Have Another Drink

From the archives: Halifax Beverage, May 2016

I got Apple TV free for a year with the iPad Bruce got me for Christmas. Watching some of the shows, it's hard not to notice all the booze. 

The overrated "Morning Show", the under-appreciated "For all Mankind" and the slow-to-build but ultimately satisfying "Fosse/Verdon" all use alcohol consumption as a prop, a plot device, a character note and a mise-en-scene.

In "For All Mankind", which is set in an imagined past where Russia gets to the moon first and women become part of the space program 'way sooner than they did in real life, people drink so much they should have their children taken away. In one scene, the lone astronaut on the moon gets some bad news and downs a 40 ounce bottle of Chivas Regal "Leaving Las Vegas"-style, except he's alone and he's on the moon.  

Because this is fiction, there are no consequences arising from all this alcohol consumption. Everyone is trim and has lovely skin. No one gets drunk unless the plot requires they get into a fight or say something they wouldn't say sober. Hangovers, if they happen at all, are dispelled with a shot of Alka Seltzer.

People in these shows drink in celebration, in sorrow or just constantly, all while sustaining on-point conversations, demanding careers and high-powered jobs. Only Bob Fosse dies for his dissipation, because that's how he really did die.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this. When Jennifer Aniston has a wine glass in her hand in every scene where she's not at work, when the astronauts stop drinking four finger shots of iceless whiskey only when they are in space (and sometimes not even then), when Gwen and Bob drink and smoke enough between them to shorten the lives of a small town, I have to wonder what the show creators are up to. 

"For All Mankind" takes so much care with the details of its fictional world: the clothes, home decor, cars, hairstyles, even eyeglasses and tableware, not to mention the moon -- I have to wonder why, in the midst of all this attention to creating an authentic alternative version of reality, someone decided unrealistic drinking was vital to the show. 

I don't have an answer for this. But I think I need a drink.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Before: Guest bathroom

  

Before: ensuite bathroom