“The Bachelor” is a romantic game show in which an eligible bachelor tries to find love by eliminating contestants. Fans of the popular television series are delighted to witness the new season with a unique twist. The latest installment features Gerry Turner, a father from Indiana, who at 72 years old holds the record for the oldest bachelor on the series. In the first episode of the season, Turner said among the 16 eligible women, he’s hopeful to find his future partner.

The first episode opened with a heartbreaking monologue from Turner, detailing the loss of his wife due to a bacterial infection. Throughout the episode, you get to meet a man desiring a second chance at finding someone with whom he will spend the rest of his life, and also all of the women competing for that special spot in his heart. Due to the number of contestants and the creativity that each one brought to the show, it was clear from the start that this would be a tough competition. From tear-away costumes to a surprise motorcycle entrance, everyone is brought their all.

 So far, the series has been well-received with some reviews like “…make sure you tune in” and  “Completely obsessed” from social media users. I found this first episode outstanding and it seems like the type of show that is here to stay for a good while. Not only was there a dramatic rose ceremony, but I also enjoyed a variety of contestants. A notable contestant was a woman named April who brought a calendar full of fabulous pictures of herself and every month was replaced with her name. Another was Jimmy Kimmel’s 83-year-old aunt chippy who heard about the show and wanted to be a part of it. Unfortunately, she slept through the rose ceremony and will not be progressing through the competition.

With “The Golden Bachelor”, not only is it entertaining to see romance unfold, but also to witness the rivalries and dramas as they blossom between the contestants. Some significant challenges with the stigmas behind dating later in life will certainly present themselves in the future of the show. Not only will “The Golden Bachelor” show that it’s never too late for love to prevail, but it shows how exciting and beautiful people are in their “golden years” despite negative representation. It is certain that viewers will be treated to an exciting and unpredictable plot, with some surprising twists and turns. The previews show an absolute emotional rollercoaster including plenty of tears between Turner and the contestants. As the season progresses, romances and rivalries are sure to escalate.

The pilot episode of “Yellowjackets” begins with a hunt. A teenage girl runs barefoot through a barren forest covered in snow. She is dressed in a thin, dirty nightgown and wearing a necklace with a gold, heart-shaped charm. We never see her face, but her abject terror is clear through her sharp breaths and trembling sobs. Unnerving whoops, caws and howls can be heard coming from behind her. Suddenly, the dark-haired girl falls through a hidden pit of spikes. Dead. Another young girl appears, wearing a long coat made of animal pelt, a face mask fashioned out of an old sweater and bright pink converse, looking over her body from above. 

When “Yellowjackets” first premiered on streaming platform Showtime in 2021, it quickly garnered rave reviews and a large fanbase. The show, which finished airing its second season in May of 2023, boasts a star-studded cast and a spine-chilling premise. “Yellowjackets” is told from two points in time: the first being New Jersey 1996, where the Wiskayok High School girl’s soccer team is going to nationals. Tragedy strikes when their plane crashes on the way, leaving the Yellowjackets stranded deep in the Canadian wilderness, hundreds of miles off-course, for a total of 19 months before miraculously being found. Cut off from civilization and subject to two brutal winters, the team forms into a cannibalistic cult to survive. In the second timeline, it is 2021, and the survivors of the horrific disaster are trying (and failing) to move on with their lives. In the first season, we know of five confirmed survivors of the plane crash: bored housewife Shauna Sadecki (Melanie Lynskey), high-powered lawyer turned New Jersey Senator candidate Taissa Turner (Tawny Cypress), Travis Martinez (Kevin Alves), reclusive son of the Yellowjackets’ head coach, strange, generally off-putting nurse Misty Quigley (Christina Ricci), and Natalie Scatorccio (Juliette Lewis), who is freshly sober and has recently moved back to Wiskayok. 

To me, what makes Yellowjackets one of the best shows of 2023 is not the cast or premise – though they are both incredible. Instead, it is the way the show discusses the lingering impact horrific trauma has on a person, as well as the struggles of girlhood in general. Out in the wilderness, the team eventually finds an old abandoned cabin in which to take shelter, and slowly become convinced that something supernatural is happening to them. They find the skeletal remains of a man in the cabin’s attic, and a strange symbol carved into its floor and on several trees. Taissa begins sleepwalking in some sort of fugue state where someone or something else seems to be in control. Charlotte “Lottie” Matthews, whose fate remains unknown in season one, starts having strange visions and prophetic dreams. Thus, Lottie quickly becomes the de facto spiritual leader of the group and personifies this supposed supernatural force as “the Wilderness.”

Despite all of this, the show is careful to never definitively confirm whether Something was out there with the team, or if it was all something they created to justify their violent rituals and eventual cannibalism. The symbols could have been carved by the dead man in the attic. Taissa’s sleepwalking could just be her mind trying to cope with the life-altering trauma she just experienced. Lottie had been on antipsychotic medication for most of her childhood, and only began seeing things after her medication ran out. Haunted by the things they did in the name of a supposed “God,” the surviving Yellowjackets are stuck in an indefinite limbo, neither able to absolve themselves of all guilt, or able to face the past and move on. And when the five of them are inextricably drawn back together in the present and get tangled up in each other’s increasingly bad decisions, we are again forced to wonder whether Something is bringing them together, or if their unprocessed group trauma is severely impacting their judgment skills.

Another thing that I find refreshing about Yellowjackets is that in spite of all the horrific things the girls go through and do, this is still a show about scared, complicated teenagers. No one in the wilderness is truly painted as a villain, because they are all young, vulnerable people forced to make impossible choices that most adults would also struggle with. Lottie is not portrayed as some evil mastermind lost in her madness, she actually believes that the Wilderness is trying to protect them at first. She tries to use her newfound “gift” to hold the group together and bring them comfort, even as winter sets in and the bonds of friendship are truly tested. Even when the team does turn to cannibalism to survive, it is as a last resort. They create rules and rituals that seem fair to them, and attempt to find order in inherently volatile circumstances.

While “Yellowjackets” can be gory and hard to watch sometimes due to its setting in the harsh, unforgiving wilderness, after a few episodes it starts to feel like a framework for the true focus of the show: the relationships between the survivors, in both the current and past timelines. The violence may feel shocking at times, but it’s never gratuitous – there’s always a purpose, a deeper meaning. For example, when the group first engages in cannibalism it is not borne of frenzied, desperate starvation (though that does eventually transpire); it is borne from grief, of love and shame. Even in the present timeline, when the survivors are estranged and have decades of unspoken secrets and anger between them, that fierce loyalty is still there, even if all it does is make them worse. In the end, “Yellowjackets” is a show that questions whether the past comes back to haunt us, or if we haunt ourselves.

I am no anti-Cupid. Let me make it obvious that I love love. After all, I am a pseudo-philosopher, a sometime poet and an avid consumer of Victorian romance novels. But lately, I have felt disillusioned with the commercialization of Valentine’s Day.

Don’t get me wrong. I am the patron saint of little knick-knacks like stuffed animals, heart-shaped boxes and other cute figurines. One look at my dorm room, which is stuffed to the brim with baubles, would tell you this. However, the reason why I collect these decorations and gifts is because I think that – ideally – they should have substance. 

February 14th has lost its substance. In my opinion, the whole month has just become an excuse to sell pink and red stuff without much reason at all. Where’s the passion, the joie de vivre? 

Perhaps it is time to remember the history of Valentine’s Day in order to re-inject some substance into our celebration. The origins of Valentine’s Day are a tad murky, but are filled with intrigue and horror. To understand the holiday, we should look at its Catholic and pagan elements. 

The Catholic Church recognizes three St. Valentines: what they each share in common is that they were beheaded by different Roman emperors. One St. Valentine was martyred for marrying men to their beloveds at a time when the Roman empire required young men to remain unmarried. The policy was implemented because the Romans believed single men were most capable of performing military services. Another St. Valentine was martyred for freeing prisoners from a jail. He was caught and arrested, but succeeded in converting the jailor’s family to Catholicism after miraculously healing the man’s daughter. Rumor has it that this St. Valentine was enamored with the jailor’s daughter, but that this romance was short-lived (after all, St. Valentine ends up losing his head). The third St. Valentine’s story has been lost – relatively little is known about him, and his story has likely been absorbed into the narrative accounts of the other St. Valentines. The Catholic Church has long celebrated the lives of these saints with a feast on February 14th. 

In the fifth century, Pope Gelasius I decided to combine this feast day with Lupercalia. Lupercalia was a Roman fertility festival that was usually celebrated during the month of February. To encourage fertility in young women, men would dress in loin cloths and gently whip women with hides of animals like goats and dogs. Unfortunately, when Pope Gelasius I combined Valentine’s Day with Lupercalia, we lost this gentle whipping tradition. 

I think we can bring back this tradition in a fun, modern way–without diminishing the importance of the Catholic Church. As Valentine’s Day is a celebration not just of romantic love, but of affection generally, we should encourage everyone to playfully whip each other with towels to show signs of affection, the way teenagers do in a locker room. Valentine’s Day would be much more fun–and substantive–if it became a frenzied, international game of towel-tag. 

Further, the Valentine’s Day knick-knacks could be kitschy and substantive if they included a little more beheading. In this way, they could hearken back to all three St. Valentines’. Instead of little stuffed bears kissing each other, we should buy little bears with removable heads that say such things like: “I would die for you!” 

Despite the commercialization of Valentine’s Day, I do think the holiday is quite nice. I am always cheered to see everyone decorate with great zeal in celebration of love. While I think we are not realizing the full pagan and Catholic potential of Valentine’s Day, with all its gore and ritual, I still think the holiday is worth engaging in. 

Remember to engage in some friendly towel whipping this Valentine’s Day!