The clock ticked over and we all feel different, don’t we? Don’t we? Nah, didn’t think so. Happy New Year, but it’s still the same year repeated ad infinitum. Just lie back and enjoy it.

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I stayed home and watched TV. I don’t have the energy to celebrate in physical ways any more. I did stay up until past midnight, though, so I was celebrating in spirit.

One thing I watched was the second last (I think it’s the second last) episode of The Good Doctor on Netflix. When I first learnt of this series I laughed. An autistic guy who not only becomes a doctor but a surgeon as well? It seemed far fetched, and it is, but it got me hooked. Shawn is a savant, capable of recalling an amazing array of facts and images (in TV land, of course) and has the telegenic knack of coming up with brilliant ideas on how to solve baffling illnesses and suggest surgical solutions.

But it’s the other actors that make the show work. There’s a range of interesting characters set in a big hospital in San Jose, California, who all have their problems and personality clashes. It’s quite a long series, about 50 episodes and there’s time for many different situations to develop and play out. Shawn has to learn to deal with girlfriends and he’s going through a crisis at the moment.

I admit to liking this improbable series, although all the patients seem to have crises at exactly the right moment, all the doctors are able to make instant diagnoses, an operating theatre always seems to be available at a moment’s notice and so on.

Then I watched the movie du jour, Don’t Look Up. It’s meant to be a comedy but I didn’t find it all that funny. It’s an allegory about global heating, set as the discovery of a 9Km wide comet heading straight for Earth and due to hit smack bang on in 6 months. About how the scientists can’t get anyone to take it seriously. About how the President of the USA is more concerned about her re-election chances than doing anything. The Prez is Meryl Streep, by the way, and we actually get to see her nude at the end, just before her head is bitten off by a dinosaur. Everyone else in the scene is nude too, and it’s set 22,746 years in the future, so that’s OK. 🙂

I’m also watching the series Emily in Paris, also on Netflix. The first series (which I’m watching) was panned horribly for being cliche-ridden, but as usual when a book or movie gets bad reviews, that’s my signal to watch or read and I usually enjoy it.

Yes, this is a bit horrible (gauche young American woman transplanted to Paris, unable to speak French), but I’m enjoying it so far. I’m about six episodes in, and I read that the second series is much better.