For me, its Xena.
Few years back, height of covid epidemic, was living in homeless shelters. Overcrowded slums, everyone miserable, yelling, screaming, fights, abuse, rage. At one point, could feel the anger building in me. Powerless, a victim, desire for retribution. What good was trying to be better person, when all it meant was people walking over me.
Started rewatching xena, hadn’t in years. Big message of the show: when surrounded by hate, violence, it’s tempting to give in, to not be a victim. But you have a choice, to not continue the cycle, to make a better world. I so needed to hear that message at that time in my life.
What tv show helped you?
The Bermaga-Era Star Treks (TNG-ENT). For better or worse, they were some of the best television made in that time, and a guiding light for morality, ethics, and hope for what the best of humanity can be. Eventually…
Ya know, after we nearly annihilate ourselves in a few decades in WWIII, then invent warp drive, get visited by aliens, and decide to form a democratic socialist world government that puts the worst mistakes of humanity behind us so that we can finally begin exploring the stars.
It doesn’t get mentioned much outside that one movie, but all that has to happen first before humanity gets over its collective bullshit. I’ll probably be dead by then, though.
Dark really sucks me into a dark damp place that is just really calming when I’m feeling down.
Hands down, best show on Netflix.
If I had to pick three things in my life to experience for the first time again Dark would be in the top three.
Yea, I love rain movies and on the second episode of dark I was like, oh is this whole place just raining all the time? I love it. Just started it this week, coincidentally, I’m only on episode 5
You’re in for quite a ride.
Firefly helped me realize perceptions are just that and don’t have much bearing on people, also that there is a liminal space between society and revolutionaries.
Deadwood helped me understand that personalities are expressed, refined philosophies.
Cowboy bebop reminded me how dreams and life are made of the same stuff and that nothing is permanent, stagnant or impossible.
I’m interested in your comment about perceptions, could you unpack that a little more?
It ties into the comment about liminal space; how one is viewed and views others, while it can control the way a society functions and how we act toward and behave around each other, doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the people these perceptions are directed at and further, for perception to affect anything, it must be paid deference.
Inara, a Companion, who apparently enjoys greater social honor than the rest of the crew, is quickly reduced by Mal’s vindictive, shameful envy to being “just” a prostitute, by which every crew member treats her according to their perception (jayne - object of physical desire, zoe - independent contractor, Kaylee - aspirational ambassador). Inara has the wealth and social grace to be the only crew member with her own shuttle/gilded cage necessary because of the private nature of her chosen occupation/role. Although Inara is perhaps the only crew member with formal training in martial arts and social arts, and often shows herself to be steps ahead of the others assessing situations, she’s treated the most delicately and rarely included in strategy. Every time Inara is frustrated or stymied, we see a glimpse of the personality behind perceptions in active dissonance. These are all perceptions and roles that can be ignored the same way Mal has ignored his role as revolutionary/defeated soldier, Book ignored his role as terrorist(serenity comics)/religious leader, so on. Everyone is trapped and dictated to by perceptions that are not easily shed but are simply shed, which many characters realize under duress.
In the middle of these conflicting ideas and behaviors from society, the captain and crew of her ship, her shuttle, and herself, that do play a large role in how limited/defined Inara is, is Inara the fundamental character, played by Morena Baccarin conveying assumed desirous perceptions and chosen by the perceptions of a casting director appointed by Whedon, who can only write(and sell) his story if he can figure out how to fit together his perceptions and his supposed perceptions of others close enough together to it’s without breaking the written world.
These characters and people are all living according to recognized or artificial perceptions that may not have anything to do with them, yet control how they live and present their lives as far as the characters and people allow themselves to be controlled.
TLDR all the world’s a stage
Your comment about Deadwood is resonating hard with me. Very well articulated, thank you.
Appreciated
Star Trek, of course. Especially TNG has been the best role model for humanity that’s ever been on TV.
All of the Star Trek show, especially TNG, Voyager and Emterprise, because I’ve watched them so many times when I was a kid at my grandparent’s house.
I was fascinated by the various captains. They were always so smart, capable, full of resources, curious, charismatic and generally great leaders, mostly coherent with their morals. They were basically badass scientist explorers and I identified so much with them without even realizing it.
Now whenever I find myself in any leadership position, I ask myself what they would do. I could choose to be logical and intellectual like Picard, empathetic like Janeway or brave like Archer. This shaped me more than I could ever imagine.
🖖
MASH, is a show that always makes me laugh. It’s also taught me to appreciate the things I have, because the characters in the show don’t have much, but they still find ways to have fun.
Arcane. Hands down 10/10 on practically every possible metric, but the thing that really got me was the way they portray trauma and the subsequent impact on mental health. I work with folks who have experienced trauma and I thought this was one of the best depictions of the aftermath I had ever seen in media.
Also, this is a perfect depiction of a Greek tragedy, in the sense that everything ends in tragedy not despite, but because of everyone’s best intentions. As the story unfolds you understand everyone’s motivations and they all make sense. There’s no perfectly good or bad characters, just a lot of people doing the best they can with the cards they were dealt.
Thank you for explaining why so beautifully. I tried watching the show and while it was very well done, for whatever reason I just wasn’t getting into it. But all people ever say is how great it is and I was bummed I was missing out. I have seen enough of the show to see the threads leading to what you described. I understand now why it is so highly praised.
The Good Place. My wife and I were going through some spiritual crisis as we were questioning Mormonism. We started watching the Good Place, not really knowing what it was. The philosophy and comedy came at just the right time. It’s a great show.
Out of curiosity, are you still a practicing Mormon?
No. Both of us are out, it’s wonderful.
Whose Line is it Anyway. It got me interested in improv, which has become something I enjoy doing.
Mr. Robot; showing the worse of humanity, how far people will go corrupting once held morals the whole way. Not being able to understand oneself or the people around them, but still wanting and hoping to see people enjoy life.
I believe the series ended on a great note, though some may disagree.
That show felt like a weird acid trip. The constant whiplash when you realise he’s been delusional about something completely threw me (in a good way!).
I’ll have to watch it again cos it was a fantastic show and really well made.
Awesome show. Yeah, I’m a bit iffy about how it ended, but it could’ve been so much worse.
One of, if not my favorite shows ever. I don’t understand why so many people I know are entirely dismissive of it. The hacking is accurate, the characters are compelling, and the plotline is amazing. It inspired me to get into Cybersecurity.
I’m not even kidding but planet earth the original series. I learned some life lessons from that one surprisingly.
adventure time and bojack horseman
Babylon 5! I was born in 94, when it premiered and have always watched it (along with Star Trek). It was one of the first shows that really pushed the continuous plot over serialized and it makes rewatches a game of finding the hints.
I’ve said before that Babylon 5 is the more realistic depiction of if we had made contact with aliens over star trek (at least the early ones), but the heros are still that.
I am curious where the down votes came from. I hope no one thought I was disparaging Star Trek. I love em both, they’re just different.
Babylon 5! I was born in 94, … It was one of the first shows that really pushed the continuous plot over serialized
Uhh… no. Dallas and other soap operas had long and convoluted plots decades before. One entire season was just a dream!
It’s pretty obvious that you’re under 30.
That and I don’t watch soap operas other than S.O.A.P. It’s a very different genre, but it has been called an opera in space before, so you’ve got that haha
Edit; I also has said ‘one of the first’ so non definitive. I just meant in terms of ‘prime-time television’. It seems like people didn’t like that.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Just a damned good show all around that showed younger me a lot of what makes compelling stories work.
Such a great show, only seen it first nearing my 40’s. Beautiful
I used to have a lot of anxiety and trouble sleeping. I watched this show every night to fall asleep. It has become one of my most cherished shows.
I have not watched it in years, but I think it is time for a rewatch. I think it just got added to netflix in the country where I live.
Mr. Wizard’s World. MacGyver. The A-Team.
And all the cooking shows on PBS in the 80s.I’ve always been someone to tinker and break things apart to create new things. I’ve always been a problem solver.
Oh - and I pretty much got my entire sense of humor from Three’s Company, Mork and Mindy, Cheers, and Mash.
