TV in the age of COVID-19: The dystopia of 'Westworld' doesn't seem so bad
In the third season of HBO's "Westworld," which has two episodes left over the next two Sundays, vengeful theme-park robot Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) is gunning for an even scarier feat of artificial intelligence, a computer system with the Biblical name Rehoboam (I had to Google that one) that can predict and even dictate what happens to every person on Earth.
As dystopias go, it's pretty bad.
But in the show's Los Angeles of 2058, people can still go to bars and restaurants. And visit their loved ones in the hospital. And go out without wearing a mask.
Years from now, that irony might be funny. Today, it's incredibly depressing.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the experience of watching anything on TV. On AMC's season finale of "Better Call Saul" this past week, lubricious lawyers Jimmy McGill (Naperville native Bob Odenkirk) and Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) spend a few nights in a luxury hotel to hide from cartel heavy Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton, the MVP of a tremendously entertaining Season 5). They talk about getting a couples massage and relaxing in the hot tub. A vacation sounds good right now, doesn't it?
A few days ago, my wife and I watched a few "Family Guy" episodes that had been gathering digital dust on the DVR since November. The commercials included trailers for two underappreciated flops, "Doctor Sleep" and "Terminator: Dark Fate," urging us to see them in movie theaters now. If we had, they could have been among the very last movies we saw in a theater.
Even watching an old Mickey Mouse short on Disney+ isn't safe - Pluto sneezed, and my wife exclaimed, "Ope, Mickey's got coronavirus!"
I find that the only things on my TV that truly distract me from this reality are video games. I downloaded a compilation of classic Sega Genesis games to my PS4 so I could revisit the original "Sonic the Hedgehog." It hasn't gotten any easier since 1991, but at least I'm not thinking about the virus when Sonic drowns in the Labyrinth Zone for the 80th time, prompting a blue streak of profanity. ("Having fun over there, honey?" my wife asks as she works from the dining room table. "YES," I tersely say through gritted teeth.)
Hmm. "My wife." I've used that phrase a few times in this column. We've been working opposite schedules for our entire nine-year relationship, and now I get to spend time with her every day. We both work from home. We are both healthy. We find reasons to laugh every day.
Maybe I should remember that the next time something on television makes me feel bad, and remember how lucky I am to be spending this uncertain time with someone I love. We should all be so lucky.
• Sean Stangland is an Assistant News Editor at the Daily Herald who really hopes the final season of "Better Call Saul" gets made in the next, oh, two to five years.