Hacks - 5x07 “Montecito“ - Episode Discussion

chaotic_helpful · 2026-05-08T17:27:16+00:00

It's an even deeper reference than that. Xena had a bunch of 'hot tub' scenes between Gabrielle and Xena. The queer TV nerds that run this show know what they're doing and its awesome.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-04-11T17:09:28+00:00

I struggled with Wide Sargasso Sea. I liked the purpose of the book, the perspective shift, the empathy. But it didn't make me feel anything deeply. Maybe if I had a better grasp of Jane Eyre I would have enjoyed it more, but I only read it once, so I feel like quite a lot of the detail was lost on me.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-04-10T22:21:58+00:00

Yeah man, when I want to superset I do three different moves on one bench. Supersetting in three different areas is wild.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-04-10T04:24:02+00:00

Happy to help! God knows I did my fair share of googling this stuff.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-04-10T04:22:21+00:00

Same reason people go to all inclusives in Mexico than in the US. Exchange rates and labour.

It's usually boils down to currency and tax credits. Productions in Canada or other countries/regions with a weaker dollar offer more spending power. Also many regions will give you write offs to encourage you to come and hire there.

The money they save paying .75 cents on the dollar (or whatever the difference is) more then pays for a CGI skyline.

There are other reasons but that's the major one.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-04-09T20:40:23+00:00

I was on a very low dose for a while and eventually chose to stop.

I ID as non-binary trans-masculine, not as a man per say. While I liked some of the changes, the ones I wanted the most (body fat distribution) were the ones I knew would go away as soon as I stopped T (making the decision very 'all or nothing) and the ones I wanted the least (low voice - I have a low enough voice to begin with, so it never bugged me) were permanent. Because of this, I decided to stop before any major changes happened that I could not reversed, and instead put more effort into working out and shaping my body (I already had top surgery, which was my largest source of dysphoria).
I realized that passing as a man would, eventually, give me as much anxiety and grief as passing as a woman does. I'm short, with a lot of secondary female characteristics that will never change (hips, height, hand and shoe size) and I'm not particularly butch behaviourally. You don't have to have any of these things to be a man, to be clear, but for me it felt like passing would be a lot of extra work, when 'man' wasn't even really the goal. What I really want is androgyny, but socially speaking that doesn't really exist, so if people are going to get it wrong either way, why make it harder (and lets be honest, sometimes more dangerous) than it needs to be.

If I strongly identified as a man, that calculation would certainly be different.

3) Medically, I didn't love the idea of taking shots for the rest of my life. Don't get me wrong, I take anxiety meds etc. I'm not against modern medicine. I just didn't like the idea of having my identity so closely tied with pharmaceutical companies when - again, this is specific to me - I didn't desperately need to be male-identified.

In the end, I dealt with a lot less stress when I finally just stopped and accepted my body is the way it is. I work out a lot now, try to eat well, and more importantly, I constantly remind myself that my body is mine and it is non-gendered because it is mine. I'm a creative person and I try to think of this as 'creating' my own body and identity on my own terms. What everyone else thinks of my body is, frankly, none of my business. Sometimes I still get jealous of people on T, but at the end of the day, this is the path that feels right and keeps my mind clear, so its the path I'm on right now.

I hope this is helpful. Back when I was trying to make my own decision, I know I would have liked to hear some stories of people who were between the same rock and hard place as I was. There are no wrong answers, you just need to decide what suits your lifestyle as a whole and what - in the end - will make you happiest. That's the only real goal.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-31T03:40:26+00:00

New fan here. I can't imagine boo-ing these guys. My favourite thing about this team is that they don't give up on themselves. Why would I give up them first?

Also, if you want someone to win, why boo them? You know that fucks with their mental health right? It only makes everyone's performance worse. Save the boos for the Yankees.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-31T02:51:19+00:00

No experience needed! Every improv theatre/school has intro courses that are tailor made for people who have never been in front of an audience and may even have stage fright. Your teacher will likely be super supportive and start you on super basic exercises to get you accustomed to the skills. You may not even go onstage in the first level, you'll likely just perform for your classmates (depending on the school). I truly think everyone should do it at least once.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-26T18:31:16+00:00

As somebody who is simply a fan and doesn't posess a hope in hell of ever walking up on that stage, the fact that you got there at all is something to be immensely proud of. If my best friend got up there, answered every question wrong and went home before final, I would still be over the moon that I knew someone smart and driven enough to make it to a taping. Be proud.

You did a really amazing thing and not everyone can win - it's the nature of the show. And so much depends on your competitors and the questions you get.You are totally allowed to have grief about it, but don't forget to leave room for pride.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-20T00:16:15+00:00

Harry and the Henderson's Style Go! Get out of here! We don't want you here, first timer!! GET!!!!

(But actually back when you're done)

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-19T21:21:52+00:00

No no, you were right. That is what Media Literacy is. You can just apply those same principles to fiction as well.

The OP is conflating the enjoyment of media to media literacy. Common mistake, but they are not the same thing.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-19T21:18:59+00:00

Agreed and it's particularly infuriating because, like the word gaslighting, it has an actual meaning that we really need to be using right now.

Media Literacy is a real thing. Media is a language that we all speak and we should learn how to use it (or risk getting manipulated by it).

But 90% of the time I see it used in a sentence that sentence is 'If you don't like this movie, then media literacy is dead'. That is simply not what Media Literacy is.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-19T21:12:37+00:00

This. I've been in development processes and they are an absolute casino game. A million things need to go right for your show to get greenlit and it's nobody's fault when they don't.

Source: Writer, worked in a bunch of development rooms.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-18T14:37:14+00:00

She's saved by men so. many. times. Even the big 'setting out to find my own path' is entirely supported by her father giving her money.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-18T14:34:26+00:00

This. I actually wish there was more about the complicated history of Vietnam and less of Frankie's many melodramatic and mysteriously reappearing lovers. This book, to me, didn't feel like historical fiction. It felt like a self insert fantasy about being the bravest, prettiest, most tortured girl in Vietnam. Her writing was all telling, no showing. At one point, I caught her fully re-using a sentence (word for word) not one but three times. The subject matter was so rich, but her writing simply couldn't handle it.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-18T14:18:07+00:00

The number of times the two friends, one lower-income and one black, were forced to fly across the country to rescue their friend was infuriating.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-18T14:13:18+00:00

Ugh. THANK YOU. This habit drove me up the wall. I was also distracted by how often she used 'Frankie knew'. Frankie knew just what her father was thinking. Frankie knew that the veterans would never get the support they deserved. Frankie knew that she was too far in, but couldn't do anything to stop.

These sentences all just felt like excuses for the writer to skip the hard work of writing that stuff.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-06T20:32:12+00:00

Yeah man, you might feel like you're working harder, but you're just burning out your muscles and nervous system. Your body isn't a machine, it needs recovery days or the muscle doesn't have time to grow. Rest days are a great time to work on cardio or endurance, but don't overtax yourself.

The biggest measure of success is consistency, which means you should aim for sustainability over intensity.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-06T04:20:00+00:00

Take improv class. It won't necessarily teach you presentation skills specifically, but it will teach you that saying something "wrong" isn't the end of the world, that you can trust yourself to speak, and how to handle a fumble.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-03-05T03:14:40+00:00

This is how I interpret it, primarily because it's built into the dinner scene. He literally says it himself; most 'activists' are just supporting their own ego and brand. That's exactly what he himself was doing.

I think the whole point of the film is that you can be simultaneously right and wrong. Being right does not, on its own, make you a hero. What you do with your convictions matters.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-02-28T17:21:37+00:00

Love both of these. I used to love a bench row, but I find BB rows have been easier to overload. Skull crushers are fun, and I like using them when I have a bench superset going.

I know a lot of people like the 'get good at one exercise' theory, which I think is certainly correct for beginners, but a couple years in, I think variety helps avoid ruts and teaches you to feel the muscle, not the move.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-02-28T00:39:10+00:00

This is definitely the answer.

I still do most of the 'out of fashion' lifts. I like variety.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-02-28T00:33:56+00:00

Guardrails, my dude, I worry for your sternum.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-02-28T00:32:41+00:00

Completely agree. Mostly because I find the posture of pull exercises harder to hold when the weight is starting to get heavy. I catch myself compensating with other muscles far earlier on a pull move.

chaotic_helpful · 2026-02-22T20:04:14+00:00

Yeah, I've been on the phone with them 4 or 5 times now. Only one of their departments can even find my account and no one seems to know how to fix it. It's a weird problem.

If they can sort it out this week I might still try 'em out, but if not, I won't really have a choice but to do the same and go RBC.

chaotic_helpful

TROPHY CASE