#only to release 23. but they were probably told to make 24 22 minute episodes and the series premiere is the length of 2 episodes

[birdlord]

Everything I Watched in 2019

Movies

The number in parentheses is year of release, asterisks denote a re-watch, and titles in bold are my favourite watches of the year. 

01 The Death of Stalin (17) does a neat trick of building goodwill for Steve Buscemi’s Krushchev, then brutally pays that off in the last few minutes. 

02 Sorry to Bother You (18)

03 Support the Girls (18)

04 Paddington (14)*

05 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (16)

06 Eighth Grade (18) probably the most terrifying movie I watched all year, if you didn’t watch it through your fingers, who even are you?

07 Morvern Callar (02) much less bleak than the book, but then, nearly anything would be

08 The Favourite (18) revolting and beautiful. 

09 Columbus (17) a really lovely movie about architecture and parent-child relationships.

10 Bring it On (00)*

11 The Land of Steady Habits (18) feels wackier than your average Holofcener, but still a good watch. 

12 Spotlight (15) i was really bowled over by this, and wasn’t expecting to be. Workmanlike filmmaking, but an extraordinary story, well-told.

13 The Killing of a Sacred Deer (17) Barry Keoghan is a blank, but somehow compelling screen presence. This one has an ending that made me bark with laughter.

14 Legends of the Fall (94)

15 Moneyball (11)* if you don’t feel like watching anything in particular, you can always watch Moneyball

16 If Beale St Could Talk (18) very beautiful, but I failed to connect with it on any other level. 

17 For Keeps (88)

18 Abducted in Plain Sight (17)

19 Oscar Shorts (Animated) (18) the offerings were very sappy this year, but the winner was decent! Lots of Toronto content (weird). 

20 Oscar Shorts (Live Action) (18) *unquestionably* the worst one of these won ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

21 Velvet Buzzsaw (19)

22 Vice (18) ugh

23 Friends with Money (06)

24 Can You Ever Forgive Me (18)

25 Bohemian Rhapsody (18) haha what. was. that.

26 Mars Attacks (96)*

27 Paddington 2 (18)

28 Buffy the Vampire Slayer (92)*

29 Shoplifters (18)

30 Blindspotting (18) jacked Ethan Embry in a supporting role?! Whither? Howso? Wherefore?

31 Witness (85)

32 Harry & the Hendersons (87)*

33 The Matrix (99)*

34 T2 Trainspotting (17)

35 Blockers (18)

36 The Slums of Beverly Hills (98)

37 Can’t Hardly Wait (98)*

38 Avengers: Infinity War (18)

39 Iron Man II (10)

40 Isle of Dogs (18)

41 Chinatown (74)*

42 To Live & Die in LA (85)

43 Age of Innocence (93) Daniel Day-Lewis manages to make Newland Archer compelling, where in the novel he’s...the worst?!

44 Shopgirl (05)*

45 The House (17) didn’t sustain all the way through, but then, that’s how mainstream comedies often go. 

46 The Beguiled (17)

47 Badlands (73)*

48 Poetic Justice (93)

49 The Empire Strikes Back (80)*

50 Calibre (18)

51 The Kindergarten Teacher (18)

52 Hounds of Love (17) a nice little Aussie thriller, set in the 80s

53 Kicking & Screaming (95)*

54 Octopussy (83)*

55 Jaws (79)*

56 Lover Come Back (61)

57 Frenzy (72)

58 Always Be My Maybe (19)

59 Certain Women (16) took a while to get to this one, but it’s as great as they say it is. 

60 Baby Driver (17) all flash, little substance.

61 Sneakers (92)

62 Roadhouse (87)*

63 Bull Durham (88)*

64 Ghostbusters (84)*

65 Booksmart (19) I think this will improve on multiple viewings, though I loved the soundtrack and the mix of characters. 

66 Hereditary (18)

67 Rebecca (40) George Sanders as Rebecca’s cousin is BRILLIANT

68 Vertigo (58)*

69 The Dead Don’t Die (19)

70 Crawl (19)

71 Dazed & Confused (93)* If you don’t watch this once a summer, what is wrong with you?

72 Jackie Brown (97)

73 Talk Radio (88)

74 The Guilty (18)

75 Killing Heydrich (17)

76 Lady Bird (17)*

77 Billy Elliot (00)*

78 White House Down (13)* Channing Potatum saves the White House!

79 The Film Worker (17)

80 Whitney (18)

81 Mascot (16)

82 Apocalypse Now (79)* technically I’d only seen the Redux version from the early 2000s, so the regular cut is new to me. 

83 Apollo 13 (95)*

84 Psycho 2 (83) the twist is very guessable, but there are a couple of nice-looking scenes.

85 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (04)*

86 The Bodyguard (92)*

87 Murder Mystery (19)

88 Wildlife (18)

89 The Stepford Wives (75)*

90 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (71)*

91 The Natural (84)

92 The Other Boleyn Girl (08)

93 Speed (94)*

94 Opera (87)

95 That’s my Boy (12) haha what?!

96 The Big Short (15)

97 Elizabeth the Golden Age (07)

98 The Glass Castle (17) when I read the book, I genuinely thought it was fiction, it’s so insane. 

99 Dawn of the Dead (78)*

100 All About Eve (50) lady on lady violence is a special thing

101 La La Land (16)

102 Morning Glory (10) remember Rachel McAdams?

103 Casino (95)*

104 Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (06)

105 Pet Sematary (19)

106 Clue (85)*

107 Her Smell (18) amazing soundtrack and the songs were well-chosen. Heartbreaking musical moment in the final act. 

108 Bobby Sands: 66 Days (16)

109 She’s Gotta Have it (86)

110 Good Morning (59)

111 Hustlers (19) I didn’t connect with this as much as the reviews led me to believe I might. 

112 Nocturnal Animals (16)

113 Kill Bill Vol 1 (03) I’d only ever seen the second one before, being a non-Tarantino completionist.

114 Fried Green Tomatoes (91)* I watch this more than anticipated...

115 Steel Magnolias (89)

116 Notting Hill (99)*

117 A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (19) the tiny city models were inspired!

118 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (89)*

119 Let It Snow (19)

120 Frozen (13)

121 The Irishman (19) most interesting as a sort of pastiche/reckoning on the part of Scorsese about his other gangster films. Really outmoded view of unions. Definitely could have been edited down if anyone were able to come to it without undue reverence, but I did love the bit about the fish.

122 Girls Trip (17) actual plot is beside the point. 

123 About a Boy (02)* I always think of this as the “vomit and sweaters” movie, anyone else?

124 Animal House (78)*

DOCUMENTARY : FICTION - 4:120

THEATRE : HOME - 9:115

TV Series

01 Russian Doll - I think I would have enjoyed this more if it hadn’t been bingeable - would have made a nice week-by-week discussion sort of show. I loved to watch the changes between re-ups of our major characters, and I think the actual plotting would reward re-watches. 

02 Catastrophe S4 - A satisfying ending to an excellent show, with very charismatic leads (and deeply weird supporting characters). Had to write around Carrie Fisher’s death, and I’m sure did a better job of it than Star Wars did. 

03 Friends from College S2 - More of the same, which is what I was after. A show like cotton candy (but with more infidelity). 

04 High Maintenance S3 - A lot more of this season took place outside of New York City, which was a great change of pace. And a great deal more information about The Guy and his own life; both difficulties and successes included. 

05 Losers - This was a great little docuseries on Netflix that I didn’t hear a lot of people talking about - it’s about sports losses, but unusual sports ie curling, figure skating and the like. You’d think it would get repetitive, being as it’s always about recovering after loss, but it doesn’t! I wish they would make another season….

06 Shrill - a tight six episode dramedy about an alt-weekly journalist in the Pacific Northwest, based on Lindy West’s memoir of the same name. John Cameron Mitchell as her boss (based on Dan Savage) stands out of the ensemble cast, as does Annie’s roommate played by a British standup Lolly Adefope.

07 Broad City S5 - I haven’t always kept up with Broad City, but I came back to it for its final season, and thought it did a good job of setting its characters up for big changes in their lives. 

08 I Think You Should Leave - It’s easy to assume that all sketch comedy is terrible and always will be, but then you see this, and throw your TV out the window (due to all the laffs)

09 Fleabag S2 - Everything you’ve heard is true, this season is goddamn hilarious and ridiculously sexy. A huge step up from the first season, which was already pretty fantastic and incisive. 

10 Fosse/Verdon - Musicals are not particularly my bag, so I’m sure there was a lot that I missed in terms of references, but the lead performances ably carried me through all of the time jumps and various performances. 

11 Stranger Things S3 - Say it after me: d-i-m-i-n-i-s-h-i-n-g r-e-t-u-r-n-s! Maya Hawke kills it, though. 

12 Big Little Lies S2 - Unnecessary, and (if possible) even sillier than the first season.

13 Lorena - Part of the ongoing quest to rehabilitate the maligned women of the 1990s, this gave me tons of context that I had no idea about at the time, due to being a dumb kid. 

14 Glow S3 - I felt like I was losing steam on this series this year, but episodes like the camping ep kept me coming back. A great ensemble, though some unusual character choices (like a certain kiss *cough*) took me out of it by times. 

15 Lodge 49 S1-3 - I’d kept hearing about this show, so I finally sought it out. I can’t say it was amazingly compelling (I almost dropped it after the first season) but it’s definitely an oddball of a show, slipping from setpiece to setpiece with little regard for logic. For me, a background show. 

16 Chernobyl - This show really gave me the Bad Feeling, humans were definitely A Mistake.

17 On Becoming a God in Central Florida - Kiki in a trashy mode, not as infinitely appealing as the version she pulled off in the second season of Fargo, but scrappy and industrious nonetheless.

18 Show Me a Hero - I’d put off watching this for years, it felt like it was going to be too dull (housing policy in Yonkers?) but it’s great, and larded up with Bruce Springsteen songs, obvs.

19 Great British Bake Off S9-S10 - I’d also held off on watching this for a long time, out of loyalty to Mel, Sue, and Mary Berry. But I needed some comfort viewing towards the end of the summer, and the new hosts and judge do an able job, although the show’s tropes are feeling a bit well-worn at this point. 

20 Righteous Gemstones S1 - A rollicking ride for sure, with a great cast. Your mileage/patience with Danny McBride may vary, so keep that in mind, naturally. 

21 This Way Up S1 - A small show starring the fabulous Aisling Bea, about mental health and families and some nice comic physical acting. Oh, and in case you were watching The Crown and crushing on Tobias Menzies’ version of Prince Phillip, he plays a hot dad love interest in this, which gives you all the Tobias you’re looking for, without the PP racisms. 

22 The Crown S3 - This is the first season of the big cast switchover, and I thought it stuck reasonably well, once we were in it an episode or two. This season concentrated even less on Elizabeth herself, preferring her sister, husband, and (newly!) her children.

[counttotwenty]

Bullet Points: The Fog Clears

A Wondrous Place-part 6 (part 1-5 here, here, here, here and here)

Bullet points are encapsulated scene analysis from the top of each act to the bottom. (each act is bookended by a commercial break)

1. When the scene opens Emma is sitting watching Regina and Snow shoot pool with the Vikings. 

Seriously?

I mean I get that she said she wanted to be distracted and didn’t want to talk about Killian leaving but at this point she could get more support in a crowd of strangers than she’s getting from Regina and Snow.

At the risk of repeating myself, the contrast between the Regina/Emma/Snow interactions and the Killian/Jasmine/Ariel interactions is both striking and intentional.

Emma is on her own here. Facing an emotional maelstrom and just trying to hold on. (more on Emma’s state of mind a little farther down)

2. “I tried to write my own story but it just kept coming out with talking animals and canned morals.”

Even though in retrospect we know the bartender wasn’t really Aesop this is a nice little piece of foreshadowing to the troubles of an author coming in the next episode.

Well done!

3. Aesop/Gideon carefully crafts his tale of woe with his relationship to mirror Emma’s and evoke an emotional response from her. He’s manipulating her and in her current emotional state she’s not clear headed enough to see it.

4. So let’s talk for a minute about Emma’s state of mind and how she got there. 

Leroy reported he saw Killian get on the Nautilus. He wasn't being shanghaied. He wasn’t at the point of a sword. He was alone and appeared to be acting of his own free will. Emma has no reason to disbelieve Leroy and Leroy has no reason to believe the story goes any deeper than what he saw. There’s a whole lot of incomplete information here but none of it is malicious and there’s no reason for anyone to suspect the situation is anything other than what it appears to be.

The Nautilus is not a place of danger for Killian. There’s nothing about his going there that should raise a red flag. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. It is THE place Killian would run if he needed to think and seek the counsel of a friend (Nemo) and the connection of family (Liam 2).

Emma is the one who told him if he wasn't ready to trust her they needed not to talk for awhile. So in her mind she sees his leaving as him doing exactly what she suggested. Why should she assume there’s anything suspicious about that?

Her packing up his things and moving them to the shed is less about trying to get over him and more about getting some very painful reminders to a place where she doesn’t need to see them constantly.

5. “As soon as things got tough he just ... took off.”

Again, this is a clear indication Emma's thinking is muddled. She and Killian have been through tough times before, chiefly the Dark One arc, and he never fled. But there’s a very significant difference this time. 

She’s the one that suggested a separation if he wasn’t ready to trust her. She threw out an emotional challenge and due to Leroy’s reporting she believes Killian failed it. 

The fact that her conclusion is based on faulty information doesn’t make it any less painful for her. Especially when she has no idea the information is inaccurate.

6. Aesop/Gideon believes he’s won when he sees Emma broken down and in tears, much like Jafar thought the same when he saw Aladdin in a similar condition.

BOING!!!!

7. When Emma says Regina got what she wanted she’s referring to Emma finally releasing some emotion, not Killian leaving.

And just in case that wasn’t clear the camera cuts immediately to the damp napkin.

Nicely done!

8. “You were probably right. It’s probably what I needed … It’s probably what I need…to move on.”

The “you were right” part of the sentence takes the thought out of Emma’s mouth–in concrete textual terms– and places it in someone else’s. In this case Regina. Emma’s not speaking her own thoughts–she’s parroting what she thinks someone else believes.

And it’s made even more powerful, in Emma’s mind, by the fact that she did indeed finally release her emotions as Regina had been encouraging her to do all night. If you were right about A then you’re probably right about B too. 

Emma’s not charting her own course here, she’s being pushed along by the tide.

Also, I count three “probablies” in that sentence. It oozes uncertainty from start to finish.

This isn’t Emma saying SHE wants to move on, it’s exactly the opposite.

9. Snow and Regina finally rustle up some physical support and comfort for Emma after she reaches a decision, albeit an iffy one based on false information, which resulted from a conversation with someone else that they didn’t contribute to at all.

Seriously--Emma needs Killian back pronto. He’s the only effective support system she has.

10. “And if you really know how to get Agrabah back then maybe someone there can help me.”

AGAIN, fantastic growth and development for Killian. He’s not some raging bull railing against the loss of his chance to get back to Storybrooke. He’s still focused on his goal but now fully cognizant of the fact that sometimes you need to help someone else and then give them a chance to help you right back.

This is the next step in his evolution as a hero. He’s not only willing to help himself and his friends and loved ones but he’s willing to help anyone in need.

BRAVO, Jane!! More fantastic ‘show not tel’l storytelling.

11. The answer to what Jasmine has been seeking is in the ring.

BOING!!!

I mean we knew that in regards to Killian and his ring but still ... really beautiful moment.

12. If Jasmine only had one wish left she’d use it for something to benefit the man she loves.

BOING!!! and sniffle.

13. “Losing Agrabah meant I could never have love until I won it back.”

The cut to Killian’s face immediately after that line is spectacular. Because he has struggled with that exact same thought. That he someone had to earn Emma’s love as opposed to taking it as a gift freely given.

BOING!!!!!

14. “The kind of magic that could break any curse.”

Heh. I see you, show.

I’m not saying they’re headed there but they certainly do like to tease the possibility.

15. Once Jasmine’s hero status is cemented, and she actually believes it herself and sees the results of not only her heroic stance against Jafar but her realization that love is not something that has to be earned and is in fact the greatest magic of all, Aladdin is free from the shackles that bound him. Shackles that were there just seconds earlier. 

In this case the restraints were physical .. but they can be emotional as well as in the case of another connected couple. 

BOING!!!

16. “Let me show you my world.”

Sigh. I saw that coming a mile away but still ...

17. “I’m free.”

Killian’s smile is both adorable and knowing. He’s happy for Jasmine and Aladdin but has also come to a new realization of his own.

Well done!!

18. “Once I hit the water I’ll be home faster than you think.”

BOING!!!!

19. “A shell phone.”

Heh.

20. “I have to go pick up my car from Aesop’s Tables tomorrow.”

In case it isn’t perfectly clear that Emma’s state of mind is foggy we see she was too impaired to drive home. They literally could not do anything more to make it clear Emma is not working with all her faculties intact.

21. Look it’s no secret Henry isn’t my favorite character, and like @lizacstuff I spend a lot of time wishing for his Hogwart’s invite to arrive, but the behavior he has exhibited in this ep is not like him at all and clearly both a connection to Emma (the earbuds and screen leaving him disconnected from the current action thing I mentioned in part 1) and foreshadowing of what’s to come.

22. Oh, stairs. How I love you as a metaphor. Of course Emma is descending the stairs here. It’s an illustration of her emotional condition.

BOING!!!

23. And FINALLY Emma knows the truth and has all the missing information. Just as we watched Killian in this position throughout this ep time to see how Emma acts moving forward.

24. Notice how immediately after hearing Killian Emma shifts into a different mode than the one she’s been in all episode. She’s quickly processing what she sees in front of her. Catches on to fake Aesop. Takes back her strength (it didn’t turn out so well for you last time, you don’t really have me in a helping mood right now, pal). In short, she’s on the express train back to being the old Emma. And all it took was learning the truth --that Killian still loves her and did not willingly leave her.

Killian and their love isn’t what makes Emma strong, she’s a strong woman in her own right, but being secure in his feelings for her helps her tap into her own inner strength.

BOING!!!BOING!!!BOING!!!

25. You better be careful, Gideon. Deals can sometimes backfire on someone even if they feel like they hold the key (ring, tears) that gives them the upper hand.

Jasmine out thought Jafar, do you really think you can out think Emma?

26. Gideon tells Emma she needs to EARN his gratitude. But we learned very clearly in the last act that “earned” is a tricky concept and one that is often misleading.

[njawaidofficial]

33 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About "This Is Us"

https://styleveryday.com/2018/02/05/33-facts-you-probably-didnt-know-about-this-is-us/

33 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About "This Is Us"

Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore first crossed paths when he was invited to the premiere of A Walk to Remember in 2002.

NBC / Nora Dominick / BuzzFeed

1) The series was originally titled 36. Creator Dan Fogelman changed it after pitching the project as a “show about us.”

2) Fogelman’s original script was for a feature-length film and focused on Jack and Rebecca having sextuplets.

3) The first trailer for This Is Us broke a Facebook record when it surpassed 50 million views within 11 days of its release.

4) In 2017, the series became the first network drama to be nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the Emmy Awards since 2011.

5) With his portrayal of Randall, Sterling K. Brown became the first African American actor to win both the Golden Globe and SAG Award for Outstanding Male Actor in a Drama Series.

Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

6) In 2018, the show became the first network drama to win Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at the SAG Awards since Grey’s Anatomy won in 2006.

7) Milo Ventimiglia helped inspire the role of Jack. After his initial audition, Fogelman changed the original character concept to help fit Ventimiglia.

8) Mandy Moore and Ventimiglia have known of each other’s work for a while. Ventimiglia first crossed paths with Moore at the premiere of A Walk to Remember in 2002.

9) In college, Susan Kelechi Watson received a $5,000 scholarship from Denzel Washington to go study Shakespeare at the University of Oxford.

10) Before booking the role, Chrissy Metz worked at the casting agency that represents Hannah Zeile, who plays teenage Kate. Metz remembered seeing Zeile’s headshots in the office.

11) Logan Shroyer, who plays teenage Kevin, auditioned once and booked the role the next day.

NBC

12) Before starring as Toby, Chris Sullivan voiced Geico’s now iconic Hump Day camel.

13) Ron Cephas Jones’s real-life daughter, Jasmine Cephas Jones, was the original Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds in Hamilton.

14) The character of Kate is based on Fogelman’s sister Deborah, who also struggled with her weight growing up. She’s even a consultant on the series.

15) Ventimiglia said a lot of his inspiration for Jack comes from his own father.

16) Kelechi Watson actually gets to choose some of what Beth wears on screen. She also has a big say in her hairstyles.

17) It takes the makeup department three and a half hours to apply the prosthetic makeup that transforms Moore into the older version of Rebecca.

NBC

18) The first time Metz saw Moore as the older version of Rebecca she started crying.

19) Ventimiglia did 223 push-ups while they were filming the scene where young Randall (Lonnie Chavis) is on Jack’s back.

20) The scene in Season 2 in which the Pearsons visit Kevin in therapy/rehab was actually filmed at Justin Hartley’s real-life wedding venue.

21) That scene is the longest scene This Is Us has filmed so far. The finished product is roughly 13 minutes long.

22) Ventimiglia is responsible for getting Sylvester Stallone to guest-star on the show. He played Stallone’s son in Rocky Balboa and called in a favor.

NBC

23) In order to film Ron Howard’s guest appearance in Season 2, production briefly moved to London to accommodate his filming schedule of Solo: A Star Wars Story.

24) Ventimiglia has earned the nickname “Papa” on set.

25) Ventimiglia even studied the entire call sheet for the series so he could learn everyone’s names on the cast and crew. He shows up to set on days when he’s not working just to hang out.

26) The entire cast has several group messages so they can stay up to date on each other’s lives. They also love sending funny GIFs back and forth.

27) Metz, Hartley, Kelechi Watson, and Moore brought the actors who play young Kate, young Kevin, teenage Kevin, and young William as their plus-ones to the 2018 SAG Awards. They wanted to make sure everyone was able to attend.

28) The Chavelle car that Jack drives on the show is actually Ventimiglia’s personal car.

NBC

29) Fogelman had an idea of how Jack was going to die from the beginning. When delivering his initial script to NBC he told them where the show was going because it was important for them to understand the arc of the characters.

30) When they filmed the big fire scenes for the Season 2 premiere and the post-Super Bowl episode, they filmed for three nights, an hour and a half outside of L.A. They used a fake name for the series on signs so crew members could find the set but no fans would.

31) The cast has known about the fire and how Jack died for a year and a half now. The code word for talking about it amongst the cast was “The Marble.”

32) Metz barely had enough money to pay for gas to get her to the audition for Kate. When she officially booked the role, she only had 81 cents left in her bank account.

33) And finally, Metz has an email from Fogelman’s producing partner framed on her wall at home. It reads, “Just curious, who got [the part of] Kate?” It stands as a reminder of a moment that changed her life dramatically.

[nathanielwharton]

My 2017 in Pop Culture

Same deal as usual. This is what meant most to me last year in pop culture.

Top Forty Things From 2017

40. The Mummy I liked it. It's definitely got the worked-over vibe that people most object to in these shared-universe experiments, and it goes a little bigger and more action-heavy than I'd probably prefer for a Universal Monster movie. But, I liked the way it fused a modern Tom Cruise narrative with a traditional monster story. I liked the genuine horror movie flourishes throughout. I liked the winks at monster fans in the Prodigium headquarters. I loved Sofia Boutella's Ahmanet. And I loved Russell Crowe's silly/creepy thug Mr. Hyde. This one also got bonus points for The Mummy: Dark Universe Stories, the iPhone game that came out a month after the film. The story plays out a sequel to the movie, but the real nerdy thrill of it was the way it incorporated a bunch of original Universal Monsters characters and ideas, including Lisa Glendon from Werewolf of London and Kharis and Boris Karloff's Ardeth Bay from the original Mummy movies! 39. Baby Driver This was just a delight, a combination of classic crime movie and classic musical with that Edgar Wright energy giving it that extra nitrous burst of excitement. 38. "Every Country Has a Monster" on Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return I'm one of those fans who loved Mystery Science Theater 3000 when he stumbled across it on cable in the 90s but has a little trouble with the way it gave license to a certain sourness and superiority about older movies among some audiences. Still, I found myself looking forward to the revival with a little trepidation as to whether it would find the right tone (or recapture the lo-fi public access charm of the original). The first twenty minutes or so of the first episode back (focused on the Danish giant monster movie Reptilicus, so they were doing well by me right off the bat) were pretty promising, but this song about giant monsters of myth across the world was where I decided I was on board for this revival. 37. Happy Death Day What a fun time this was! It's got a really charming lead performance and a fun story hook, but it's really the energy and inventiveness that it applies to slasher movie/Groundhog Day story of self-improvement that put it over the top for me. 36. John Wick Chapter 2/Free Fire/Atomic Blonde Hard to pick from among the three of these in terms of which action movie I had the most fun with this year. They've all got something special to recommend them. 35. The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween This doesn't quite scale the heights of last year's Duck the Halls Christmas special, but it was still a funny, thoroughly delightful seasonal treat that I'll probably make a point of watching next October too. 34. My Favorite Thing is Monsters Vol. 1 I checked it out because I'd read it was a comic about a 10-year-old girl who was obsessed with monsters (picturing herself as a little wolfman) who tries to solve the murder of her neighbor. What I got was a moving story about historical injustice and personal revelation told with dazzling illustration. Really, this knocked me out. 33. Gemini/Murder on the Orient Express I think Gemini is actually going to be a 2018 release, but these two mystery films really scratched an itch for me this year. I was a big fan of director Aaron Katz's Cold Weather, a wonderful little mumblecore mystery story, but I wasn't prepared for how much I dug his twisty neo-noir, Gemini. And Murder on the Orient Express was kind of a similarly satisfying experience on the other end of the spectrum: a lavish, big-budget adaptation with a cast stocked with movie stars and exciting up-and-comers. I loved it, and now I'm all about seeing Branagh continue to work on his little proposed Agatha Christie universe. #thirtyBranaghPoirotmovies 32. Okja It's a new Bong Joon-ho film! That means it's got a bunch of thrilling filmmaking, wild performances, tricky tonal shifts, and a beautifully clear-eyed honest empathy. 31. The Get Down Season One, Part Two I was sorry to see this one cancelled after the still thrilling but also melancholy second half came out this year. I really fell in love with these characters, and it was always an exciting experience. And this was just one of the many Netflix shows I really loved this year (including Mindhunter, BoJack Horseman, Lady Dynamite, GLOW, Orange is the New Black, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt). 30. The ending of Split I loved the rest of Split, and I was already onboard the M. Night Shyamalan comeback train from The Visit (after riding like five movies on the “oh no, he’s lost it so bad!” train). But those surprising final moments of Split, while holding the potential for another dive into disastrous hubris, made me straight up gasp out loud in confusion & delight.

29. The Samurai Jack Revival/Finale I enjoyed a lot of the original run of Samurai Jack, but I wasn’t exactly a devoted viewer & hadn’t particularly missed it in its absence. So I checked out the revival largely just to see what the great Genndy Tartakovsky would to with it after spending time on other projects. And wow! It turned out not only to be a truly gorgeous & riveting experience, but it also took the characters & elements of the original & gave them some interesting psychology & moral challenges. 28. Nathan for You’s "Finding Frances" I love Nathan For You, but this year’s season finale, “Finding Frances,” was probably the most interesting thing he’s done with the format. In some ways it’s basically Nathan For You: The Movie, finding a sprawling emotional journey, still filled with nutball comic cul de sacs, that also digs into the “Nathan” character & finds a new place to take him by the end. 27. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Season One I figured I’d check out the first season, despite the fact that it would mostly be covering the same material covered in the totally decent Jim Carrey movie, because I was interested to see Barry Sonnenfield finally get a shot at the material & because I wanted to see what they’d do with the later books. But from the first moments with Patrick Warburton’s Serling-esque take on Lemony Snicket (and that infectious theme song) I fell in love with the show. The cast is great, the adaptation work is clever and involving (including an ingenious side story with Will Arnett & Cobie Smulders that seems brilliantly designed to provide different-but-complementary experiences for fans and non-fans), and I stress again how much I loved Warburton. There’s also a wonderful flourish in the season finale that amped my love into adoration. 26. A Cure For Wellness If Gore Verbinski can keep getting people to give him huge budgets to make big, weird genre films about the rot at the center of capitalism and western civilization, I will keep seeing them and (presumably) loving them. 25. Opening sequence of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets The rest of the movie is a colorful bit of fun, but the opening sequence where we see, via montage, the establishment and development of the titular city of a thousand planets, is as sublime and moving a movie moment as any I saw this year. Thrillingly optimistic and hopeful, Besson briefly hits on something more than his usual enjoyably daffy nonsense. 24. Final seasons of The Leftovers & Vice Principals Two HBO shows I loved aired their final seasons this year. Both of them had set themselves up with particularly tricky tasks in providing satisfying resolutions without either ruining the mystique of what had come before or pulling their punches in a way that impacted the whole. And they both nailed it. 23. A Ghost Story I wrote about this one for SportsAlcohol.com. I found it bewitching and it stayed with me. 22. Star Trek: Discovery It was a long wait, but this new Star Trek show pretty immediately justified my subscription to yet another streaming service all on its own. I love the characters, I’m engrossed in the storytelling, and I’m challenged by the moral and intellectual ideas it’s exploring. Good Star Trek. (This also may as well be where I mention that I also watched, and pretty much enjoyed, the whole first season of Seth Macfarlane’s generic brand Trek cover, The Orville. Pretty well scratches whatever old school Trek itch Discovery could have left me with.) 21. Wormwood I love most everything of his that I’ve seen, but this is basically in competition with Tabloid for my favorite Errol Morris project.

20. Gorogoa Feels almost silly that I found what basically amounts to a puzzle game for my phone so entrancing & even spiritual. But I LOVED this thing. My only complaint is that it wished it kept going and going. 19. DuckTales Wrote about this for SportsAlcohol.com. A testament to how delightful this show is can be found in the fact that I put it in this slot instead of the also hugely enjoyable Milo Murphy’s Law. 18. Marvel Cinematic Universe While this year I definitely cooled on the Marvel television offerings (I still watched and enjoyed the Netflix shows despite some underwhelmed feelings, and I'm still pretty high on Agents of SHIELD, but Inhumans was a total misfire), it was perhaps the best year yet for Marvel Studios's cinematic offerings. I totally loved Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Thor Ragnarok. They each offered something fairly distinct and emotionally engaging (even Ragnarok, despite it's hilariously cheeky tone) and they were all a complete blast. Best Guardians yet, best Spider-man yet, best Thor yet! 17. Lady Bird Between 2016’s Edge of Seventeen and this,  guess I’m gonna hope for a wonderful teen girl coming-of-age movie every other year. And thanks to Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, and the idiosyncratic empathy of Greta Gerwig, this one was a true highlight of 2017. 16. Get Out The terrific horror-themed sketches on Key & Peele suggested a genuine feel for the genre, so it wasn’t a huge reach to expect Jordan Peele’s directorial debut horror movie to turn out well. But this one still felt like a revelation at the beginning of the year (not to mention a huge event when seen with an audience). 15. Your Name Another wonderful surprise, this one makes some clever and twisty shifts as what starts out as a charming body-switching comedy reveals an emotional core that really swept me away. 14. War for the Planet of the Apes I wrote about this one for SportsAlcohol.com. 13. Blade Runner 2049 I also wrote about this one for SportsAlcohol.com. 12. The Post I wrote about this for SportsAlcohol.com too! 11. Coco Look, I’m generally less excited about Pixar’s sequels than I am about its originals (and I generally really like or love their sequels! but still...), and Coco is a perfect example of why. It’s a great story with a bunch of lovable new characters, beautiful new worlds, and the fun of seeing something new. And as is often the case, it also packs a real emotional wallop. 10. S-Town Speaking of emotional wallops, this podcast miniseries was already shaping up to be an involving look at a fascinating character, but a bombshell dropped in an early episode spins the thing into something deeper and more powerful than anything else I listened to this year.

9. Colossal Wrote about this for SportsAlcohol.com. 8. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel While this show has many things that set it apart from the other Amy Sherman-Palladino shows I love (namely Gilmore Girls & Bunheads), it does share the qualities of being unstoppably effervescent and entertaining while offering hidden depths. We gulped the whole season down in two plane rides and can’t wait for the next batch. 7. Star Wars: The Last Jedi Wrote about the movie on SportsAlcohol.com. It was another good Star Wars year in general, with some excellent Star Wars Rebels episodes, the continuation of the fantastic Marvel comics, and some cool novels (generally I didn't read any bad Star Wars books this year, so that's good; personal highlights were Aftermath: Empire's End and Leia: Princess of Alderaan). But the real highlight was, of course, the movie. It was a joyful, powerful experience opening night (in a way that felt interestingly different from the experience of The Force Awakens), and it’s a movie that has lingered and deepened in my mind as I’ve thought about it. 6. The Shape of Water I run pretty hot and lukewarm on Guillermo del Toro (that is to say, I don’t particularly dislike any of his movies, but while I love some of them, others just don’t connect like I feel they should, despite how much the separate elements might appeal to me). But for every one that I just like okay, he connects with something like this, a gorgeous, perverse fairy tale retelling of the Creature From the Black Lagoon with tributes to Cold War paranoia, classic movie musicals, and a great Michael Shannon performance added to the mix. Just a lovely tribute to the way love can unite the disenfranchised and overlooked. 5. Kong: Skull Island An eye-popping fever dream of a monster mash, this movie assembled a stacked cast of actors I love and surrounded them with some of the most stunning monster movie images I’ve ever seen. A++++infinity 4. Stranger Things 2 What a wonderful surprise the first season of this show was, and what a relief and a joy to get this sequel that is, in most ways, even better. By the final scenes of the finale, I was more in love than ever. 3. The Florida Project I wrote a bit about this for SportsAlcohol.com, so I think it’s enough to say here that this is a very special movie. 2. American Vandal What a wonderful little surprise this was! Like Stranger Things last year, this was something that popped up on Netflix & gave me something I didn’t know I wanted. On one level, it’s just a silly, dirty joke really elaborately told. But on another level, it’s a sneakily moving portrait of the way that expectations and choices made when you’re young can really impact what you become in that transition from teenager to adult.

1. Twin Peaks: The Return I was looking forward to this, and I had a pretty open mind as far as what it could be or what to expect from it. But I still had no idea how amazing and immersive and gripping it would all be. I wrote about it over at SportsAlcohol.com and talked about it on the podcast and I STILL only scratched the surface of how I felt about it.

Top Twenty Things I'm Excited About in 2018

Arrested Development Returns! I adored both the original run of the show and the fourth season that hit Netflix five years ago. I cannot wait for this. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs It's the new Coen brothers project. And it's supposed to be something like six hours of new Coen brothers project. Holy smokes. The Last Best Story I really loved Maggie's last book, and the tidbits I've heard about this one make it sound terrific. Been anticipating this one for nearly three years and it's almost here! Isle of Dogs Wes Anderson movies pretty much automatically quality as "most anticipated" for me, and the trailer for this one looks thoroughly delightful. And it hopefully augurs an exciting year for stop motion animation. While I'm obviously into The Incredibles II and Ralph Wrecks the Internet, I'm even more intrigued with the untitled Laika film scheduled for this year. There's been so little news about it, it seems possible it won't actually hit this year, but even if it doesn't there's Early Man, a new Aardman film directed by Nick Park due out in February, and Jan Svankmajer's final film, Insects, that I hope makes its way to the US this year. Ready Player One I'm sure I'd see this one no matter what, but the fact that Steven Spielberg directed it means I'm actively excited to catch it on day one. Marvel Cinematic Universe After a stellar 2017 (and all the goodwill they built up over the last ten years in general) I'd be excited for their three pictures this year. So the fact that they've got Black Panther (a terrific cast in Ryan Coogler's follow-up to Creed!), Avengers: Infinity War (the beginning of this big two-year culmination event, written & directed by the folks who made my beloved Captain America movies), and Ant-Man and the Wasp (I had a great time with the first one, and Down With Love guarantees Peyton Reed my attention forever), gives me confidence that they'll have another great year in 2018. Star Wars I'm forever excited about Star Wars (or at least the current firehose volume of it still hasn't made me bored of it yet) so I'm pretty interested to see Solo: A Star Wars Story, and I'm also really on the hook to see the final batch of episodes of Star Wars Rebels. Roseanne Revival Maybe I'm just tempting fate because of how the Twin Peaks revival turned out, but I'm excited for this one. I love the original show (one of my favorite little things about getting cable has been that Roseanne is on one channel or another almost all the time) and I'm equally apprehensive about and intrigued by the news that's come out about the revival so far. But I'll definitely be watching the whole thing. Lethal White AND Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald A new Cormoran Strike book and a new Wizarding World movie with a screenplay by J.K. Rowling! I understand why neither of them are exactly the kind of cultural event that the Potter books and movies were, but I'm personally so excited for both. A Wrinkle in Time AND Mary Poppins Returns Two big Disney productions that are super up my alley, so I'm grouping them together. Wrinkle promises an adaptation of a wonderful book from an exciting director and a fantastic cast. And Poppins has the liability of a director I've been extremely mixed on in the past, but it also has a perfect cast and the original Mary Poppins is a movie a really love deeply. Really excited to have these bookending the year. A New Cloverfield The God Particle was on this list last year, and it's on there again this year. We're only a couple of weeks into the year and it's already been delayed again, so this is in hopes that it does really come out this April. But in any case, with God Particle and Overlord, another mysterious genre film from Bad Robot that fans have been speculating could be another Cloverfield movie, both scheduled for release this year, seems pretty likely we'll at least get one new Cloverfield picture. (UPDATE SINCE I WROTE THIS: the game is afoot again!) Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters It's got a killer premise and it's just hit Netflix! I'm excited for this one, and it seems possible that the second film in the announced trilogy could also hit Netflix before the end of the year. New Darin Morgan X-Files episode The new season of the X-Files revival already seems off to a stronger start than the last one, but no matter what it does hold the promise of another new episode by writer Darin Morgan. This is an event. Disenchantment Look, I still watch (and usually enjoy) The Simpsons. I adore Futurama. I am super excited for a new Matt Groening animated series, and tickled by the notion that it'll explore a new genre. My Favorite Thing is Monsters Vol. 2 The first half of the story was such a beautiful, engrossing, moving surprise this year, that I can't wait for the follow-up. Sense8 Finale Movie I'm glad they're getting a chance to wrap things up the way they want to here, and I'm looking forward to one more visit with this nutty, beautiful show. My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman AND Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee I don't keep up with all of Netflix's stand-up comedy offerings or the like, but I am super excited for these talk shows by a couple of my absolute favorite comedy curmudgeons. I actually watched (and really loved) the episode of Letterman's show with President Obama, and I'm looking forward to getting through all the rest of both of these throughout this year. Mute It looks like Duncan Jones's new film, some kind of spiritual follow-up to his great Moon, is finally going to show up on Netflix early this year! And they've also got the next films by Gareth Evans, Jeremy Saulnier, and David Mackenzie that could always drop sometime this year AND The Other Side of the Wind, a lost Orson Welles film! The Predator A new Shane Black movie is a cause for celebration, and while trying to revive the Predator seems like a dicey proposition, he's assembled an exciting cast and co-wrote the film with his Monster Squad collaborator Fred Dekker, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they've cooked up enough to put it here instead of the other genre sequels I'm intrigued by this year (like David Gordon Green's Halloween or J.A. Bayona's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom). The Happytime Murders A Roger Rabbit riff with puppets would be enough to get my attention, but get Brian Henson to direct it in his first theatrical feature since his Muppet films from the 90s and I'm fully excited.