Television Man
by Aidan Morgan
“That’s one channel change for a television, one entire rotation for all televisionkind” Arm Neilstrong, the first television on the moon
Now we approach the second summer of COVID-19, with its ambiguous restrictions, invisible currents of caution and pile of masks you’ve been meaning to wash. Until we’re all fully vaccinated, what is there to do but continue to hole up and curse the world outside your window (And it’s a world of dread and fear/ Where the only water flowing/ Is the bitter sting of tears). Oh, and watch a whole lot of television.
by Aidan Morgan
“What is television, if not the infantile id-driven dream of tiny people in boxes playing out your grotesque fantasies persevering?” Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation Of Screens
Fact: If you took all the tweets, blog posts, articles, think pieces, hot takes and YouTube explainers about
WandaVision (that measly little series on
Disney+), it would not improve your experience of
WandaVision or your life one bit.
Except for this column, of course. This is the one essential bit of writing on
WandaVision you will ever read, although Collider.com’s piece “WandaVision Failed To Deliver Things That Were Never Promised To Me” gets an honourable mention for its handy excoriation of modern-day fandom.
Television Man
“A true revolution has no allies” Ali, Euphoria
A pandemic hits hard. Even if you never contract the disease, it pushes at the edges of your daily life. You check your coat pocket for extra masks when you leave the house. You get in arguments with friends about going to restaurants or gyms. Weeks go by in a blur and days stretch on forever. Structure collapses and your mind dissolves into a pool of experiential goo.
Fortunately for our goo, there’s television.
Before streaming services, binge watching was reserved for sick days. I would lay back on the couch with a bottle of water and a thermometer, watching seasons of