Top image: Stephanie Lee / RICE file photo
It’s May 2nd. On this glorious day, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and there isn’t a single political message in sight because, congrats—you’ve made it to Cooling-Off Day!
Because Cooling-Off Day is a sacred day where Singaporeans put aside their petty differences, hold hands, and give thanks for another wonderful general election, filled with productive debates, exciting rallies, and inexplicable inter-party homoerotic longing.
To honour the spirit of Cooling-Off Day, here are five totally non-political shows that you can enjoy to distract yourself from the reality outside.
The White Lotus
The White Lotus is an American black comedy series set in a luxury resort for which the show is titled (every season focuses on another White Lotus resort in another country). It depicts many interactions between foreign travellers and local service staff. The foreigners, who are always better off, enrich the local economy and provide economic opportunities for the local staff.
It is a mutually beneficial relationship that is not at all exploitative or problematic, and nobody ever gets hurt by this.
Singles Inferno
Singles Inferno is a dating show produced in South Korea. Every episode, the participants compete in a series of competitive games. The winners take their crush to ‘Paradise’—a nice room, fancy dinners, fun activities. The losers sit around in a shared house called Reddit Inferno, complaining about their lot.
At the end, everyone pairs up and presumably lives happily ever after.
Disclaimer: In real life, home ownership does not determine romantic success. In real life, our homes are not fancy enough to be called ‘Paradise’.
Nosferatu
Nosferatu is a vampire horror movie. It’s about an undead bloodsucker that everyone hates. Everyone thought he was dead, but sadly, they were wrong. He arrives back in town without an invitation and proceeds to annoy the hell out of everyone. They try garlic, memes and ignoring him on social media, but nothing works.
Severance
Severance is set in a world where people undergo a procedure to split their memories—one self for work, one self for home. These separate consciousnesses, or ‘selves’, have no awareness of each other, creating a literal form of work-life balance.
This is a totally healthy and efficient setup guaranteed to increase productivity with no negative consequences. While Lumon—the shadowy megacorp behind the procedure—is deeply opaque and slightly unsettling, its employees have every reason to believe that it operates with their best interests in mind. A powerful message of trust and unity that we can all get behind.
Black Mirror
Black Mirror is a sci-fi anthology series exploring the many ways technology can improve our lives—from enhancing social interactions and streamlining justice, to ensuring eternal love through digital consciousness. Each episode presents a totally plausible scenario where tech only goes ever so slightly wrong in ways that are definitely not relevant to our current reality.
The show reminds us that progress is unstoppable, surveillance is often convenient, and tech companies (and their rich CEOs) usually know best. A heartening reminder that if you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear. Unless your friends leak your group chats.
There are many fun activities to do on Cooling-Off Day, and it’s important to do those things instead of thinking too hard about the state of our nation. Once every five years, we’re graciously granted a day to stop being so political. We must honour that.
So sit back, stream your fave shows, and do your duty as a citizen by steadfastly ignoring the issues that will affect your life, and the lives of your family for the next god-knows-how-many years.
