WOW have I come full circle. Nothing left to do but blog. Look, I know this is supposed to be a food blog, and I am working towards including that content. Food blogging takes a lot of work and I like to not do that all the time because then the thing you love becomes a chore and you grow to resent it. See, me not food blogging is actually self-care.
I put my hypochondriac nihilistic self in isolation back in early March, once HQ said we could use our best judgment in deciding whether to go into the office. Self-preservation won (I recognize the irony too). The first month of self-quarantine is fine if you are like me, a side effect of your generalized anxiety is a preference to be alone. I have long taken comfort in the connectivity that social media and phones provide*. You have things to catch up on and watch or read and listen to.
*I hate talking on the phone. I just do and I can if I have to, but blergh. Also video-conferencing is becoming just as bad.
Originally, this was a media list, but blam I had 10 shows before I even got to movies… There is a mix of airing now and bingeable titles. Keep in mind, these are only things I have consumed since early March 2020 until this morning when I decided to write this instead of bothering my friends with 98 text messages about the parody episodes of “Community.” My general TV watching centers on one basic tenet, I am a “completionist” – once I start I have to finish. If I really enjoyed something, I do a recap thread about it on my Twitter. For whom? Hell if I know, but if mine is the one of the few accounts that remain after humanity dies AND aliens decipher our language, then my taste will be what they assume represents the zeitgeist. MWAH HA HA. Oh yeah, spoiler alert, I like a lot of Sci-Fi and Fantasy stuff, because those are usually where women and people of color can play something other than a stereotype.
NOW FOR A LIST OF TELEVISION I HAVE CONSUMED AND RECOMMEND:
- Kingdom Season 2 | Netflix – KOREAN ZOMBIE SERIES SET IN THE 17TH CENTURY…yeah it is about a pandemic and an ineffective leader who literally caused it, but to be fair, season 1 came out in early 2019.
- Altered Carbon Season 2 | Netflix – set in a future when the rich can live forever, the second season re-sleeved Takeshi Kovacs into Anthony Mackie’s body. It is very clear this is a test run role for audiences to get used to seeing him as the badass who saves the day (because he is the next Captain America).
- Charmed Season 2 | CW – The reboot’s first season is available on Netflix. I watched it and liked it enough to want to watch season 2 LIVE (well still streaming because I catch it on the CW App (3/5 stars)). I was not a fan of the original series. The series premiere of the reboot name dropped Dr. Roxane Gay (twice!), focuses on the sisters relationships with each other first, and includes the magic of regular degular science in some of it’s solutions. I actually highly recommend you check out Season 1 Episode 15 “Switches and Stones” (updates the Medusa myth).
- Legacies Season 2 | CW – This is set in an American magical school for witches, vampires, werewolves, at least one fairy, and a phoenix. So right up my alley. Don’t make fun of me for watching CW shows as I enter my pre-mid-life crisis years. You know what these shows have? Inclusive casts, writers rooms, updated story-telling (LGBQTIA+, addiction, mental health, and feminism to name a few). Anyway, season 1 is also on Netflix.
- Marvel’s Runaway’s Season 3 | Hulu / Disney+ – I never watched the OC, or Gossip Girl, or anything past season 1 of Dawson’s Creek (but a girl did love Swan’s Crossing). My preference for teen dramas are the ones where rag-tag bunch of misfits are literally fighting evil. The final season of the show ends sweetly…I’m still mad Gert isn’t fat like she is in the comics, no shade to Ariela Barer, she was good.
- High School Musical, The Musical, The Series Season 1 | Disney+ – In my defense, my siblings and I loved watching the original ones with our baby sister. Much like the other shows – this was very inclusive. I mean…where was this character and messaging in the after school specials of our generation?
- The Magicians Season 5 | SyFy – Another title I loved from Netflix that centers on the goings on at an American magic school (it’s different because its college level magic ok?). How come every time I like something, it gets cancelled? The 5th season is the final season unless we get a great movie out of it, but again INCLUSIVE IN FRONT OF AND BEHIND THE CAMERA. And as series finales goes, this was great. But I wouldn’t say no if this got picked up for streaming.
- Community Season 5 & 6 | Netflix – I did watch this when it aired on NBC…and those were it’s strongest years. I loved Danny Pudi as Abed so much this time around. I love TV enough to love how meta this show is. I think it handled the chemistry between Alison Brie and Joel McHale well without compromising either character. I appreciate what this show is and am glad it was made.
- Westworld Season 3 | HBO – I keep watching this show for three reasons: Jeffrey Wright as Bernard, Tessa Thompson as Hale/<redacted for spoilers>, and Thandie Newton as Maeve. Everything else is nice…and conceptual, is this the final season or something? It is still in the middle of the season, so hopefully it delivers.
- Fringe | IMDBTv (via Prime)- I realized I never finished this series when it was on Fox. I am currently on the final season where we flash forward with the main cast in stasis and we have a situation where a child has aged to the same age as her parents…not my favorite. Here for John Nobel and Joshua Jackon’s chemistry as father and son. GROSS UNDER-UTILIZATION OF LANCE REDDICK THOUGH.
- Running Man | Viki – This is a South Korean variety show that I have been watching since 2012 and you can see that they have been taking self-isolation seriously for a while because they have been shooting indoor episodes for a few months now.
How have I manged to watch this many hours of TV in a month and still have a separate list for other media (movies, albums/artists, YouTube channels, books, and podcasts) to recommend? I think I have only gotten 100 hours of sleep in the last month.
Anyway – I hope y’all get that other list. I’m clearly writing to avoid adulting.
MEANRICE 