Blizzard Bingers: AHA Staff Share Snowfall Entertainment
Last Friday, the DC region experienced the biggest snow event in recent history. Living in a small western Maryland town, I made sure I was prepared to spend an extended amount of time inside my home. I had all the essentials: food and water, flashlight, blankets, charged cell phone, and plenty of downloaded movies!
Yes, finally, a reason to stay inside and marathon-watch movie after movie, series after series, without all the guilt of being completely useless and downright lazy. In hindsight, I now have nothing to watch since I’m all caught up on my favorite shows, but at the time it was glorious. If you did the same, don’t worry, you’re in good company. It seems some of AHA’s staff did a bit of couch potato-ing themselves.
Maggie Ardiente, senior editor of TheHumanist.com, has yet to find a match to BoJack Horseman’s humor.
“When I finished watching season three of my current favorite show House of Cards last year, I looked to other Netflix originals to feed my binge-watching needs and discovered BoJack Horseman, an animated show about a washed up ‘90s TV star living among anthropomorphic animals and humans in Hollywoo (yes, that’s how it’s spelled). Most people compare the show with crude shows like South Park and Family Guy, but I find BoJack Horseman to be the opposite. Sure, BoJack’s interactions with characters like his lazy houseguest Todd and loyal talent agent Princess Carolyn will make you laugh, but the show is less about being a comedy and more about shining a light on the dark side of fame: What happens when you get everything you want, yet you’re still unhappy? The show is also filled with hidden jokes in the background scenes—a clothing store called Fred Seagull, a movie poster for “Catsablanca,” a bank named Whales Fargo—and finding them all only rewards the repeat viewer.”
Peter Bjork, managing editor of TheHumanist.com crosses Troop Beverly Hills off his list.
“Living through #Snowzilla2016 (for the record, I preferred the name #MakeWinterGreatAgain) brought about an unhealthy level of media consumption. I’ve been binging on the dark and brooding Jessica Jones, catching up on SyFy’s surprisingly excellent space opera The Expanse, and pretending not to cry during the second season of Transparent. But perhaps my greatest accomplishment is that over the weekend, 27 years late, I finally watched Shelley Long’s magnum opus Troop Beverly Hills. In this time capsule of the late ‘80s rabid obsession with pastel colors and shoulder pads, Long plays an initially incompetent troop leader of her daughter’s group of spoiled-rich-kid Wilderness Girls (fictitious Girl Scouts). Though the plot is a cookie-cutter overcoming-adversity-with-hilarious-twists experience, it’s the fashions, the one-liners, and the cameos that made this a wonderful viewing experience. And for an added bonus: I now understand 40 percent more of the movie-quote jokes that my friends make.”
AHA’s Grassroots Coordinator Rachael Berman was captivated by the popular Netflix documentary series, Making a Murderer.
“I started watching the show weeks ago. My plan was to pace myself so I could enjoy the series for as long as I could. But then, last Friday the storm hit, giving me every excuse to complete the series, marathon-style. But it didn’t stop there. The story was so captivating that it left me with an insatiable hunger for more! I began frantically researching the main people in the documentary. I needed to know everything about them and what has become of them since the documentary’s completion. Also, being less than an expert on the law, I needed to understand how this whole mess came about. Needless to say, if you’re going to watch this show, be prepared to binge-study afterwards.”
Don’t get me wrong, when a weather event like this occurs, it is important to help others. In lieu of the gym, I spent hours each day walking around my small town, snow shovel in hand, ready to help anyone who needed it. But when it’s time to transform into a mindless couch potato, binging on your favorite programs is OK too.