Hustle
Whenever you’re sick, and I mean at-some-point-praying-for-the-sweet-release-of-death sick, it is absolutely critical that you have good entertainment. Well at least for me it is. If I want to be anywhere but inside my own body I need a good diversion. Sure, things I’ve seen or read before are fine when I’ve got a cold or whatever but if you’re puking your guts out, food becomes an object of fear rather than desire, and you don’t know what pain the next hour will bring you really need to keep your mind occupied. Or, you know, sedated. Sedatives being the easy but often not the best way out I rely heavily on entertainment. In my most recent bought with whatever this particular hell is Hustle saved the day.
In fact it was uniquely well suited; in the past I’ve watched things like Sex & The City but the thing that makes Hustle a better fit is that, like the ads say, you have to watch carefully. If you let your mind wander to things like the agony you’re in then you’ll miss something. It’s a mental exercise that pays off. And there’s very little violence or other physical unpleasantness either so nothing to remind you of the hell that you’re in.
I’ve been a fan of the show for years but have had mixed results when trying to catch it on TV; so over the course of the last little while I decided to go through every episode I could get my hands on to see if I’d missed any, and to enjoy the ones I had seen before again.
Adrian Lester and Robert Vaughn’s calm voices and confidence soothe the nerves. Marc Warren gives you a reason to smile. Robert Glenister’s accents keep your ears busy. It has fantastic casting all around.
Hustle is a fantastic show no matter how you’re feeling but if you are feeling like crap this is perhaps one of the best TV shows to make life seem bearable again.
And the best part? Season 5 begins January 5th.
