Hello everyone! Today, I wanted to chat about my thoughts on the new season of Rebelde, the first season of Love is Blind, and Inventing Anna!

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I have quite a bit to say on each so here we go! Oh, and real quick, I’m not necessarily going to avoid spoilers since I feel like I’m super behind on watching/posting about these. If feels like I’m the last to watch! But here’s my thoughts on them anyway!

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TV Shows I’ve Watched Recently – Rebelde Season 1

The highly anticipated season 1 of Netflix’s reboot of Rebelde finally came out earlier this year! I was so hyped for it. I actually tried to go and watch the early 2000’s reboot to prep since it’s been so long but it was removed from Netflix! I have to admit here too, that I never even saw every episode of the early 2000’s reboot, because I could never catch it on time (ah, the days before streaming) but I saw enough to know I loved the show and (mostly) follow along with the major plot points. So I was excited to finally get the chance to properly watch it all the way through. That was why it was so disappointing to me that it wasn’t there anymore and I don’t even know why I keep paying higher prices for Netflix when they keep removing stuff. Oh, because the new stuff keeps drawing me in of course… Well played Netflix.

Anyway, I have to start out by saying that although it was promoted as a reboot and I called it a reboot due to that marketing, it is most definitely NOT a reboot. For me, a reboot is literally them taking the material, updating it to fit the modern times, and selecting a new cast of actors. This was really just a spin off! While the old characters still exist and are constantly mentioned, or even show up again, it’s not actually about them! The setting is still Elite Way School, a private boarding school for rich and talented Hispanic kids (and the “becados” or scholarship kids, of course), but we follow a whole new set of students.

Honestly I almost shut off the series when I learned that. It was so disappointing! I really expected to see a new Mia and Roberta fight in the first episode and instead got a bunch of random new characters with a mixed-up set of traits from the old characters. I stuck through it and it was actually enjoyable though. There are a ton of parallels to the old show, and at a much faster pace. This season had 8 episodes while the original had something close to 50 I believe (don’t quote me on that). So for someone more used to the slow pace of the old version, this one felt a bit overwhelming at so many points with how fast it moved! Oh, and hearing those old songs again from RBD? Soooooo amazing!

I think I finally started to warm up to it about half way through and then truly enjoyed it. I love picking up on those little nods to the pervious series, love seeing the diversity in the characters (so many countries and sexualities are represented!), and the plot lines are as intricate and crazy as ever! Also those Colucci story lines are always a hoot, aren’t they? Anyway, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more right away if Netflix had set proper expectations and not branded it as a reboot (and I know I’m not the only one who was disappointed by that!). But I also don’t think I would have been as excited to watch it up front too. I think I would have been curious and watched it anyway, but probably not right away when it aired. However, it was already renewed for a second season and I think I read somewhere that the new season will be out this year. I’m looking forward to watching it!

TV Shows I’ve Watched Recently – Love is Blind Season 1

I know, I know, Season 2 is out already, why is this just about Season 1? Because I literally can’t watch it fast enough to get through Season 2! These episodes are sooooooo long!

Anyway, can I just say that I love this show despite how insane it is??? I like the idea that love can happen without seeing someone, of course, but the time frame is just so crazy short. People are getting engaged less than a week after knowing each other, dating multiple people at a time so it’s more like a race to get engaged, and then having to walk down the aisle so quickly after that? Pure insanity but such great content.

I was honestly so confused on why the couples go through with the wedding though. As far as I can tell, they were free to keep dating/prolong the engagement since some of them did not get married but stayed together for some time afterwards. I had to ask some of my married friends (since I’ve never been married and nowhere close to it) if they were still questioning if they were going to say yes or no as they walked down the aisle. They would all laugh and one even said “I’m still questioning it!” as a joke but ultimately they were all in agreement that they wouldn’t let it get that far as to plan a whole wedding if they weren’t sure. Also, they did say they knew their husbands wouldn’t have proposed without knowing the answer ahead of time too!

It was just so weird to see the short time frame play into it all too. One couple was talking about “hey do you want kids?” on the plane to Mexico after they were already engaged! So weird.

So I had some predictions that I made after the Mexico trip about the relationships! It feels weird to have predictions on actual, real-life people but here they are anyway. I’ll put some identifiers for each couple as I know it’s been awhile since the first season.

• Lauren and Cameron – they were the interracial couple and Lauren was concerned because she’d never dated anyone who wasn’t black and never introduced anyone to her dad. I thought there was a 50/50 chance on this couple making it to the wedding. Lauren just seemed so stressed about the race aspect of their relationship and made it clear that her dad’s opinion was SUPER important to her. She also made it seem like her dad would be against it so I imagined the meeting going very badly. However, I did think that if it worked out then they’d be all set for a happy life together. But luckily it all worked out and they got married and were still together at the reunions!
• Amber and Barnett – Barnett was the guy that was going to propose to someone else but “didn’t know what he wanted” until there was only one option left. I totally did think they would get married but divorce soon after. It did seem like Barnett just picked the one person left and Amber seemed obsessed with getting married so I didn’t see this marriage starting out with a very strong foundation. Plus, Amber had that make up credit card debt while Barnett was super responsible financially, so I thought it was a big sign they were incompatible. They totally surprised me though as they were still married!
• Jessica and Mark – the couple with the ten year age difference. I thought it was clear they should break up because Jessica could not get past the age difference. Plus, at 24 you really are a baby and Mark just seemed too young to really know what his future should be! I thought they would break up way before the wedding but no, they made it to the alter for Jessica to say no. Not surprised there!
• Kelly and Kenny – they were the couple I forgot about the most because they literally had no drama until super late in the game when Kelly was questioning the relationship. After Mexico it didn’t seem like they really had any issues so I didn’t have any reason to doubt they’d get married, but Kelly ended up saying no. If I’d waited to make my predictions, I totally would have guessed otherwise!
• Giannina and Damien – they were the couple that had a ton of communication issues. I thought either they would get married because they seemed to be working it out or Gia would be the one to say no. Instead Damien said no! I was shocked. They were still together for the 1 year reunion, and barely together for the year 2 reunion except Damien brought a date (SOOOOO awkward!). Honestly after that year 2 reunion I had to look up Gia on insta to make sure they broke up because she deserved so much better than her boyfriend bringing another girl as a date to the anniversary party. Also that poor girl seemed blindsided by the fact that they were still together too! Big yikes!

Anyway, it was so fun to watch the show and guess what would happen. I have started season 2 so hopefully I can get through it and post my thoughts on it soon-ish! Anyway, considering only two couples got married/stayed together past two years, I would say love is not actually blind, or at least one week is way too short of a time frame to know anyway. Also, they really should have a therapist available for all these participants if they don’t already. ALSO, as far as I can tell, they just cast whoever is interested? There doesn’t seem to be any goal to try to make sure there’s at least someone who could be compatible for everyone, or at least they haven’t mentioned it if there is. It’s just wild to me that they literally place a bunch of random people in the pods and hope for the best. Although, I suppose that is what dating is!

TV Shows I’ve Watched Recently – Inventing Anna

What a crazy show! I remember reading the article about Anna “Delvey” Sorokin back in 2018 when it was trending on Twitter and thinking “that’s insane”! And now, there’s a whole show about it! I honestly did really enjoy it. I know it’s not completely true to the real story, but it is still very entertaining. The idea revolves around real life Anna who cons a bunch of people into thinking she’s a rich German heiress. Because they think she’s rich, they lend her money or let her stay at fancy hotels with no concern about potentially not getting it back. Anna, in the meantime, is working to build her “foundation” which will really be just an expensive social club or sorts? In reality, Anna is nowhere near close to building her club and is from a poor Russian family so she has no money. Her catchphrases become “I’ve already wired the money!”, “my money is tied up in the European banks!” and “my dad cut me off AGAIN!”.

It’s honestly a truly silly story of rich people. It’s funny to see other people show up who are also infamous, like Billy McFarland of the failed Fyre Festival. Also, it was honestly perfectly timed too, as it made a great companion piece to watch after the film The Tindler Swindler. (Which I am planning to include in a future movies post – again, wayyyyyy after the hype though LOL!) But it goes to show how different life is for the mega rich. No one seems to stop and wonder if they actually can do it, but they just blindly follow along with whatever crazy idea the pretend rich folks have. And, despite the fact that Anna did actually scam hotels, businesses, and friends out of so much money, it was hard to feel sorry for them. No one did their due diligence or really suffered as a result after all. The hotels make plenty of money, so I doubt they were truly affected. The finance guy that was helping Anna and ignored the protocol to make sure the firm he worked for didn’t lose money, got a promotion after the whole event. Anna had a whole scene where she specifically called out that men who mess up would never face the consequences of their actions while she ends up in prison with a court date. Oh, and the friend who ended up with over $60,000 worth of charges in Morocco? All got forgiven by American Express and she ended up with a book deal for $300,000!

In the end, only Anna faced consequences in real life. Her friends all cut their loses (or got them forgiven), maybe even profited from their involvement as victims of Anna’s, and moved on. The businesses Anna scammed have all moved on. Only Anna is in jail trying to fight deportation now. Which does make sense. They are Anna’s crimes after all. But at the end of the day, it seems crazy that Anna should profit from her crimes (which she isn’t legally supposed to do) even if it made for a great Netflix show.

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So those are my thoughts on season one of Rebelde, season one of Love is Blind, and Inventing Anna. All fun, all enjoyable, all full of drama. If you’ve watched these, let me know! Especially Rebelde. No one I know IRL watches that one!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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