A light in the darkness

Students find comfort in shows and movies

Helena Fu Hanna Kryhina & Ruya Yaman

According to the Pew Research Center, 9 in 10 adults watch television at least once a week to cope with the world’s chaos in its current state. Carlmont students are no different.

Fans of comedy and horror have turned to watch TV shows and movies to distract themselves from the realities of quarantine.

“It’s kind of like a way to escape, even just temporarily,” junior Leila Farhi said. “Sometimes, after a long day of school, I’ll go straight to Netflix and watch a show or a movie. It kind of helps me wind down a bit.”

These shows and movies help students move their attention away from the world around them and instead learn more about themselves during this period of isolation.

“A lot of it has taught me lessons,” senior Varun Avari Kapoor said. “It has been instrumental because you can focus on how the characters grow and develop and apply those stories to your own life. The morals inside the shows are helpful in terms of self-exploration and understanding what you can do to become a better person.”

One movie that empowered Avari Kapoor on his journey of self-discovery is “Frozen 2.”

“It resonated with me specifically because it was about finding your true spot in the world,” Avari Kapoor said. “The main protagonist was struggling throughout the movie to find her destiny, and when she did, she suddenly felt secure in herself and in who she was. I thought that was really cool, and I have to sort of find that own security in who I am.”

Similarly, Alexandra Gische, a senior, believes that the visual media she consumes significantly impacts her actions.

“I get my personality from the TV shows I watch,” Gische said. “If [you watch] ‘Gilmore Girls’–I think I’m on my fourth run–you’ll be like, ‘Oh, Alexandra does that. Oh, she does this as well.’”

For senior Merle Nguyen, watching television shows has allowed them to relate to characters and realize there are people in their life who support them.

“In ‘She-Ra and the Princesses of Power,’ I really relate to the character Catra,” Nguyen said. “At the end of the final season, a lot of Catra’s character and story arc is that she has to learn to love herself and that she is loved, which is one problem that I [struggle with]. And her story helped me realize that I have friends who are similar to the people she has around her. Catra’s friends mean what they say, even though she doesn’t believe it. [It made me think that] maybe my friends actually mean what they say whether or not I believe it.”

Nguyen has also found comfort in immersing themself in the characters’ interactions. Some may argue that watching fictional stories creates unrealistic expectations of how people interact in real life. Regardless, Nguyen believes that television interactions are more accurate than those that someone can imagine.

“When you’re trying to make up for human interactions by imagining them, you only want the positive emotions,” Nguyen said. “But, that can start [to feel] fake and [create] too much of an expectation for what real human interaction is like. Real human interaction is a mix of positive and negative emotions, and you can’t really have just one or the other.”

Another Carlmont senior, Maya Kaileh, has also surrounded herself with the characters in the shows she watches. Watching characters interact on television allows her to pretend that she is doing the same.

“It’s kind of comforting to watch people interacting on your screen,” Kaileh said. “It gives you a sense that you’re actually there. Even though you’re not, it’s comforting to be able to watch characters have interactions and pretend you do, too.”

Maya Lee, a junior, has also felt that romanticizing the characters’ lives in the movies she loves helps her cope with isolation.

“I would love to be in New York City, experiencing a fun little love story, such as in ‘When Harry Met Sally,’ or be able to dress up in fun costumes and own a little bakery in a Wes Anderson movie,” Lee said. “I feel like I tend to gravitate towards more unrealistic things for me, because it’s a distraction and it’s just fun to think about.”

Along with connecting to on-screen interactions, both Lee and Kaileh have made up for the lack of in-person interactions by relating to their friends through the shows they watch simultaneously.

“My friends and I would be watching the same show and bond over it,” Kaileh said. “And we would talk about it for hours, bonding over things that happened in the episodes or something that we really enjoyed. I think it’s comforting for all of us to have something to talk about that can distract us from having a bad day or something that is bothering us.”

Ana Hoffman, a junior, similarly connected with her girlfriend. During quarantine, they were able to watch “Avatar the Last Airbender” over Zoom together.

“Even if we weren’t sitting in the same room, it was good to watch with another person,” Hoffman said. “It was nice to be talking to someone [about the show] because there has been a little less of that recently.”

Sharing the experience of watching a movie or a show, even if it is virtual, has helped many replace the lack of human connection ever since quarantine began. Even though it will never live up to in-person contact, digital entertainment has made many Carlmont students feel less alone in the unsettling and constantly shifting state of the world around them.

“I think the best thing for a person to watch is something that makes them feel nostalgic,” Eliott Yonts, senior and Classic Films Club president, said, “because it’s going to feel like comfort to them, it will remind them of their childhood and their preteens, and [it’s familiar.] Nostalgia is a really powerful feeling.”

Helena Fu