We watched several movies since my last entry and enjoyed them all, to varying degrees. First was Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which is adapted from a stage play and looks it, with its set-pieces and long soliloquys. It’s difficult to watch at times, but worth it. Then we watched Soul, the new Pixar film, which is utterly delightful. My wife noticed the live-action Mulan on the menu, so we followed up with that, and I enjoyed it more than I expected to.
People haven’t exactly been overwhelmingly positive about Wonder Woman 1984, to say the least, but we decided to give it a shot and it wasn’t terrible. I think it helps that I have absolutely no foundation in the DC Universe and know nothing at all about Cheetah, so I couldn’t compare the movie to the comics. It was definitely far too long–I could have trimmed 10-15 minutes from it easily–but we liked it. Then we cued up The Midnight Sky with George Clooney as the lone-ish survivor of a global cataclysm attempting to communicate with a Jupiter expedition returning from a fact-finding mission. Again, the reviews have been unkind, but we enjoyed it. I have a hard time accepting a previously undiscovered moon of Jupiter that’s big enough to support life, but beyond that I was along for the ride.
Now, getting to the topic of today’s recap: TV series. We have watched a lot of TV during lockdown. My list has at least 70 titles, and some of those correspond to multiple seasons. We discovered The Good Fight early on, and watched the first few seasons, then went back to The Good Wife and watched all seven of those seasons, and then watched The Good Fight all over again, armed with our knowledge of who certain characters were now.
I have a few network TV series that I always watch (Grey’s Anatomy, Survivor, The Amazing Race) and my wife and I enjoy This is Us. We also enjoyed the Call the Midwife Christmas special, which featured a guest appearance from Peter Davison, aka the Fifth Doctor, and we’re looking forward to the end-of-year episode of Doctor Who tomorrow. I’ve also been gradually rewatching Columbo from the beginning. I’m up to the fourth season. Alas, one of the co-creators, William Link, passed away this week.
Beyond that, though, it was almost all streaming. We enjoyed Star Trek: Picard and are keeping up with Star Trek: Discovery and have watched about half of the latest Great British Baking Show. We continue to watch The Crown, although our attitude toward it has changed a little now that they’re into events that we remember first-hand. We liked Emily in Paris, too. One of our best vacations was the week we spent in that city, so there was a certain nostalgia attached to it.
The first lockdown TV series, Staged, was a lot of fun, and we watched episodes of Tales from the Loop every now and then until we completed the first season. We enjoyed the second season of After Life, and I get a kick out of Dead to Me. I’m keeping up with Westworld, too.
I saw current seasons of crime shows (many foreign) that I have been enjoying for a number of years. Top of that list would be Babylon Berlin (Germany, S3), but other favorites include Ozark, Bosch, Bordertown, Killing Eve, Marcella, The Sinner and Occupied, which is more of a political thriller than a crime series.
One of my favorite discoveries this year was the Spanish series Money Heist. I binged through all four seasons of that one in fairly short order. The show I like to talk about the most, though, is Dark (Germany). The third and final season came out this year and, after I watched it, I went back and re-watched the first season. It is an incredibly complex and dense show, with a huge cast and characters who are depicted by different actors at different ages, so you almost need a scorecard to keep up, but it is so well done. Compelling, fascinating and definitely binge-worthy.
HBO was a good source of new material this year. I enjoyed Watchmen, The Outsider, Perry Mason, and got a kick out of The Flight Attendant. On the documentary side, I was fascinated by I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, which documents obsession with finding a serial killer. I started Lovecraft Country but got sidetracked by other shows, so I have to get back to that one at some point. I’m also in the middle of the third and final season of The Deuce.
For new series on Netflix, I liked The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Queen’s Gambit would qualify as one of my favorite three series of the year, and my most recent discovery was the Brazilian crime drama Good Morning, Verônica, which can be a little hard to watch because of the violent content, but it’s a decent show.
Finally, I heard the buzz about Ted Lasso, so we checked it out. A heart-warming, positive, uplifting series that’s definitely worth watching.
