What I’m watching in Lockdown

A couple of weeks ago I got a letter in the post from the Scottish Government advising me that for 12 weeks from the receipt of that letter I shouldn’t leave my house for any reason. If I needed shopping or food, assistance would be provided for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly grateful that I live in a country where my previous health issues have been taken into account, and help has been provided to keep me safe, but for someone who spends as much of their time out in the world doing things, suddenly being confined to the house isn’t without its fair share of difficulties.

The main thing I’ve noticed is the sheer amount of time I’m now spending inactive just watching things on TV. Just mindlessly scrolling through a million Netflix menus promising me ‘Compelling dramas with a strong female lead’ or ‘LGBT Films’ (even if some of the films in the Category are about IVF treatment woes of heterosexual couples, with nary a gay character to be seen).

I find that I am watching a lot of things that I’ve already seen before, mainly because I don’t have the mental capacity to be following any complex story lines, because I’m living through one of the most complex any of us can remember.

Instead of familiarity breeding contempt however, it is creating a calm within me which is letting me breathe, even for a little while. I’ve enjoyed my trip down memory lane, but you’ll be surprised (or maybe not, if you know how self-obsessed I can be) how many of them are seen through the lens of the current COVID-19 pandemic. I can’t have been the only person who has been hoping the Carole Baskins was going to Zoom-bomb one of my video chats, call me a cool-cat and let me quiz her on whether she really killed her husband or not.

I was also surprised how well some of these films have held up. The night I watched the entire Scream franchise back to back (phenomenal) or the lazy afternoon I watched Flight of the Navigator (comforting) while dozing in and out on the couch are two stand outs.

So to document the things I’ve been watching in Lockdown I’ve started doing small digital prints of some of the standouts. You can find the full series on my ko-fi, but I’ve reproduced some of them here for your entertainment.