2 Shows, 2 Movies, 2 Books… That Have Kept Me Sane During a Global Pandemic

The world has been basically been on shut down since March but there have been some worlds on screen and on paper that have helped me through it all.

Shows: Insecure and Little Fires Everywhere

Insecure – At the height of the pandemic Issa, Molly and Lawerence were the only things stopping me from pulling my hair clean out of my scalp. The show was peak escapism for me, the issues of failing friendships, self-discovery, and rekindling romance felt so simple and comforting. Also with the lack of new TV releases watching the show became an all-encompassing and communal activity, live watches on zoom with friends, live reactions and debates on twitter, and enjoying the shows soundtrack and weekly podcast review all became a constant much-needed structure in my week. It also helps that this season was very easily the best season the show had produced yet, the story arcs, character development were incredible this season (shoutout to Natasha Rothwell for her incredible writing of ep.8) and it was the first season they pushed the cinematography as a contributing character in the story it felt so new and different for the show and it was a risk well executed. P.S I have watched the Ep.9 Issa and Lawerence opening montage a shameful number of times

Little Fires Everywhere – As a not so secret Reese Witherspoon stan I am sure you expected this. I loved this show but not for the reason you would assume, did I love seeing the brief demonic possession of Reese in the final episode? Absolutely but it was the performances of three actors in particular that carried the show for me, Lexi Underwood (Pearl), Tiffany Boone (Young Mia), AnnaSophia Robb (Young Elena). Lexi to me was note-perfect in bringing life to this character she found the perfect juxtaposition of naivety and displaced self-assurance that young people have and it blew me away every time. Boone and Robb blew me away because I almost couldn’t believe how perfectly cast they were as their counterparts younger selves, Boone had every one of Keri’s signature facial expressions down (the lip and teeth combo) and Robb perfectly displayed to us how Elena became the way she is and the early signs of her disconnect and resentment for her youngest daughter that so perfectly explains to the audience how they grew to have such a strained relationship.

Honourable mention: Spider-man cartoon, The Chef and Succession

Movies – Bend It Like Beckham and Onward

Bend It Like Beckham – Now before you scream at me I need to remind you that T is the cinephile, not me (I will watch literally anything). It was one of those shitty ‘I have nothing to do can Rona leave me alone so I can have some fun’ days when I got a call from my sister saying come over right now (she lives a five minute walk away) one of the greatest pieces of British cinema is on. By the time I got there it was an ad break and my sister and my niece started playing a game of me guessing what movie was on and then it came back on and I couldn’t stop laughing. It was one of my favourite movies growing up because it was so relatable to the experience children of first-generation immigrants – Her mum screaming at her about her not being able to cook her traditional dishes “YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO COOK ROUND CHAPPATI” is my mum. It’s also just hilarious from start to finish- “Of course I understand I’m Irish”. It was extra special because my niece has been playing football for a few years and it was so fun to show her this movie and look at how the attitudes to women athletes have (and haven’t) changed from when we were her age. My only qualm with this movie is the fact they want to me to believe that the two main girls weren’t in love with each other and were instead in love with creepy blue eyed coach

Onward – I was gonna give this spot to Tenet but we did a full review and spoiler review already so I decided to give it to Onward. Onward was the first “post” lockdown movie I watched, I remember it coming out just before we went into lockdown and wanting to watch it so badly (because I love a good kids movie). I had all the perfect components of a great family movie I also liked how it was centred around brotherhood and the affection between brothers haven’t seen that in a family movie since brother bear and It was great to watch (apart from the poor attempt of gay rep with the random cyclops voiced by Miss Lena Waithe).

Honourable Mention: Tenet, Inception, Of Monsters and Men and Get on Up

Books – An American Marriage and Children of Blood and Bone

An American Marriage – The story follows a newlywed couple Celestial and Roy (and the wives childhood friend turned lover Andre) when the husband is imprisoned after being falsely accused of rape. Structurally the book works well because of its mixed-use of a standard prose structure you expect to see in novels but this is juxtaposed with more informal letters representing the correspondence between imprisoned Roy and the other characters in the book e.g his wife and his lawyer. I think part of why I loved it was it felt like a continuation of another book I love, whenever I describe this book to others I refer to it as ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ if Fonnie had got out of prison. It’s an interesting story about how incarceration affects the lives of people imprisoned and the people who love them (or feel a duty to love them) on the outside.

Children of Blood and Bone – My late to the party fav, I am currently reading it and i’m having the best time. As much as I love a good dramatic story I also love being able to read books that take you so far out of reality with big stories in mystical worlds (that’s why I have subjected myself to so many terrible sci-fi movies) they are to me escapism in its purest form. If you follow me on twitter I have this running joke whenever I see a black girl cast in a sci-fi/fantasy project that ‘Black girls in Sci-fi/Fantasy is my favourite movie genre’ and this book has confirmed that. The story follows a silver-haired young female protagonist on a mission with runaway royals her older brother and their mythical Lion companion to restore ancient magic to their land taken away from it by the King whose power is threatened – does this sound ridiculous, absolutely but is this book to me what Harry Potter was to little kids when I was growing also absolutely. The thing that is most special about this book to me is its basis of Nigeria – parts of Nigeria are literally destinations in the book, also its use of Yoruba language and folklore in a mystical way is awe inspiring. As a Ghanaian it is very exciting to see a another West African country spotlighted in a genre that is so special to me that many of the time black and African people feel left out or tokenised within.

Honourable Mention: The Good immigrant

– Thea