End It Like Beckhams? Muppets!

Monday is about movies, and sometimes TV. Today, adventures in tuning out the horrors of the news.

Over the long weekend, we had opportunity to kick back and put the TV on. Our son was off with his friends and staying away. We’d done all our chores for the day — early. A mini burnout was hitting, and it was time to just sink down into the couch and watch some trash, dissociate; relax…

TVNZ+ exists only for watching the news now and then, the sport when it’s free, and sometimes a dirty, rotten (brilliant) Made-For-TV movie. But for some reason, I went right there, thinking, maybe a TV series I didn’t know about might take my eye.

Well, something immediately grabbed me.

How utterly trashy. How awful. And funny. I barely even know about this story. I see a headline here and there, but it’s really the memes rolling through on my Instagram telling me something about Posh Spice sabotaging her son’s first dance, and his billionaire heiress wife being a bit cross and something-something Meghan Markle being involved in some way.

Next thing then, I’m watching this! Its keywords: Revealing, Spicy, Iconic — lol.

It says 1 season, it’s a one hour unauthorised throwback to when E! True Hollywood Story offered to scoop you big time; to take you inside the drama. By which they meant gathering up journalism’s interns and a few past-tense celebrities and letting them have the talking stick to serve up some reckons.

A few minutes in, and we were patting ourselves on the backs. This is perfect you see. This is good you see. This is brainless fodder for a lazy day. This is ridiculous also, and that’s a good thing you see. This is just like E! True Hollywood Story and the E! Channel shows from 20-25 years ago where they would list the Top 20 scandals of a year, or a month, or whatever. And tell you about the drugs and in-fighting that went on backstage at your short-term favourite sitcom.

The Beckham mess was not resolved at the end of an hour. It was barely even explained to be honest.

But it felt like true Guilty Pleasure TV watching this junk. Like a McDonald’s drive-thru of television.

My YouTube feed is filled with Trump commentary. The talk shows, SNL, The Daily Show, a bunch of podcasts, smart things like Ezra Klein, but it’s sometimes too much to watch even the smart things. Certainly all the way through.

The other half of my YouTube feed is classical music and dark-screen brown-noise 12-hour videos for tuning out any of the other noises, including any in my head, and allowing me to sleep.

Back when we might watch the E! Channel or the earliest wave of Reality TV, it was guilt-less and wonderful. It didn’t take long to feel a bit silly, or lazy, or both. But our phones do that to us all day every day, often to help us from the seriousness of the world. Or so we tell ourselves.

I dropped in on Disney, something I almost never do, and won’t be doing at all in a few weeks when the cancellation takes effect. I found the brand new standalone Muppet Show episode. This gave me all sorts of dopamine hits. The Muppet Show was likely my first favourite TV show that I can remember. Well, probably a tie with Sesame Street — and they’re connected of course. But yeah. Saturday morning TV was almost never better. All of those great sketches piled into one half-hour show. And a special guest too!

Seth Rogen has brought back The Muppet Show in exactly the style of the original series (1976-81). Sabrina Carpenter was the guest, lots of good jokes around her stealing Missy Piggy’s look; seeing her as a style icon; lawyers getting involved. There were musical numbers, there were daft, brilliant jokes.

It was perfect. The nostalgia valve had so much steam blowing through it that the glass cracked.

I instantly wanted more of this new Muppet Show. I also immediately saw the value in it being one single episode. A throwback. A special. Something utterly joyous. I felt like Robert Plant in the live version of Stairway To Heaven. I wanted to yell Does anybody remember laughter?

But instead, I hopped on over to Prime, to where I’m free-trialing Stingray — which is all the music stuff. And I watched Robert Plant and his extraordinary band from live in 2014. I saw this same band, this tour. It’s been long enough now that I needed a reminder. Amazing music from a brilliant artist, seemingly still and forever at the peak of his powers.

Those were my weekend adventures in tuning out the horrors of the world.

Oh, and then I watched Ezra Klein talking with Tim Wu and Corey Doctorow. It was brutal, grim, distressing — but helpful and interesting:

Matthew 6:27 — And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?