I want to thank Claire Booth for inviting me to post on Do
Some Damage today. I’ll admit to missing the crowd over here lately, so her
request came at a good time for both of us: She was having trouble coming up
with a topic for this week’s post and I have a book coming out soon. It was kismet,
I tell you.
It feels weird to say I
have a book coming out when all I did was edit it. The authors who contributed
the stories did most of the heavy lifting. Still—and a few of the authors might
tell you this—I was a hands-on editor, maybe too much so. If you ever wonder
how much of a control freak you are, take a stab at editing a short story
anthology.
Two paragraphs in and I still haven’t told you what the
book’s called. I never said I was a genius at book promo. MURDER-A-GO-GO’S:
CRIME FICTION INSPIRED BY THE MUSIC OF THE GO-GO’S will be published on March
25 by Down & Out Books, but the good news is you don’t have to wait until
then to buy it! You can pre-order it
here or wherever impossibly cool books are sold.
Now that you’ve pre-ordered MURDER-A-GO-GO’S we can move on
to what I really want to talk about today: TV. It’s my topic on the Do Some
Damage’s podcast, “7 Minutes With,” hosted by Steve Weddle, with Jedidiah Ayres
talking film and Chris Holm talking music. But we’ve been on hiatus for several
weeks and I have stuff I want to—no, need to—discuss NOW.
A brief aside: Writers who admit to watching TV sometimes
get some flak for time-wasting. Like I’d have already written the next best
seller if it weren’t for all the TV I watch. It’s fair criticism, but I waste
far more time on the Internet than I do watching TV. I say that as if it
somehow justifies my TV consumption. It doesn’t—I just thought I’d mention it.
First up is Netflix’s “Abducted in Plain Sight.” I’m not
sure how to adequately prepare you for it because it’s the most crazy-pants
thing I’ve seen in ages, and chances are, I’m not the first person you’ve heard
say that. I’d seen it as I perused Netflix’s offerings but never stopped to
watch it until a friend texted me: “I’m watching the most fucked up documentary
on Netflix right now…” Jeezus, she was not
kidding.
At first glance, it appears to be the story of a perfect
family living in an idyllic community until their world is torn asunder by a
sociopathic neighbor who abducts their oldest daughter. On its own, a horrific
event, worthy of a closer look. But the details, my God, the details. I don’t
want to say too much because each WTF moment is more insane than the next and
you need to experience its unfolding for yourself. Just remember that the child
at the heart of the story was a victim in all senses of the word and the adults
responsible for her well-being utterly failed her. Utterly.
My husband just brought me a glass of rosé, so now we can
really get talking. Since today’s topic is crazy-pants TV, I’d be remiss if I
didn’t mention the Fyre Festival documentaries making the rounds. We watched
the one on Netflix but there’s one on Hulu, too, and I’ve heard they’re both
interesting. The Fyre Festival, if you recall, was supposed to be THE event of
the decade that turned out to be an absolute shit-show. The one where attendees
paid tens of thousands of dollars to see Blink-182 on a remote Caribbean Island and ended
up sleeping in water-logged tents and eating bread-and-salt sandwiches. It’s interesting
to see how it all went wrong (it’s pretty clear from the get-go it’s not going
to end well) and how “influencers” fueled the race to get tickets.
Which brings me to my final entry: “The American Meme,” also
on Netflix. My inclusion of this documentary isn’t necessarily an endorsement,
because honestly, your life will be just fine if you skip it. It profiles
social media stars Paris Hilton, Josh Ostroversky (The Fat Jewish), Brittany
Furlan (famous for her Vine videos), Kirill Bichutsky, and several other
influencers, as they openly discuss the peaks and pitfalls of their fame. This
glimpse beyond their vapid, often offensive, online personas isn’t enlightening
so much as sad-making. Not sad for them so much as for the society (ours) that has enabled their fame. I’m
not victim-blaming here, I’m only saying that we’re all complicit and it gave
me a lot to think about with regard to my own consumption of social media and
the Internet in general.
But not TV. I still love my TV.
Holly West is the Anthony Award-nominated
author of the Mistress of Fortune historical mystery series and the editor
of Murder-A-Go-Go’s: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of the Go-Go’s.
She lives in Northern California with her husband and two dogs. More at
hollywest.com.
