For me, its Xena.
Few years back, height of covid epidemic, was living in homeless shelters. Overcrowded slums, everyone miserable, yelling, screaming, fights, abuse, rage. At one point, could feel the anger building in me. Powerless, a victim, desire for retribution. What good was trying to be better person, when all it meant was people walking over me.
Started rewatching xena, hadn’t in years. Big message of the show: when surrounded by hate, violence, it’s tempting to give in, to not be a victim. But you have a choice, to not continue the cycle, to make a better world. I so needed to hear that message at that time in my life.
What tv show helped you?
The Good Place.
That show is so good! But the ending fucked me up for like a week.
Also, how are you watching Xena? I used to love that show when I was a kid!
Have an external hard drive filled with tv shows, been collecting for years. Most via torrents.
That is my answer too! The ending is the only media I’ve ever seen that comes close to my own philosophy/beliefs about the afterlife. I think about the different philosophies the show presented all the time, and especially wonder “how many points would I get/lose if I do this” lol
Oddly enough the good place and Bojack horseman were ending around the same week, so I watched both finales back to back and I assumed I’d be sad after Bojack but the good place is what really made me an emotional mess. It was so good. Also I suggest the podcast. Host by marc Evan jackson(he plays Shawn) he is so good as a podcast host that I feel like he needs to do so more often.
The Bermaga-Era Star Treks (TNG-ENT). For better or worse, they were some of the best television made in that time, and a guiding light for morality, ethics, and hope for what the best of humanity can be. Eventually…
Ya know, after we nearly annihilate ourselves in a few decades in WWIII, then invent warp drive, get visited by aliens, and decide to form a democratic socialist world government that puts the worst mistakes of humanity behind us so that we can finally begin exploring the stars.
It doesn’t get mentioned much outside that one movie, but all that has to happen first before humanity gets over its collective bullshit. I’ll probably be dead by then, though.
All of the Star Trek show, especially TNG, Voyager and Emterprise, because I’ve watched them so many times when I was a kid at my grandparent’s house.
I was fascinated by the various captains. They were always so smart, capable, full of resources, curious, charismatic and generally great leaders, mostly coherent with their morals. They were basically badass scientist explorers and I identified so much with them without even realizing it.
Now whenever I find myself in any leadership position, I ask myself what they would do. I could choose to be logical and intellectual like Picard, empathetic like Janeway or brave like Archer. This shaped me more than I could ever imagine.
Stargate SG-1
Firefly helped me realize perceptions are just that and don’t have much bearing on people, also that there is a liminal space between society and revolutionaries.
Deadwood helped me understand that personalities are expressed, refined philosophies.
Cowboy bebop reminded me how dreams and life are made of the same stuff and that nothing is permanent, stagnant or impossible.
I’m interested in your comment about perceptions, could you unpack that a little more?
It ties into the comment about liminal space; how one is viewed and views others, while it can control the way a society functions and how we act toward and behave around each other, doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the people these perceptions are directed at and further, for perception to affect anything, it must be paid deference.
Inara, a Companion, who apparently enjoys greater social honor than the rest of the crew, is quickly reduced by Mal’s vindictive, shameful envy to being “just” a prostitute, by which every crew member treats her according to their perception (jayne - object of physical desire, zoe - independent contractor, Kaylee - aspirational ambassador). Inara has the wealth and social grace to be the only crew member with her own shuttle/gilded cage necessary because of the private nature of her chosen occupation/role. Although Inara is perhaps the only crew member with formal training in martial arts and social arts, and often shows herself to be steps ahead of the others assessing situations, she’s treated the most delicately and rarely included in strategy. Every time Inara is frustrated or stymied, we see a glimpse of the personality behind perceptions in active dissonance. These are all perceptions and roles that can be ignored the same way Mal has ignored his role as revolutionary/defeated soldier, Book ignored his role as terrorist(serenity comics)/religious leader, so on. Everyone is trapped and dictated to by perceptions that are not easily shed but are simply shed, which many characters realize under duress.
In the middle of these conflicting ideas and behaviors from society, the captain and crew of her ship, her shuttle, and herself, that do play a large role in how limited/defined Inara is, is Inara the fundamental character, played by Morena Baccarin conveying assumed desirous perceptions and chosen by the perceptions of a casting director appointed by Whedon, who can only write(and sell) his story if he can figure out how to fit together his perceptions and his supposed perceptions of others close enough together to it’s without breaking the written world.
These characters and people are all living according to recognized or artificial perceptions that may not have anything to do with them, yet control how they live and present their lives as far as the characters and people allow themselves to be controlled.
TLDR all the world’s a stage
Your comment about Deadwood is resonating hard with me. Very well articulated, thank you.
