The Daily - A Bit of Relief: Reruns, Rituals and Restaurants

Episode Date: May 15, 2020

On today’s “A Bit of Relief,” two critics at The Times share the home rituals that they're leaning on for comfort. For the television critic James Poniewozik, it’s binge-watching television with his family (“Experiencing good or even brilliantly dumb art is a form of self-care,” he reassures). And for the restaurant critic Tejal Rao, the act of rewatching cinematic food scenes is surprisingly delightful.

Because I have a very sedentary job, even by sedentary job standards, I like to do squats in my chair. I will just lift myself up. People at home won't see this, but I literally like to, just every once in a while, this yogic squat is very good. Melasana, I think they call it. It's just really good for your legs every hour or something like that. Hi, I'm James Ponowozik, and I'm a TV critic for The New York Times.

You know, other than the fear of death and social collapse and economic catastrophe, you know, the day-to-day of my life has not really changed that much. I mean, I always worked from home. This thing that, you know, everybody is dealing with now of, you know, how do I keep myself from going insane if I don't go outside? That's been my life for years. You know, but we're all kind of stay-at-home TV critics now. You know, welcome to my world, America. Particularly as a TV critic, I'm very attuned to the fact that there is a lot of language of shame that is built around our consumption of TV, right?

People who watch TV are couch potatoes. And there might be a feeling that if you're quarantined inside and watching six episodes of something on Netflix, that you're doing something shameful and unproductive. And I am here to tell you, as a professional TV watcher, that you should not feel ashamed. Consuming entertainment, experiencing good or even brilliantly dumb art is a form of self-care. It is something salutary that you are doing for your brain to help your brain deal with the often painful process of living in the really crazy time. Art, whether it is a marble statue or a network sitcom, is human beings trying to express something that they can't express in literal language and how to process

all of the overwhelming things that humans have to deal with. Honestly, that was probably a big aspect of my childhood. I think my parents and I often communicated with each other more through the shows we were watching at the same time than through things that we directly said to each other, you know? directly said to each other, you know? I remember watching MASH during the afternoon, in the early evening, when it would rerun,

with my dad. My dad drove a beer and liquor delivery truck. He was a teamster, which was a very physically punishing job. Like, he destroyed his back and his knees. And so when he would come home, he would, for some reason, this felt good to him, would lie down on the living room floor in front of the TV. lie down on the living room floor in front of the TV. And my memory of watching MASH is me on the living room couch and my dad in front of me, maybe propped up on one arm,

on the floor watching the TV, sort of at my feet. Beans, beans, beans, beans. Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. Applesauce, applesauce, applesauce. You got that? Yes. My dad was not of the generation where you would, like, you know, you purposely do things to bond with your children.

But it was something that we did, you know. It was a routine. How do you take it? Frank. Are you kidding? My palms are sweating off. I'm afraid to tell him. You better show him the orders, Radar.

He'll hit me. So right now, it's my wife and I, and we have two kids at home. My younger son's in high school. My older son is in his first year of college and is now around the house. My older son is in his first year of college and is now around the house. And we're not really a sports family. But, you know, Survivor, it's our, you know, competition. There is a great deal of meta Survivor analysis that occupies much of the time in our household. I tend to get shushed a lot while we're watching Survivor

because I make comments or have questions for my son, the Survivor expert. You didn't do anything. You were made fun of, and you come here and you tell... expert. You didn't do anything. You were made fun of and you come here and you tell me. That kind of break the spell or, you know, interrupt somebody's dialogue and then somebody has to rewind. You were made fun of and you come here and you tell me don't bite the hand that feeds you. I feed myself. And I'm in trouble and I am reminded that, you know, watching Survivor is a privilege and not a right. I took myself out of this game! I've been watching Bob's Burgers. That's the show that just Andre and I, my younger son and I, watch together.

My wife is not particularly into the show. My older son can take it or leave it. So that will be if, you know, everybody else has gone to bed or, you know, is doing something else. And we do have a little dance that we do sitting on the couch. There's a theme song.

It's on, I think, ukulele. Do-do-do-do. Boom! And we lean into each other and bump What are some of our other regular shows? My older son, who's a music major in college, he was able to air drum beginning to end all the percussion moments in the Friday Night Lights theme song. He had all these gestures that I can't reproduce or whatever. This is one of the most beautiful shows ever made for television that's not just about football.

Everybody wrote us off. Everybody. But about community, about the connection among people, and about how a society needs every one of its members to contribute for the good of all. There are few out there who do still believe in you. If you'll never give up on you, you go back out on the field. Those are the people I want in your minds. Those are the people I want in your hearts.

Never underestimate just how much you need to hear Coach Taylor. Clear eyes, full hearts. Let's go. Let's go. I can't change the fact that every human on earth has a real existential problem right now. And I can't change how even some of the shows that I love and that simply entertained me before are now in many ways painful reminders. But I can deal with them and make it a little easier to tolerate and even enjoy getting through it through the people that I watch with and through the rituals that we have of watching. watch with and through the rituals that we have of watching. Sharing TV with people you love, whether they're with you or on the other end of a Zoom chat,

can be a really valuable way to get through this. Hi, I'm Tejal Rao. I'm the California restaurant critic for the New York Times. And I'm also a columnist for the New York Times Magazine. critic for the New York Times. And I'm also a columnist for the New York Times Magazine. Well, it's been really strange because there isn't much use for restaurant criticism right now. The restaurant industry is suffering and so many restaurant workers are out of work. And I'm really, really worried. I'm really missing going out to restaurants and being in public spaces and the luxury of other people cooking for me. And I'm cooking a lot at home, but I'm also doing this really slightly strange thing,

which is re-watching food scenes in movies that I love because I haven't had that kind of contact in public spaces and restaurants are so important to me. So there's something about seeing people being together and cooking and eating in a film or in a TV show that's just really doing it for me right now. it for me right now. Okay, so over the weekend, I watched Big Night. So I intended to just watch the dinner scene, which is kind of an epic Italian-style dinner scene set in the 1950s. But when the movie opened, it's Claudio Villa singing this very beautiful song with his, like, operatic voice. Waves are rolling on the Jersey Shore, and I just ended up watching the whole movie. I feel like I just want to explain a tiny bit of the movie to you.

So it's about two brothers, Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, who are running a restaurant on the Jersey Shore, and it's a classic setup. The restaurant across the street from them is super successful. Meanwhile, their restaurant is really quiet, kind of failing. They owe the bank a lot of money. And part of it is that they just refuse to cook Italian-American food. But I get a side of spaghetti with this, right?

What? Well, no. I thought all main courses come with spaghetti. Well, some, yes. But you see, risotto is rice, so it is a starch. And it doesn't go really with pasta. You know, people want, like, spaghetti with meatballs, and they want tons of seafood in their risotto. There are no meatballs with the spaghetti?

No, sometimes spaghetti likes to be alone. And Tony Shalhoub plays this, like, perfectionist chef who refuses to compromise. Just make me a salad with spaghetti, please. What? Why? She likes starch. I don't know. Come on! And they only want to make very traditional Italian stuff. Who are these people in America?

She's a criminal. I want to talk to her. I mean, there are moments. I don't want to be mean to Stanley Tucci, but there are moments where it's almost like, you know how the French accents are in Monty Python? I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty-headed animal. Where they're just so absurd and silly and over the top. I fart in your general direction.

There are a few moments where... They both are starch. Maybe I should make a mashed potato for on the other side. Their Italian accents get a little cartoonish. She's a Philistine. I'm not going to talk to her. She don't understand anyway. But it's so charming.

It's so charming all the same that it's fine. One of my favorite moments is, it's just like Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub's hairy forearms making the pasta. There's something about seeing these like bare, hairy forearms, making a huge mess with egg yolks and flour and, you know, kneading it directly on the table where one of the cooks also sleeps. Like we're all being so careful right now. I mean, as we should be, you know, with gloves and masks and the intimacy of the two of them cooking together and also cooking for other people. It's like a really, really beautiful scene. So the rival restaurant across the street that's doing really well, it's run by this like showboat restaurateur who lights stuff on fire to like create a scene in the dining room. And the brothers run this very quiet, simple restaurant.

And the rival restaurateur says, you know what? I'm friends with Louis Prima and he's coming to town next week and I'll tell him to come to your restaurant. So why don't you cook a special dinner for Louis Prima? And so they plan this big night to cook for a celebrity. And they're waiting and waiting and people start drinking and dancing and eating snacks. And, you know, like wisps of hair are coming undone because people are starting to like get a little wild and they just sit down to eat dinner without louis prima no no we don't have time for two hours let's go come on come on christian open the door that's where like the magic of the movie happens it's all at the table what is that it's a secret recipe that they brought from their hometown. They're in this very plain dining room. The music is blasting. And there's always this moment at a dinner party when all of a sudden people have had just enough to drink that they sort of start to loosen up.

And you see it happen in real time in the movie. Oh, God! Damn it! This is so fucking good, I should kill you. So all of a sudden, all the glasses start clinking. People are holding like wine bottles and pretending to kind of karaoke into them and dancing. You can see all these women with their perfect red lips, unobscured by masks. And everyone's making sure that everyone else's glasses

stay full all the time. It was like catnip for me, and it also emotionally kind of wrecked me to see people having so much fun. There's something magical about seeing restaurants that are really, really alive and busy and financially successful, probably, too. It's so fortifying to remember that we can gather like that again on the other side of this. Terima kasih telah menonton! Thank you.