A brief pause in programming

How about...ceasefire.

Ramy, season 3

Well folks, it’s bleak out there. After a few lovely days hopping around New York City on a vacation, I came back to Vancouver with a raging cough-heavy cold that won’t let up despite how much tea I drink. I’ve been stuck at home, sleeping a lot, working my day job, and crossing my fingers for a successful conclusion to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

I’ve also been glued to my screens in horror as thousands of people get slaughtered. I log on every day and read about cases of anti-semitism and Islamophobia around the world. I scroll through everyone yelling at each other in the comment sections of anything a celebrity posts to their grid.

It feels like it doesn’t matter how many people march every day or write to their representatives demanding a ceasefire (though that shouldn’t stop you from doing those things!), this genocidal war just presses on, the deaths accumulate, and the world feels more unstable than ever. The two million people in Gaza feel like an afterthought, not even allowed clean water or food. Dozens of humanitarian organizations and the U.N. itself have been calling for a ceasefire, for relief, and nothing changes, the bodies pile up higher and higher, a body count that started on October 7th and just won’t end.

I’ve been thinking about how Bye Bye Tiberias will be gutting to watch when it eventually comes out—a documentary about Hiam Abbass (Marcia in Succession) directed by her daughter and filmed in Palestine. I’ve been thinking about how I had a trip planned with my family to finally visit my extended family in Lebanon this summer, a trip I’ve never gotten to take and may not be able to for many more years. I’ve been thinking about Raoul Peck’s Peabody-winning HBO docu-series Exterminate All the Brutes. I’ve been thinking about what Homeland and 24 taught millions of viewers about Arabs, and how lucky we are to have shows like Ramy and Mo.

Mo, season 1

I think there is a time and place for television to serve as a soothing balm and escape from the world’s terrors, but nothing has felt right to focus on in my newsletter this month. I would rather encourage us all to step back.

I’ll be back on the 15th with my regular round-up of what I’m watching. In the meantime, this month’s newsletter proceeds will be donated to Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières. Like many organizations, their home page is dedicated to calling for “an immediate ceasefire to prevent more deaths in Gaza and allow desperately needed humanitarian supplies in.” I know as of this very moment, donations seem useless, but they will hopefully contribute to the emergency response if and when a ceasefire happens.

Take care of yourselves.

Reservation Dogs, season 3