There has been a wave of ‘pandemic productivity’ talk across social media recently but sometimes you just need to sit back and enjoy a good binge-watch.
There has been a wave of ‘pandemic productivity’ talk across social media, advocating that now is the best time to write that novel you never knew you wanted to write, become a home fitness guru like Joe Wicks or bake enough bread to feed the entire Great Britsh Bake Off crew. But honestly, sometimes you just need to sit back and enjoy good Netflix series binge.
As a further three weeks of lockdown is now upon us, and we’re all compelled to #stayhome and spend more time indoors than we ordinarily would, the team decided that for this weeks ‘Fanclub Favs’ we’d share our favourite shows that we’ve recently binge-watched. All you've got to do now is get comfy and let that autoplay feature do its thing.
Emily: There’s a reason why The Sopranos still has an evergrowing fanbase. I remember downloading every season on Limewire, and it was worth every single hour over the week it took to download. Aside from it being the best TV show ever made (yada yada yada), the style moments (CC sopranosstyle on Instagram) are worth it alone. I don’t have anything else to say except to get your friend’s NOW TV log-in and commit.
Hannah: I’m going to go mainstream here and say Tiger King. Not only will the series take you on a weird emotional rollercoaster-ride, but you’ll also start to understand the majority of memes that are currently circulating across social. The Netflix documentary follows the life of big cat zoo owner Joe Exotic, whose personality is even more eccentric than his name, and his feud with rival zoo owner, Carlos Baskin. Be prepared because there’s a lot more drama involved in being the owner of a zoo than you might first expect.
Camille: Like others have said, I’ve found it hard to pick just one favourite show to binge-watch. But for me, in times of stress or hardship (or global pandemic) I tend to find it difficult to focus on new shows, preferring instead to fall back on comforting old favourites. Depending on mood this could be Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars or Gossip Girl. But my all-time favourite show to binge-watch has to be Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
A show with great writing, jokes, fashion, love interests, subverted gender roles and an infallible moral centre, Buffy has everything. Plus it’s nice to watch something where the bad guys are clearly signposted and easily vanquished (though don’t get me wrong Buffy and friends have their share of moral ambiguity sometimes). In a nutshell, Buffy is a tiny blonde superstrong “chosen one” destined to fight vampires and demons and save the world. She’s also in high school. It’s binge-watching comfort food, and right now that’s something we could all do with. Because, as Buffy says in the Season Five finale, sometimes “the hardest thing in this world is to live in it.”
Emilee: This is a tough one, as I have been watching so many shows recently it’s hard to pick just one. If you know me, I have always been a sucker for a reality show, and before moving to London I was hooked
on a TLC show called 90 Day Fiancé. If you haven’t heard of the programme before, it’s an American reality TV series that follows couples who have applied for or received a K-1 visa (fiancé visa) in America and then have ninety days to either marry each other or break up. Since moving here, it’s been a struggle to find the time to keep up, but since I have more time than ever now I am hooked, again. With numerous series and spin-offs, it’s a perfect show to entertain and pass the time.
Adrian: It takes me forever to watch any series. My TV time depends on how long my children will allow me to watch a show for (we have terrible sleepers, and rarely have more than 45 minutes before one wakes up). So binging seems like a luxury to us! But, we do love a good series and have enjoyed dark comedy thriller Killing Eve seasons to date. Both Villanelle and Konstantine are style icons for us. And the drama and humour make for a great escape once the kids are in bed.
Fabian: I am a serial binger. As soon as a new album, TV show or documentary comes out, I’ve usually gotten through it at least twice within 48 hours. And now we have a lot more time on our hands, I feel like I’ve seen and listened to everything in existence across Netflix and Spotify. So I’ve used the pandemic to binge a new channel; YouTube. There are certain shows I’ll never miss on YouTube (Unhhh, which is one of the sites most popular shows, and Skincare by Hyram are weekly
events for me), but one channel that has really caught my attention and warranted a huge four-hour binge the other week comes from YouTube Natalie Wynn aka Contrapoints.
Wynn is a transwoman that explores counterarguments to right-wing rhetoric, discussing everything across politics, gender, ethics, race and philosophy in video essay formats. A firm favourite of mine is her exploration into masculinity and the rise of ‘menism’, which raises some very valid points on the negative aspect of feminism; men have no new framework of masculinity and therefore feel ostracised, ultimately creating the rise of ‘menism’. If you’re looking to really get into her channel, her essay on cancel culture is a must-watch. The almost two-hour video explores the cancelling of makeup YouTuber James Charles, and then descends into Wynn’s experience of being cancelled by the non-binary and trans community. 10/10 would recommend.
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