my much loved friend is giving me the ick!

[packratandproud]

I love her very much and can NEVER talk about this in real life as she's in a senstive place at the mo,but she has become obsessed with Heated Rivalry- so far , so meh but she's fallen down a rabbit hole of watching loads of Youtube and tik tok videos - and then telling me all about the actors as if she knows them - using their first names only and saying things like " Jack (can't remember their real names) was really funny because when he met John he said ......and John said ...."
I know I'm being mean and like I said, my lips are sealed in real life- as each to their own and all that- but it makes me cringe inside out
It's definitely become her obsession over the last few weeks and she's talking about it loads and it's reminding me of a teenager! We are in our forties by the way!

well yes, and i think and certainly in my friends case, the marketing is the main thing that is working- especially TikTok
She loved a different show about a year ago- and wasn't on tiktok then and she wasn't like this with all the cringe first names stuff

Thats also why I asked about Yungblud as there's loads on there about him too

Either she is not picking up on social cues or you are a really good actor/friend and feigning interest!

I think it's nice you realise it's a distraction for her. When you have had enough...any luck changing the subject? Anything you are watching that you think she would love?

I do like watching a series with someone so you can talk about it. There's regular updates on Traitors in work that bores me completely but they are so into it.

Oh my god, I’ve got a friend with the exact same thing! I think she thinks it’s a bit edgy or something?
It’s cringeworthy, and boring as fuck.

yep I put up with it for a bit and then change the subject which she does, it's not really the length of the discussion - it's the teenage style chatting as if she knows them.
I could chat for a long time about some films - but it's the WAY she is talking about it- like she personally knows them and all the backstage in jokes etc etc - it just comes over like a teenager talking about Take That and poring over Smash Hits magazine

Does she do the first name thing?

That was the first name that popped into my head

A bit, she told me how 2 of them are having an affair or some shit, I don’t know I went to the toilet in the end just to change the subject when I got back.
She just talks about it loads and loads and gets angry that we haven’t watched it, - when she has demanded that we do.
It’s extremely weird.

I hope it’s not dementia! I am also quite obsessed (in a very mild way) about a younger celebrity but his existence gives me a lot of joy (far more than the miserable life I had with my real life ex). I don’t talk about him any more because my son said, mum you’re obssessed - gulp 😳😳 so I try to keep my adoration of him under wraps but inside I’m like a 1970s teeny bopper 😂

I have a friend who does the same thing with this show. it's SO weird. I saw them a couple of weeks ago and they kept playing me clips of it on Youtube. Like, I just don't care. It's not for me. But they wouldn't stop going on about it.

Yeah, this. My UK friends go on forever about that Traitor show. I engage minimally, and conversations move on. What I don't do is come online and invite strangers to talk shit about someone I claim to love.

If you have the ick, stop seeing her - I guess?

Yes!!! this is what my friend is like - like she might stand outside a hotel room and scream 😂

We might have the same friend!

luckily for you, you are just so perfect

You do sound about 12. Carry on.

I think you're going to have to try to find your humour around this OP so you can carry on loving your friend and lighten your annoyance load.

Haha 😂. Well I definitely wouldn’t do that (and don’t buy any merch connected to him). It’s more of a secret world I have and he’s in it. His existence has been good for my mental wellbeing but I’m savvy enough not expose my infatuation (for want of a better word) to the outside world. My son pulling me up on it was enough to put a lid on it 😳

Just to add, I have never even heard of this program.

Based on other things you've said, I'm confident it's not, however that means there's two people who have gone slightly unhinged with this show.

My friend doesn't speak to me so much about the shows they know we both actually love, and never so obsessively about any other show. There's something about this one that has people going a bit weird. It moved on to me even getting made to watch videos of those fake lesbian Russians singing "all the things you said" or whatever it's called because of it's connection to the show. That was the point I politely brought it to and end, but it was a good half hour of HR nonsense by that point 😂I did also tell my friend I think they're slightly losing the plot.

I‘ve got 2 friends in 40s / 50s obsessed with HR and Yungblud. I don’t get it and just treat it like any other subject I have no interest in I.e. move the conversation on. I’ve got no patience though in general for people relating lengthy plots of films etc. Get a clue that you are being boring!

Whilst you sound extremely mature.

Sympathies, OP. Various people I know are also into this show and I'm afraid that when I tried to watch it, it gave me the massive ick because a) the men are so slick and boring they're like Ken dolls, but mainly b) the horrible noises during the sex scenes?? I don't need to hear their mouth noises! I don't need the weird pornographic noises the Russian guy makes when he's getting a blowjob, which manage to be both disgusting AND to suggest he's actually quite bored? I'm not getting it.

thanks

My best friend is exactly the same regarding Heated Rivalry and knows everything about each actor, the production, the sponsors, the producers... She has proper deep dived it and has watched the whole thing 3 or 4 times that I know of. I've tried to watch it and just don't see the appeal. Even given their very lovely backsides. The characters are very one-dimensional and while admittedly I only watched two episodes, it got very boring watching them hook up then ignore each other over and over again - like, the Canadian one is a total doormat.

But it's nice when other people really love something and Lord knows there isn't much joy in the world right now. Let people have their nice things.

oh yes- now you see this was a very clever scene according to tik tok when in fact it was just a totally normal montage with slowmotion and a remixed song

😂

I get this - I know people who are like this with SNP politicians, they talk about about as if they're simultaneously some kind of soap opera, and their best friends. Friends referring to 'Nicola' and 'Humza' all the time made me cringe. It's really hard to articulate the line between talking about something someone normally, and this weird vibe, but there is definitely a line.