Day (10) 04 January: watching

Tenth day, double figures, only four more sleeps to go. 

Entering quarantine I committed myself to not watching too much TV. That would have been a waste of the quiet productive time to be found in quarantine. Nonetheless even rationing oneself to TV at meal times and in the evening a lot of time can pass in front of the LED screen. Psychologically TV seems to fill a need to hear the spoken voice, more so than radio or music because its a dialogue to be followed rather than a background sound. So here is a list of the series I have been watching (some I started during the Netherlands lockdown). ‘Staged’ is very highly recommended, it certainly appeals to my sense of humour. Numbers 2, 3 and 4 are well recommended; followed by 5, 6 and 7 that could have been in any order. No.8 is ok, especially if you are into F1. At the bottom 9 & 10 are not great - saying that about ‘The Crown’ may be controversial but there you go. I am just starting ‘A Very English Scandal’ on Netflix and enjoying Hugh Grant’s performance, this could be a late entry in the top 5.

Rank	TV Show	Channel	Review
1	Staged	BBC	Very funny, wonderful to see top cast playing themselves in lockdown
2	Big Little Lies	Apple	A mystery with many twists
3	Morning Wars	Apple	Workplace harrassment and sexism - very topical
4	Sex Education	Netflix	Slow start, becomes quite touching and educational without titilating
5	Downton Abbey	BBC	Faithfully British
6	Ted Lasso	Apple	Slow start that becomes a witty acerbic look at management
7	The Last Dance	Netflix	Reveals the personalities behind the Chicago Bulls
8	Formula 1: Drive to Survive	Netflix	Interesting though not as deep as The Last Dance
9	The Crown	Netflix	Some good acting lost to too much speculative drama on too recent events
10	Star Trek Discovery	Netflix	Too dark for Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic concept

Daily facts

Sleep: quality 82%, in bed 8h 34m, asleep 8h 24m

Breakfast: cereals and pancakes (so much for the no cooked food request, especially not served cold)

Lunch: penne napolitana (and I had a dessert saved from yesterday!)

Dinner: barley risotto with mushrooms, carrot cake (more mushrooms!)