Streaming Not Screaming: What to Watch in Lockdown

It’s an unprecedented global pandemic and suddenly everyone’s a critic. Everyone, and I mean truly everyone has been giving unsolicited advice. Not just on how the earth is healing and humans are the virus (fuck off Extinction Rebellion), dangerous drugs that will kill you, not save you (fuck off Donald Trump), or nonsense symptom checkers that have no basis in fact (fuck all the way off thickos on Facebook). People everywhere are desperate to tell you what you should be watching while you’re stuck at home. I mean, let’s be real, no one has ever read Stylist magazine for culture. And you don’t see me advising on nail polish trends for the season (but it’s black, it’s always black) so stay in your lane Stylist! The person you need in a time of crisis is a socially awkward anxious organiser who has been running this precise scenario in her head for years, and has concluded the only logical thing to do is get really comfy and claim control of the TV remote.

Now, finally, you have the time! Binge away! But don’t binge the news; that’s something you need to limit for your own sanity and peace of mind. And by all means if you have the great American novel in you (or any nationality will do), and you have the motivation, go for it! But don’t feel pressured to be productive. Everything is wild and your whole year has gone tits-up in just a few days. You need time to process what’s happened, and find the mental resilience to get through through the day. Dump those haters who make you feel guilty for being a bit unproductive. Do what makes you feel good. But please, for the love of God, keep any and all coronavirus poetry to yourself.

Read On…

'Z: The Beginning of Everything'

Another sumptuous drama here on a subscriber service. It’s almost like this is where the big bucks reside in these digital days. Z: The Beginning of Everything is the story of Zelda Fitzgerald, Mrs F Scott Fitzgerald to you dear. It’s based on Therese Anne Fowler’s book which Christina Ricci read and wanted to audition for. It turns out no one was making it, so she decided to do it herself. Ricci says thatĀ Zelda had suffered bad press over the years, with the focus firmly set on her genius husband. Ricci was sick of her being overlooked and sets out to flip that script.
Ricci with her soulful doe eyes and her fierce blonde bob is Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, a brilliant, beautiful and talented Southern belle, the original flapper and an icon of the Jazz Age in the flamboyant 1920s. Zelda is young and bored to death in her little quaint country town of Montgomery, Alabama. Having never been to the American south it looks lovely to me – all wide tree-lined avenues, sugary iced tea and cotillion balls at the country club.
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