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gurragadon posted:I don't think it's ever really stated but he could easily be a squatter. But like just refuse the gift. Or say you need to think about it. Or ask about the logistics but say thank you. If somebody gives you a house that you have been living in for several years you should accept it. They were only living there still bc Asher and Whitney decided to pay the rent, otherwise they would have been evicted and made to find somewhere else to stay. I don't question accepting the gift, but it's like giving someone a puppy in that the gift is an ongoing obligation and responsibility. Dumping a lot of money on someone does not always end well for them either if they just sell immediately. Winning the lotto can often be cursed leaving the winner dead or more unhappy than before.
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Jan 14, 2024 20:26
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I wish I was burdened by being gifted 100k. Goons...
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Jan 14, 2024 22:37
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I don’t recall these Q&A’s posted in the thread. They have been a great watch! A lot of great information on a lot of choices made during the creation of the show. https://youtu.be/dMx_K5dBEqI?si=lgkUdC2JQtY1knkE https://youtu.be/rdxLjYh8vyQ?si=nJj2d0P6j-p3ZMGI https://youtu.be/xxcUaV-TFPg?si=N18rg0sZ_SOZjYyj
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Jan 14, 2024 23:08
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Monglo posted:I wish I was burdened by being gifted 100k. Goons... I'm sure many of us would handle big gifts of money, suddenly owning the house the room you rent is in would lower your rent and give you an asset. It's like imagining winning the lotto, anyone can imagine how more money would improve their life. And still there are people who get such boons and get killed, robbed, shaken down, kill themselves, or end up just as poor as before. The show is called The Curse and not Happy Ending so there's gonna be a spotlight on the less obvious cursed potentials of life-changing amounts of money.
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Jan 14, 2024 23:44
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pretty rude of abshir to not know how much new mexicos property taxes are. he should've hugged the guy who is weirdly obsessed with his daughter, and made her watch him grip nails so hard he started bleeding. real rear end in a top hat move, abshir! i think his skepticism and attitude towards them was totally appropriate. especially when its revealed that asher was recording the whole thing secretly.
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Jan 14, 2024 23:47
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also, Abshir hasn't really gotten anything yet except his spare key back - and a promise from his shifty landlords that the house is his. no paperwork has been lodged yet; the financial implications have not been considered; he asks if that's happening and receives assurances that it will. the actual gift remains symbolic, a (badly) choreographed gift-giving ceremony that is designed to mean more to Ash and Whit.
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Jan 14, 2024 23:51
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it follows then that Whitney is the most cursed character of all for being given a bunch of houses by her dad. the titular Curse was nepotism all along
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Jan 14, 2024 23:53
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alf_pogs posted:also, Abshir hasn't really gotten anything yet except his spare key back - and a promise from his shifty landlords that the house is his. no paperwork has been lodged yet; the financial implications have not been considered; he asks if that's happening and receives assurances that it will. Yeah, it's not really clear how things will shake out for him anyway since the show leaves the whole thing up in the air.
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Jan 14, 2024 23:55
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If my incredibly weird and uncomfortable landlord, who had previously broken into my house and chased my young daughters down the street, suddenly showed up and said he was giving me ownership of the house I would assume it was some kind of scam. I would probably assume the same thing if my actual landlord did that. Frankly, I would not want it.
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Jan 14, 2024 23:56
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The paperwork situation is really left up in the air
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Jan 14, 2024 23:57
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if i gave someone a house and their immediate response was to ask about property taxes i would be a little put off
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Jan 14, 2024 23:58
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Did I miss something or hadn't Abshir been living there for free for around year by the time Asher decided on the gift? Abshir is right to be skeptical, it's clear Asher and Whitney are condescending and self centered in their relationship with him and haven't thought through the logistics of his side at all, but as far as I remember they have made good on stuff like not charging rent and fixing the place up. If he were to decide the tax stuff was a more of a headache than it's worth he didn't have to sign the papers, tell the weirdos to screw off and move elsewhere.
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Jan 15, 2024 00:06
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srypher posted:if i gave someone a house and their immediate response was to ask about property taxes i would be a little put off he doesn't make a lot of money! he's getting free food from his job, dude. of course he's concerned about how this could actually cost him money
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Jan 15, 2024 00:10
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studio mujahideen posted:he doesn't make a lot of money! he's getting free food from his job, dude. of course he's concerned about how this could actually cost him money yo did you see how gourmet those hot dogs were tho? I bet they were even All-Beef in their last interaction together, Asher was still trying to turn Abshir into a prop by setting up a secret camera to film him receiving this moment of extremely Unsolicited Philanthropy. it was good that Abshir's response was basically "okay sure, whatever. give me money"
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Jan 15, 2024 00:12
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Why does the single father of two preteens living in poverty simply not move house away from the terrifying couple on whose largess he is dependent?
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Jan 15, 2024 00:16
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Scones are Good posted:Did I miss something or hadn't Abshir been living there for free for around year by the time Asher decided on the gift? Abshir is right to be skeptical, it's clear Asher and Whitney are condescending and self centered in their relationship with him and haven't thought through the logistics of his side at all, but as far as I remember they have made good on stuff like not charging rent and fixing the place up. If he were to decide the tax stuff was a more of a headache than it's worth he didn't have to sign the papers, tell the weirdos to screw off and move elsewhere. Yeah, when you take into account that he wasn’t paying any rent, owning the house isn’t necessarily an improvement because now he’s solely responsible for all of the costs and upkeep. Plus his first interaction with Asher was watching him give his daughter money and then steal it out of her hand, of course he’s going to be skeptical.
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Jan 15, 2024 00:17
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wizardofloneliness posted:Yeah, when you take into account that he wasn’t paying any rent, owning the house isn’t necessarily an improvement because now he’s solely responsible for all of the costs and upkeep. Plus his first interaction with Asher was watching him give his daughter money and then steal it out of her hand, of course he’s going to be skeptical. Yeah, he's clearly the only one involved who actually has to think about any of this practically because for him it's for real, it's where he actually lives, and not just an exercise in assuaging guilty conscious/looking altrustistic like it is for Asher and Whitney.
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Jan 15, 2024 00:26
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Khanstant posted:The paperwork situation is really left up in the air
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Jan 15, 2024 01:20
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Khanstant posted:The paperwork situation is really left up in the air lmao
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Jan 15, 2024 01:35
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Khanstant posted:The paperwork situation is really left up in the air
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Jan 15, 2024 01:51
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Sivart13 posted:the sky's the limit for this kind of wordplay The sky is the limit... but if anyone could see my pants... they would know that this guy... has... a limit?
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Jan 15, 2024 02:58
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If any goons want to give me a house and see if I'd be grateful, go right ahead.
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Jan 15, 2024 03:15
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Sivart13 posted:the sky's the limit for this kind of wordplay No it isn't, your head is in the clouds
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Jan 15, 2024 03:16
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how do you even write a finale like this? must have been high!
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Jan 15, 2024 04:56
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I did too good a job as a kid appearing grateful for a realtor who got all the kids a Chevron with techron toy car, and for years I got more of them as gifts and started getting them from other relatives who thought I really must've liked them since nobody else bothered to pretend to like it that first time they showed up.
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Jan 15, 2024 05:00
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There's another meaning to the house gifting scene that I think everyone's missing. In reality shows, it's common to give people stuff. In those shows, the reaction are always intense and huge gestures of happiness and excitement. Those reactions are often goaded by producers with multiple takes being done the same way we see Dougie do it, or they're done by people who feel like they need to perform when in front of a camera. Ash and whit are expecting the reality tv reaction and instead they get a real life one. It's a great gift, but it's also like getting a Rolex from someone you've been dating for a month.
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Jan 15, 2024 05:55
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Lister posted:There's another meaning to the house gifting scene that I think everyone's missing. In reality shows, it's common to give people stuff. In those shows, the reaction are always intense and huge gestures of happiness and excitement. Those reactions are often goaded by producers with multiple takes being done the same way we see Dougie do it, or they're done by people who feel like they need to perform when in front of a camera. they even whip out one of their little pots from the show to bless the home at the end after they've given Abshir the key
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Jan 15, 2024 06:05
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Dougie sobbing on the ground towards the end was amazing. Compound that suffering!
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Jan 15, 2024 07:09
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"In some upside-down, topsy turvy world... what would it be like to be without Whitney?"
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Jan 15, 2024 07:23
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This was randomly in my YT recs but this kid's analysis of the cinematography is actually pretty interesting despite the crappy thumbnail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjxUxQZ3fgs
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Jan 15, 2024 09:02
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Monglo posted:A barely ok vanity project by Fielder and Safdie. Tools call genius any slop given to them. It’s better than this because they got Emma stone but you’re directionally right.
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Jan 15, 2024 09:14
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Couldn't help thinking about a recent existential cosmic horror film but naming it might be a bit of a spoiler to anyone yet to see it.
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Jan 15, 2024 13:06
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alf_pogs posted:they even whip out one of their little pots from the show to bless the home at the end after they've given Abshir the key They did mention they buy those pots in bulk for a discount, I wonder how many of those they actually have left over.
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Jan 15, 2024 15:27
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studio mujahideen posted:pretty rude of abshir to not know how much new mexicos property taxes are. he should've hugged the guy who is weirdly obsessed with his daughter, and made her watch him grip nails so hard he started bleeding. real rear end in a top hat move, abshir! It lines up perfectly to the parking lot dollar exchange in the first episode.
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Jan 15, 2024 16:29
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Lister posted:Ash and whit are expecting the reality tv reaction and instead they get a real life one. It's a great gift, but it's also like getting a Rolex from someone you've been dating for a month. When I worked at a grocery store, a female cashier received a greeting card from a customer that just happened to have $500 in it. While winning $500 on a scratch ticket or otherwise no strings attached would be great, having to deal with that customer and however he may feel he can now act because of this big "gift" might feel very awkward for the cashier. And this is just some cash, not even an especially large amount in the grand scheme of things.
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Jan 15, 2024 17:54
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Yes, giving someone a house is objectively a good gift. WHY Abshir reacted the way he did is beside the point of the scene, though. Showing up unannounced, secretly filming, and dumping a huge surprise gift on someone that already doesn't trust you is a terrible idea. The audience could see that coming, but Asher and Whitney couldn't. The entire show is focusing on their their white savior complex. They don't understand Abshir and how to help him, just like they don't understand the community and how to help it. If your takeaway from the scene is "well, I would have been grateful!" then you've missed that point. Reflecting on the show as a whole has made me like the interpretation that the ending is mostly about the community coming to Asher's aid, only to ignore his pleas and end up doing more harm than good because they don't understand the situation he's in. It's almost too perfect, though I do struggle to reconcile how Whitney fits into the ending.
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Jan 15, 2024 18:22
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I really appreciate this show's depiction of how the structure of society distances people from each other and totally eliminates communities. Everybody is hurting and in need, and nobody can help anyone else without it becoming a hustle because there's no other way to keep your head above water. Even Asher's devotion to Whitney creates a power imbalance - whether he's consciously taking advantage of her or not, he's forcing a dynamic where she's indebted to him because he's that desperate to have someone need him for anything. edit: also, it's really funny that absolutely nothing about this episode, either the title or the first half, presages that it's going to end with one of the more harrowing TV deaths. The switch from the absolute mundanity of them being ignored by Rachel Ray to Asher begging for his life as, presumably, he starts to freeze to death or his blood boils or whatever happens to you in the upper atmosphere is bonkers. It's like if the finale of Mad Men had Pete die in Nutty Putty Cave. Magic Hate Ball fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Jan 15, 2024 |
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Jan 15, 2024 20:02
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Suffocation
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Jan 15, 2024 21:32
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Old Doggy Bastard posted:It lines up perfectly to the parking lot dollar exchange in the first episode. Now that I'm thinking about it again, you could call that Indian gift giving. I feel like that's got to be on purpose. Even something like the ATM scene indicates more than it seemed at first with the series over. Asher ultimately doesn't trust the community they're in, despite acting so much like they want to help it. It's the same distrust the neighbor has about his packages being stolen. It's the same distrust that Whitney's dad has about tenants possibly ripping out appliances and selling them. Now maybe Asher does make a change to try and be better by the end, but it also seems like that's only because he thinks it makes Whitney happy.
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Jan 15, 2024 21:51
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Lister posted:Now that I'm thinking about it again, you could call that Indian gift giving. I feel like that's got to be on purpose. in the same way, we were “gypped” of an explanation for why asher was on the ceiling (gypsum being a primary constituent of plaster and drywall). theres meaning in everything.
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Jan 15, 2024 22:04
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