Escaping into the screen

“With everything that's happening and the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned.” 

Wise words from a movie released 9 years ago. Is the first Avengers movie that old? I know right😆 😆. At this point, you might be trying to recall who said these words, probably search them online or if you are a marvel fan probably start guessing some characters. I will not belabor you with that question for long though. You will just have to stick around to find out who said it. If you already figured it out…join me as I explore my most enjoyable pastime activity during quarantine. It’s going to be fun.

A lot of you might be wondering why I used that particular quote as the introductory line. For starters, it is particularly relevant to what is currently happening. There is a lot of uncertainty in the air, hopelessness in the air and anxiety, and as such, we try to cope with all these things in a myriad of ways. The last part of the line… “people might just need a little old-fashioned” is a great segue into the method many people including me have been using to cope with all this uncertainty.

A recent assignment for our writing class involved reading articles about the way many people have embraced comfort TV to cope with the effects of the pandemic. I, too, fell victim to this coping mechanism with a little personal touch which I will get into as I continue revealing the bits and pieces of my quarantine binge list. 

Sticking to the theme of “old-fashioned”, I re-watched almost all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films from Ironman to Spiderman Far from Home. It was a great experience reliving the epic moments and chills that I once had when I watched them for the very first time. I remember watching the death of Phil Coulson (mystery man behind the quote), a gut-wrenching moment for many Marvel fans…not so bad though if you’ve Agents of Shield. I digress. I watched these films in between my binges to The Big bang theory, probably the best sitcom I have ever seen, and Arrow, in my opinion, the best among the DC TV shows they have released over the years. 

I am a huge rap music fan and during quarantine, I decided to go back to some of the 2016-17 great releases from Drake, Migos among others. I guess I have rambled enough about my binges. The list definitely goes on, but these were the most dominant. 

On the whole, it is not as diverse, which is part of the idea I want you to get from this piece. I just went with what I was most comfortable with. I did not want to dabble into something I had not seen before or at least known the trajectory of the film or TV show which in essence is why I went for those particular binges in the first place. I was looking for familiarity and predictability. I needed some degree of certainty from what I was watching to counteract the effects of the uncertainty outside. 

I basically knew what would happen in every Marvel film I would re-watch. I knew nothing really bad was going to happen to the characters in The Big Band Theory, and The Arrow was a show I was familiar with even though I was catching up to episodes I had not watched. The suspense provided some excitement while the idea of having a hero to save the day or fight injustice amused me and gave me a sense of hope in a time when it is in short supply. The music on the other hand just took me back to a time when I would be on the school bus back from a symposium and we would try to rap along to the entire Culture album on our way back to school. It was amazing reminiscing a time without the pandemic, a time free of the worry of social distancing, a time we continue to hope will come hopefully sooner rather than later.

All in all, the experience was positively nostalgic, and I enjoyed every bit of it.