THE GUIDE OF ALL GUIDES
Ahhh TV, my dear friend. You are always there through the ups and downs, especially the ups and downs of college life. Come midterms or finals week, I may neglect you; however, when those are over, you are still there (once I find the remote). Your shows are endless and your movie marathons always hit the spot. The only wish I have is that there was a guide to match the mood I am in with the show that will fulfill that mood’s needs. That is why I have decided to make the guide of all guides. I will go through many TV shows and movies, new and old, and fit them to the 10 typical college moods we all experience at one time or another throughout these tough, but amazing years.
1. The “School Just Started, Back With Your Best Friends” Mood
Summer was great, but now it’s time to go back to school and see all your friends! Time to get back into the swing of things. This mood calls for some fan-favorites; either the TV show Friends or the movie She’s The Man. Both funny, light-hearted and well-rounded classics that will put you in the mood for anything that this year will bring or the thing to watch with all your friends back together on the living room couch. Friends is a 90’s American sitcom that shows the daily lives of six, hilarious friends who live either together or near each other in New York City. She’s The Man is a comedy movie in which a teen goes undercover as a guy in order to play soccer at a different high school since her school got rid of the girls’ soccer program. Needless to say, this movie will bring you tears of laughter!
2. The “Everyone Is Annoying” Mood
We all have those moments…sometimes too often. The moments where everyone is so irritating that you can barely handle it anymore. A person could cough or say “Hi” the wrong way and it’ll set you off. This mood calls for some uplifting and comical productions. These productions include the show New Girl or the movie Couples Retreat. Not many characters in either of these will make you want to rip your hair out, but instead, they will most likely sooth that irrational annoyance! The show New Girl is about three roommates who are men who end up taking in another roommate who happens to be Jess, a woman. This show will pull on the heartstrings, make the simplest things funny and will definitely force Netflix to ask “Are you still watching”…the answer is always yes. The movie Couples Retreat is a production with Adam Sandler and many other famous actors and actresses that involves four couples who go on a “relaxing” vacation together…hence the quotations around relaxing.
3. The “What Is Motivation?” Mood
Okay, this mood is the one we all get at the worst possible times. The only cure I have found to this is to get some comical relief. That is why for this mood I chose The Office and Bill Madison. For one, The Office is a show about a paper company with a cast of many funny-in-different-ways people, which you do not have to give a ton of dedication to. This means you can watch episodes in full, fall asleep during some or even just skip some and still catch up with what is going on. The movie Billy Madison is both goofy and weirdly empowering. This movie is about a man (somewhat child) whose dad is planning on giving his company to him, Billy, but first, he must pass every grade in 24 weeks to show he can do it without his father’s help.
4. The “Why Can’t I Be A Kid Again?” Mood
Being a kid was so much better than being an adult. Being with family in your childhood home with all the familiar smells, routines, etc. just seems so much better sometimes while in college. When this mood hits, you have to go back down memory lane or watch things that involve childhood memories. For this, I bring to you Boy Meets World, Spongebob, and The Incredibles movie. Boy Meets World is a complex, funny and pull-on-your heartstrings kind of show that involves the life of a guy named Cory and all of his family, friends, and teachers from sixth grade through his college years. Spongebob is just entertaining as a kid and for some reason, still now as an adult. It involves many random animated characters including a sponge, crab, whale, squid, squirrel, starfish, lobster and much other fish who live at the bottom of the ocean and have somewhat “normal” lives and jobs. The Incredibles brings that family movie night feeling back while you’re cooped up in your dorm room bed. It is an animated movie about a family of superheroes who more or less save the world together!
5. The “Week 5 Winter Term” Mood
The dreaded week 5. The week we hate and start dreading at the beginning of week 1. This week’s mood calls for the show Shameless and the movie What Happens In Vegas. Shameless can put hard times into perspective with the plot of a big family who lives on the South side of Chicago. It dives into the relationships between, outside of and around this family, both funny and painful. The movie What Happens In Vegas can just provide some comedic and romantic relief. This movie has Cameron Dias and Ashton Kutcher playing two characters who accidentally get hitched (drunkenly) in Vegas and have to pay the consequences of the aftermath.
6. The “I Will Be Alone Forever” Mood
Whether you think relationships are overrated, you want one and just have yet to get one or you have had awful experiences and just want to live through other people, this COMMON mood calls for the classic Cinderella Story with Hillary Duff. This movie will incorporate “all the feels” while making you hopeful or not, all at the same time. What is meant by that is this movie can give you exactly what you want: either to live vicariously through Hillary Duff or to remember fairytale romance is not reality! However you want to take in the movie, you can and you should!
7. The “I’m The Best and No One Can Touch Me” Mood
Here’s to the best and shortest-lived mood of them all!! Feeling like you’re the best happens scarcely in college and therefore, needs to be cherished. This mood calls for the empowering movie, Wonder Woman or the complicated and intriguing show, Scandal. The movie Wonder Woman is a movie about a princess from the Amazon who was trained to become a warrior. She teams up with an American pilot in order to fight off something evil from the outside world. The show Scandal is a show about a woman who owns an independent crisis-management firm in which she works alongside fellow coworker friends and involves the President and the White House as a whole.
8. The “Sick and Want My Mom” Mood
Being sick is awful, but being sick at school away from your mom’s tender love and care is even worse. When you just want to curl up in a ball under that heated blanket with a box of tissues, a steaming cup of soup and some cough medicine by your side, don’t forget the TV show or movie essentials as well. This mood emulates the great Grey’s Anatomy or the movie Definitely Maybe. Both are tear-jerkers and will keep you awake even when the cold medicine kicks in! The show Grey’s Anatomy is a show that covers all realms from sad to hilarious and takes place in a hospital where it travels through the lives of a bunch of surgeons, doctors, family members, and patients. The movie Definitely Maybe is a movie where Ryan Reynolds tells the story of him and the mother of his child to his daughter as a bedtime story for her to guess which part of the story involves her mom. This movie may be pretty sappy, but it is definitely worth it.
9. The “Let’s Party Hard” Mood
Now college moods are not all down-in-the-dumps kind of moods. We all know of or attend the occasional party or bar; therefore, when the weekend hits and you have a couple hours to spare before you have to get ready, two movies come to mind to get you and your friends pumped up for a night out on the town! These movies are Step Up (the first or second one) and Girls Trip. Both Step Up’s incredible dancing combined with the story of a young man, with what looks like no future, and a talented woman trying to have a successful career while studying dance at an elite arts school or the hilarious, inappropriateness of the movie Girls Trip about four women that partied hard in their day and have reunited again will prepare you for a great night ahead.
10. The “Please Hire Me…Please” Mood
College makes you broke. Life after college makes you broke. Even when you save, you are still somewhat broke. You are broke until you find that job to help you pay off those loans and what not. When in need of a job, inspiration or you’re just hating that boss that pays you minimum wage, these two movies are exactly what you need. The Internship and Horrible Bosses are both, in my opinion, underrated movies! The Internship is a movie with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn who are basically restarting their lives at an internship at Google with all younger and more book smart people. Horrible Bosses is a movie about three friends who absolutely hate their bosses and in turn, plan to kill them! No, not a scary movie, but a knee-slapper, rolling on the floor type of movie!