Comfort Shows – The Golden Girls.

Hello everyone and welcome to Friday’s Choice.

I’ll be honest and say that I have not had the best week. If you follow my Instagram (@katelovesliterature), then you will have seen that I shared a quote that I love. ”Every kick is a boost.” – This is one of my favourite quotes by Rue McClanahan, who of course played the brilliant Blanche in The Golden Girls.

My Irish mammy always says ”what’s for you won’t pass you”, so even though it has not been the best week and I don’t feel this way now, I know that I will look back on this week and be glad that things worked out as they did.

All of this brings me to this week’s #fridayschoice. I have been thinking about comfort shows, shows that we watch when we are feeling down. I’ve been speaking to family and friends about this because I wanted to get some opinions and almost everyone I spoke to had a show or a movie or a book that they go back to when they are feeling down.

My comfort show, I’ve discovered, is The Golden Girls. Every night this week I have been watching The Golden Girls on Disney plus and it really does help me to relax and clear my head before I go to sleep.

I love this show for many reasons. It is nostalgic for me. I used to watch it a lot with my grandmother when I was younger. It is funny. The quick wit is fantastic and I believe that the character Sophia is the definition of sarcasm. The four leading ladies are a dream team. They each play their part perfectly and the chemistry the group had is something that is rare to come by.

I plan on talking about this show in more detail at a later date because I think it is an incredible show. The writing is fantastic, the storylines that the show covered were at times very powerful and poignant – I have a specific episode in mind that I plan on discussing in more detail. Most importantly, The Golden Girls is brilliant because of what it does for female representation onscreen.

There are still conversations about having older women onscreen in 2021, and many actresses have spoken about the struggles they face in casting after forty.

The Golden Girls is a show about older women and they are not the butt of the joke. They are lively, nuanced, fun, well-rounded characters who live full lives that are full of ups and downs, laughs and tears. They are interesting, dynamic, vivacious and yes, sexy. They make growing older look fabulous and it is. Yes growing older can come with new challenges, but life does not stop once you pass thirty and this show reflects that.

I adore Betty White, Rue McClanahan, Bea Arthur, and Estelle Getty. They are wonderful, funny, talented actresses who can sing, and dance, and play instruments, and they fill the show with heart. It is actresses like these four that made me adore acting because what they do onscreen is marvellous.

I even love the theme song – ‘Thank you for being a friend’, and every time the opening credits play, starting with that shot of a plane flying through the orange sky at sunset, I feel better. I feel calm and cozy and my ideal way of watching this show is when I am snuggled up with a blanket with some tea or coffee, and sometimes even a little treat and while a tv show cannot fix a problem, it does take my mind off of it and it makes me feel a little bit better.

The reason that I wanted to talk about comfort shows is because I think the idea of a comfort show demonstrates how important the arts can be. A book, movie, or show can be so much more than ‘just’ a book or ‘just’ a movie because of what they can do for people. They can move people and make people laugh or people can relate and feel less alone or a show can even make you feel better on a bad day. Literature and the arts can do so much for so many people and this is why I am so passionate about the arts and about literature, and why I created Katelovesliterature.com.

If I was to talk about all the things that literature and the arts have done for me, I would be typing forever so for now I’m starting with comfort shows.

The Golden Girls is funny, witty, heartfelt, and so ahead of its time. I will talk about this show again in the future but for now I will simply say if you are ever having a bad day, I would highly recommend watching The Golden Girls because if you are like me then it might just bring a smile to your face too.

This has been Friday’s Choice. I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Have you got any comfort shows, books, or movies? Is there a piece that brightens your day? Let me know, I’d love to know.

Kate xo.