Strung Out, Stressed Out... Wipe! Wipe! - Video Distractions by Mike Norton

 "Forgive me Freud, for I have neuroses." 
                          formulaic supplication of the twitch
                                                C.M. Kornbluth  The Marching Morons (1951)

      I'm taking an unforgivably roundabout, self-indulgent path to this week's nominal video entertainment target. I'm writing this in the wee hours of a sleepless night, unsure what I'll find out about the future of my job by early this afternoon. Measures to quell the spread of CORVID-19 reached the point yesterday, Thursday March 19th, that PA Governor Tom Wolf declared a sweeping, open-ended closure of the vast majority of businesses in the state. I don't blame the governor - the need is great, and too many of the people are stupid, so firmer measures were called for. On the other hand, this could be a huge personal setback for me if I survive. We'll see.

      C.M. Kornbluth's 1951 classic novella The Marching Morons comes to mind more and more often these days, as I plod through a world of people too many of them gone a bit madder, greedier, and less intelligent, prizing unimportant, superficial things over genuinely important ones. Like an orange-hued, golden cow, the highest office in the land is occupied by one of the dimmest, most superficial, venal and self-aggrandizing human beings I've ever had the misfortune of witnessing. A cartoonish distillation of many of the pettiest, worst human drives.        In that story, a man from the 20th century is awakened many generations in the future. He eventually learns that through a combined process of more intelligent people breeding less, less intelligent people breeding more, and an increasingly sophisticated technology which required less and less of the people using it, the average IQ of the great mass of humanity was what in our time would be 45. There are about five billion of them, with about 3 million others who are in the 100-and-higher category. Rather than ruling as an elite, the more intelligent minority have become their caretakers, trying to steer the herd in safer directions and mostly to keep them pleasantly distracted. Attempts to just withdraw and leave the morons to their own devices quickly resulted in mass carnage, requiring the beleaguered elite to step back in and resume steering and distracting. After all, if they didn't the world would soon be in flames and "five hundred million tons of rotting flesh." An even less pleasant place to try to live.
   In the story we see that the fallen standards have resulted in people being given doctorates in areas of study like fishing, and psychology/psychiatry has become a rote, simplified bit of minor therapy with more than a little in common with the Roman Catholic sacrament of Confession. As a long, long-lapsed Catholic, the call and response of it has always resonated with me, and the reference to neuroses is what also brought me back to the virulently viral present.
   We're in the thickening of a pandemic, where hand sanitizer and anti-microbial cleaning wipes are being used more than I've ever seen in my almost 59 years -- at least by those who can still manage to

get their hands on them.   So, at the intersection of a(n almost) neurotic compulsion to clean and sanitize, and a blog entry on video entertainment, is the man whose hour has seemingly come 'round at last, the tortured but brilliant detective Adrian Monk.
   I'm sure the graphics I've used by now telegraphed the reveal, likely from the start, but I'm too stressed and tired to let any of that stop me. If you somehow didn't recognize the references, though, then this piece may end up being of even more interest to you as it would mean you missed out on the series entirely.
     It ran for eight seasons, from 2002 to 2009, and starred the almost always likeable Tony Shaloub as the eponymous Monk. (All eight seasons are there for Amazon Prime members, as part of the package.)
     A detective of Holmesean deductive abilities and encyclopedic knowledge, but in some ways still a nerdy, utterly socially awkward child. Psychically scarred by the violent death of his wife, the only case he's never been able to solve, and the event which so unbalanced him that he became so completely overrun with phobias

and obsessive-compulsive rituals that he lost his position with the San Francisco police department, unable to function in the world. Still, he had a few friends, and those who could never forget what an amazing asset to police work he could be, and so they didn't give up on him. Special accommodations, including a combination nurse, handler and chauffeur, were made to allow him to start to step back into the world of detective work, operating as a paid consultant.   The show is generally much more one of the characters than of the mysteries, or at least that's the case for much of the run. When I watched the series - the first few seasons -while it was in first-run I often noted it was clear that part of the appeal of the show was the writers really wanted to win the audience over by making them feel smart. That is to say, they tended to hit the audience in the face, repeatedly, with key bits of evidence. I often got the sense that they would have taken it as a personal failure if they'd failed to lead the audience to the solution at least a little before Monk reached it. That was probably the main reason I originally fell away from the series.   Years later, of course, in this age of aggregated, streaming content, I returned to rewatch the series from the start, and following it through to the conclusion. And, on that point, I will grant you the spoiler information that by the time the series ends, Adrian will have solved his wife's murder and brought himself around - with ample help from friends - to a fuller life and restored career. I'll also note they did try to mix the mysteries up a little as time went on, and tried to be less obvious about the solution.
   So, as it seems that, state by state (my Pennsylvania was followed mere hours later by California in declaring sweeping "Your job is closed! Stay home indefinitely!" directives) we're being shut into our homes, looking for solitary, non-biologically infectious distractions, it may be time to try spending some of it with the extremely hypochondriacal - yet suddenly so much saner - Adrian Monk.

   As it seems I may be pressed into non-service for a stretch, maybe I'll get to newer items by next week. Until then, stay as safe and sane as you can, and feel free to toss any appropriate comments to a fellow shut-in down below.                        -Mike


Shows and movies hit on in previous posts:

 Sept. 20th: Mindhunter (Netflix)

     Sept. 27th: What's The Matter With Helen, The French Connection, and Frenzy. (Early '70s R-rated movies I saw with my mom)

     Oct. 3rd:    Preacher (AMC), Stumptown (ABC), Sunnyside (NBC), The Good Place (NBC), and Jack Ryan (Amazon Prime).

     Oct. 11th:  Joker (still in theaters), and In The Tall Grass (Netflix)

     Oct. 18th:  El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Netflix)

     Oct. 25th: Dolemite Is My Name (Netflix)

     Nov. 1st:   Watchmen (HBO series), The Kominsky Method (Netflix)

     Nov. 8th:   Seconds (1966 movie, currently available as part of Amazon Prime)
     Nov. 15th: Dr. Sleep (current theatrical release, but probably not for long), Horace and Pete (2016 web-produced series, currently on Hulu)
     Nov. 22nd: NOS4A2 (AMC, now on Hulu) and Man In The High Castle (Amazon Prime)

     Nov. 29th: The Irishman (Netflix), The Mandalorian and The World According To Jeff Goldblum (both on Disney+), light touches on Watchmen (HBO) and Ray Donovan (Showtime)
  Dec, 6th: The Booth At the End (Amazon Prime), and Us (HBO).

Dec 13th:  Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime), The Feed (Amazon Prime), 6 Underground (Netflix movie).

  Dec 20th:A Christmas Carol (FX), The Expanse (Amazon Prime), Killing Eve (BBC America)
  Dec 27th: Lost In Space season 2, and first impressions of The Witcher, both on Netflix.
  Jan. 3rd: Black Mirror (Netflix) and Phillip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (Amazon Prime). 
  Jan 10th: Undone (Amazon Prime), Witcher (Netflix) and Dracula (Netflix/BBC One). 
  Jan 17th: Kidding (Showtime) 
  Jan 24th: No shows, just some movie mentions as I recall some places that no longer exist.
  Jan 31st: October Faction (Netflix) and the finale of The Good Place (NBC).
  Feb 7th: Messiah (Netflix)
  Feb 14th: Locke & Key (Netflix)
  Feb 21st: Skidoo (1968 film, available free on YouTube)
  Feb 28th: The Lighthouse (2019 movie)
  Mar 6th: Kidding (Showtime; second season),  Avenue 5 (HBO), Better Call Saul (AMC.)

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