All of us also are way too familiar with the feeling of betryal when we finish ten episodes of The Office, look at the corner of your homescreen, and realize that your mental support might have just become the greatest bane to your journey of finishing of that paper you were supposed to be done with two hours ago and should be submitted in three. Oh no. This can’t happen again.
We won’t allow that to happen to you. However, we also want you to survive Finals Week with just the right amount of stress relief. So, here are two good shows you might enjoy but won’t get sucked into because they’re all serious and only have a few episodes. Yay for being able to procrastinate without getting sucked into a blackhole of binge-watching!
The Handmaid’s Tale
Available on Hulu and YouTube
Plot: In a post-democratic, dystopian world created on the ruins of the United States taken over by Christian fundamentalists, men now control everything and women are not allowed to work, own property or even read. Because of the widespread infertility due to environmental contamination, young women who are deemed unfit in fundamentalist Christian values, for reasons such as being a single mother, divorced, or attracted to women, who can still bear children are assigned to the households of ruling elites with barren wives and serve as their “handmaids.” The show follows a protaganist who shows silent defiance.
Why I Recommend It: While it is largely a science fiction, The Handmaid’s Tale is especially worth watching for a modern audience. It warns people to be extra vigilant in politics related to women’s issues and rights. For our purposes, the show is way too dark and real, or surreal, to binge-watch. It just came out on April 26 and currently, there are only four episodes available. Even though I have already finished all four episodes, I have to admit that after watching them, all I have left in my body is pure motivation to work hard at school and do everything within my power to make sure that the show won’t ever come true in any way, shape or form.
American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson
Available on Netflix
Plot: I think that most of us are familiar with the trial of O.J. Simpson – “If the gloves don’t fit, acquit!” Because the case took place more than two decades ago, people today are forgetting that the case also took place in a time of high tension between the police force and minority groups. O.J. is an African American male, who also lived in a beautiful mansion in a predominately white neighborhood in Brentwood. Many of us are probably too young to know how popular and loved O.J. was nationwide — even his prison guard wanted his signature! American Crime Story does a brilliant job reducing all of the key people in the case, O.J. Simpson, his “dream team” and the procesutors, to what they really are: people. It also sheds lights directly on conflict between legal justice and moral justice, as well as racism and sexism.
Why I Recommend It: Surveys in 2016 show that, 20 years later, Americans overwhelmingly agree that O.J. Simpson did kill his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ron Goldman. What happened in the past two decades that led to this change? The stories of police misconduct are still on the news frequently and the similar tension still exists and remain strong. But all the progress in social values that our society saw in the past years have made us reassess the case with renewed mentalities. For our purposes, this show is good to watch during Finals Week because, again, it’s dark, serious and forces us to think. The early days of the Kardashian family are also weaved into the show, but oftentimes for comic relief. If nothing else, we can all use some young Kim and Kourtney during Finals Week.