch this, you should also check out the podcast Cold to get the full story. Then after that, you’ll probably want to read all the released evidence and journals.
TV AND FILM
Want weekly TV reviews and episodic coverage? Follow TV I Say on Patreon. Below is a quick look at the stuff that’s getting me excited.
90 Day Fiance: Before The 90 Days (Max) - I love Niles. I hate Adnan. They should let me host because Shaun is letting the guests take over.
Below Deck: Sailing Yacht (Peacock) - I cannot stand Gary and Daisy this season. They are both so bad at their jobs and everything is suffering.
Severance (Apple TV) - We are back, we are so fucking back.
Saturday Night Live (Peacock) - Timmy Chalamet was charming, I’ll give you that.
90 Day: The Last Resort (Max) - I am still watching this. I don’t think any of it is real and everyone should break up except Brandon and Julia.
Sister Wives (Max) - Christine is finally done getting married!!! I hope they all sue Kody over the land!
Love After Lockup (WeTV) - Yes, I am still watching this. There isn’t a single couple I’m rooting for.
High Potential (Hulu) - This show keeps getting better and guess what? We got a season 2 renewal!!
St. Denis Medical (Peacock) - We also got a second season renewal here!! I love this show!
One of Them Days - THIS MOVIE IS SO GOOD. COMEDIES ARE BACK!
20/20 - They’ve kinda been killing it over at 20/20. The one about the guy buried in his backyard? Good stuff.
Harlem (Amazon Prime Video) - This show is back. The last season is really disappointing.
Harley Quinn (Max) - Funnier and gayer than ever.
Why is Tim Allen on TV Again? - Tim Allen is in some show with Kat Dennings who is hot and incredible. I don’t know why this is happening. It’s like, about him being conservative and his estranged daughter isn’t.
Abbott Elementary (Hulu) - I like that they’re expanding things beyond the school, but I don’t love this romance plot they’re trying to force in for Ava.
Scamanda (Hulu) - This scammer doc about a mom who faked cancer isn’t out yet, but it comes out on the 30th and I am excited.
A Word From Our Family (Max) - Episode two came out and I think we’re about to hit the part where they’re like “but actually, the family wasn’t evil.”
Dark Side of the Cage (Vice/Hulu) - This show is not as good as Dark Side of the Ring. It turns out the cage is not that dark.
Scam Goddess (Freeform/Hulu) - OUR GIRL DIVA LACI HAS A SHOW!! It’s so good! She’s covering scams that aren’t as well known (including one from my home county in Illinois). She’s hilarious and it shows the impact of these scams.
RANDOM
From Mt. Everest to murder mysteries, this is the more out there stuff I’ve been fixated on lately.
-Mouthguards
My dentist said I needed one, but I didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars. I found some on Amazon where you put them in hot water, put it in your mouth and it shapes to your teeth. It’s a game changer. My ears aren’t ringing. I’m getting better sleep. I am less irritable. I barely read Twitter now. If you think you need one, try the $14 pack!
-Duolingo
I am still killing it at Chinese and will be in the Diamond League SOON.
-Taking A Break From Weed
I think I’m going to do this. I think it’ll help me remember things again.
Upcoming Comedy Shows
Get tickets below:
2/14 - Los Angeles - The Sleepover Comedy Show
2/27 - Los Angeles - The Elysian Theater
3/6 - New York City - FLEX at Knockout Women’s Comedy Festival
I spent $170 for a 3d dentist level mouth guard. you take impressions of both sides of your teeth so they can fit the top or bottom so it sits exactly right. i keep grinding through the extra strength boil kind in less than 2wk. i'm hoping this fancy one helps. i cannot afford dental ....treatment of any kind. JS Dental is where i got mine. they're reputable and i'm not sure what their moulds do that aren't identical to what my dentist would do for 100x more
I cannot express enough how life changing a mouth guard is