I live in Tasmania, which has only two seasons: cold and wet, and cold and dry. The three months of the latter are over, and the cold, miserable, cold, wet, cold, windy, frigid fucking weather has left me with a case of seasonal affective disorder. This has effected my viewing and reading habits the past few days; my already-wrecked attention span has fallen apart, and an intention to take a mental health day and watch old favourite movies all day was not followed through on. The only thing I could bring myself to watch were old favourite comedies like Futurama, fast-paced enough to hold my attention and enough of an old favourite not to feel like work.

(Weirdly, a few well-engaged habits like reading before bed have mostly stuck)

My original intention was to rewatch season one of True Detective and write an essay on it, and like a college student I kept putting it off and thought I could slam it all out on the last day it was due. Two things quickly became clear: this essay deserves a week’s worth of polish, and this is what I should have been doing to make myself feel better much earlier. Occupying myself with a great work of fiction that I haven’t picked the bones of yet improved my mood enormously; I love Futurama but it was the equivalent of eating a Snickers bar when you’re hungry instead of an actual meal.

What do you watch when you’re feeling low? Conversely, temperatures dropping here must mean those of you in the other hemisphere must be heading into the warmer months. Do you find your viewing habits are shifting with the weather?