We all had our piece of emotional support media that helped get us through the quarantine. To celebrate what feels like the end of a year in isolation, the Editorial Board wanted to give a shout-out to the activities and entertainment that got us out of our heads while we were stuck in our homes. They might be tainted for us forever, but the list below was such legitimately good content that we can’t recommend it enough for your post-finals, pre-move out inevitable binge.
TV Shows
Cowboy Bebop: Bad news first, it’s an an*me. Now that only the cool kids are left reading, onto the good stuff. “Cowboy Bebop” is the quintessential ’90s anime. Set in the year 2070, and made in the year 1998, the show follows a young, charismatic, cocky bounty hunter, Spike, and his crotchety, seasoned veteran of a partner, Jet, through the galaxy on their spaceship (called the Bebop). Within the first few episodes, the two pick up a few more characters: a femme fatale, a puppy, and a crazy 10-year-old girl named Edward. Don’t let the release date fool you: “Cowboy Bebop” is aware of exactly which tropes it falls into, and handles them masterfully and satirically. Sure, the show can be a bit cheesy — everyone’s got a dark past, everyone’s got a love interest they lost, left, or learned from — but the creators more than make up for it with their attention to detail. The show is rife with small clever jokes and pokes at pop culture, and gets more surreal (read: artsy) as the episodes progress. Find all 28 episodes dubbed on Adult Swim, or on any illegal streaming service. There’s also a movie!
BoJack Horseman: Chances are, you’ve either watched this show before or heard way too much about it for your liking. If you’re in the former group, watch it again! If you’re in the latter group, then I humbly invite myself to the chorus of voices telling you to watch this show already, goddammit. It follows BoJack, a narcissistic yet self-hating former TV star, as he tries to improve himself against his own instincts. He has a few friends trying to bring out the best in him: his lazy but sweet best friend Todd; his brutally pragmatic agent/ex-girlfriend Princess Carolyn; his nemesis (from his perspective) Mister Peanutbutter; and Diane Nguyen, the ghostwriter of his memoir. But none of these people have the same opinion of what’s best for BoJack, and as he’s incapable of controlling his own life, he finds himself floating between self-improvement and self-destruction. This is a show that has a lot to say about abuse, glamorized mental illness, sexism, and basically any other staple of Hollywoo(d), and it doesn’t pull its punches. You can find it on Netflix.
YouTube Channels
Jomboy Media: Enjoy watching baseball? No? Me neither. Jomboy Media somehow makes me enjoy it anyways. He doesn’t limit himself to baseball (see this ear pulling video) but he also spends a lot of time (split up into 1-5 minute videos) doing play-by-play for parts of baseball that mainstream media won’t. Like pitchers throwing up, or dugout clearing brawls. And somehow, in between all that, he makes you like baseball enough to pay attention when he breaks the story on how the Astros won a world series by cheating.
Yoga with Adriene: During the shitshow that was 2020, I often found myself too sad or scared to do anything but lay down in bed. I’ve never been one for fitness, but after the first semester of online school ended almost a year ago, I found my little body was craving some more attention. Enter Yoga with Adriene, perhaps the gentlest, most wholesome YouTube channel on the internet. Adriene has almost 10 million subscribers and 600 videos for people of all levels, from beginner yoga practitioners to seasoned masters. Her incredibly soothing voice will tell you that “it’s okay” if you can’t stretch that far and to “take a break” if you can’t touch your toes. She also has a sweet dog named Benji who often appears beside her yoga mat. If you’re afraid of intense physical activity but want something physical to relax your mind, body, and soul, this is the channel for you.
Music
William Maranci’s Mashups: The self-declared “CEO of cursed mashups,” Maranci really knows how to pick combinations that are… memorable. Sometimes they flop, and other times you don’t know one of the songs being combined, but when it works, it SLAPS. If you haven’t yet heard Kanye’s “Power” to the instrumental of “Rock Lobster” by the B-52s, or “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People combined with the “Drake and Josh” theme song, you’re missing out.
Books
Solutions and Other Problems: So your brain can’t handle too much grunt work anymore. That doesn’t mean you have to stop reading! “Solutions and Other Problems,” from the writer/artist behind “Hyperbole and a Half,” is a collection of equally relatable, heartbreaking, and hilarious experiences. Maybe you’re looking for minimalist drawings of fluffy dogs pretending they’re invisible. Or maybe human beings getting stoned out of their mind and crawling to flowers for safety is more your speed. In any case, “Solutions and Other Problems” won’t solve all your problems, but it might help, for a bit.
Any book of poetry: Seriously. Try it. I know it sounds really snobby, but if you have trouble committing to an entire book, but want to actually read and enjoy an entire work, poetry is a good way to do that. You can find all the layers of prose, but condensed into a few lines (or a few pages). Nobody (except maybe this member of the editorial board) has the energy to read a biography of Leonardo Da Vinci. Everybody has the energy to read three sentences about snails by Langston Hughes.
Movies
FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened: During quarantine, we were looking to distract ourselves from the clusterfuck that was the COVID-19 pandemic. A great way to do that was by focusing on a different clusterfuck entirely, and there’s none more entertaining than Fyre Festival. Remember Fyre Fest? The luxury music festival that went so horribly wrong? It’s the perfect combination of beautiful, sweeping drone shots of the Bahamas and rich kids getting scammed. There’s no greater schadenfreude than watching Fyre come crashing down in real time. Find it on Netflix.
Bonus! A Hobby: This isn’t a form of media, but it sure is entertaining…
Feeling mischievous? Feeling like you need to steal something? Want to cause minor inconveniences to the University just for fun? Upset that the TransLoc App lied to you about the bus being on its way because as soon as it got there, it put up the super-scary “Driver off duty” sign? Well, we suggest that you board the bus, preferably with a backpack, and cop one of those “Leave this seat empty” posters that wrap around the seats. What better souvenir from a year of social distancing than an ugly yellow sign!
The Editorial Board is a weekly Opinions article representing the view of the Campus Times, co-written by Editor-in-Chief Hailie Higgins, Publisher Ethan Busch, Managing Editors Corey Miller-Williams and Olivia Alger, Special Projects Editor Micah Greenberg, and Opinions Editor Lucy Farnham.
