Wednesday, December 30, 2020

The Best Movies and TV Shows I've Watched in 2020

So 2020 was a pretty shit year, huh? On top of the usual drama, we got the COVID pandemic, George Floyd's murder and the most stressful election to be recorded in the history books. Not even our creature comforts were available, thanks to the closing of movie theaters and pretty much every store known to man. Thankfully, we had thousands of movies and shows to watch from Netflix, Hulu, etc.

                                                                MOVIES


Total Number of Films I've Watched: 89


Mad Max Film Series, directed by George Miller


Mad Max: Fury Road, directed by George Miller


Blow Out, directed by Brian De Palma



The Rocky Horror Picture Show, directed by Jim Sharman


House, directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi


I'm Thinking of Ending Things, directed by Charlie Kaufman


The Invisible Woman, directed by Leigh Whannell


Da 5 Bloods, directed by Spike Lee




                                                            TELEVISION

Total Number of Shows I've Watched: 13


                                          1.      Better Call Saul (AMC)


While it's nearly achieved the same level of acclaim as it's predecessor, a common criticism about Better Call Saul is it's slow and methodical pacing in charting the journey of Jimmy McGill to Saul Goodman, as well as the disconnect between that and the Mike storyline that runs parallel. In the show's penultimate season however, showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould finally found a way to organically connect both storylines with the introduction of Lalo Salamanca (played by a delightfully campy Tony Dalton), ramping up the intensity with episodes such as the beautifully written and directed "Bagman". The true MVP this season however proves to be Kim Wexler, whose character takes completely unexpected turns in regards to her relationship with Jimmy and her own decaying morality. This was simply one of the best seasons of television I've ever seen, where every facet from the writing to the acting to the directing was at the top of its game, and the final scene has me waiting on tenterhooks for what will surely be a gangbusters final season.


                                            Friday Night Lights (NBC)

Friday Night Lights isn't an easy show to watch. Too often it puts it's characters through the wringer whether it is by their own poor decisions or unfortunate circumstances. Yet this is also one of the most humanistic shows I've ever watched, a true labor of love that rewards it's viewers with emotional catharsis, whether it's watching the beautiful marriage between the Taylors or Coach Taylor imparting his infinite wisdom to his players.


                                            Lovecraft Country (HBO)

Adapted from the 2016 novel written by Matt Ruff, the first season of Lovecraft Country has the playfulness of genre shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the recently cancelled The Magicians, where each episode truly felt like it's own self-contained experiment, be it a Jordan Peele-esque standoff against a racist cult or a war-torn love story set in Vietnam. While it stumbled towards the end in terms of plot, this was still an excellent show to watch every week.


                                                Bojack Horseman (Netflix)


Netflix's best original series ended early this year in a run of episodes that did not pull any punches in making it's protagonist reap what he sowed across all six seasons. It was often hard to watch, yet felt extremely fitting with the overall tone of the show. 


                                                        Better Things (FX)


Pamela Adlon's Sam might've suffered a midlife crisis this year, but Better Things definitely didn't. From a magical episode set entirely in New Orleans to a scene with the greatest continued use of a slur  since The Wire's infamous "fuck" scene, the show was as much of a masterclass in filmmaking as Season 3 was.


                                            The Mandalorian (Disney+)


The sophomore season of Disney+'s flagship Space Western captured lightning in a bottle twice with a season that appealed to both hardcore Star Wars fans and casual viewers.


Honorable Mentions: The Magicians, Mythic Quest, Rick and Morty

                                

2 comments:

  1. Always happy to see someone watch Friday Night Lights for the first time! I'm such a fan of that show's sense of humanism -- I really wish more shows would try to recreate it.

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    Replies
    1. I tried watching Katims' other big show Parenthood, but the show's saccharine nature turned me off. The whole concept of "middle-class white people problems" made me roll my eyes.

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