HYPERFIX - #001

find your next fixation

Author

Ashley Ray
January 21, 2025

#001

Welcome to HYPERFIX, a subset of Deep Trouble. Some of you have asked for weekly recommendation lists of the documentaries, TV shows, and other weird things I’m into. This is that! Also, I think Substack has made it mandatory to do these little recommendation list things, so whatever.

A friend said they love following me because they get to see whatever random interest I’m hyperfixated on. It’d never occurred to me that I have hyperfixation issues. I always thought it was just because I’m a sagittarius. We love learning things, but we also have horrible attention spans. It’s probably ADHD though. Either way, you benefit!

You’ll get two hyperfix posts a month if you’re a free subscriber and four if you’re a paid subscriber.

I’m donating all my beehiiv income this month to LA wildfire mutual aid funds, so if you do it now, it’s for a good cause

This is what I’m into this week:

DOCUMENTARIES

I watch too many documentaries. Here are my thoughts.

The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Part III on Max

You probably saw that a third chapter of Natalia Grace’s story was announced and assumed you should skip it. Guess what? You shouldn’t! I know you’re sick of this story, but this is a wonderful conclusion. It turns out Natalia was almost indoctrinated into a cult. I interviewed Beth Karas on TV I Say about this case twice, but Part III firmly puts the story to sleep.

The documentary is largely driven by the producers realization that the happy picture they were trying to pain was wrong. Slowly, people come to them with multiple examples of the Mans (her new adopted family) abusing the children they foster. This documentary looks at the abuse Natalia has suffered over the last decade in her supposed safe space.

I promise you won’t have to watch anything else about this girl.

An Update on Our Family - HBO

I’ve been WAITING for this documentary. Do you remember that famous family influencer YouTube couple who adopted a special needs kid, made a ton of content about it, but then “rehomed” the kid when things got hard? This is about that!

Sadly, HBO has decided to put this out weekly. You’ll have to wait to get the full picture, but it’s pretty good so far.

Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold - Hulu

Oh, you thought I was over my whole mountain climbing phase? Absolutely not. This show is some classic Alex Honnold-wildness. His team begs him to stop and turn back. He refuses to listen and assumes nothing bad can happen to him. It’s tense, educational and Alex delivers with the usual terrifying, beautiful shots of him on the side of a mountain.

Death by Fame - Max

If you live in Los Angeles, this is a great watch. You will see so many stories featuring people who know people you kind of know. It’s one of the better Investigation Discovery murder shows. They primarily use people involved with the case, rather than recreations or speculation from true crime fans.

The Curious Case Of… - Max

BETH KARAS GOT A SPIN-OFF, BABY! Every week she’s looking at a weird, crazy internet case to figure out the truth. The first episode was about Bam Margera and the guardianship he’s under. Did you know it was run by the woman who tried to help homeless people in Los Angeles by giving them VR games to play?

Yeah, it doesn’t go very well. So far, I’m a fan of this show. Beth has never let me down.

Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action - Netflix

I did not like this one. Not much happens and they don’t interview some of the wildest people from the show. It also assumes the POV that we all didn’t think Jerry Springer was bad at the time. We did! I knew it was bad and people were taken advantage of when I was a child stuck watching it on sick days. That’s not news!

It also doesn’t need to be three episodes. This could’ve been an episode of Vice’s Dark Side of the 1990s or whatever.

TV AND FILM

Want weekly TV reviews and episodic coverage? Follow TV I Say on Patreon. Below is a quick look at the stuff that’s getting me excited.

  • Traitors (Peacock) - I can’t believe I’m rooting for a man (Wes).

  • Severance (Apple TV) - THANK GOD. I MISSED YOU SO MUCH.

  • Abbott Elementary (Hulu) - That crossover episode was great. I feel like Eric Andre did the next episode because he wanted some similar heat, but it was like, whatever.

  • Sex Lives of College Girls (Max) - Everyone is annoying this season, it’s great.

  • Harley Quinn (Max) - She’s back!!! Max didn’t promote this much, so this might be the last season or something?

  • Below Deck Sailing Yacht (Peacock) - Everyone is annoying this season, it sucks.

  • Conclave - I want it to win everything, thanks.

  • I Am the Secret In Your Heart (Netflix) - I have been watching a lot of Chinese movies and this one is really funny.

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RANDOM

From Mt. Everest to mysterious murder mysteries, this is the real out there stuff I’ve been fixated on lately.

-Chinese

my chicken scratch hanzi on my ipad so I can translate in real time

With the (brief) TikTok ban, some people ran over to 小红书 (rednote). Honestly, I really didn’t use TikTok much. I didn’t even see the notice it was gone. I don’t even lurk over there. But, I do like 小红书 and it has given me a new love: Chinese.

I love learning languages. Obviously, I am a nerd who took Latin and Ancient Greek in high school. I majored in German. I basically think if you’re in school, you should always be learning a language. Why not? It’s one of the most useful things you can do.

After I graduated, I maintained some conversational German and Spanish, but it’s been a long time since I really took language lessons seriously. If you asked me before all this TikTok stuff what languages I was interested in, Chinese wouldn’t have been on that list at all.

Now, I’m obsessed. 我喜欢中文！I am spending way too much time on Duolingo, Memrise, Chinese Noodle and Scritter. I feel like even language teachers discouraged me from learning Chinese. It was always “it’s way too hard.”

Guess what? It’s not that hard! It’s really fun! I’m even signing up for irl classes.

It’s also great because it’s keeping me off Twitter and other social media. If you’ve been thinking about jumping into Duolingo this year, this is your sign to do it! If you don’t like the owl, Memrise is even better! Also, people on Rednote are nice and will teach you things.

-Adult Lunchables

I can’t stop eating these as a full meal. They’re making fancy lunchables now! They have asiago cheese in them and nice salamis. The mass production of Girl Dinner is here and I am a fan.

-Doing Smart Things Again

There’s a quote from Girls I think about a lot (of course.) It’s when Jessa gets mad at Hannah and says she used to be an interesting person who wrote interesting things, but now she’s just on Twitter.

My god, do I feel that right now. Over the weekend as I watched the 200th argument about there being “too much sex in TV and film” (there’s not), I could not figure out why the fuck I was on there. No one is ever saying anything smart or interesting. The jokes are repetitive now. Twitter has felt like banging my head against a wall since 2020, but now I am truly fighting my addiction.

Learning Chinese, getting way too into my peloton, writing more, reading again…all of it has felt so good. Do you know how nice it is to not see thoughts from people saying shit you thought was interesting 6 years ago? I think I might get back into cross stitch next. Maybe I’ll finally learn Swedish.

If hyperfix helps you with anything, I hope it’s finding a hobby that frees you from the motherfuckin’ internet. Join me on Duolingo, I can show you how to win at Match Game.

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