The One Thing: It's Weird, It's Triggering, but I Just Can't Stop Watching
We’ve been tearing our way through what I thought was a new TV series on HBO but is, in fact, over ten years old. Why does this keep happening to me? Why did I miss so many good things between 2014 and 2016? Was it because I was solidly either pregnant or breastfeeding? Was my eye not on the television ball? Why did I endure the stomach-churning violence of Game of Thrones whilst massaging oil into my perineum* when I could have been enjoying Narcos? Who on earth made that call?
(Narcos, the story of Pablo Escobar and cocaine trafficking in Columbia, is actually on a par with Game of Thrones, violence-wise, but is in a totally different league in terms of script, storyline, acting quality and just everything, really. It’s absolutely outstanding. Apologies if you’re a Game of Thrones super-fan; I think it’s good fun, for the most part, but I sort of bundle it into the same category as, I don’t know, going to Legoland. A chaotic sense of high whilst you’re in the midst of it all, but you’re left exhausted and not really wanting to return any time soon. “The flaying and castration of Theon Greyjoy” kind of took it out of me, if I’m honest, and then didn’t someone get slowly fed to a dog? Or have I imagined that? And don’t get me started on the CGI dragons. As soon as dragons entered the picture they completely lost me. Can’t stand most dragons. It’s a niche thing to hate, probably, but I think the only ones I like are Puff and also Falkor from Neverending Story.)
So anyway, I missed out on Narcos and also, somehow, this little treasure managed to escape my eagle-eyed attentions:
