Lockdown Entertainment: What's Worth Watching
About 8 o'clock in the evening, and sometimes at 7:30, I begin to fade. My mind just won't take in any more printed information. So, I knock off my workday. Since I start at about 5 AM, and sometimes earlier, I figure I have put in an honest day's work.
I have stuck with this schedule for a decade. The lockdown has not changed this pattern in my life. But it may have changed the pattern of your life.
So far, I have not watched any of the pandemic movies.
If I can find a good movie to watch, I watch it. But Amazon and Netflix have been running the same movies forever. My wife and I click through, vainly hoping that something new will appear, but nothing ever seems to.
I like comedy series, but not many of them. My wife likes more of them than I do.
I like documentaries, but not many of them. I like more of them than my wife does.
NETFLIX
My wife and I agreed on this series: W1A. It is a spoof on the BBC. It really is a riot. It was produced several years ago, and I think it will be run in a century. It is not as funny as Yes, Minister. But, then again, nothing else ever has been. In any case, Yes, Minister is never available. W1A is about how a massive government bureaucracy is run. Everything is chaotic. Nobody wants to make a decision. Only one person seems to be really clearheaded: the head of the news department. His language is R-rated, but his assessment of what is going on is usually on target. He is compelled to be at the meetings, and he makes it clear that he wants to be elsewhere. What is amazing is how fast the dialogue goes, and how convoluted the bureaucratic language is. It makes us wonder how the actors could possibly have maintained continuity. The show lasted three seasons, but the seasons were really short: usually four episodes.
Also worth watching is Documentary Now!. These are what I call two-fers. They are fake documentaries. They are also comedies. The trouble is this: they are all on YouTube. You can watch them for free anytime you want. But they are best on a big screen in the evening when you are tired of looking at a computer screen. Comedies are always more enjoyable when two or more people are laughing at the same time.
Netflix is running The Last Resort (2018). It is about Jewish life in Miami Beach in the 1960's and 1970's. It is about pair of photographers who decided to make it their life's calling to take photographs. One of them took marvelous colored photographs that were more like snapshots. The other one was a serious photographer who did mostly black and white. Artistically, his photographs are marvelous, but they are clearly art. The other photographer took photos of how people were living their lives.
I was a photographer in high school and college, and I learned photography. I was not too bad. I shot sports. Later, I was got pretty good at taking colored photos of children. The man doing the black and white shots in this documentary is gifted. I was impressed by the quality of the shots. But most of the documentary deals with another man's color photographs, which were spontaneous. The documentary is interspersed with interviews of people who were alive at the time.
This is a lost period of American life. It was unique, and we are not going to see anything like it again -- not on this scale geographically. The people who produced the documentary understood this. It is mostly about how people grow old. If you are not interested in how people grow old, you won't like the documentary. They happened to be old Jews, and this was important because there was a real sense of community in Miami Beach in these years. Except for groups like rural Amish and European immigrant neighborhoods in a few cities, Gentiles don't have communities like this. In the era of the couch potato, they no longer exist. But, for a time, this one did exist.
The Crown is worth watching. It's about Queen Victoria. But you have probably watched it already.
Planet Earth deserves to be watched on a large-screen, high-definition TV. I cannot think of a better series to exploit the wonderful technology of high-definition TV. The photography is spectacular. As usual, you would be wise to ignore all the irrelevant comments about climate change.
I enjoyed ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas. I was especially intrigued by the story of how they make the breakthrough. They made it about three blocks from my house in Tyler, Texas. But they made it before I moved there. That is the story of Robin Hood Music, the recording studio. I knew about the connection because I saw a ZZ Top poster in the studio in 1981. But I didn't know the whole story. As with most bands, this is also the story of entrepreneurship. At any point, they might have quit, and we never would have heard of them.
Shelby American: The Carroll Shelby Story is the story behind the race car driver. I enjoyed Ford and Ferrari, so I enjoyed this documentary. It was about a Texan who became the great American race car driver in Europe's Formula One cars. But his cars were not European. That was what made the story so interesting.
I really enjoyed the movie about the two men who tracked down Bonnie and Clyde: The Highwaymen (2019). The performances of both stars are flawless. I have liked Kevin Costner ever since I first saw him in Silverado in 1985. He is not a great actor, but he is always enjoyable. This performance was especially good. You will be amazed at how good Woody Harrelson is. The movie is more accurate than the 1967 extravaganza, Bonnie and Clyde.
Shows come and go on Netflix, so do a search if you don't find one of these. If you are really desperate, you can always pay $4 and download a movie. Your time is worth more than $4 for two hours. It's cheap entertainment.
I have created a forum for sharing information on what's worth watching. If you find something good, post it here: