yeah, we just added some of the edgiest emojis that we could find. call us posers, if you think those aren't edgy. but we warn you, it's about to get all keyed-up in here!! you've been warned....
!!!!ATTENTION SIDENOTE READER!!!!
paradise city?? have you heard of it?? not the guns n' roses' song that happens to pull up if you goggle it, but the tv show. what about your friend?? have they heard of it?? if so, you may be wondering why we've got the tv show's soundtrack album cover as the poster over thur. for those who don't know anything about this show, you may be wondering the same question. the answer to this is because the soundtrack is where our relationship with this show began. and because we love ourselves a good ol' tale, we're about to tell you the tale of how we fell in love with the devil. (hehe, we're just joking. but you gotta say, that's a pretty alluring title, right?!?!)
to beging....*clearing throat*....paradise city made its glorious intro into our lives when we happened to be on IMDb. we saw the show under the 'browse trailers' page a long, long time ago, when the image thumbnail was just a random still from the show. well, not totally random. it was of the show's actress, bella thorne. anyways, we clicked on it due to the obvious reasonings of interest and "ooooo!! bella thorne!!" (since she was our fav on shake it up). after watching it, realizing that additional disney stars, cameron boyce and booboo stewart, were in it, and then understanding that it had some satanic-esque storyline behind it, we had some mixed feelings. shortly after, during those months where you wait for the show to release and debate if you'll watch it - thewait&debate(tm), we tragically lost cameron boyce ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ we will never forget the day it happened, because our mom saw someone post about it on insta and asked us if we knew him. we both just felt ๐, and our brains were like, "i don't want to know this right now!!" we weren't even the biggest jessie fans, but his death was absolutely devastating. it sounds cheesy and insincere to say "he was taken too soon", but it's true. rip cameron ๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค
as time went on from that, we felt even more yucky about the whole devil-worship stuff being connected to cameron. so, we just sorta forgot about paradise city....
fwrd four years to the present, paradise city returned to our lives with a little shocking realization. now it may not shock you to find out that, if we are utterly surprised by something, we flip the freak out and obsess over it a bit more than we should. when it comes to paradise city, we knew the gist of the plot (not really, because it had been some years since we watched the trailer), but we did not connect the show to the soundtrack. it sounds dumb, but what we mean by this is that we had seen the soundtrack album cover (the one above), and we knew it said paradise city on it, but we had forgotten that was the name of the show we were introduced to four years earlier. understand??
on an equal and also separate note, one of us (annie) follows machine gun kelly on spotify (long story)(don't ask). so when his song with travis barker, "a girl like you", hit the release radar, we didn't think much of it, because it was "from some show we didn't know". but on the other hand, since one of us (annie) also follows an artist called lilith czar (outright amazing - go check her out ๐ฏโค๏ธโ๐ฅ), when she released her collaborative single, "i don't believe in love", we listened to it and LOVED it. yet, nevertheless, we didn't know that the two were connected. it was only until we went to the yungblud concert (shout out to the sidenote we did on that experience!! click here) and saw the ballet boys aka palaye royale (that's what we call them ๐). so, one of us (annie) recently resurfaced the knowledge of paradise city through the band sleeping with sirens. let's be clear, annie didn't know the connection, she just found the soundtrack in the 'appears on' section on their spotify profile. and because she is a fan of sleeping with sirens, she wanted to watch it. and the day after the yungblud concert, she was still trying to persuade katie. however, that time that she showed katie the soundtrack, who was on it....the ballet boys!! the boys we literally just saw in concert!! coincidence, we think not!! so in addition to sleeping with sirens and machine gun kelly, we now had another band we knew on this show's album!! and of course, you have to have that one blind-as-a-bat moment every so often, because annie just so happened to miss that lilith czar's song, and katie had to point it out. no joke. this is the moment where when we say, if we are caught off guard by a fun fact, we flip the freak out!! so, in true curiosity-fashion, we pulled up the show....
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THIS WAS THAT SHOW - THAT SHOW WE WERE GONNA WATCH!! THAT SHOW WITH BELLATHRONE,CAMERONBOYCE,&BOOBOOSTEWART!!WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!
the next few moments unfolded like this:
- annie asking katie to watch the show.
- "it has a great soundtrack!!" = the evidence backing up this request - quote annie.
- katie being hesitant-hesitant and asking to watch a trailer for it. (fair)
- watching the trailer
- "it looks scary" = the reasoning to decline request - quote katie.
- annie giving the older-sister-understanding-but-still-sad-face
- katie feeling this and saying she would think about it over dinner.
- setting the table
- dinner
- dishes (which annie brought up the show during)
- grabbing water and dessert
- heading up stairs to watch something....
- then a simulatenous "we don't have to watch it if you -" and a "we can watch the 1st episode -"
- "are you sure??"
- "yeah."
- "OKAY!!"
and thus began our first night of paradise city watching!!
four episodes in....huh....we were both a bit conflicted. it seemed like they were making some elaborate connections and jumps for the audience. and did we hear infopackets?!?! don't get us wrong, we were hecka interested to see where the show was going, especially after the fourth episode's cliff hanger. but something still seemed to be off. what was it??
we fell asleep that night in that weird-space. that space where you might've just found the show you are gonna to fall head-over-heels for, but you don't know if you have or not. it's a questionable state to be in. the next morning, we did some light-non-spoiler research to see if there was a season two and discovered that paradise city is a series that follows the 2017 musical-thriller american satan (and that it would have a season 2). our first thought was "that makes sense. probably would give us more information on what's going on." and our second thought was "jeez that name!!"
initial judgement of the movie's title aside, we put a pause on our paradise city watching to see what american satan was about. and sure we were cautious (satan was in the title after all), but we had developed this hype-bug before we knew it. instantly that afternoon, we were excited to see the lead-up to the show, and we were so excited that we didn't rent it. we bought it!! (sorry dad, it was cheaper anyway). and it was a good thing that we did buy it!! those 112 minutes - plus some for our rewinding - were not enough!! and now, we were ready for paradise city!!
we must clear something up first. when we watch movies/tv shows, there is a big difference between watching it for our own personal enjoyment and watching it to score it. neither gives the film or show an advantage; we still see each with the same eyes. but it may effect how much we're gonna let our emotions wrap themselves around the film/show. for instance, whenever we go to watch glee, we have to talk ourselves out of the logistics of the ryan-murphy-universe (aka it not being entirely accurate or realistic in any sense). it doesn't make glee bad, and it doesn't mean it tops all shows out there, but this mindset-shift helps us sink into the mood of the show and allow for enjoyment. so likewise, we both know that american satan and paradise city are not the most renowned pieces of all time. there are a few nose scrunching moments, and there are some movie-to-show edits that we are not fans of (like how red they made the shot in the first pic). however, at the same time, there are great moments (like the blue gif we have included above). correspondingly, the plot is contagiously engrossing, and we can't help but love the characters/actors. and that's why and how we fell in love with the show!! yep, you heard it, right. call it official!!
it's also important to note that we have stopped shows before (like a teacher) for their poor qualities (like the editing in a teacher). we've also endured awful tv shows that we wished we hadn't like we are who we are and euphoria season two - SO, we are well aware (at least now) to know when to stop a show for it's crapiness. it's our rule to only watch what our time is worth. all that to say, paradise city may not be the cleanest cut tv show, but we are not just sticking through it without purpose or pleasure.
THEREFORE!! we want to state it, here at twinsAF, that american satan and paradise city has appreciable acting skill - if not significant. amongst our journey with this series, we came across some hatful criticism about the acting. something about how the movie had the worst acting you'll ever see. huh?? no. sorry - LIKE WHAT!! speaking as two film-lovin' twins, who have seen a whole lotta movies and shows with various acting-ranges, we attest that the actors and actresses, in both movie and show, do an incredible job. we pointed it out while watching, ourselves. and our minds were once again blown when we learned that andy biersack, who plays johnny faust, and ben bruce, who plays leo donovan, are not actors but are actual musicians!! to be honest, our minds are still blown!!
now, we couldn't find an image or gif of the stupendously emotional and raw ben bruce moment when he is (spoiler) drinking and crying on the plane after his best friend died, but you can see another cry-moment at the end of this gif that gives you just a peek-a-boo of what we're talking about. to say the least, his crying moment is one of the best crying scenes we have seen, and it is definitely better than a lot of a-list actors out there. switching to johnny aka andy, nah. don't go and tell me that his acting sucks.
maybe it's not your liking of acting, but we believe that he does one heck of an outstanding job portraying all of his character's emotions in a super realistic way that has to be commended. it just feels real, which makes your emotional response to the show even more intense!!
similarly, what's the beef with bella thorne?? why are we saying she is a "disney star that has gone off the rails"?? wtf?? and, we promise you, we are not just saying this, because we have see her in paradise city, and now have a different opinion on the subject. we have never understood this bella-hate. it may be because those haters are conservative a-hats and/or don't actually know her, but we've included an article that may bring awareness to the struggles that the beautiful star has had to face. though, with all the influence that we may have, we ask that people stop hating her and any other person, especially females, for being outspoken or different from you. link: https://www.nme.com/features/tv-interviews/bella-thorne-interview-paradise-city-cancel-culture-2919542
lastly, we want to say that, although this may be completely off topic, it's a sidenote, so we can do whatever we want. so, do you think that andy biersack looks like a husky?? we've provided picture-evidence for you to see, but we totally think so!!
yeah!! he SO has husky eyes. hashtag validated!!
anyways, sorry if this has been a long sidenote. we just talk a lot when we are passionate. we encourage everyone, who is interested, to go and watch american satan and paradise city. they'll give you a new take on the music industry, if you didn't already know-so. and, if you don't know if you are interested, we've provided the trailers to (1) paradise city and (2) american satan below.
ROCK N ROLL BABY!! AREN'T WE EDGY?!?! ๐คฃ๐คฃ
ps. falafel man from batman begins is in it, and he doesn't play an annoying character!!
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