Small Screen – Big Joy
by Jaime Castle
HUUC Board of Trustees President
There are many reasons why people go to “church.” One reason is to find comfort or inspiration. Being a person in this place and time can be scary and exhausting – being a person at just about any time, though, has its challenges. I am often reminded how lucky we are to be alive right here and now. I have been focusing on spreading information about joyful things in hopes that something that I recommend may help to bring about a little bit of happiness. Finding joy when times are hard is a form of rebellion — in not giving in to despair! I have been using my space here to help people fill their buckets — whether it is useful and fun apps for your phone, or local places to check out.
This month’s column, to help contribute to your mindful choosing of joy as a way of rebellion in difficult times, is to focus on shows found on the small screen that I would like to share with you. I heard or read it somewhere that we are living in the Platinum Era of TV. There are so many options of places to find shows. There is so much monetary spending these days on quality shows from writing to production costs. Gone are the days of my youth when the kids’ shows were only to be found on a certain day of the week, on certain channels, and only in the morning. We have now at our fingertips the ability to choose from so many streaming platforms. We can pause shows and rewind or fast forward. We can watch what we want, when we want, and binge watch entire seasons back-to-back. There are many great scripted comedies to choose from that will make you laugh (and cry), including Schitt’s Creek, The Good Place, or Ted Lasso, but I am going to share with you three shows that you should add to your virtual library that you may not have heard about. Check them out when you need some joy.
From the realm of reality TV is the reboot show Queer Eye (a Bravo network show found on Netflix). This is your basic “makeover” show where a person gets a team of specialists to help them improve themselves from learning culinary expertise and lifestyle choices to gaining hairstyle, makeup, and wardrobe updates. The not-so-basic part is that the expert team is made up entirely of queer folks, but the “clients” come from all walks of life. The most beautiful part about this show isn’t the clean-cut, well-dressed reveals at the end of each episode of the people that get the makeover, but rather the humanity revealed throughout the whole process. The team of experts is welcomed, revered, and the way that the people on the receiving end let themselves be vulnerable is so touching. If every person in the world were given this kind of love and attention, I imagine that the people of this world would all be kind and thoughtful to each other and to themselves.
Another show from the reality TV realm also found on Netflix is brand new and is called With Love, Meghan. The title of this show is indicative of a sign-off of a letter to a beloved friend and the author of this hypothetical letter is Meghan Markle (the receiver of this letter is you.) If you are not familiar with Meghan, she is also known as the Duchess of Sussex, or the wife of Prince Harry of England. If you are not familiar with her story, it is important to know that she hasn’t had a fairytale princess experience, but rather has endured a lot of hate, racism, and undeserved toxic and abusive treatment from many. If you do not know anything about her and simply watch her show, you would not know that she had faced any trials.
This show has a Martha Stewart-like joy of entertaining vibe, where she shares recipes for dishes or shares DIY steps for things like crafting bath soaking salts, or candle-making, or tea satchels. Each episode she creates experiences to share with special guests – often just beloved friends of hers, always with a glimpse of her sweet little beagle dog, Guy. It is the truly authentic feeling of love that sticks with you when you watch. Everything is so idyllic from the scenic gardens to the label-less ingredient containers and clean décor, but she keeps things grounded by pausing to appreciate and recognize the beauty and by being grateful continuously. Her love for her guests is palpable and we, watching along, feel that love extended to us.
Station Eleven is a single-season, stand-alone story streaming on HBO/Max and is based on the dystopian novel by Emily St. John Mandel. It is set in the North American Great Lakes Region (US and Canada) starting in the early 2000’s and then jumping 20 years. A fun fact is that the pilot episode was filmed in the late months of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the non-fictional world. The show’s premise is that a deadly, super-contagious virus has wiped out the majority of the population. The survivors have to make sense of this new world and redefine what it is to be human which includes the capacity to create art instead of war. It’s interesting to see how they (the show’s creators) imagined this pandemic unfolding because we would soon witness an actual pandemic hitting.
Why, you may ask, do I think that a story like this would spark joy? There is one scene in the book and in the TV version when a character is trying to remember how good a cappuccino is. There is another part when a character is explaining how people used to have refrigerators and that they would keep food cold and a light would turn on inside when you opened it. I remember stopping by a coffee shop to buy a cappuccino after reading that part — relishing in the awesomeness of it and the gratitude that I could experience it. I remember being thankful for my refrigerator. I find reading or watching dystopian stories makes me appreciate and fight to preserve the wondrous world that we have now.
It is not selfish to seek joy and to shelter in your place and get lost in these stories. It is imperative to feel alive and just feel, in general. Keep fighting, friends, and keep finding joy! You are worthy of love and joy is all around you!
Image source: https://tinyurl.com/mu6yaunk and compiled by B.L. Barnes