My Panic Playlist

Hi, and welcome to the end of the world. Kind of.

It's Saturday now. Last Tuesday night, I got home from an art class and found my family facetiming my sister. She said her university was closing for the rest of the semester because of the coronavirus panic.

On Tuesday, that news seemed extreme.

Then Wednesday happened and the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

After that, people pretty much freaked out.

I went to get my haircut and there was hand sanitizer at every single point of contact. There's no toilet paper - or much of anything, really - in the grocery stores, which are the only places people seem to be going at the moment. The lines are to the back of the store. Apparently, people also starting tackling each other for supplies at the Costco.

Additionally, don't plan on going anywhere. We've got a nationwide travel ban on, so no one can leave the country. When I called American Airlines to cancel our Spring Break trip, they hung up on me because they had no more phone lines available.

The government has also shut down every conceivable public gathering. For me, this hit home when they announced the cancellation of the first Formula 1 Race of the year and the closure of all Broadway shows on the same day.

No races. No theater. Go home.

Alright, we get it. Everything is cancelled. So since we're all supposed to be at home "social distancing" and trying not to die, it might as well be declared National Netflix Time. (But really. Imagine those Netflix viewing numbers right now.)

So, you ask, what's a gal like me watching in these apocalyptic times? I decided to do a coronavirus "playlist", much like my annual Halloween playlists, where I gather together all the movies and relevant episodes of a TV show under the umbrella of one theme.

The theme for today? Disease and panic.

Let's get watching!

*.*.*.*.*.*.* My COVID-19 Playlist *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. 0.0 <3 :-)

TV

Rawhide

- Season 2, Episode 14, "Incident at Red River Station" (orig. air date: Jan. 15, 1960)

IMDb summary: Favor and Rowdy accidentally get the smallpox, and they leave the herd to find vaccine for themselves, and the town around.

Why? As usual, Rawhide is spooky relevant to today's situations. This is my favorite episode of anything about how people can panic over disease, especially when it isn't understood. It's also amazing to think about how far medicine has come since Gil and Rowdy's time.

- Season 4, Episode 30, "Abilene" (orig. air date: May 18, 1962)

IMDb summary: One of the drovers falls sick the night before they end the drive at Abilene. The sick man may have smallpox forcing the sheriff to quarantine the men. Favor needs to leave to seal a deal on a ranch and an old foe of Rowdy wants revenge.

Why? You can literally watch this episode and just replace every time they say "smallpox" with "coronavirus" and it's like watching today. Also, Rowdy tries to jump out of second story window.

Drake & Josh

- Season 3, Episode 8, "Paging Dr. Drake" (orig. air date: Oct. 1, 2005)

IMDb summary: After a botched weightlifting routine, Josh injures his toe and is forced to the hospital where Drake pretends to be a doctor in order to romance the nurses.

Why? Because of the part when Josh is afraid of being at the hospital and the doctors rush past Josh with a nurse saying, "What's wrong with the patient, Doctor??" and the doctor says, "I DON'T KNOW"

iCarly

- Season 6, Episode 2, "iGo One Direction" (orig. air date: April 7, 2012)

IMDb summary: One Direction is performing on iCarly, but Carly and Harry get sick.

Why? "I gave Harry Styles jungle worms." That's the only quote from this you need to know.

Parks and Recreation

- Season 3, Episode 2, "Flu Season" (orig. air date: Jan. 27, 2011)

IMDb summary: Leslie gets the flu right before an important fund-raising pitch for the Harvest Festival. Chris tries frantically to avoid catching the bug, and Ron hires Andy to replace April while she is out.

Why? There is no better episode of anything about trying to function when everyone is sick.

- Season 4, Episode 11, "The Comeback Kid" (orig. air date: Jan. 12, 2012)

IMDb summary: Leslie appoints Ann as her new campaign manager, but her attempt to relaunch the campaign goes off to a horrendous start, while Chris discovers that Ben is depressed after leaving his job.

Why? I mostly included this one because I relate to Ben being stuck at home making claymation movies. A lot like we are right now. And also because this is one of the best Parks episodes ever.

Movies

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (2016)

Why? Maybe it's the apocalyptic undertones, or possibly the widespread panic over who has the zombie disease, but rest assured that this movie is the most fun you're going to have while watching people panic over disease.

Warm Bodies (2013)

Why? Zombies. But also I kind of picture this being what the world will be like post-COVID-19. So hopefully it's this fun.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010)

Why? Because if the cheese touch isn't the exact equivalent of the coronavirus touch, then I don't know what is.

Help! (1965)

Why? The Beatles singing "Help!" seems to be the perfect anthem for this situation. Plus, nothing helps soothe a restless soul better than a little rock and roll music. Or Beatles humor, which never fails to crack me up.