I am definitely in the minority in appreciating 2020 and not wanting to forget it. I was fortunate enough to keep my job. But that year was a huge reset that could have changed us for the better yet only seems to have made us worse thanks mainly to Trump.
I appreciated the freedom of being untethered from the usual demands of the daily grind and enjoyed having more time to myself. Some people learned to bake (sourdough anyone?), some learned to knit, I took to the soil and began to garden, enjoying the quiet and stillness that were the byproduct of a world forced to slow down and stop.
Yes, I was was horrified by the death, the fear, the uncertainty, and the disgraceful mishandling by the Trump 1 admin (caused by him). No doubt. And both mourn and are enraged by all the unnecessary deaths because people refused to social distance, or mask up, or be less of an asshole.
As much as people say they want to get in touch with their "spiritual" side or yearn to be "more authentic," we sure seem to shun introspection or retrospection of any kind. You can't have growth you don't contemplate and face things you don't like or scare you, or for learning to deal with uncertainty, and for many that means remembering 2020.
The internet and tech have turned us into a collective of ADHD sufferers with a permanent case of FOMO, terrified of being "bored" and desperate for amusement and the next THING. For all the knowledge available to use in an instant on the web, we've become less educated and less thoughtful. And so much meaner.
I appreciate the question about how films did and did not capture the COVID-19 pandemic. However, COVID is NOT over. Currently, there are nearly 2.3 million new infections per week, resulting in 800-1300 deaths and up to 454,000 cases of Long COVID. See: https://www.pmc19.com/data/index.php.
We need to stop pretending that COVID isn't a problem anymore, when it's still spreading and harming people. The only thing that's over is taking precautions. The real story? We wasted all of the sacrifices that people made during the shut-down phase by not installing high-quality air filtration systems, requiring respirators (N95s), and pretending that vaccines were the "magic bullet" that let everyone go back to "normal."
Sorry about posting this, about AI in movies and shows, but I don't know how to adequately use Twit. I received this in Morning Brew:
"Netflix used generative AI in one of its shows for the first time. Will the next Squid Game be made by a bot? Probably not, but tucked into Netflix's earnings announcement this week was the nugget that the streaming giant has seemingly picked the pro-AI side in Hollywood's battle over the tech. Netflix said the Argentine sci-fi show The Eternaut was the first show it had produced that used fully AI-generated shots. The tech enabled a sequence that included the collapse of a building in Buenos Aires, which would have otherwise been outside the show's budget. "We remain convinced that AI represents an incredible opportunity to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper," Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos told analysts."
What I find great about AI is that it allowed the production company to NOT use fake snow! So, perhaps you could discuss the positives that AI could bring to production, such as creating digital scenes that do NOT require material to be wasted in temporary sets. Humanity creates a huge amount of waste that is degrading our environment, such as in the fast-fashion market and in the use of sets that are needed for a very short period of time or number of scenes that will be thrown out. I think that you covering the "waste" aspect of production and AI's ability to reduce that would be great.
I really have no desire to see films about the pandemic. I don’t think white people, especially youngsters, learning about privilege is weird, I don’t think masking is/was weird (deffo uncomfortable though), but undertaken in my workplace (a church) in order to save lives. That’s never weird. The weirdness happened when people buckled under the pressures of lockdown and uncertainty. We’re not as tough as we like to brag about.
I watched Vincent Racaniello's This Week in Virology (at microbe.tv/twiv) during the pandemic and found out in real time just how poorly our government worked at all levels, starting at the top under Trump who politicized it for personal reasons. TWiV is all evidence based and had those in power consulted with real experts, not just MDs, epidemiologists, etc, things could have been a lot better. Invest the time and watch some of those old episodes at the link above.
The problem is due to the GOP politicizing science, from health to environment, for political reasons, not the least of which was to make enough Americans "skeptical" of experts. I put that in quotes because to be truly skeptical one has to know enough and most Americans are woefully stupid.
Ah yes, “Eddington.” Finally, a film that dares to hold up the black mirror inside the black mirror.
Because let’s be honest: the real pandemic wasn’t COVID. It was content. The virus was just the background music—what really infected us was the endless buffet of dopamine-fueled outrage, despair, and self-branding. Mask up, wash your hands, and don’t forget to livestream your existential crisis for the algorithm gods.
2020 wasn’t a year. It was a feed. And now, like good little pilgrims of the scroll, we gather at the altar of Ari Aster, who saw through the chaos and asked the only heretical question worth asking: what if the town lunatic now had WiFi and a ring light?
Bravo to Bunch for noticing the real horror. Not the sickness. Not the lockdowns. But that we all went mad together and called it community.
I found TV made in 2020 very frustrating for the opposite reasons as most. I think everyone wanted escapism and I wanted to processed what was going on and became almost resentful of characters who were living normal carefree lives in 2020.
I am a big NCIS fan and each of the shows handled the pandemic in different ways, which I appreciated. The main NCIS show, had episodes set before the pandemic and then in the middle of the pandemic but not at the worst points, Los Angeles was set a few years after the pandemic (even though in reality we were in the middle of it) but the characters still mentioned the consequences from it. And New Orleans was really bold and showcased the worst of the pandemic and I found that the most real and entertaining in a way that was honest.
It is interesting how we have desperately tried to memory hole a time that impacted everyone and I like when art/entertainment tries to help process it.
"If Eddington helps show us why we’re all such miserable jerks, Superman shows us how we could all be a little bit nicer and better."
I love this sentence mostly because it seems to beautifully encapsulate our lives online- an environment consistently offering us the choice to be the best or worst version of ourselves. Surely a great prompt for a different post. Thank you for the reviews, with an overwhelming amount of content at our fingertips it's nice to find gems that weren't on my radar!
America wasn't alone in experiencing the pandemic, of course, so there are other films about this historical event. The one that I like the most came from Poland and is called "The Balcony." It's a documentary in which the filmmaker set up a camera on his balcony to engage in conversation with strangers. It's poignant and powerful. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15180952/
I am definitely in the minority in appreciating 2020 and not wanting to forget it. I was fortunate enough to keep my job. But that year was a huge reset that could have changed us for the better yet only seems to have made us worse thanks mainly to Trump.
I appreciated the freedom of being untethered from the usual demands of the daily grind and enjoyed having more time to myself. Some people learned to bake (sourdough anyone?), some learned to knit, I took to the soil and began to garden, enjoying the quiet and stillness that were the byproduct of a world forced to slow down and stop.
Yes, I was was horrified by the death, the fear, the uncertainty, and the disgraceful mishandling by the Trump 1 admin (caused by him). No doubt. And both mourn and are enraged by all the unnecessary deaths because people refused to social distance, or mask up, or be less of an asshole.
As much as people say they want to get in touch with their "spiritual" side or yearn to be "more authentic," we sure seem to shun introspection or retrospection of any kind. You can't have growth you don't contemplate and face things you don't like or scare you, or for learning to deal with uncertainty, and for many that means remembering 2020.
The internet and tech have turned us into a collective of ADHD sufferers with a permanent case of FOMO, terrified of being "bored" and desperate for amusement and the next THING. For all the knowledge available to use in an instant on the web, we've become less educated and less thoughtful. And so much meaner.
Looking forward to this movie.
I appreciate the question about how films did and did not capture the COVID-19 pandemic. However, COVID is NOT over. Currently, there are nearly 2.3 million new infections per week, resulting in 800-1300 deaths and up to 454,000 cases of Long COVID. See: https://www.pmc19.com/data/index.php.
We need to stop pretending that COVID isn't a problem anymore, when it's still spreading and harming people. The only thing that's over is taking precautions. The real story? We wasted all of the sacrifices that people made during the shut-down phase by not installing high-quality air filtration systems, requiring respirators (N95s), and pretending that vaccines were the "magic bullet" that let everyone go back to "normal."
Sorry about posting this, about AI in movies and shows, but I don't know how to adequately use Twit. I received this in Morning Brew:
"Netflix used generative AI in one of its shows for the first time. Will the next Squid Game be made by a bot? Probably not, but tucked into Netflix's earnings announcement this week was the nugget that the streaming giant has seemingly picked the pro-AI side in Hollywood's battle over the tech. Netflix said the Argentine sci-fi show The Eternaut was the first show it had produced that used fully AI-generated shots. The tech enabled a sequence that included the collapse of a building in Buenos Aires, which would have otherwise been outside the show's budget. "We remain convinced that AI represents an incredible opportunity to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper," Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos told analysts."
What I find great about AI is that it allowed the production company to NOT use fake snow! So, perhaps you could discuss the positives that AI could bring to production, such as creating digital scenes that do NOT require material to be wasted in temporary sets. Humanity creates a huge amount of waste that is degrading our environment, such as in the fast-fashion market and in the use of sets that are needed for a very short period of time or number of scenes that will be thrown out. I think that you covering the "waste" aspect of production and AI's ability to reduce that would be great.
Thanks for covering this beat!
I really have no desire to see films about the pandemic. I don’t think white people, especially youngsters, learning about privilege is weird, I don’t think masking is/was weird (deffo uncomfortable though), but undertaken in my workplace (a church) in order to save lives. That’s never weird. The weirdness happened when people buckled under the pressures of lockdown and uncertainty. We’re not as tough as we like to brag about.
I watched Vincent Racaniello's This Week in Virology (at microbe.tv/twiv) during the pandemic and found out in real time just how poorly our government worked at all levels, starting at the top under Trump who politicized it for personal reasons. TWiV is all evidence based and had those in power consulted with real experts, not just MDs, epidemiologists, etc, things could have been a lot better. Invest the time and watch some of those old episodes at the link above.
The problem is due to the GOP politicizing science, from health to environment, for political reasons, not the least of which was to make enough Americans "skeptical" of experts. I put that in quotes because to be truly skeptical one has to know enough and most Americans are woefully stupid.
Ah yes, “Eddington.” Finally, a film that dares to hold up the black mirror inside the black mirror.
Because let’s be honest: the real pandemic wasn’t COVID. It was content. The virus was just the background music—what really infected us was the endless buffet of dopamine-fueled outrage, despair, and self-branding. Mask up, wash your hands, and don’t forget to livestream your existential crisis for the algorithm gods.
2020 wasn’t a year. It was a feed. And now, like good little pilgrims of the scroll, we gather at the altar of Ari Aster, who saw through the chaos and asked the only heretical question worth asking: what if the town lunatic now had WiFi and a ring light?
Bravo to Bunch for noticing the real horror. Not the sickness. Not the lockdowns. But that we all went mad together and called it community.
Really enjoyed your discussion about anime. I live in a house full of anime fans and they would enjoy the discussion.
I found TV made in 2020 very frustrating for the opposite reasons as most. I think everyone wanted escapism and I wanted to processed what was going on and became almost resentful of characters who were living normal carefree lives in 2020.
I am a big NCIS fan and each of the shows handled the pandemic in different ways, which I appreciated. The main NCIS show, had episodes set before the pandemic and then in the middle of the pandemic but not at the worst points, Los Angeles was set a few years after the pandemic (even though in reality we were in the middle of it) but the characters still mentioned the consequences from it. And New Orleans was really bold and showcased the worst of the pandemic and I found that the most real and entertaining in a way that was honest.
It is interesting how we have desperately tried to memory hole a time that impacted everyone and I like when art/entertainment tries to help process it.
"If Eddington helps show us why we’re all such miserable jerks, Superman shows us how we could all be a little bit nicer and better."
I love this sentence mostly because it seems to beautifully encapsulate our lives online- an environment consistently offering us the choice to be the best or worst version of ourselves. Surely a great prompt for a different post. Thank you for the reviews, with an overwhelming amount of content at our fingertips it's nice to find gems that weren't on my radar!
America wasn't alone in experiencing the pandemic, of course, so there are other films about this historical event. The one that I like the most came from Poland and is called "The Balcony." It's a documentary in which the filmmaker set up a camera on his balcony to engage in conversation with strangers. It's poignant and powerful. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15180952/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_(2021_TV_film)this is great! Check it out!
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/sep/16/help-review-jodie-comer-and-stephen-graham-will-leave-you-breathless-with-rage