28 Days of Black Joy: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered New Content When the Reruns Are Enuf

My Netflix account hates me.

There are only so many emails, push notifications and alerts the streaming platform can send me (cough, and that I can ignore, cough) about watching the latest, most anticipated, or record-breaking series and movies before I potentially face some serious, unknown ramifications like a character in an episode of Black Mirror, right?

My mental dramatizations about being forced to stay awake for hours to consume culturally relevant content aside, I have no real desire to give anything new a chance right now—and I’m alright with that.

I love reruns and I’m not alone. I’ve never felt as psychologically exhausted in my life as I have during this global pandemic and, with what feels like a million other things to think about, I don’t have the mental bandwidth to invest in new storylines and characters. It may sound extreme but I’d rather avoid unnecessary stress and tragedy, even in fictional worlds.

Not when I find so much joy in watching Lauren Speed radiate #BlackGirlMagic on screen and find genuine happiness on Love is Blind. Or when my boyfriend-in-my-mind Jordan Calloway effortlessly emanates “good guy energy” in the incredibly sweet film Always a Bridesmaid. And not much can beat falling into a marathon of the wonderfully produced Hip-Hop Evolution series that I first discovered at my old barbershop in Harlem.

Nowadays, I just prefer the comfort brought on by knowing the plot twists and turns that lay before me instead of the unknown and unpredictable. I like to think of it as self-care in the form of content moderation.

I know I’ll eventually get back to a place where my watch list isn’t stuck in early 2020 (and even prior to that, who am I kidding?), but in the meantime, I’ll keep rewatching what I already enjoy and trying my best to avoid spoilers.

Bridgerton can wait.