During the life-changing, magical, magnificently spectacular three years that I have been a member of Netflix, I have binge-watched more shows than I am willing to admit. Actually, if I’m being completely honest, I have the attention span of an 8-year-old girl whose mom forgot to give her Ritalin this morning, so “binge” really isn’t the appropriate word to use. I don’t think I’ve ever watched more than 2 consecutive episodes at a time of anything, ever.
Some shows have been great, some have been decent, and some have been so horrible that it’s like watching a trainwreck–terrible but you can’t look away. Recently, the time came for me to find my next series to watch. Unfortunately, my typical techniques failed me. Netflix’s “Suggested Shows” were totally off the mark, and my friends’ suggestions were either shows I had already watched or shows that simply didn’t fit my taste. For example, unlike the rest of the world’s likable people, I don’t enjoy watching comedy, even though I write for this lovely blog thing called The Rib and like being around funny people.
The shows I like are ones that include enough drama to get my heart racing, and my absolute favorite shows literally have me out of my seat. My sister can attest to this – when I was in high school I would stand behind the couch while we watched Law and Order: SVU and Homeland, because the suspense was too much to keep me sitting still (like I said, 8-year-old-Ritalin-less-child). Suffice to say, if there aren’t any murders, bloody surgeries, kidnappings, or international security scandals happening, I’m probably not interested.
Which is why the next show that piqued my interest made perfect sense: Winnie The Pooh. They say the best things come when we aren’t looking for them, and this was certainly the case here. As I walked home one day, I randomly got the Heffalumps and Woozles song from Winnie The Pooh stuck in my head, which was odd to the say the least, because I hadn’t heard it in probably about 16 years. Curious, I watched the clip of this song on YouTube when I got home.
Wow, I thought to myself, this show is really weird. However, as I soon discovered, Winnie The Pooh is weird in a cute, creative-genius type way (rather than some of the genuinely f***ing weird kids shows out there * cough cough * CatDog). Soon I was pulled in to a full episode, and the next thing I knew I had watched four.
Winnie The Pooh put me in touch with my four-year-old self, as I somehow remembered the exact scenes that I had loved and the exact ones that had scared me (Pooh getting stung by a ton of bees is still scarier than it should be). It’s also beautifully creative. The pages of the book flip to the next scene, and in the rain scene, the water floods the page. You can’t make this stuff up people. It’s pure gold.
The characters are charming, the cartoons are appealing, the plotlines actually have structure, and there are valuable morals and lessons in each of Pooh’s adventures. If this wasn’t enough to sell you on Winnie The Pooh, the dream-sequence with Heffalumps and Woozles is really trippy and will make you wonder if the guy that came up with this was friends with Lewis Carroll.
Consider yourself lucky for having read this article, because now you know what to watch next! Winnie The Pooh is the full package, everything you want in a modern binge-watching worthy show: characters you’ll be invested in, visually aesthetic graphics, and a nostalgic reminder of your preschool days.
You’re wonderful and charming! can’t wait for your next article Abby!