Doing the Binge
This Labor Day – A Way to Visit Other Worlds and Save a Mind in Lock-down
Yes, I did.
I let a lot of things
go when the pandemic shut-down kicked in. My hair grew out; I ceased
emailing and texting with a lot of good and great people; since I was able
to get free food from a city program, I took advantage of it even though I
ate pretty much the same boring thing every day. Sometimes, I even forgot to
brush my teeth.
Previously, I was used
to going out to different restaurants daily – some great or not so much. I'd
be at receptions after special screenings and Q&As with various actors and
directors. Suddenly all that was gone. I often would swing into a hotel
lobby for the Wi-Fi and a chance to relax and write or meet with various
people.
So, it's been quite a
Spring and Summer. Without films and music, I needed distraction. When my
friend lent me two DVD sets of sci-fi TV series, I was provided with the
perfect alternative. By binge-watching them, the on-going escapism helped me
survive the pandemic pause. And it's a perfect thing to do for the holiday
weekend.
First, I jumped into
Babylon 5 – with its five-season arc based on a floating city in
space. Some said it was like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine maybe better,
maybe worse.
Unusual for the era in
which it was released, Babylon 5 was like a "novel for television"
with a defined beginning, middle, and end. Unfolding over its five
22-episode seasons, the Babylon 5 space station – built in the aftermath of
inter-species wars – served as a neutral focal point for galactic diplomacy
and trade. In essence, each episode was like a chapter with the human
military staff and alien diplomats stationed there caught up in various
political machinations, shifting alliances and layers of betrayal (not
unlike today's political intrigues). Each season contained plot elements
which permanently changed the series' universe.
With most storylines
centered around a core of about a dozen species, Babylon 5's embroilment in
a millennia-long cyclical conflict between ancient, powerful races and their
aftermaths, offered fabulous escapism. Episodes focused on the effect of
wider events on various characters, addressing themes of personal change,
loss, subjugation, corruption, defiance, and redemption.
And then there's
Stargate SG-1.
In this decade-long
series, Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter, Dr. Daniel Jackson,
Teal'C and General George Hammond defeat the myth-making Goa'uld and save
Earth time and again by traveling to countless worlds through a series of
wormholes generated by the Stargates. As the series evolved from the
discovery and implementation of Earth's Stargates, audiences learn of the
complex millennia-long dynamic between the Ancients, the Asgard and the
Goa'uld, and how they all fit into humanity's evolution. The first team's
four main characters in "SG-1" explore the galaxy and more through the vast
hyperspace network and evolve into richly developed personalities as they
battled various interplanetary threats.
The series lasted 10
years and went through a few TV movies as well. It engendered spin-offs and
built up quite a viable universe with a few references and nods to Star
Trek, Farscape and other sci-fi franchises. During the days in
which I was sucked into the DVDs, the series became quite a touchstone for
me. I would get up and do what I had to do as the anticipation of sitting
down and viewing the next episode built up in me.
What was more
important to me in all this was the notion that such a binge could save
minds and allow for some kind of repair. It doesn't matter so much what the
particular sci-fi series is being viewed or how they build on ideas which
both encompass and parallel current political dynamics, but the experience
itself.
Being pulled out of
present-day traumas and toil offered a salve for pandemic PTSD. Getting
immersed in the problems of Babylon 5 or the trials and tribulations of the
SG-1 team, allowed me to get a breather.
While I've been
through TV marathons such as a MoMA-sponsored weekend-long engagement with
Twin Peaks: The Return (which I wholeheartedly recommend if only for
its general strangeness), binge-viewing offered a whole new way to
experience media. As a result, such binging transformed the piecemeal
experience of watching episodic TV into an expansive feeling of traveling,
of taking a trip, through a wormhole into a mind-altering respite from
pandemic panic.
Brad Balfour
Copyright ©2020
PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted:
September 4, 2020.
