Tiger King on Netflix and other things to enjoy under lockdown – good news in bad times
Seeking the positive in the pandemic, from social distancing at a wedding to Jared Leto’s live-tweeted binge of the most talked-about show on streaming
There’s no point pretending, the cascade of pandemic news is starting to get to me and, I’m sure, everyone else. Anxiety is up, optimism is down and the economy is flatlining. Given the state of things, it can be hard to see any upside at the moment, and too easy to see levity as downplaying the situation or being glib and uncaring. All of which makes writing columns like this pretty tricky.
But we can’t let the virus win.
So this week’s column is all about good vibes, focusing on positive news, the moments of joy and the downright hilarious things that have happened recently.
To add an extra layer of difficulty, I will use the structure of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon parlour game to thread together these happy vignettes. All good things should end with Kevin Bacon.
Let’s start with some good news that’s very close to home. I got married last month. There were face masks, elbow bumps instead of handshakes and hugs, and social distancing – the whole nine yards. Quarantine etiquette meant physically exchanging rings wasn’t on the agenda and kissing the bride was verboten, but love finds a way.
Of course, owing to the circumstances, it was a drastically small affair, but we made it work and the suspension of international flights meant the mother-in-law couldn’t make it. The wedding pictures are hilarious, so much so I want to send them to John Krasinski.
Krasinski was the inspiration for this column in many ways after his lo-fi, DIY attempts to highlight “Some Good News” went viral. In his YouTube show, which follows a mock news report format, the actor runs through inspirational stories from around the world of people dealing with the pandemic.
Yes, even those getting married. The cynic in me was all ready to roll his eyes, but the attempt by Krasinski, aka Jim from the US version of The Office, is sweet and uplifting and worth checking out.
Lennon’s death is captured in the 2007 biographical film Chapter 27, starring Jared Leto (as Lennon’s killer Mark Chapman). The Oscar-winning actor is famed for his kooky ways. But Leto out-Leto’d himself recently when he tweeted that he had missed news of the pandemic lockdown in the United States as he had been in the desert on a 12-day silent meditation.
“We were totally isolated. No phone, no communication etc,” he tweeted. “We had no idea what was happening outside the facility. Walked out yesterday to a totally different world.” No sh*t, Jared.
Leto was late to coronavirus but he was early to Netflix’s incredible docu-series Tiger King. The actor’s live-tweet of his Tiger King binge was widely followed and, like everyone else who has seen the show since, he was floored by the cast of cartoon characters populating the world of exotic animals in America’s Deep South.
If you haven’t already seen Tiger King, don’t miss it. For once, the hype undersells how mad this show really is, and you’ll want to know what the world is raving about.
Tiger King has become such a phenomenon that people are ravenous for more. Already green-lit is a limited drama series adaptation, starring Kate McKinnon as Big Cat Rescue’s Carole Baskin.
There is also talk of a feature film. Among the actors in the hunt for the role of Joe Exotic are Edward Norton and Leto, but the favourite with Las Vegas bookmakers is Kevin Bacon.
