When A Global Pandemic’s Got You Down

So, you’re working from home and self isolating and already bored out of your mind while simultaneously stressed beyond belief about the deteriorating state of, well, everything? Yeah, me too. I can’t stop reading the news. But the news makes me more anxious. And then I read more news. And then more anxious.

So to help break that cycle (I mean, please, do stay informed but maybe don’t go on 3-hour coronavirus news and worst-case-scenario rabbitholes) here are a few suggestions of what to watch instead of the world burning. These movies and shows are some of my go-to anxiety relievers.

Five Things To Watch When A Global Pandemic’s Got You Down List:

1) Great British Baking Show: Dear, sweet merciful Zeus, do we need the relative calm of soggy bottoms and burnt bakes right now. The mix of pastoral majesty and ingrained niceness is exactly what the world ordered now that people are battling each other for the last roll of toilet paper. You call it a baking competition show, I call it televised Xanax.



2) Moana: The story of a young girl who takes a perilous journey to save her home from a spreading black death that threatened everything in sight… Look, the point is she wins and it’s inspiring and I’m an adult who sometimes sings “How Far I’ll Go” in the shower.



3) Imagine Me & You: In a world where meet-cutes are cancelled for a while (or at least face-to-face ones), why not enjoy the simple pleasure of a girl-meets-florist at her wedding and then they fall in love and live happily ever after instead story. I mean, don’t be a wanker.



4) Parks & Recreations: Sometimes you just need to believe that the government actually cares. And if the unbridled optimism of Leslie Knope doesn’t make you believe a career in public service can still be a noble/hilarious thing, well, then no one will. And a good public servant from Indiana, no less. She is truly the Anti-Mike Pence.



5) The Good Place: This show is good, not just as in quality but in its heart. And it ponders the big questions in life while allowing us to laugh at our own ridiculous humanity. I turn on the final episode sometimes, to calm myself and remember that no matter what we will all dissolve into the universe at some point. Back to stardust, one and all.