I need Sam Esmail, the writer and director, and the Obamas, the executive producers of “Leave the World Behind,” to get out of my streaming history.

I’m a voracious consumer of all things historical and political. When I rise in the morning and hit the power button on my Sharp Smart TV, it knows to lay before me the cornucopia of options from my most frequented courses: CNN, MSNBC, The Lincoln Project, NPR, Things Explained, and my local news broadcast. Always placed on about row two after this buffet of exposition on war, climate change, coup d’etats, the upending of civil liberties, and despair, it is the icon for my other most frequently watched show, “Friends.”

“Friends,” or the “White Living Single,” as I call it, is what I usually turn to when overwhelmed by the real world and news coverage I drown myself in. It’s in heavy viewing rotation not only due to syndication but also because the news these days, especially these last five years, has been almost oppressive.

I like to be aware and informed, but after hours of watching what real people do, I often slide into the shoes of Julia Roberts’ character, accept that “I f’kin’ hate people,” and simply want to watch “The One with the Jellyfish.” I do this especially because, like many people, I feel hopeless about finding answers for it all, or any of it, to be honest.

I need an escape from reality. And if there’s anything “Friends” is not, it’s reality.

As Ruth’s character said, it’s like we’re nostalgic for a time that never existed, where there’s no racism, no politics, no real sexism, no poverty, and every crisis can be resolved in a half-hour with a quick Chandler quip, “Wah-pah!”

Since “Leave the World Behind” dropped on Netflix and the buzz crescendoed around it, I’ve seen several takes on my social media feeds. The one most surprising to me was the plethora of people who said they hated the film and especially hated the ending. Where it seemed most people were frustrated by the lack of answers, the lack of some distinct enemy to blame, the absence of real heroes, and the seeming nonsensical continuous adoration of a 1990s sitcom is where I found the movie to thrive and be completely aware of the times we’re living in and our authentic reactions in these scenarios.

If there’s anything we should all be aware of since the pandemic and the George Floyd events, it is how weird humans can behave in times of crisis. There were those who were doomsday prepping, those who laughed at all of it, people who looked at both of these extremes with cynicism, people invested in conspiracy theories about who “the real culprits were,” and those who posted cat videos and recipes as though all hell wasn’t breaking loose in some capacity just beyond their front steps. All of this happened simultaneously. We could watch the broadcast of these contradictory and often confounding reactions to world events happen in real time from a device we carry in our pockets and have constant access to.

This same sort of surrealism still exists even in the aftermath of what’s largely a neutralized global pandemic. We’re inundated with content — content with skewed data, embellished messaging, actual facts, and purposeful disinformation. It’s too difficult for many to decipher. So, they disengage. They walk around TikToking and posting selfies or dive headfirst into the wild world of conspiracy theories (which is escapism of sorts by another name). We feel a level of discomfort just beneath the surface because the world feels chaotic, and we don’t know what to do about it and oftentimes who to blame. It’s overwhelming. So we must create some sort of order (conspiracy theories) or remove the world from our minds entirely and leave it behind. We “watch ‘Friends’.”

We need an escape.

The movie telegraphs this throughout. On their way to the beach house, the Sandfords take “Exit 76, Point Comfort.” In one of the earlier scenes, Clay discusses a former student who’s written a book about how media serves as both an escape and reflection of society, which is a “contradiction,” he says. And, if you weren’t distracted by a need for the typical cinematic thrills of noisy blockbusters where the monsters are explicit and the solutions obvious, those subtle messages were blaring megaphones.

And isn’t that also one of the points of the story? That in a dangerous world that is teetering at any moment of falling into similar chaos as portrayed in the film, whether by viruses, civil unrest, rising fascism, or other natural disasters, where there are, more often than not, no real plausible answers, no absolute enemies, and no one is actually in charge of the things the way we want to believe they are, we still need to unite and not be distracted by the noise and superficial differences?

Probably my favorite part of the movie is the ending. I love how Rose casually breaks into this wealthy home, eats all of their goodies, and finishes “Friends” because, hell, the world is over, so why not? I love how some super-wealthy family had constructed this doomsday bunker to shame all other bunkers. It was equipped with stockpiles of food, water, ventilation, plant life, UV lamps, etc., and none of it mattered because the great neutralizer, in times of chaos, is often timing and luck. You actually had to be able to get to those things to benefit from them. Wealthy or not, if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, your wealth wouldn’t help you. Or, as Ali’s character explained in another scene, when no one is in control, wealth and influence won’t save you. It may give you a heads-up to prepare, but that doesn’t ensure your survival. Cut to several shots displayed throughout the film of one Earth and the one planet we have.

At the end of it all, we’re in this together, stuck on this rotating rock together. Ignore, neglect, and exploit each other at our own peril.

There’s always a need to step away from the bombardment of serious news and its ramifications to preserve our sanity and mental health. I’ll forever be an advocate for that. However, we can’t allow those reprieves to distract us, further divide us, or pull us away from the actual threats that persist.