A Pandemic Pause

We've all been hitting the pause button on life for the past few months. Well, for at least some parts.

Entertainment seems to be the biggest thing to go. It is pretty much the same for everyone. Whether you are rich or poor, working from home or still working, still getting a paycheck or not, there is nowhere to go.

No movies, no Broadway, no opera, no clubs, no...well you get the picture (not the moving kind).

The price of this pandemic has been too high. Especially emotionally. Quarantining ourselves at a time like this doesn't help.

But, many people have used this time to binge watch shows that they would never had the time to find before.

Here are three shows that I found binge worthy because they took my mind away from this mess we find ourselves in. They are definitely underrated. Everyone should take a peek, I'll tell you why I did.

One Mississippi

Tig Notaro's semi auto biographical series, One Mississippi brings her back home from California to Mississippi when her mother is dying. After her mother's funeral, she decides to stay home for a while and we get to meet her family, friends and her love interest Kate. Kate is played by Notaro's real life wife Stephanie Allynne.

Tig's dead pan comedic style brings levity to somber situations. One of my favorite scenes in the show is when Tig is approached by two "well-meaning" religion defenders.

"It is possible to pray the gay away", they tell her.

"Hmmm, what if I want to pray the gay to stay?", Tig comes back at them, not skipping a beat.

Well, I can't tell jokes and make anyone laugh so just watch it in the trailer below,

There are only 12 episodes in the 2 seasons of One Mississippi and each episode is only 25 minutes long. The show addresses many issues in that short amount of time.

This is definitely a show that I would want to binge more of. Unfortunately, after 2 seasons, the show was canceled and, even though there was fan begging, it's stays a no go for a season 3.

Sadness.

The only thing that could get me over the sadness would be...

Witches.

LUNA NERA

Luna Nera is an Italian language film that is dubbed in English. Netflix's released Luna Nera in January 2020 and I was immediately entranced. I love witches. Anything about them. Books, movies, art and history. But I don't like dumb witch media.

And this, was not that.

This series centers around young Ade who finds herself alone in 17th century Italy. She is solely responsible for her little brother in the midst of tragedy. Her abilities feel overwhelming yet too small for the task that she has to undertake.

Luckily she finds her group of women, one seems stronger than the other, but they all seem stronger than her. One friend, Persepolis played by Adalgisa Manfrida, becomes her closest friend.

She also finds a love interest in Pietro (Giorgio Belli), but I feel like he is a sort of mannequin like character put there to move the plot along. I did find him forgettable, yet perfectly Pietro worthy, for what Pietro was worth.

I did love this show and I was sad when it was over. Although a season 2 was planned, because of our dear pandemic, when that will be has not been announced.

Please let there be a new season! They don't even have to dub it! I do sub titles!

Speaking of sub-titles, My last one is full of them.

Read ahead. Meet the Shtisels.

Shtisel

Originally released in June, 2013, Shtisel began streaming on Netflix in December of 2019.

I was drawn to Shtisel, the series about a strict Haredi family living in a ultra Orthodox neighborhood in Geula, Jerusalem, after watching the movie, "Unorthodox". I loved the young woman playing the main character Esther, Shira Haas.

Through my research of her film work, I found Shtisel in which she plays the granddaughter of the Shtisel Patriarch Shulem.

Shira ends up being one of my favorite characters in the series, even though she is pretty much a child throughout the whole show. Sometimes children think they have to put band-aids on all of the family boo boos.

My other favorite character is Akiva Shtisel played by Michael Aloni. I couldn't help but get caught up in his endless struggle between his art, his family and what God wants from him.

Even though the shows characters speak mostly in Yiddish and Hebrew, there is English when the person speaks English, German when they speak German. Pretty much like real life.

This is what kept me captivated. I love finding out about other cultures but that could lead you down paths filled with cliches and stereotypes. This series seemed more authentic than others that I have seen.

I definitely cannot leave you all without a peek at Akiva

Well, those are my three picks for a binge month or two. Some laughs, some witchery, some drama, but all three about friends and family and keeping them close.

What we all need right now.