49 Seconds

This blog contains spoilers although they are tagged 99% of the time. I don't fuck around with petty fandom bullshit so do yourself the favor and don't even bother trying that shit on me. This show is dedicated to my favorite TV shows and my thoughts...

[wolframandholt]

Seeing people choose their favorite Ballum scenes and they’re just Ben scenes with Callum serving as his doormat. I hate it. 

[wolframandholt]

I feel like this has to be said: Chryed and Ballum were fun to watch but I’d seriously hate them in real life. 

If you’re ever in a situation in real life that even remotely resembles these couples, get out! Some things on television exist for entertainment purposes only, do not try to recreate Chryed and Ballum in real life. 

[wolframandholt]

But did Ben and Paul even have these same problems as Ben and Callum because “Ben’s so traumatized by his daddy issues” or were all these things created out of thin air for Kate Oates to create a shitty generic gay ship? 

[wolframandholt]

I’m sorry but there have no been redeeming qualities to Ballum since they first got together months ago. They need to break up and stay away from each other for good. 

[wolframandholt]

The writing for Ben is so shit. He’s part of two huge, iconic families and they write him like he’s not from any of those families until it’s convenient. Hell, they don’t even write him like he’s part of the family where he has his own kid. Why are we watching a fucking adult father just constantly bickering with his man about the same fucking shit instead of family based drama? Lola slept with new Peter before Ben even met the new Peter. 

How can they possibly remove a vital member of the Mitchell and Beale family away from his parents, his brother, his nephews, the mother of his child, and his kid just so we can see Ben and Callum have the same fights? 

The writing is so forced. There’s no way it makes sense for Ben to be away from his family especially since he’s lost his hearing. The write the only scene where the his fucking family acknowledges as some comedic thing with Lexi. Is this something that people in the real world would just laugh at in replacement for actually being there for him? 

We lose all this so they can push this half assed bad boy/good guy shit like it even makes sense Callum wanted to be a cop in the first place or that he’d ever actually pass.

[wolframandholt]

I want to be honest here, has anybody actually seen a person that takes Ben Mitchell seriously as a hardened criminal that wasn’t a Ballum fan? They keep pushing this Ben as a bad boy criminal thing, ruining Ballum in process, and literally nobody besides some Ballum fans find this shit compelling. 

[wolframandholt]

I don’t think Callum was really out of character when he told Lola not to tell Jay. 

Lola told him they were broken up. Why would Lola have to confess everything she’s done in between the breakup and them getting back together? She didn’t cheat and the fact she slept with Peter is none of his business honestly. If she confesses, what will she honestly accomplish? She didn’t do anything wrong and Callum has the sense to see that confessing would be more about Lola’s guilt rather than Jay’s feelings because the information isn’t actually relevant to Jay. It was a one night stand and they were broken up.  

[wolframandholt]

I am so uncomfortable at the fact the writers are acting as if Paul and Callum are competing for the same man’s heart, Paul was murdered... Why even bother doing that Paul just to prop up Ballum? What’s even disturbing to me is how Callum seemed to take pride that he was considered a better boyfriend than Paul according to Phil. 

[wolframandholt]

Ballum actually talking about their issues and doing it through rational and adult conversation... This actually might be a first for them after they got together the first time.

[wolframandholt]

Kate Oates want so bad for Ballum to be this explosive good guy falls in love with the bad guy romance but all they do is get into the same fights every fucking episode repetitively. 

[wolframandholt]

Ben was treating Callum like total shit long before he lost most of his hearing in both ears. This is not him lashing out because he’s struggling after the boat incident, this is how Ben has always treated Callum during their relationship. There’s always going to be sort of trauma that Ben pulls out of his ass to blame whenever he’s mistreating Callum or Lexi. 

Callum’s childhood was traumatic too. None of his family besides Stuart is around and his father is a homophobe too. Callum is the guy that Ben thinks he is, someone that actually doesn’t have a lot of family around to support him whenever he’s struggling. Meanwhile, Ben is allowed to jump from house to house rent free because he actually has family willing him to take him in despite how ungrateful he is. Ben also has a boyfriend willing to do everything in order to try to help or support him. Again, Callum doesn’t even fucking have that.

Ben is so incredibly privileged and yet he sees himself as this super victim that has it harder than everybody else. His entire fucking family including himself owns their own businesses. He lives rent free in other people’s houses. He has so many people around him to baby him and support him through everything. Yet there’s always some traumatic experience in his life that he’s dredging up to excuse his behavior towards others. Ben’s dumb ass decided to jump off a boat and now that’s his new excuse for treating Callum like shit, it’s pathetic. 

[wolframandholt]

Oh wow, more Ballum drama. My heart is fucking bleeding watching this toxic and unhealthy couple have issues, awww... what if they break up and Callum actually moves on with someone that treats him well. How sad would that be. 

[wolframandholt]

I’m sorry but no amount of manpain changes how incredibly selfish Ben is. 

None of this stuff would’ve happened to him if he never broke up with Callum to kill a guy. Yet he’s here acting like the only victim when it’s his fault. He hasn’t gone to see Ian, he hasn’t talked to Bobby, he’s barely taking care of his child, and he doesn’t give a damn about any of the trauma his actions put Callum through.

It’s always about Ben and how awful his life is. So many members of his family almost fucking died and he literally does not give a fuck about their trauma. No flowers, no visits, or anything. All he cares about is himself and the thing is that it’s not the loss of hearing that’s doing this to him because he’s been like this the entire time he’s been in a relationship with Callum. Everything has to be about him and his awful life which nobody understands except he’s traumatizing everyone around him so they actually do understand the trauma he’s been through. 

[wolframandholt]

I wish the writing for Ballum wasn’t so heavy with turning literally every gay man with a name into a temporary love rival to bait reactions out of fans. Imagine if they were introducing women onto the show with the sole purpose of being tools to shipper drama. It’s fucking disgusting what the show is doing and I’m sick of seeing this shit.

[wolframandholt]

This was the time to deal with Ben being deaf but apparently we’re back to the gangster shit. Maybe to retcon Ben being a human trafficker but still ridiculously boring gangster drama.

[wolframandholt]

I can’t get over the fact Max Bowden is a much better actor when he knows he’s representing people in the Ballum and deaf storyline. He really didn’t give a fuck about any of the gangster stuff lmao

[wolframandholt]

You’ll hate me for saying this but a bit of that scene of Stuart threatening Ben when he’s deaf thing kinda had “I smell queer” vibes to it. I mean, they are brother and they were threatening Ben both times.