TOP 5 TOXIC COUPLES ON TV

From time to time we’ve seen amazing couples on T.V. that we idolized. Even though it all seemed dreamy and unrealistic we still smiled insanely when they did something cute and often complained to our significant other to be like them. Some of the most adorable couples that shared perfect chemistry were Lily and Marshall from How I Met Your Mother, Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World, Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt from Parks and Recreation, Amy and Jake from Brooklyn-99 and many many more.

But there were a few T.V. couples that were presented as ‘cute’ but are actually weirdly insane and obsessive when you think about it.

1. Rachel Green and Ross Geller from F.R.I.E.N.D.S

The top of this list makes Rachel and Ross from FRIENDS. Why? They seem adorable at first but when you think about it there were a lot of things you can learn of what not to do when in a relationship. And rule number 1 is to not be so obsessive about someone that it ruins your entire life. Ross was highly possessive and jealous of Rachel's friendship with one of her colleagues that it turned him into someone else. But even before their relationship started, he was obsessed with her. Maybe the fact that he thought he was out of her league was what attracted him even more to the idea of being with her. Their constant quelling during the entire season of who did what to who and Rachel's fear of losing him to another woman even after their breakup managed to get Ross another divorce. So much so that they kept breaking up and making up for 10 whole seasons. Constantly sabotaging each others relationships and then trying to be the better person by not admitting they are in love. By the end of it they have a kid, live together and pretend to be married (even when they do end getting married while drunk and then getting a divorce before all this, mind you) but don’t stay with each other as a couple. But then Rachel gets a highly amazing job in Paris and THAT’S when Ross realizes he needs her back. Jeez. This is not cute. And under no circumstance is it heal

2. Beth and Jerry from Rick and Morty

 

Now I know Rick and Morty is an animated show. But it doesn’t rule out the fact that cartoons can’t have unhealthy relationships. Beth and Jerry is the most toxic relationship I have ever seen on TV. There is an entire episode dedicated to them, of when they go to see an intergalactic couple therapist who makes them create a monster of each other, so that they can sort out their problems. Upon using the machine they come to the conclusion that Jerry see’s Beth as a horrible scorpion monster thing and Beth see’s Jerry as self-pitying and weak, which visually becomes a slug. Those two monsters, when kept under observation, become co-dependent and destroy the entire place and kill most of the staff. The therapist, upon witnessing such a chaotic event, realizes that their problematic couple issues are co-dependent of each other  which makes their relation so toxic that Beth can easily manipulate Jerry and Jerry, having a low IQ can use the ‘self-pity’ card when in trouble with Beth. The only reason why they’re together is because of the kids. 

      3. Mr and Mrs Ari Gold from Entourage

Ari Gold and his wife were apparently high school sweethearts who got married. But you see that she’s constantly… and I mean CONSTANTLY… complaining about him and his attitude and how he never seems to have time for her. Their marriage turns into such a big mess that by the end of the seasons they have to go to a marriage therapist. They, of course, have moments of endearment but it always seems as though there’s not much chemistry left between the two and they don’t like where they are. She eventually leaves him and starts to see other people and he, to make her upset, tries to do the same. That sort of marriage leaves nothing but regrets and creates mental hindrances to stop each other from growing. Ari Gold, despite loving his wife so much, never really puts up much effort to be with her and she, in return, tries to take out grudges of the past

      4. Ted Mosby and Robin Scherbatsky from How I Met Your Mother

Ted and Robin, like Ross and Rachel, are obsessed with each other, don’t want one another to see anyone else, and pretend to be happy when the other one is in a romantic relationship. If I’m being honest, they’re not too far from Ross and Rachel. The only difference is that Ross and Rachel knew each other since high school and these two met at a bar for the first time in their 20’s. The whole series is about Ted Mosby telling his kids of how he’s trying to find his perfect match. The series shows Ted and Robin being together and breaking up by the end of season 3. But he keeps constantly bringing her up as an old romance that he can’t forget. Even though they both want different things, the series magically ends up giving them both what they wanted AND they end up with each other. Why this is on the list is

a)       Ted is obsessed with Robin, so much so that his kids point it out in the last episode

b)      The series very conveniently puts them together at the end and that’s really a wrong depiction of love

c)       And despite being oh so very old with 2 kids at the age of 15 he is still trying to peruse her with their permission even though he found the love of his life… apparently.

This goes to show that he never really stop thinking about her. And neither did she. Its all romantic and what not, but even when you’re married?? Think about it. What if the mother never died in the series? Then would they have continued their relationship somehow?

      5. Haley Dunphy and Dylan from Modern Family

Okay so now I know that Haley and Dylan are probably the funniest couple in all of this but they were still unhealthy to start with. Due to the fact that Dylan was a little obsessed with Haley, he never really let her think she had to be challenged in any way. He always seemed to cheekily compliment her and I know that’s not a bad thing, but it never really lets the other person grow. Not only that, but Dylan wasn’t the smartest either. It seemed more like he was trying to dumb her down all the time, and when she left Dylan, to compensate for her loss, Haley started dating a man the age of her father, someone who was mature, experienced, and of course, smart. Dylan really held Haley back because he wasted a lot of her time, did childish things, and never really pushed Haley to her limits. Being in an unhealthy relationship is not only mental or physical torture, but an unhealthy relationship is also one that doesn’t let one another grow, it doesn’t let their significant other challenge their limits, and most importantly, it stops the couple to be their best selves. In all retrospect, I think that is most important thing you should look at when you’re finding ‘the one’.

CRIMINAL MINDS

Beginning in the 1990s, behavioral scientists—that is, people who study mind, brain, and behavior—began to take the theory of evolution seriously. They began to borrow techniques developed by the evolutionary biologists and apply them to problems in mind, brain, and behavior. Now, of course, virtually all behavioral scientists up to that time had claimed to endorse evolutionary theory, but few used it to study the problems they were interested in. All that changed in the 1990s. Since that pivotal decade, breakthroughs in the behavioral and brain sciences have been constant, rapid, and unremitting. The purpose of the Brain, Behavior, and Evolution series of titles published by ABC-CLIO is to bring these new breakthroughs in the behavioral sciences to the attention of the general public. In the past decade, some of these scientific breakthroughs have come to inform the clinical and biomedical disciplines. That means that people suffering from all kinds of diseases and disorders, particularly brain and behavioral disorders, will benefit from these new therapies. That is exciting news indeed, and the general public needs to learn about these breakthrough findings and treatments. A whole new field called evolutionary medicine has begun to transform the way medicine is practiced and has led to new treatments and new approaches to diseases, like the dementias, sleep disorders, psychiatric diseases, and developmental disorders that seemed intractable to previous efforts. The series of books in the Brain, Behavior, and Evolution series seeks both to contribute to this new evolutionary approach to brain and behavior and to bring the insights emerging from the new evolutionary approaches to psychology, medicine, and anthropology to the general public. The Brain, Behavior, and Evolution series was inspired by and brought to fruition with the help of Debora Carvalko at ABC-CLIO. The series editor, Dr. Patrick McNamara, is the director of the Evolutionary Neurobehavior Laboratory in the Department of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine. He has devoted most of his scientific work to the development of an evolutionary approach to problems of sleep medicine and to neurodegenerative diseases. Titles in the series will focus on applied and clinical implications of evolutionary approaches to the whole range of brain and behavioral disorders. Contributions are solicited from leading figures in the fields of interest to the series. Each volume will cover the basics, define the terms, and analyze the full range of issues and findings relevant to the clinical disorder or topic that is the focus of the volume. Each volume will demonstrate how the application of evolutionary modes of analysis leads to new insights into the causes of disorder and functional breakdowns in brain and behavior relationships. Each volume, furthermore, will be aimed at both popular and professional audiences and will be written in a style appropriate for the general reader, the local and university libraries, and graduate and undergraduate students. The publications that become part of this series will, therefore, bring the gold discovered by scientists using evolutionary methods to understand brain and behavior to the attention of the general public, and ultimately, it is hoped, to those families and individuals currently suffering from those most intractable of disorders— the brain and behavioral disorders.

Olympus Has Fallen

“Olympus Has Fallen” is 2013 action thriller movie directed by Antoine Fuqua. This film earned $170 million against a $70 million production budget. The word ‘Olympus’ is a fictional secret code for the White House which was fallen by the terrorist’s attack. White House is featured to be the most secured place led by the President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart), but the true lead actor was Gerald Butler as Mike Banning. He used to be a top presidential protector of President’s family until a tragic event happened with President’s family and he was transferred to another department as a punishment. I will not spoil it by disclosing.

Now coming to the main plot of the story, a group of extreme terrorists working for North Korea took over the White House and held the President and his secretaries for hostage, but Mike Banning became the sole hope who acted as a hero, saved the President and prevented the nuclear disaster. He joined the White House’s defenders. Somehow, he got into the White House and disabled the internal surveillance and got access to President’s satellite earphones through which he contacted the speaker of the White House. After this he managed to save the President’s son and sneaked the boy safely out of the building. Then he went back to rescue the President.

In start ‘Olympus has Fallen’ was largely succeeded due to the bravery of Mike, who became one-man army against the North Korean terrorists. The way he used his physical skills and mind cunningness were fascinating. Every action in the movie, fights, attacks, destructions were captured by the camera so brilliantly that it seemed like reality. This movie also depicts the loyalty and love of people for the White House as even when they were being brutally killed one by one by the terrorists, they didn’t give up and fought to save the White House.

This movie is the one to watch as it is not only full of exciting thriller but also encouraging   patriotism to boil your blood for some action. I recommend you all to watch this movie.

SPIDER-MAN MOVIES: A RETROSPECTIVE (Part 1)

With the recent passing of the legendary Stan Lee (co-founder of Marvel comics), it seems fitting to rank the movie appearances of arguably his greatest creation: Spidey. It's no secret that Spider-Man has been Marvel's poster boy for decades now. His immense popularity is his debut back in 1962 has resulted in several different interpretations of the character in many different mediums. He has had 3 different movie franchises since 2002 and I will rank each movie in an article.

6. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

This movie is the ultimate example of a soulless Hollywood cash-grab made with only the financial incentive in mind. The problems with this film are so amateur and so numerous that I'm surprised it got a theatrical release.. The story is all over the place with like 50 subplots going on and only about 2 of them being important and only one that's somewhat interesting at times. The Peter and Gwen subplot is the most interesting but it's plague with annoying dialogue and it's generally repetitive nature throughout. The subplot with Peter's parents doesn't really affect anything in the story or Peter's characters and works off really dumb coincidences (Peter throwing a calculator against the wall to find some hidden tokens). It culminates in the revelation that Peter's dad made super spiders that would only give powers to someone with Parker DNA. Meaning they pretty much screwed up the everyman aspect of the character by saying he was CHOSEN to be Spidey.  The other subplots like Harry and Electro are so boring and terribly done that I won't even bother going too much into detail about them aside from them both being about two underdeveloped characters going evil because they think Spider-Man betrayed them..somehow.  The movie has 3 villains because that worked out SO WELL THE LAST TIME THEY TRIED IT. Jamie Foxx's Electro, Dane Dehaan's Green Goblin and Paul Giamatti's Rhino. None of them are developed very well or acted well. Heck you could cut out Jamie Foxx's Electro from the film and it would affect very little.

The acting is meh. A lot of the actors just didn't feel like they were trying. Garfield was good sometimes but mostly no. Dane Dehaan was absolutely terrible. I could make a compilation of how he butchers lines. Jamie Foxx was the only one who felt like he was trying.

The soundtrack by Pharell Williams and Hans Zimmer was hilariously bad. There's a part in the film where the soundtrack boils down to just whispers. "He liieeed to meeee". It's very clear that they chose dubstep for the soundtrack just to appeal to kids and it took me out of the film everytime. There is an actual scene in the movie where Electro plays "itsy bitsy spider" in dubstep. My god.

But I wanna give the film credit where credit is due. The scenes where Spider-Man swings around truly are amazing. The pov shots, the vfx and the tiny details like the ripples on the suit make for the best webswinging in any Spidey movie yet. The suit is also possibly the best looking live action suit so far (tied with the MCU one) and the scene with Gwen's death is done pretty well (despite it being surrounded by 2 hours of garbage and disrespecting the source material). So yeah the movie has about half a good thing about it/

This film shows a complete lack of understanding of the Spider-Man character by having him do things like letting people die while he makes jokes, constantly breaking up with Gwen, telling Harry he won't help, etc. That's what annoys me about this film the most. It doesn't care about the character and focuses more on setting up a cinematic universe (which ended up getting canned anyway). No wonder Sony ended up letting Marvel make a Spidey movie for them and they did a much better job.

Overall the film is absolute garbage and spit in the face of the Spider-Man character. It's truly the worst interpretation of Spider-Man on screen...which is saying a lot.

4/10 and those points are only for the webswinging scenes.

TO BE CONTINUED

RAAZI MOVIE (2018)

Raazi is a 2018 Spy Thriller film directed by Meghna Gulzar starring Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal in Lead Roles. This movie is based on a novel of Harinder Sikha’s 2008 novel “Sehmat calling” The story revolves around an Indian spy girl Sehmat (Alia Bhatt) married to a Pakistani man during the Indo Pakistan war in 1971. This story from the trailer looked really compelling as it was. Hidayat Khan is an agent posing as a spy for the Pakistani government. Before his death, he desires to make her daughter Sehmat an agent and continue the family custom of being in service to the country as a last wish. Hadiyat uses his friendship with Brigadier Syed of the Pakistan Army to get Sehmat married to his son, he was also a military officer. The Kashmiri woman Sehmat who is going to an enemy territory and assimilating that life in an effort to send information back to home country. She was trained to become a spy and not only that she is extremely inexperienced, but she also is just 20 years old and has to spy on his husband and in-laws. She was having guilt over certain things that she had to do in order to complete her mission she had a very short time with which to work in order to get up to speed on how to be a Spy she was doing it for the country. As soon as she settled in a new family she builds trust with her new family and begins to gather information. Ultimately Sehmat got the information related to the planning against India and at great risk, she was able to gather some important information. After some time she was able to send information to her country Pakistan in coding with a telegram. Due to fear of being caught, she killed two men and she was finally caught as a spy by her husband. The story was solid as it was based on true story. The directed style was good because it was very suspenseful throughout. Meghna Gulzar did a terrific job because Raazi is not a political movie that makes you think about complex dealings and difficult decision it's also Flat-out entertaining Spy movie. Some scenes of the movie are so intense especially the final scenes where Sehmat points the gun towards her husband whom she loves but her love for Pakistan is more. In this movie. Sehmat is really torn between her country and her husband to whom she loves a lot but unfortunately, she has to pick one side only. There are many things that she doesn't want to do but she has to do them because of her country. The movie is full of popular and hit songs. Dilbaro is wistful bidai song that has wonderful lyrics and will make you cry like a baby. Its background music is very captive and suites the plot.

Thoughts On Black Mirror (Season 1)

Black mirror is a series about different aspects of technology and how it will advance and affect us even more in the future. Every episode has different characters and themes, some darker than others. It scared me to watch it alone as they set the tone of most of the episodes pretty wild and chilling. Season one wasn’t that great, but it did give a lot of food for thought.

Season 1 has three episodes with three different themes. The first episode is about the prime minister of UK. He wakes up to find out that Princess Susanna of the royal family has been kidnapped. The kidnappers release a video on YouTube of how they want to see PM have sex with a pig while being video tapped live. This leads to a social media discussion and social pressure beings to dawn on the Prime Minister. That leads him to actually carry out the task with live cameras on. I’m going to leave out the technical aspects for you to watch. This brings into perspective of how much social media has an impact that even if the PM was given max protection by the best services, nothing could’ve prevented him from social pressure and nothing could’ve brought back the Princess but him. The hackers did it for the lulz. And in that they ruined his life. The internet is a harmful place and with the crazy ones who do understand it, they can make the world dance on their fingertips. Is what we pressure other people for really worth the pain? Is one person’s respect more important than the others? Why is it that we only see one aspect of a situation posted on social media and when it turns out to be EXACTLY the way it should we regret our decision?

The second episode is a little slow. I believe it’s more metaphorical than a technological aspect of the series. So, I’m going to skip that. The only interesting thing about it is that humans live on a ship floating in outer space (kinda like the idea of spaceX), They're all surrounded by technology and the only thing fueling the ship is people running on machines, to which in return they get paid in their own space money. All in all, nothing is real but the humans.

The third episode is where Black Mirror starts getting interesting. In the future, they have introduced a technology that can record everything you see and is planted in your eyes. You can connect the device on your TV or rewind it so that you can see what you did and when. You can also erase memories. It revolves around how the main character is obsessed with finding out about his wife and an old friend of hers. He keeps rewinding to the time she was startled to see her with him. Till he cracks her and figures out she had been cheating on him and their child wasn’t his. This episode genuinely scared me to see where the future was going. On one hand, this technology is all we can hope for, to rewind good memories and keep watching them over and over again. But then it has the element of how bad memories can affect everyone around us if watched with them on a tv or if a loved one asks to view out old memories. We would be able to see erased memories as they have a blank area under some dates. And sometimes some memories might make us either stuck in time or obsessed with a memory to make us do something irrational, as was justified in the episode. If this sort of technology is ever introduced in the time that we live, I’d think a thousand times before getting it.

BOJACK HORSEMAN TALKS ABOUT DEPRESSION

Back in the 90’s he was in a very famous tv show… *neigh*… He’s Bojack Horseman (This is the literal outro of the series).

Bojack Horseman is an animated series created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. It is about an actor, Bojack Horseman, who was the star of a sit-com in the 90’s called Horsing Around. The actor enjoyed being recognized everywhere and loved for his character in the series but now has no work and is in a pit of despair. The series revolves around him and a few loved ones and how they all cope with their problems, including depression, anxiety, fears and other difficulties. 

The main focus of the animated series, Bojack, is an alcoholic, drug addicted douche who can’t help but plunge everyone else in his issues and sabotage their future just so they keep needing him and he can have some meaning to his life. In the first season, the creator makes everyone apathetic towards the main character whilst showing his flaws and how stubborn he can get. Although I have to admit the first season did not get me hooked but being the sort of person who has to finish what they started I watched the rest of the series anyways. Bojack hates the most loveable character on the show, Mr Peanut Butter, due to his overly optimistic personality. He tries to steal Mr. Peanut Butter’s girlfriend in spite, who is also Bojack’s biography writer. His constant need for approval is what makes the character so relatable and connected to the audience. Not only that but I feel connected to Bojack on a spiritual level because he knows his flaws and hates himself for them, but can’t help it due to his past. Slowly as the series moves on we find out why Bojack is the way he is. In his absolute egocentric universe he drowns and old costar from Horsing Around, Sarah Lynn, who had also become addicted to hard drugs and booze, but got clean. Sarah Lynn has similar issues to Bojack and that’s why they can relate to each other and understand each other better than anyone else can. He has a reunion with her and party’s with her for a whole month or two (they lose track of time after a few hits of cocaine) and she eventually dies. He gets together with another costar of Horsing Around and tries to create a similar series but runs away because he gets flashbacks of Sarah Lynn. Sarah Lynn saw Bojack as an authoritative figure that she looked up to and Bojack didn’t want to repeat that to the costar that he was with. The creators make this character close to reality as we all don’t want to make the same mistakes and run away when faced with old guilt instead of trying to fix what we did before and make it better this time around. He drives away, cuts off with everyone he knows and wounds up at his childhood place. There Bojack realizes that the reason why he is bitter and cynical of the world, and despite his achievements is still empty is because he never got the love he wanted from both his parents. The creators then decide to show us why his parents disapproved of Bojack.

Bojack’s grandmother’s brother died in the war which lead her to feel nothing at all. That effected Bojack’s mother, who was only a child, waiting for her mother to respond to her needs. Hence, Bojack’s mother became negligent to the life of money as she just wanted to be loved (plot of titanic much?). She slept with a middle-class man at a party and became pregnant with Bojack. They sticked together because of this and got married. After sometime of their life they realized that they weren’t in love and were incompatible with different thought processes. This made both of them despise Bojack because he’s the reason they had to stay together. They give him “advice” about love and marriage, amongst other things, which stayed at the back of his mind, shaping the way he acted as an adult. 

But because he knew why he was the way he was, he tried to end the cycle when given the opportunity. Bojack found his long-lost sister and tried to take care of her as much as he possibly could. He even tried to take care of his mother, who he left in the old-house. But he knew she was the reason he was a self-loathing, sloppy schmuck and that made him miserable and angry around her. Even when she was about to die he tried to find meaning behind her last words which might be of love. Her presence overwhelms Bojack so much that old memories flashback and he gets into an accident. The doctor gives him strong painkillers to finish production.

Bojack, to cope with all of that, tries to drown himself in the character of an on-shooting series of a detective. Paranoid, he thinks the writer has based all of the series on his life. Eventually he stops telling the difference between his character and his actual self, which leads to an incident where he almost chokes his female costar to death. At this point he realizes his issues have gone too far and goes to a rehab to reach out for help.

What I love about this series is that the show doesn’t focus on a nihilistic approach all the time since even the most depressing moments are undercut with a sign of hope for the future. It talks about how we define happiness and despite having everything in the world, somethings will always remain unsettling. And unless we choose to pursue the things we love instead of running after materialistic objectives all the time, letting the past make us bitter and cynical of life, we’re most likely to end up alone. In Bojack’s reality he has to face long term consequences as do we all. This show taught me that asking for help is okay it’s never too late to turn things around no matter how screwed up you get.