I live on and off the TV screen

In the evenings to escape from the days filled with phone calls and fear, I unplug and binge-watch something, anything, as long as I am hooked. It is my safe time: daily life facts are buried, what-ifs and anxiety are temporarily left behind.

I have lost my connection to reality moving into the world of the royals (The Crown), Ginny and Georgia (incredible story)…I watched the new Mad About You and wondered what happened to Helen Hunt…Apparently she had been in a car accident…The Kominsky method made me laugh. And there was Paul Reiser again, he must have commuted from his home with Jamie and moved to LA to join that fabulous cast of comedians. And, by the way, if I couldn’t recognize Helen Hunt in Mad, I surely didn’t recognize Kathleen Turner in Kominsky.

I was in therapy for 3 seasons of In Treatment and fell for Gabriel Byrne (that’s transference), and then the 4th season, which was recently created and produced, with Uzo Aduba, who became the mentee of Dr. Paul Weston (Byrne). Even the therapists went to counseling for their damages, weaknesses, and pain.

Now, I am watching Orange is the New Black in which Uzo Aduba plays an inmate. If I didn’t know it was the same person I had seen in In Treatment, I would not have believed it. She is a superlative I’ve actress.

Each one of these shows is brilliant in its own way, but the ensemble cast of Orange is beyond all of my expectations: the back stories of the inmates, interwoven with the present helps to create an amazing tapestry, helps the viewer to understand the soul, the pain, the needs and miseries and the beliefs.

It is dark, it is tragic it is often peppered with black humor, the viewee prays for justice, and, this ensemble of characters, once you know them, are lovable and embraceable.

Though I am only in the second season of 7, where there are about 13 hour-long episodes in each. And so far, I have been given a window into prison life: its insanity, the expectations, the created rules, the adaptations, the morphing personalities, what people do to get through a day. And sometimes when a prisoner is released the outside world is more insane than the life in prison. They often return where they know the rules and have created bonds with people like themselves.

But maybe, maybe this IS life, this microcosm that someone has held a mirror to, it is a metaphor.

And I get it because, in my own world, trapped by loss, strange life-events, fears, anxieties—on the brink of major change, I am one of those women, just getting through the day, falling asleep with one-eye open, dealing with insane and unbelievable situations. But where I sit is on the throne of reality. I can’t change the channel. It is the channel of real life.

I am not all that different from any one of those characters who are just trying to get to lights-out intact.

📌The series starts here:
Part 1: And The Band Played On … a mother’s life, a daughter’s journey

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