Hi friends!

Happy Halloween! I hope you are treating yourself to some candy today. I guess everyone celebrated adult Halloween last weekend, which was strange to me, since Halloween falls on a Friday this year. But, oh well. I have today off from work, and I am planning on going for a long walk around my neighborhood to look at all the Halloween decorations. I don’t know if it’s an L.A. thing or a modern times thing, but when I was growing up in New Jersey, people didn’t really decorate for Halloween outside of maybe putting a few pumpkins on their front steps. People in L.A. go all out! I’m talking: lights, inflatables, giant 12-foot skeletons, themed displays, the works. Some people put up more decorations for Halloween than they even do for Christmas. It’s really fun!

Last Sunday, a friend invited me and my husband Ross over for chili and to watch a spooky movie. Originally, I was going to make the chili and bring it over (he has the better TV for movie watching), but then we all had PTSD flashbacks to that cold open on The Office when Kevin drops the chili, so he just decided to make it instead. Fun fact, Mindy Kaling says in one of her books that she got into a huge fight over that cold open in the writers’ room (I think she hated it). But she was wrong, that moment was iconic.

The chili was great, and we ended up watching The Long Walk, which wasn’t bad, either! It was bleak and dystopian and a lot of people die in it, but if you’ve seen the trailer, that shouldn’t be surprising. It’s based on a Stephen King novel that was published in 1979, and it has a vaguely 1970s feel… but in the future?? I guess it’s like an alternate reality ‘70s. Cooper Hoffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son, plays the lead, and he’s pretty good! And I always love Mark Hamill as a villain. He’s so good at playing them. If I had one complaint about the movie, it’s that it was a little TOO lean. We got so little information on the world of this story, I felt a little cheated, to be honest.

Of course, we all started talking about how we would do on The Long Walk. If you’re unfamiliar, the premise of the film is that every year, the nation holds a contest for young men where the goal is to walk as long as you can at a speed of three miles per hour or faster, until the last person is standing. The winner gets a life-changing amount of money and one wish granted, and the losers all die. I like walking a lot, but I don’t think I would make it past the first day. My feet would be hurtin’! That’s the thing: no matter how good your shoes are, if you walk enough in them, your feet will hurt.

I just kept thinking about the actors who were in this movie, and how much walking they had to do while they were filming. Also, none of them had appropriate footwear, some were even in Converses. That would definitely be a challenging shoot.

One last thing before we get into the rest of the newsletter, and this one is for the Californians: I just returned my mail-in ballot for the November 4th special election, and it was SO easy! I didn’t realize that Measure 50 was the only thing on the ballot, I thought I would have to look up a bunch of potential judges or something. I feel like we are always voting on judges in these smaller elections. Anyway, here’s a reminder to return your ballot and vote YES on Measure 50! I’m not a Gavin Newsom stan or anything but he’s right about this one.

I’m just talking about one topic this week, so let’s get into it!

Playing armchair couples therapist with Love Is Blind

Not to sound like Chris Harrison here, but this was by far the least successful season in Love Is Blind history. In fact, if they ended the show right here, I would be okay with that. The experiment failed in all but a few cases. This is not a good way to meet your life partner. We’ve proven it over and over again. We’re not getting another Lauren and Cameron from season one. They were the exception, not the rule.

That said… I found it pretty damn entertaining, in a shitshow kind of way! Now, is this how we should be spending our one wild and precious life, watching 10 hours of shitshow? Probably not. But in case you don’t mind reading about said shitshow, I’ll break down all the couples now:

- Sparkle Megan and Jordan. I knew this show had me fucked up when the couple I was rooting for the most this season was a grown woman who refers to herself as “Sparkle Megan” and a man (with a child!!) who drinks chicken breast smoothies. Not to be misandrist, but why are men? It’s like they always take the shortest route from point A to point B, even if it means sacrificing quality of life and doing something completely insane. There have got to be better ways to get your macros in, man.

This couple posed an ethical question for us all, which was: should parents be allowed to go on this show? On the one hand, it doesn’t feel right to exclude them, but on the other, well, getting engaged to someone sight unseen when you have a young child they’ve (also) never met seems reckless at best, downright dangerous at worst. This couple also had ~class tensions~, in that Megan owns a $1.5 million house in L.A.*, and Jordan lives in a one-bedroom apartment where his son has the bedroom and he sleeps in the living room area. When Jordan said to her, “Sorry I can’t play tennis at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday,” oh, how I laughed! That is so very L.A. of her, to do leisure things at hours that beg the question, “Do these people even work?” (Her chyron says she’s an “entrepreneur,” but I have no idea what her business is.)

*To be fair, while that’s a ton of money, that’s actually not an extravagant price for a house in L.A., sadly. Like, I’m sure it’s a nice house, but it’s probably along the lines of a one-level 3BR/2BA, we’re not talking about a mansion in the hills or anything.

Ultimately, Megan ended it with Jordan before they ever got to the altar, citing major lifestyle differences. Jordan later said that he thought if he was at the same financial level as her, they never would’ve broken up, but I actually think it was more about his lifestyle as an active co-parent. She seems to still be in her “jet off to Europe without a second thought” era, which is fabulous, but to paraphrase Jordan, “going to Italy with a five year-old would be a nightmare.” And you know what? I appreciate that he said that. Because that would be my assumption about traveling long distances with young kids, but a lot of parents seem to downplay how difficult it is.

At any rate, I think breaking up was the right thing to do for these two, and it’s always kinder when people do that before the weddings. Jordan later said he regretted introducing Meg to his son, and we all collectively said, “No shit, dude. That’s why you don’t do that.”

- Annie and Nick. I have to say, Nick has one of the most unique career titles I’ve ever seen: “luxury watch dealer.” Which, according to him, is a flexible, work-from-home job? How does that work, exactly? And why do people shopping for luxury watches even need a dealer? I guess I’m not in the right tax bracket to understand. At any rate, Nick radiated slimeball energy to me from the start, especially once he told two different women in the pods that he was in love with them. WILD!! Is that a first for this show? Any reality TV fan worth their salt would know that doing that never ends well! It’s like these people don’t study the sacred texts of The Bachelor.

I actually thought Annie and Nick seemed to get along pretty well compared to some of the others, which, admittedly, isn’t a high bar. But then Nick blindsided her (in my opinion) with a break-up after a small argument (in my opinion) that he called his “breaking point.” It was one of the strangest break-up scenes I’ve ever seen. At first, Annie was almost giggling to herself, all, “Yeah, sorry I was acting a little crazy last night,” and then it went from zero to 60 with Nick deciding there was no coming back. I suppose it is better for womankind if Nick is single, though!! Get him off the streets! Or wait, maybe it’s better if he’s NOT single? Either way, he should stay out of the dating pool!

- Ali and Anton. Woof! Look, let me start out by saying that I’m not a huge fan of “traditional values,” as I think they can be very rigid, limiting, and exclusionary. So when people on these shows go on and on about just loving traditional values, I always roll my eyes. What’s funny about Ali and Anton is that they both would identify themselves as people with traditional values, but that’s not how they live their lives at all. Ali wants to be a stay-at-home mom, but she doesn’t cook or clean, and is in school to advance her career as a nurse. And Anton wants to be a family-oriented provider, but… well, I don’t want to be rude, but I don’t think he’s making enough as a trucker for them to be a single income household. Beyond that, his partying days are certainly NOT behind him.

The biggest reveal this couple had was that chilling scene when Ali kept asking, “where did that 12-pack go?” and “where did that bottle of tequila go?” and Anton’s story kept changing. First it was that he had a friend over and they each had four beers each, then it was that he met his friend in the lobby and brought down two beers total. (Side note: I guess Ali didn’t want this friend in their apartment? Did you pick up on that, too?) I also had a little giggle when Anton basically said, “I’ll show you I’m not dependent on alcohol. I’ll stop for a week or two.” Like, oh, wow, a whole week or two! And then you’ll… what, go back to having morning beers every day when you get off of work?

In the end, while Anton said yes at the altar, Ali said no, saying that he wasn’t the same guy she fell in love with in the pods. And that, kids, is why you always live together before you get married. (I’m just kidding, do whatever you want!!)

- Madison and Joe. Look, I don’t mean to be mean, but is there anything to like about Joe? He’s another guy who should be taken out of the dating pool. His sense of humor seems to revolve around putting other people down and then saying “I’m just joking.” I can’t stand people who weaponize “humor” like that. Honestly, what I think happened was that Madison was not his physical type when they met in person, but he dragged things out so he wouldn’t look like the bad guy and could be on the show longer. He and Madison had some of the most mind-boggling fights I’ve ever seen on this show. Their communication skills are not dissimilar to two people speaking completely different languages. Joe ultimately had a breakdown during tux shopping (lol), and called it off. It was like the male version of that scene from Sex And The City, I guess. For the best! Madison is a smokeshow!

- Kalybriah and Edmond. Oh, goodness. So much to unpack with this couple. First, I really felt for what Edmond shared in the pods about his difficult childhood, growing up largely in foster homes. I really, really wanted to root for him. Of COURSE you want someone with a story like that to find their person and be chosen for who they are.

The first red flag came when the couples were still on their post-engagement trip to Mexico, when Edmond started whining because Kalybriah wanted to wait until marriage to have sex. Now, I have to say I didn’t really understand her logic there, because she was not a virgin, and in fact had even had one night stands relatively recently, but she said those guys didn’t matter to her, and she wanted to wait to sleep with guys who really mattered to her. I found that a little confusing. I can understand waiting until marriage, and I can understand having casual sex, but I can’t really understand waiting until marriage if you’re someone who has casual sex. You know?

Regardless, it is 100% her choice, and Edmond was being what we call in the scientific community a big baby bitch about it. This was one of those moments where I could actually see his point of view, but the way he went about expressing it certainly did not look good on camera. Look, I think most American adults in 2025 probably do not want to wait until marriage to have sex. That said, for him, the wait would have been a matter of a few weeks, not months or years. And he compared them to the other couples and whined about how he was the only guy not getting some, which was not a good look!

Throughout his behavior on the show, Edmond really just seemed to lack maturity, and his communication with Kalybriah was not great. That’s not 100% on him, as Kalybriah seemed to like to talk at him for long periods of time and scold him to “correct” his behavior. But she also accused him of acting differently when the cameras were there, which is a huge red flag. I also don’t know what was up with his obsession with having that comb in his hair! I could not believe he was standing up there at the altar on his wedding day with a comb stuck in the side of his head! He clearly thought it was really cool.

Comb or no comb, Edmond said yes at the altar, and Kalybriah said no, which was definitely the right decision, although it was a little sad that she took it all the way to the altar, in front of Edmond’s sweet fifth grade teacher and everything. I love and hate that they make people decide at the altar. It’s amazing television and horribly traumatizing to the people involved at the same time.

Oh, and can we also talk about Edmond’s mom, and how sketchy she was when she complained to Kalybriah about her other daughters in law “ratting her out” to their husbands? It was very odd. Like, she was obviously saying or doing messed up things if these women felt the need to go to their husbands about it, right? I think Kalybriah dodged a bullet there.

- Kacie and Patrick. I will admit that Patrick was another guy I was rooting for at first. I liked him and Anna together, I thought it was kind of romantic that they both were Asian Americans who had never dated another Asian person before, but were really attracted to each other. I don’t know, it sounds creepy when I type it out like that, but trust me, it was romantic. Patrick seemed ready to propose to her, but then Anna suddenly left the show without even saying goodbye, and I feel like we still don’t know what happened there. Where Patrick fell off for me was when he decided to then go on and propose to his #2, Kacie. That just really cheapened whatever he had with Anna, that he could move on so quickly. I know this is a show and everything, but there has to be some level of gravitas to getting engaged, don’t you think?

Kacie was a total asshole and broke up with Patrick the day after they met in person for the first time, so they never made it to Mexico, let alone the altar. And then we never saw Kacie again! I have to say, I was appalled when Patrick said she refused to give the ring back. Girlie, you were engaged for all of 24 hours and YOU WERE THE ONE WHO BROKE IT OFF! I don’t always think returning the ring is called for, but surely we can agree that in this situation, it’s a given.

And now this has led me down a rabbit hole to find out who even pays for the engagement rings, anyway. As I suspected, it’s production. Basically, the men can choose from a selection of rings that production pays for, but if they want to “upgrade,” they’ll pay for that out of pocket. Or, they can use a family ring, but I would really hope they wouldn’t. It’s unclear if Patrick spent any of his own money on Kacie’s ring, but I still think based on the fact that their engagement was so short-lived, she shouldn’t be hanging onto that thing. I think the dumpee should get the ring in the event of a broken engagement. I don’t know, what do you think?

Alright folks, that’s enough outta me!

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Until next time—happy Halloween!

Love,

Liz

XOXO