Watch Before You Go: TV For These Pandemic Times

When it comes to travel, 2020 is a bit of a bust. It’s less than advisable to get on a hermetically sealed metal tube in the sky with a bunch of strangers who have been God knows where doing God knows what during a time when invisible particles are just sticking around, lingering in the air, waiting to infect you and wreak havoc on your lungs. And even if you were like, “meh, I’ll take my chances,” Americans are global pariahs and travel is limited to like…Russia, India, Brazil, and Florida.

So if you don’t want to wear a mask, fine. I can’t make you. Exercise your “rights” or whatever you think you’re doing. But in that case, stay the fuck home. Don’t be like President Typhoid Mary please. And if you are wearing a mask, welp, stay home as much as possible anyway, because newsflash, this shit is not under control in America. Luckily, we can count on streaming to take us places where we can’t or shouldn’t be. Seriously, thank doge a lot of TV was filmed prior to this pandemic.

Street Food Latin America + Street Food Asia

It’ll be no surprise to you, dear HTJL readers, that many of the items I am here to tell you to stream are food-centric. My happy place is 100 percent binging episodes of “Chef’s Table.” Nothing makes me happier apparently than watching some tortured, tattooed, too-cool-for-school chef talk about the trials and tribulations that led them to create really fancy, tiny foods. So imagine my delight when the “Chef’s Table” creators came out with two seasons of “Street Food,” one in Latin America and one in Asia. These episodes are shorter, but no less visually stunning or mouth-watering. There are still quite a number of trials and tribulations regaled, but much bigger food.

Somebody Feed Phil

I haven’t watched this one yet, but if it’s half as fun as its previous iteration “I’ll Have What Phil’s Having,” I’m here for it. Phil Rosenthal is the uber dweeby creator of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” and apparently he is also quite the foodie traveler. Each of the three seasons is only five or six episodes, taking place in a different city around the world. It looks like the next season is about to come out at the end of this month. So if you ever wondered what it would be like to travel with your dad if he was 1) into traveling and 2) into eating new things, now you don’t have to imagine.

Ugly Delicious

Speaking of too-cool-for-school chefs, David Chang is the chef behind Momofuku. He’s been featured on “Mind of a Chef” (another PBS favorite of mine), and the cofounder of food magazine “Lucky Peach.” In each episode of “Ugly Delicious,” he explores different foods that are NOT super tiny and pretty a la “Chef’s Table” but are super delicious and usually prevalent in multiple cultures around the world. He visits other chefs or culinary tastemakers to dive into the context of each food, traveling to places like Japan, Denmark, and New York to get the full picture.

Taste the Nation

I’m a long-time “Top Chef” fan, and I always kind of grumpily wondered what exactly Padma Lakshmi did to earn getting to host and judge it. I mean, I knew she wrote a cookbook, but her monotone model thing didn’t seem to justify her getting to eat all that delicious food. Clearly I was (am) jealous. She’s grown on me over the years, so I am looking forward to watching her new show on Hulu, “Taste the Nation.” This one is America-centric, but in it, she visits with Indigenous and immigrant communities to explore the roots of what we now think of as American cuisine.

Derry Girls

OK! It’s not all about food! I. LOVE. DERRY. GIRLS. This Netflix show takes place in the early 90s, during what Brits refer to as “the Troubles,” truly the most British way ever of talking about a 30-year horrifically violent conflict that ended with Ireland split in two. But given the seriousness of the backdrop of the show, it is so freaking hilarious. Instead of focusing on the politics of the time, we’re following a group of teenage girls (and one guy) in their Catholic high school worrying about typical teenage things, while also being typical terrible teenagers. It’s the best, and I cannot wait for a third season.

Emily in Paris

I have yet to watch this, but Jen told me that 1) it’s terrible, 2) it’s what she needed right now, and 3) that it makes her miss our travels. Aside from the “our travels” part, I am hearing echoes of this EVERYWHERE. It’s terrible and addictive. It sounds to me like the TV equivalent of candy corn* and TIS THE SEASON, AMIRITE? It’s from the creators of “Sex and the City,” but it sounds like they really half-assed this one. Still, everyone is digging it and digging hating on it. I can’t wait.

*I love candy corn.

The Great British Baking Show

Back to the food programming for just one minute. I know everyone’s probably already heard of GBBS and is seasons deep into it, but if ever there was a time for self-care, it is now, and if ever there was a TV show that could count as self-care, it is GBBS. OK, so it’s not full of travel shots — it takes place in a tent in a nondescript field somewhere in England. BUT! Each competition is to create a different “bake” from another place. Who knew nearly every city in Europe apparently had its own signature pastry/bread/cracker/cake? You’d think Jen and I would, since we generally exclusively eat pastries for breakfast when abroad, and yet you learn something new every day.

The Spy Who Dumped Me

That’s right, I’m rounding out this list with a movie, and yes, it might look like a terrible one, but unlike “Emily in Paris,” let me tell you about my journey with the pleasant surprise that is “The Spy Who Dumped Me.”

I’ve been known to enjoy some “Outlander” in my time, and completely reasonably and not at all religiously, I therefore follow Sam Heughan on Instagram. So I happen to know what movies he’s in, and I gotta say, none of them appeal to me. Like, he is the only appealing part of them (sorry Vin Diesel) and as appealing as he clearly is, it’s not enough to make me want to see the movies. I saw him promoting “The Spy Who Dumped Me” last summer and was like “meh,” but earlier this summer, perusing Hulu for something to watch, “The Spy Who Dumped Me” was being promoted. So I clicked on it and decided if it sucked within the first 15 minutes, I’d bail. But OMG what a wonderful surprise. Kate McKinnon was so goddamn funny, but really so was the movie itself. She and Mila Kunis (the main character) get swept up in an international spy caper, taking them all around Europe, which while making me laugh, also made me MISS TRAVELING WITH JEN. Especially the scene when an assassin is told to look for two dumb American girls and spots several pairs being very, very dumb and very, very American. I laughed a LOT more than I expected to, and genuinely loved this movie!

What are you watching to stave off travel fever?

-Staci