- Position‹2 of 5›
- Watch something scary
- Argument‹3 of 3
Watch The Stranger in quarantine
Depending on what stage of isolation you're in, watching may actually make you crave the opportunity for a mysterious stranger to tell you devastating secrets about your loved ones. At least it would mean you were outside!
The argument
One of the main feelings that most people have encountered in quarantine is boredom. Whether out of work or working from home, many people have found themselves with a lot more time on their hands. Unable to leave the house or meet friends, television provides a welcome distraction. It can be tempting to pass the time by watching mindless reality TV such as Keeping up with the Kardashians, but mystery thrillers such as The Stranger bring much-needed excitement and suspense to an otherwise very boring quarantine period. The eight-part series is full of twists and turns, and nothing is fully revealed or explained until the dramatic final episode. The mystery element also engages the brain, as it encourages the viewer to think hard in order to work out what is going on. The series is also ideal for binge-watching in one go. While this would normally be frowned upon, and due to work commitments people would usually be unable to binge-watch a series in a day or two, quarantine means that people are now working from home and have the time to watch a series in one sitting. The Stranger's mysterious plot makes it the ideal show for this kind of viewing.
Context
The Stranger is a British mystery thriller series in eight parts which premiered on Netflix on 30 January 2020. Filmed in and around Manchester, the series focuses on a young 20-something woman who mysteriously appears and reveals a devastating secret to a married man. The events that follow become ever more complex and dark.
Premises
Counter-arguments
The world during quarantine is a scary place. Daily press briefings and the ever-rising number of Coronavirus cases make sure of that. Because of this, watching a twisted mystery thriller such as The Stranger is perhaps not the right option for many people in a fragile mental state. The series is unsettling under normal circumstances, let alone the current ones. A comedic series such as Sex Education or even rewatching old favourites such as Friends may be more appropriate and comforting for many people at the current moment.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] Boredom and available time explain why people are watching something; they say nothing about why they should watch this. [Rejecting P2] Twists and suspense are attractions of a genre rather than reasons to prefer it, and dismissing reality television as mindless assumes the ranking the question is asking about. [Rejecting P3] Suitability for binge-watching is a property this series shares with most streaming drama. The counter-argument raises what the premises omit: an unsettling thriller may be a poor fit for a period already producing anxiety, which bears directly on what is best to watch.