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What is the best thing to watch on Netflix while in quarantine?
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Watch Bird Box in quarantine

Watch a movie with an apocalyptic society to make yourself feel better about the one we're living in right now.

Context

A post-apocalyptic horror film that premiered in December 2018, Bird Box attracted attention from Netflix watchers and critics alike.

The Argument

Sometimes when you're feeling down, you can derive a sick sense of satisfaction knowing that other people have it worse than you. During this year, it's particularly easy to get bummed out. Tuning in to the news, we hear upsetting reports on the COVID-19 pandemic, police brutality protests, and political unrest-not to mention murder hornets. While you might be tempted to use Netflix as a form of escapism, by turning on Bird Box, you can choose the schadenfreude route. Though Bird Box may initially seem like a typical apocalypse film, it combines survivalist tropes with horror, making for a uniquely unsettling movie. The bleak world of Birdbox has been taken over by cryptic forces (monsters? Aliens? Ghosts? Hallucinatory drugs? Theories abound, but the nature of the beast is never explicitly revealed.) When you lay eyes on one of the monsters, you die-but not before you go insane and try to make everyone else look at it, too. While a woman and her two young children seek sanctuary in this world, they are met with dangers that far outweigh the troubles that concern us here in 2020. We might have to wear face masks when we leave the house, but hey, at least we can leave the blindfolds at home for now.

Counter arguments

Why watch such a disturbing movie when the real world is already so troubling? Now is not the time for thrillers, Instead, take a break from the anxiety, and watch something calming. Bob Ross is still on Netflix, right? Besides, though the movie was popular after its release, it quickly faded into obscurity and earned scathingly negative reviews, with critics pointing out its poor pacing, shoddy character development, and the dissatisfying ending. Though it was all the rage for a short while, the movie isn't worth the hype.

Proponents

Premises

Rejecting the premises

References

This page was last edited on Sunday, 20 Sep 2020 at 11:46 UTC

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