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

                                

Merry Christmas!

I tried to upload a picture, but I got an invalid response.

The Mandalorian: "The Jedi"

 

This episode has been hyped up for quite some time, due to the expected appearance of Ahsoka Tano. The problem with this episode is how your enjoyment of this storyline will largely fall on your knowledge of Ahsoka and her journey in the Clone Wars and Rebels cartoons (I personally haven't watched a lot of either show but I know enough of Ahsoka  to be interested). Rosario Dawson's performance is extraordinary and her scenes with Mando and Baba Yoda are electrifying, but certain lines of dialogue will fall flat for those that don't know her relationship with Anakin Skywalker or conflict with Grand Admiral Thrawn.

This issue aside, this was easily the best episode of the season since the premiere. Written and directed by Dave Filoni of Rebels fame, "The Jedi" is a stunning marvel of writing and directing, placing enough focus on Ahsoka yet never letting us forget that Mando is the true protagonist of this episode. We also get some nicely handled exposition on Baby Yoda's true name Grogu a well as a reflection on the bond that has grown between both characters. Filoni directs the climatic action sequence with the air of Kurosawa as well as a hint of spaghetti Western (bolstered by a great performance by Michael Biehn of Terminator fame).

Common complaints with the past few episodes were how they mostly seemed like filler. While I admit I have had issues with this as well (despite the acting and production values being as good as they ever were), it's important to remember that Season 1 also had filler episodes. A few weeks ago, Jonathan Lack on Twitter brought up how The Mandalorian breaks traditional TV norms by having each episode focus on a completely different thing with no care for what viewers of traditional serialized television expect. That's an extremely smart observation but as we head into the season's final stretch I'm hoping for more plot movement and a decent payoff to the story threads thus far.

The Mandalorian: "The Marshall"

Given how controversial the Disney era of Star Wars had been received by 2019, The Mandalorian was a breath of fresh air. By telling a simple yet pulpy space Western, Jon Favreau was able to create a show that injected some life into what sadly now feels like a cash cow milked dry.

The most notable thing about Season 1's structure was how most of the episodes were self-contained while introducing new characters and storylines that factored in by the season finale. In terms of that structure, "The Marshall" is an overall by-the-numbers episode of the show, filled with enough action and easter eggs to satisfy it's 54-minute runtime (for the most part). 

There are plenty of comparisons to draw between this episode and last season's "Sanctuary", most notable of all their Seven Samurai inspired plots of enemies banding together to defeat a common evil (in this case a giant sand-burrowing creature that looks like it was ripped straight out of Dune). The titular Marshall Cobb Vanth is portrayed by Timothy Olyphant with all of the gun-slinging charm the actor is best known for, creating a character that serves as a foil to the independent Mando. Some time is spent explaining the backstory of the town and it's conflict with the Jawas before setting up the ambush on the dragon. If anything, the middle portion of the episode sags a bit in establishing the town's conflict with the Jawas and setting up the trap for the Krayt dragon.

As always, the episode excels in its action sequences. The scene at the beginning of the episode with the fighting pit is a classic Western homage with the Mandalorian effortlessly picking off Koresh's men and interrogating him before leaving the criminal to scavengers. The fight with the Krayt dragon is probably the best sequence this show has done yet and Favreau makes a great decision expanding the aspect ratio to highlight the the massiveness of the dragon and sucked me right into the scene.

All in all, "The Marshall" is a good reintroduction to The Mandalorian. Favreau and co. don't seem to be straying from the formula that made Season 1 a success. While the vast runtime of the episode leaves a little to be desired, I have a large amount of goodwill for the remainder of the season.

Notes and Observations:

*There's a nice bit of character development for Mando when he visits Peli's shop and allows her droids to enter his ship, no doubt remembering IG-11's sacrifice from last season.

*Even though a shot during the climax suggests he'll end up playing a pivotal role in killing the Krayt Dragon, Baby Yoda is surprisingly underutilized in this episode. 

*Olyphant's not the only guest actor to appear in this episode. There's also John Leguizamo as the short-lived Koresh, W. Earl Brown (who starred alongside Olyphant in the HBO show Deadwood) as the bartender at Tatooine, and I think we all know who Temura Morrison is playing in the episode's closing moments.

Introduction

 Hi, I'm George Liapes and this is my new blog. I originally started out on WordPress with "Thoughts on Things that Interest Me" but decided to move my ramblings to Blogger on account of how so many of my own favorite blogs are written here. If you want to check out my previous site, here's the link: https://popcultureforfanatics.wordpress.com/

This blog will mainly be concerned with my thoughts on movies, television shows, video games, music, etc. Posts will not be adhered to a fixed schedule (basically I'll post whenever I want to post).