My husband and I went to see Hidden Figures yesterday. It’s a very good movie, and I highly recommend it. When it was over, the audience applauded – that doesn’t happen often.

I’ve seen movies since the election. Some have been funny but a bit mindless (Office Christmas Party) and some have been deeper but somewhat dark (Manchester By the Sea).  Hidden Figures was engrossing, it had humor, but it also was about a piece of American history that had nothing to do with the damn election.  And that may be one of the reasons people clapped.

It was good to watch the story of the critical but unsung contributions that African-American women made to the space program – and not only did they make those contributions, they almost had to beg to make them. These women didn’t just go above and beyond to do their jobs, they went above and beyond just to have the right to do their jobs.

It also occurred to me that some of us (okay, several dozen million of us) have a tough date coming up: This Friday, January 20. Inauguration Day for Don the Con.

That day, and that evening, the news will be filled with news of the inauguration: Trump’s horrific speech, the paucity of the crowd, the kazoos and karaoke that will be needed to augment the fact that few self-respecting performers will go near D.C. that day, much less perform in any inauguration-related events. Okay, maybe my perspective colors the foregoing just a little. But you get the idea.

By the way, a disclaimer:  Friday evening, my local PBS affiliate is running an Alicia Keys concert as part of their Great Performances series, followed by an episode of American Masters about playwright August Wilson (who wrote Fences, recently brought to the screen by Denzel Washington).  Not too shabby at all, and it could be worth checking your local listing.

That aside, here are some ideas for Friday, Friday evening and the weekend:

• See Hidden Figures.
• Binge watch Parks and Recreation on either Netflix or Hulu Plus. Sure, it’s about small town, semi-dysfunctional government, but you get Ron Swanson, Andy Dwyer and Leslie Knope. Plus, starting late in Season 2, you’ll see Rob Lowe giving “literally” a whole new pronunciation every time he says it, which is frequently.
• Binge watch The West Wing on Netflix. Government as it should be.
• If you have HBO, watch Season 1 of The Newsroom on HBOGO or HBONOW. Media as it should be.
• If you have Amazon Prime, take advantage of the Amazon Video feature and watch Seasons 1 and 2 of Veep. It’s a darkly comedic glimpse into how an ego-driven highly placed government official operates. When it first aired, I figured it was a take on how Sarah Palin would have been as Vice President. Now it seems Trumpian.
• If you have HBO (use HBOGO or HBONOW) or want to buy something to binge-watch, watch Season 5 of Veep. There’s a reason Julia Louis-Dreyfus keeps winning those Emmys. Plus, the arc for Season 5 is a Presidential election that’s even more fucked up than the 2016 one was.
• Read Why Not Me by Al Franken. He wrote it before he even dreamed of running for the Senate, and it’s a hilarious (fictional) account of his run for the presidency in 2000 on the Democratic ticket. His platform is protesting ATM fees, and he goes after bank-loving Al Gore in the primaries.

Finally, here are some movies that will remind you that being American is something to respect, warts and all. A couple are available on for streaming on either Netflix or Hulu Plus, if you subscribe to either. Some are available for DVD or Blu-Ray purchase on Amazon at prices that are lower than a movie ticket – all are in inventory and available via Amazon Prime, so you can get them by Friday if you’re a Prime member or want to pay extra for two-day shipping (order soon!). Nearly all are available for rental on either Amazon Video or iTunes for less than $5.00.

This isn’t all-encompassing. They’re just titles that occurred to me after I watched Hidden Figures. Not every title is for everyone – for example, while I think Saving Private Ryan is a pretty amazing movie and I’ve watched it several times, I have never watched the first 20 or 30 minutes. And there are other titles that I realize I omitted, like Glory and Argo.  Maybe Rocky.

All that said, though, here is the list: