Punching the Air: Netflix Recommendations

Hey y’all! Welcome to my stop of the Punching the Air book tour hosted by Karina @ Afire Pages. If you’d like to hear my full thoughts on the book itself, check out my review of Punching the Air. There’s also an international giveaway going on, so enter to win your own copy of Punching the Air!

This was originally going to be TV show recommendations but it somehow ended up being all Netflix originals. I tried to pick out a mix of heavy and light watches since this is a very heavy story. Whether you end up watching these before, during, or after reading Punching the Air, they’ll definitely make great additions to the ongoing conversation.

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Bored in the House Watchlist

Hey y’all, I’m bored in the house and I’m in the house bored. Now that I’m only taking one class instead of four, I have so much free time on my hands. I had originally planned to use it to clean out the back room/storage space at my moms house but that ended up being a bigger battle than I was prepared for.

With everything going on in… the world, I’ve been mentally exhausted and often unmotivated. My 100 day project and exercise routine have been helping but life has been tough.

I’m a social butterfly and not hugging people or hanging out with friends has been especially tough for me. This is honestly an extrovert’s nightmare. Thankfully, I have Netflix and Hulu to help me feel like I’m doing something with my day.

All this to say, here’s what I’ve been watching lately:

The Babysitters Club Shaped my Childhood…. and Possibly Yours

Hello friends, today I want to tell you a story. Get your snacks ready, we’re going to be talking about The Babysitters Club.

The Babysitters Club has been rebooted by Netflix and I’m here for it. Growing up, I LOVED reading The Babysitters Club. Every time my mom would take me to the library, those were the books I’d look for. It’s one of, if not the, first book series I started collecting.

My old library used to have a cart near the back where they would sell books for 50 cents. My mom would let me buy two a week on the condition that I would finish them before buying more. I always finished them within the week.

My goal was to read every one of those books. I honestly don’t remember if I ever did, but I’m sure I got pretty close. I was obsessed with the series and it taught me a lot growing up.

A Joyful Juneteenth Watchlist

Juneteenth is a celebratory holiday for Black Americans. Even though I’m Haitian, my ancestors were also once enslaved. In the same way we celebrate January 1st, 1804 as our Haitian Independence Day, I’ll be celebrating June 19th, 1865 as the day that the last of those in bondage within the United States were claimed their freedom. The 13th Amendment came with issues of its own, but that’s a discussion for another day.

This list does not include anti-racism resources or the pain and suffering that black folk have endured. For Juneteenth, I’d like to bring some focus to Black Joy and stories that don’t center police brutality. This isn’t in any particular order and it includes a wide range of genres. Black people are not a monolith.

So, check out these shows and movies that make for a joyful Juneteenth watchlist:

Miss Juneteenth

Blood and Water (Show Review)

Wow it’s been a while since I did one of these. My friends and I have been using the Rave app to watch Netflix shows and movies together while social distancing. It’s been a fun way to de-stress, especially with everything going on.

My friends and I actually watched the whole season the first week it came out but then things happened and I couldn’t bring myself to write. It was honestly a struggle to do anything during that time period. Life still feels pretty surreal right now.

What is Blood and Water?