I watched 55 movies, including documentaries, this year (full list here), and will probably rack up a few more in the coming week. Most of these were watched with my wife, although I watched some alone because they weren’t something that interested her. I only saw three of them in the theater; the rest were on streaming. Most were films I watched for the first time, although there were several older movies that I saw for a second time.
In the documentary category, again, in the order in which we saw them rather than in any order of preference:
- M*A*S*H: The Comedy That Changed Television (Hulu)
- The Greatest Night in Pop (Netflix)
- Elton John & Bernie Taupin: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song (PBS)
- Jim Henson: The Idea Man (Disney+)
- Brats (Hulu)
- The Beach Boys (Disney+)
- Will & Harper (Netflix)
- Music by John Williams (Disney+)
- Beatles ’64 (Disney+)
- Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary (Max)
- Never Too Late (Disney+)
For movies, here’s my top dozen, although there were a couple of others that might have made the list. I think I enjoyed Longlegs more than many of my friends and Barbie quite a bit less.
- The Holdovers (Peacock)
- Oppenheimer (OnDemand)
- Godzilla Minus One (Netflix)
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (in theater)
- Hit Man (Netflix)
- Under Paris (Netflix)
- Fall Guy (On Demand)
- Longlegs (in theater)
- A Quiet Place: Day One (in theater)
- Wolfs (Apple TV+)
- My Old Ass (Amazon)
- The Six Triple Eight (Netflix)
Television shows/streaming series is a lot harder to quantify. (See my full 2024 list here.) I watch a lot of them—some classic TV series like Blue Bloods, which just ended its 14-year run, for example. Now that it’s on Peacock, I went back and rewatched the first three seasons of Homicide: Life on the Streets and will probably pick up more of that one in 2025. My wife and I also completed our rewatch of M*A*S*H, burning through seasons eight through eleven and wishing we could see them all over again. I’m still a sucker for Survivor, watching two seasons this year. This just-completed season 47 was one of the best in recent years, especially the final run of episodes. I also rewatched all six seasons of Longmire and the first three seasons of Dexter. I haven’t dipped into the new Dexter series but probably will before long. In preparation for the new season of Severance, I tore through the first season last week.
There are a few series my wife likes to watch with me. This includes All Creatures Great and Small, Star Trek: Discovery, Elsbeth, Matlock, Doctor Who, The Midnight Club, The Sticky.
It’s really hard to pare the list down to fifteen series that I really enjoyed, but here’s my best crack at it:
- Fargo S5 (Hulu)
- Slow Horses S1-4 (Apple TV+)
- Lessons in Chemistry (Apple TV+)
- True Detective: Night Country (Max)
- Shogun (Hulu)
- The Gentlemen (Netflix)
- The Responder S1, S2 (Britbox)
- Bad Monkey (Apple TV+)
- Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
- Shrinking S2 (Apple TV+)
- The Devil’s Hour S1, S2 (Amazon)
- A Man on the Inside (Netflix)
- Cross (Amazon)
- The Diplomat S2 (Netflix)
- Black Doves (Netflix)
That leaves out quite a few really good shows. Such is the peril of making a list. I’d probably choose a few things differently if I made the selection tomorrow. Tracker is surprisingly good although a little formulaic. Season 1 of The Tourist was pretty terrific; Season 2 a little less so but still good. I’m a long-time Criminal Minds fan and glad to see that the characters can—and do—say “fuck” a lot. I get a lot of use out of my Britbox subscription and always on the look out for a good British crime series. The Jetty with Jenna Coleman was good. Apple TV+ continues to put out the best series, in my opinion.
Anyhow, that’s the wrap on 2024! See y’all next year. It’s bound to be…interesting. As in “Chinese curse” interesting.
