Ah, the recently departed holidays. Finally some downtime to catch up on the movies, shows, books, music, and games everyone else had been talking about. Even though we cover pop culture for a living, we at The A.V. Club also had stuff we were jonesing to get to over those valuable vacation days. So, we’re curious:
What pop culture did you spend the holidays with?
Erik Adams
As 2019 turned to 2020, I relished the opportunity to consume a bunch of media with zero obligation to immediately render an opinion. I couldn’t suppress every workday reflex, though, which is how I found myself rueing my blown chance to evangelize on behalf of Joe Pera Talks With You’s spectacular second season. The gentlest live-action show on Adult Swim continues to be so special, so strange, and so funny that I just couldn’t find the right words to say “You should watch this” within the confines of a formal review in early December. So I say them now: If you see the sublime in the mundane, if you seek a comedy that can balance the primal screams of Conner O’Malley and a lovingly arranged tableau of a Friday fish fry, you owe yourself a visit to Joe Pera’s Marquette.
Shannon Miller
Before adjourning for the holidays, I had written a list of all the shows that I planned on binge-watching in an effort to catch up. It turned out to be a fool’s errand: When I wasn’t checking out this year’s Oscar contenders, I mostly stuck to a pretty ambitious rewatch of The Office. However, one new show that I devoured in a snap was Netflix’s all-Black sketch comedy wonder, Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show. With each side-splitting scene, it quickly turned into the show that I would lovingly force Christmas visitors to watch. In just six way-too-short episodes, the cast flexed a mastery of satire with an eclectic humor that was all at once cultural, observational, relevant, and entirely odd. I’m more than ready for a second season.
Gwen Ihnat
I saw a ton of movies over the holidays: Little Women (which is as amazing as everyone said it was), the Star War, even the Jumanji sequel. But my favorite two-plus hours in the theater over break involved taking my 13-year-old-daughter to see 63 Up, the latest installment in the series that began with 1964’s Seven Up! Every seven years since, director Michael Apted has made a documentary starring the same group of (now former) schoolchildren, and there’s no other film project like it. The last one I saw was 35 Up in 1991, and I found it fascinating. There’s something inherently intriguing about Apted’s take on the Jesuit saying “Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man”: How much do we change, really? So I was determined to see this latest and possibly final version (Apted, who’s helmed every installment but the first, is now 78), and with 63 years to look back on, the subjects got even more lively and profound. My daughter had the same reaction I did to earlier Up chapters and was riveted. For my middle-aged self, 63 Up offered valuable perspectives about the various paths we take in life, especially when that journey seems to be growing shorter. Although one subject cheerily cautions Apted, “There’s still plenty to do; it’s not all over yet.”
Sam Barsanti
I don’t watch any reality shows that don’t involve foolishly serving risotto to Tom Colicchio, but in the span of a week my wife and I went from “Maybe we should watch Terrace House?” to “Now we watch nothing but Terrace House.” For those who don’t know Netflix’s greatest Japanese import, Terrace House is like a low-key Real World except everyone is nice and nobody speaks English. The best part, though, is the panel of commenters who check in throughout each episode to unpack what’s going on, giving simple dinner conversations the weight of an epic battle. It seems silly, but when big things do happen—like the discovery of a secret relationship hidden from the cameras—it’s so much more exciting than you’d expect.
Katie Rife
On the opposite side of the coin, I crammed so much movie-watching into November and early December that I used the holidays as an opportunity to air out my brain a bit. That meant more reading and less screen time, so beyond introducing my dad to The Mandalorian, I actually didn’t watch all that much over the holidays. Instead, I tucked into Esmé Weijun Wang’s The Collected Schizophrenias, an essay collection exploring the author’s experience living with schizophrenic illness. Some aspects of Wang’s writing—her deliberately opaque use of psychology jargon, her fear of being seen as an illness first and a person second—are relatively universal, while others—like the essay in which Wang gives readers a portal into what it’s like to feel reality slipping through one’s fingers through an anecdote about seeing the movie Lucy—are specific to her lived experience. All of Wang’s observations are trenchant and eloquently expressed, for an eye-opening reading experience that brings some much-needed empathy to a diagnosis that’s still laden with stigma.
Angelica Cataldo
I decided to relinquish my holiday joy and indulge in some true crime by watching Don’t F**k With Cats. I can safely say that I still had a merry Christmas and a happy new year, but this three-episode miniseries packs a suspenseful punch showing you just how vast the World Wide Web is and how even the smallest detail of information can be a vital piece in a gigantic puzzle. True-crime documentaries don’t usually give me the creeps, but this one certainly had me rethinking every choice I ever made regarding my social media footprint. Though the holiday season is supposed to renew my faith in humanity, Don’t F**k With Cats did just the opposite.
Patrick Gomez
We’re often told to “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” but The Imagineering Story wants you to do the exact opposite. This six-episode Disney+ docuseries offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the makers of the magic responsible for all of Disney’s theme parks. In addition to providing insight into how your favorite ride was created, the series is refreshingly candid about Disney’s darker days, like the protests that marred the opening of Euro Disney and the rush job that led to the eventual complete revamp of California Adventure. Don’t tell Baby Yoda, but this is actually my new favorite Disney+ show.
Danette Chavez
Like Katie, I found myself needing a way to turn off my brain for a bit over the break, which made Cats the Jellicle choice for me. What can I say about it that hasn’t already been expressed in reviews, including our own, to pummel Tom Hooper’s ill-advised, incomplete adaptation of the musical? Well, I fell asleep once Rebel Wilson started eating roaches, and woke again when Jennifer Hudson began to sing, which left me ill-prepared for the air of “death cult” that permeates the whole production. But as far as giving my brain a rest: mission accomplished.
154 Comments
Derry Girls and Jonathan Hickman’s X-men. Both are great but about as different as two fictions can be.
You’re such a Claire! (we’ve been accusing each other of being various Derry Girls around the office.)
I probably am…but I wish I was an Orla.
I’d take a Clare. She is the most innocent.
Sister Michael FTW
I LOVE her!
“Have I died? Am I in Hell?”
Well I think your a Michelle!
I went for Derry Girls as well!
It makes me mad british seasons are so short. I’ve finished two seasons and it’s not as many episodes as half an american sitcom. I know that ups the quality a ton but damn, I want more.
Hah! Welcome to my world. The fact they are 30 minute episodes makes binging all at once all but impossible not to do.
If you like Derry Girls you’d probably also enjoy Young Offenders. The original movie (or should I say fillum?) version is on US Netflix, but it was remade as a series (should be available for UK viewers on BBC iPlayer).
Watched the Witcher a few times. Good effort on a first season and looking forward to more.
I’m enjoying it, but couldn’t stop comparing it to GoT. Set design and (some of) the acting kept taking me out of immersion. Good costumes.
I do have some nitpicks myself with some of the characters but overall I felt the design was standard-ish fantasy. I think Geralt and Jaskier were perfect though.
Definitely, altho I bet my g/f is tired of me exclaiming “The Witchah!” in my graveliest cockney-esque rasp….
Just start singing the songs to her. TOSS A COIIIIN TO YER WITCHAAAH.
Trapped in a box by a cockney nut job
My spouse of 15 yrs and father of our child just spent 4 days in bed watching Netflix, including all of Witcher, due to “flu”.
I will second Astronomy Club. Only six episodes but almost every sketch is a winner.
I didn’t expect to like the “reality TV” bits between the sketches much, but they turned out to be great to. I like James as the collective punching bag for the group, and the confusion that there isn’t a “white edit” of the show.
Don’t tell Baby Yoda, but this is actually my new favorite Disney+ show. Ditto, and it’s awesome.
i watched the witcher and played a metric ton of modern warfare. i re-downloaded the witcher 3 last night, so that should be fun for the next 6 months
Wife and I have been re-watching all of Community and 30 Rock. So so good.
I also fell asleep during Cats, mainly due to post-Xmas food coma. My companions liked it enough to drag me back for a second viewing. I voluntarily went to a third and there might be a fourth. Once you accept Cats for what it is, it’s a rip-roaring good time.
Once it arrives on streaming, there’s a 100% chance that my wife and I will end up watching at least part of it one night. My wife has been hating on Andrew Lloyd Weber since before it was cool, and this movie is the rare occasion when the avclub and the New Yorker get the exact same pop culture hard-on at the same time.
I refuse to encourage the people behind ‘Cats’ in the slightest by giving them ticket revenue, but I can definitely see myself watching this when I don’t have to pay for it, if only to say I too witnessed the horror.
That’s probably going to be me and Bad Boys 3
I don’t believe you. You work for Regal or AMC, don’t you. You are a plant trying to sell anyone on seeing that joke of a film.
I’ve never seen a more blatant cult-classic-in-waiting than Cats. I can’t wait to attend raucous midnight screenings in the 2040s and tell people that I was there at the beginning.
“Of course, it was better before they finally fixed the CGI in 2027….”
2040? you & a small band of half-maddened scavenging fallout survivors huddled deep in city sewers gonna act out some revered Cats scenes as a shadow play lit by methane lamps? Oooh, that’s rich. But at least you’ll likely have half-sentient roaches to include in the cast … that part it too close to reality.
“This is a legend from the beforetime, from the long-long ago…”
but just to be clear … no parents molestered any kids back then
An annual tradition now, I’ve been introducing genre and prestige TV to my in-laws whenever we/they visit. Last year was the excellent The Terror, this year was Watchmen. Mixed success.
I second Terrace House. The latest run of Tokyo 2019-2020 shows were fantastic.
I’ve been showing my girlfriend Star Wars for the first time (she is an immigrant so she had literally no knowledge of it which was great) we ran out of time so I wasn’t able to show her the prequels but we watched the original trilogy (she liked) and the sequels (didn’t like TFA but liked TLJ except Canto Blight), and then we watched RoS and man she did not hold back… she hated that film. Basically all the complaints me and my friends had she zoomed right in on, which was nice to hear. Then the day after we watched TPM and both actually enjoyed it for the silly film it is, especially the podracing. So a lot of time with Star Wars for me and the GF.
Rise of Skywalker is best thought of as bad fan fiction.
It happened, I’m going to move on. Gonna keep praising Baby Yoda and Jon Faverau and hope for the best from Obi Wan which I am super excited for.
Is your girlfriend’s name Reddit?
What kind of fool would ever watch Star Wars with Reddit? Also for the record it is a 100% true story. That was my post-Christmas pop-culture consumption.
I just hope Reddit got home to Canada safely.
I’m Canadian lol.
My point stands.So when you say your girlfriend is an immigrant, that could mean she’s from like Wisconsin or something.
Ya could mean that, it doesn’t though. But don’t worry you’ll find somebody someday too.
I hope so! I just hope my girlfriend is okay with that.
If so might not be a strong relationship.
Wait, why not?
Try it and see!
Are you asking me out? Sorry, I have a girlfriend. I thought we established this.
As do I. Not-Reddit from Not-Wisconsin remember? Might want to get that memory checked sign of a concussion.
Is your girlfriend’s name Reddit?
“didn’t like TFA but liked TLJ except Canto Blight”Doesn’t sound like.
Regardless, if this ding-dong’s ‘girlfriend’ isn’t a kitchen glove with the name SHELLEY scrawled across it in black Sharpie, I’ll eat my hat. And it’s a big hat.
Edibles + CATS = one of my favorite cinematic experiences of all time. Hilarious, touching, confusing, bored, and downright scary when Judi Dench turns to the camera and stares at the audience. Tom Hooper should never be allowed to touch the director’s chair again until he realizes that close-ups for 5 minutes straight are not cinematic
I binge-watched Victoria, which was some kind of Little House on the Prairie for the Nobility. And the showrunners could not create a single character worth caring about.In fact, Prince Albert is a straight-up gaslighting asshole. But as a wobbly history lesson, it still pays for itself, I suppose.Am in the Middle of Fortitude, not your typical Nordic noir. It’s more gory, and Stanley Tucci just does not belong in it: like von Trier meets The Hunger Games, lol. But I’m enjoying it all the same. Also, watching it leads me back to asking the old questions of thriller-story crafting like: “Why create so many interesting (even likeable) characters, only to brutally pick them off one by one?” It’s a trope that becomes disrespectful to the viewer.
I sort of half-watch it for the historical references, especially the STEM-related topics. Some are just kinda Easter-eggy throwaways, but others genuinely play into the plot. To name a few offhand: Lovelace and Babbage have a cameo, Lyell gets namechecked amid an academic-politics set piece that goes to changes in the philosophical basis of the university, and Snow actually has a significant subplot and is shown doing field research and making his famous map. Prince Albert gets involved, at least in a Steve Jobsian sort of way, in the engineering-adjacent problems of the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition. The timing of that makes me think Darwin must be just around the corner. None of this is really the main point of the show, of course, but it’s a series of interesting grace notes (and sometimes more) for those of us interested in the history of science and technology, and entirely appropriate for a time and place that saw a great flowering of such things.
Yeah, I interrupted the show almost continually to Google Victoriannna and just history in general. It was useful.
You know, the emerging science and technology of that period (especially the Great Exhibition) would make a great TV show of its own.
Rewatched Planet Earth 1 and 2. Star Wars with the family before Christmas because that’s become a tradition. Star Wars again because the nephews wanted to see it. My opinion rose a bit, theirs sank. New Year’s Eve with my wife and home-from-college daughter watching The Big Sick and the Twilight Zone marathon. New Doctor Who.
I watched 5 Fast and Furious movies. And felt shame.
But in fairness, I wanted something that was just easy to watch with car chases, explosions, good looking people, exotic locales, and a caper. And I had already watched all the Later Connery and entire Moore era Bond flicks over Thanksgiving.
They are good for what they are.
Hopefully you just watched Fast Five, 5 times … 😀
Since the lines are still way to long for legal weed here in Illinois, I have not been properly medicated to watch Cats yet. Saw Rise of Skywalker and commented elsewhere. Finished Mandalorian and loved it. Watched and loved the Astronomy Club. Started the Witcher but just had trouble getting into it.Watched some of the classic Christmas movies over the holiday but didn’t find the time to watch Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story or any of the MST3K/RiffTrax Christmas movies.
yeah witcher isn’t fun enough for how dumb it is and I just don’t care much about the little white girl playing out the perils of paulinedoesn’t help that every time they say Yennefer I think HENNEEFURR LOPEZ!
I have taken to calling her Yennefer of Vengabus myself.
I think she got poached and now advertises for Boltbus
I have been wondering about this. We have two dispensaries in my town, but I have read old reviews where even Med MJ customers were complaining that “all the good stuff is already gone.” I’m hoping if I life long enough, things will calm down, people will go back to buying from Jake over on the East Side and prices might come down because the recreational users will take over. I’d look for info in my local paper, but you have to read the Trib to get any real news about MY town, blerhg
I called the local dispensary that can sell recreational stuff and they said right now this week they are seeing an hour long line but still have stock. They guess that by mid January things should calm down.
Hey thanks!
I have Playstation Vue (RIP Playstation Vue) which has that cool feature where you can watch multiple shows at once, and fate would have it A Christmas Story AND A Christmas Story Live! on Fox, where airing at the same time. Having never seen the movie before, this was the way I decided to watch it, lol.
Very unique experience watching the two side by side. The movie’s commercial breaks would make up for the musical’s overlong songs, so the pacing synced up pretty well to my delight. In the end, the movie was fantastic, and the musical was… serviceable in a school play kind of way.
I read Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians trilogy in the span of about 10 days. Finished the first book on Christmas and the third on New Year’s Eve. They were a more compulsive read than I expected. I’m sad it’s done, though I realize that the character’s stories are pretty much told at this point.
For viewing I planned a few options for binge-watching and ignored them all. Instead I decided to check out The Magicians after seeing it on a best of the decade list. I got more sucked in than I expected and finished the fourth season last night. Now I’m ready to watch the new season as it airs, and I’ve started the books.
Dang, I didn’t realize season 5 was coming so soon. I’m not sure if it’s going to be any good or not, but I’m always stoked for more of The Adventures of Fen and Margo.
I saw it mentioned last week, so I made a push over the weekend to finish in time.
Margot is my hero
The Magicians is great. I tend to wait for the season to finish then I just binge it in a couple days. Though I doubt I’ll do that this season since its slowly become appointment TV for me.
Eliot and Margo are the only reasons I’m going to try to watch the fifth season. The way season 4 ended pissed me off in a big way.
They are a pretty good reason to watch anything.
The Expanse (novels).
I streamed a bunch of stuff I had been meaning to watch: Russian Doll, both seasons of Fleabag and Derry Girls, the last season of Preacher. Oh, and I also watched Don’t Fuck with Cats, I will watch pretty much whatever true crime content that Netflix puts out. Liked all of it, but the second season of Fleabag was total perfection. Why did AV Club stop reviewing it with 2 episodes left and not a word of explanation? That was kind of a dick move.
I liked Fleabag but loved Derry Girls. I’ve been fighting a sustained campaign BTL of any relevant AV Club article to direct readers towards it.
Sister Michael is me if I was an Irish nun. “I know exams are a stressful time, so if you’re felling overwhelmed or just need a bit of chat, please for the love of god, don’t come crying to me.”
Sister Michael: “It’s not looking great. It’s unlikely she’ll be returning to school before the end of the year. So I think the only thing we can do now is…”Aisling: “Pray for her?”Sister Michael: “No, sure what use will that do?”
Sister Michael would be my favorite if not for Orly and Grampa Joe aka Grampa Barristan Selmy. He’s so good with the wee bairns!
My wife’s intense desire to see Cats did not survive the reviews and accompanying nightmare-fodder pictures.Visiting the center of gravity of the extended family on what turned out to be a very rainy holiday season there, we introduced one of our daughters-in-law to Schitt’s Creek. She got hooked and we ended up binging the whole thing to date at the pace of three or four episodes a night after the grandkids were in bed. They returned the favor with The Mandalorian, watched under the same circumstances — the little ones, ages four and six, have somehow gotten acquainted with Star Wars through cultural osmosis and spent Christmas morning assembling some related Lego kits but have been deemed not yet ready for the actual movies.My wife’s reward for all this is turning out to be a cold, so she’s caught up with Derry Girls and about halfway through Anne with an E. Most of this occurred without me due to schedule conflicts, but if I end up calling in sick and day-drinking Nyquil (dismayingly likely; it’s odd for me to be the last, let alone the only, person in the house to try out the latest germs) I can imagine catching up with both and the first season and a half of Fleabag.
I think I’m with your wife. A friend of mine and I have been looking forward to it and all of its horror. We are musical theater fans who hate Cats. Now that the initial excitement has worn off, I’m not sure we’ll ever see it.
I keep reading that it has found niche appreciation among people who see it while high as a kite, and people who are in it for a somewhat participatory camp spectacle a la Rocky Horror. (Or both.) There are people who say, sober and unironically, that some good performances, dance and otherwise, are your reward for persevering. I haven’t read any contrarian opinions that it’s in any comprehensive way an actually good movie. Can’t see myself seeking it out under those circumstances. though maybe someday it will wash up on the high channels in the wee small hours or on a rainy Sunday afternoon…
I told my parents about Fleabag and they watched the entire second season and not the firstwhat the fuck boomers
My Dad does this weird thing where, when I’m around for the holidays, he wants to watch the movie of a show he hasn’t seen. So, “Hey, there’s that Breaking Bad movie, want to watch it? Hey, look, a Deadwood movie Let’s watch that one tomorrow. I’ve heard good things about Veronica Mars, should we watch that one?”
Each time I tell him I will happily watch the first few episodes of the show with him, but he’ll have no clue what’s going on if he just jumps in for the “let’s wrap this shit up” movie.
Battlestar must have been hard for him, there’s like three movies
were they holding the remote upside down?
How the fuck do you skip the first/best season of Fleabag.
Are you researching nursing homes yet?
Why didn’t they start with season one???
…EXACTLY
Fleabag and Derry Girls are both amazing! Russian Doll is really good too. If you liked Fleabag, check out Killing Eve, made by the same phenom, Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Killing eve had one of the best depictions of a psychopathic murderer.
I just finished the 2nd season. I think Waller-Bridge left as showrunner after the first season, though.
The Witcher and Star Wars. Saw Rise of Skywalker, but enjoyed The Mandalorian much, much more.
Finished watching the “His Dark Materials” series, then re-watched “The Golden Compass” movie, then finished re-reading the trilogy. Had to re-read “Lyra’s Oxford”, which I read last May but could not recall a bit of. It takes place two years after the end of “The Amber Spyglass”, and now that I’ve started Book 2 of Pullman’s second trilogy, “The Secret Commonwealth”, it turns out that parts of “Lyra’s Oxford” figure into that as well. Now I want to see the actual Oxford, previously visited in 1968 and 1996.
I did a re-read of His Dark Materials a couple years ago, right after La Belle Sauvage came out (read the four books in a row). Watching the HBO version got me to finally start The Secret Commonwealth which I’d had on my Kindle since it came out.
i’m almost done with amber spyglass on a second, adult, read through of the series.watched the first episode of his dark materials. i’m so disappointed in the casting and set quality.
Gwen! I watched 63Up too! So great! I’ve seen them all since 35Up and look forward to them. This one was especially moving.Watched 2 seasons of ‘You’. I liked it fine. Was Penn Badgely that scrawny in Gossip Girl? Also saw ‘Dark Water’, with Mark Ruffalo. Quite good.
I’ve seen 7-56 Up and I’m looking forward to 63 Up. It’s interesting to me how many surprises there have been overall — it doesn’t feel like they have had to manufacture drama for its own sake.This is despite some imperfect casting in the first installment, although to be fair the producers of that show had no idea it would ever be repeated.
Yes, quite compelling as is really! There are some surprises in this one.
I have been following this series since we watched parts of it in one of my Developmental Psych classes in grad school. I’m looking forward to 63 Up.
Watched Fleabag, which didn’t disappoint. Then while I was visiting my parents my dad convinced me to check out Brockmire, which I had assumed would be sort of like Eastbound and Down, which I had watched half a season of but didn’t care for. Turns out Hank Azaria is really really good and it was twice as funny and infinitely more poignant. Not to spoil the arc of it, but in terms of a thoughtful portrait of a recovering asshole the series felt more like Bojack Horseman than anything else.
I will stand up for Cats. The movie isn’t that bad! I went to see it on New Year’s Day with my wife and my mom, and we all enjoyed it! I was completely expecting a Room-level train wreck, but I came away enjoying it. Yes, the “digital fur technology” is garbage, and the CGI tails and ears just do not work. (I would have much preferred it if they just did makeup and fur appliques) And Tom Hooper has no business ever directing a musical and should be banned from ever holding a medium close up for so long that snot rolls down the actor’s face. But, most of the numbers were fun! Ian McKellen as the Theatre Cat is fantastic. Francesca Heyward is a terrific dancer. Everyone can sing well and I was not once bored. (More than I can say for Hooper’s Les Miz.)So yeah, I’d give this a B/B-. If you keep in mind you’re watching an adaptation of a very 80’s piece of theatre that is about cats deciding who goes to kitty cat heaven, you may have fun.
Jesuit: Give me the child until he is seven and—[police bust in]
I finally got around to The Expanse, which I never watched during its Syfy days, probably because I’ve been burned too much by that channel (R.I.P Face Off). When Amazon released the new season, I started from the beginning. I’m nearing end of the second season and I’m hooked. I think I remember somebody at the AV club saying that it was the science fiction equivalent of Game of Thrones, and it certainly is for adults, but more in a complex, thoughtful way as opposed to the lurid way GOT was much of the time. Holding high hopes that it continues this level of quality.
I had to give up pretty early in after that scene where they had hung up a ‘belter’ (?) and he was being tortured the effects of oxygen and gravity
That’s early indeed, S1E1
It is. I would have liked to continue, but that was harsh. When I saw that I couldn’t help crossing over into ‘reality’ and seeing some disabled people I know who are like that and whose lives aren’t made much easier by the abled 🙁
In the same way that GoT made moves that made you go “who-what!?” because you should have been paying attention to Roose Bolton and the Karstark family – so does The Expanse reward attention to Earth Fleet and Martian ship admirals, especially in season 2 and 3. Its worth a rewatch. Season 4 is of the same quality though different-feeling as the crew is land locked for much of the season. There are some fantastic low-orbit space-walk sequences ala “Gravity” that the show hadn’t attempted yet, and really knocked out of the park.
My four-year-old niece insisted I watch Frozen with her, and so I did. I also continued my ‘watch all the A24 things’ directive by streaming The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
I read Marisha Pessl’s Night Film and Courtney Milan’s The Duchess Wars, marathoned The Witcher with my husband, enjoyed the hell out of Dolemite is My Name, checked out some of Hulu’s Into the Dark movies, was introduced to the horror that is Neil Breen (God damn you How Did This Get Made?), and finished up I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson. There’s a lot of stuff that’s been out there that I want to watch this year, namely Atlanta and Succession.
How do you pronounce “Jellicle”?
T.S. Elliot was trying to teach his niece to say “Dear little cats.” Probably “Jeh-li-cal” cats; with emphasis on the first syllable.
I guess I’m the only person who saw the header image of Francesca Hayward and thought “Oh my God, that looks like Mac’s Dennis sex doll.”
Had four wonderful taking the nephews to the movie experiences. Repertory showing of Meet Me in St. Louis, one of my favorites. Rise of Skywalker, which I was mixed to negative on but which was fun through the eyes of a 10 year old budding Star Wars nerd. The big screen showing of Doctor Who’s Spyfall, which was fun. And Cats, which was a delirious fever dream beyond categories like good or bad.
Good God I cannot get enough of Joe Pera’s gentle, easygoing therapy session of a show. We all have way too much in life to get worked up about. It’s really fucked up out there. Even in our daily lives, stress and relationships and money are omnipresent, eating away at our ability to see the big picture for what it is.Joe Pera zooms in into microscopic pleasures and treasures like grocery stores, beans, and going on hikes. I didn’t realize how badly I needed his show until I started tearing up every time he began with a soft, “Hello. I’m Joe Pera.”
We watched Godfather, Parts I and II. It was my first re-watch in over a decade, and the partner had never seen them. To my mind, the two best (and saddest) movies ever made.
I won’t try to argue with you considering them the best, but saddest?! I have seen some heavy duty films in my life, so I’m curious to hear your perspective on why it has such an emotional impact on you.
I think not so much Part I, but Part II I found to be near Shakespearean in its tragedy. Juxtaposing Michael’s rise with that of his father’s was truly a genius move by Coppola. To answer your question, I am a total sucker for family-centric drama, in particular the relationship between fathers and sons. Witnessing Michael’s descent and viewing that in relation to the events of the first movie I found to be very, very sad. Every time Michael is on screen with Tom or Kay in Part II I couldn’t really breathe or take my eyes off the screen.
Very interesting. I have not watched the two movies in a long time (nor have I ever seen Part III), so I owe it to myself to rewatch them and keep this in mind.
Great! I find both movies to be rich with substance and plenty of information to discuss after the fact. I love how most folks agree that the two movies are masterpieces (pardon the hyberpole) but that everyone seems to have different reasons for saying so, as well as different opinions of what the most powerful scenes are. Happy viewing!
I wanted to use the time to catch up on some reading, maybe crafts. Instead, I watched the first two seasons of Vanderpump Rules, and it is as good/ horrible as I always heard. I’m now fully immersed in the Bravoverse.Boyfriend spent the weekend with me, so I had to turn off Vanderpump Rules and started watching Schitt’s Creek. We made it through Season 2 in one day.
After seeing the hilarious reviews for Cats, my friends and I decided to sneak some booze in and go see it. We’d laugh and scream and the cat titties, dance to the songs and just have a good time.The first 20 minutes give you that. The insane opening music makes you feel like you’re getting sucked into some clown hellscape, and Rebel Wilson’s entire segment is so ugly, so disturbing and fucked up, holding my friend and shrieking throughout the cockroach number was worth the price of admission.Then about an hour in, you start to feel exhausted. How many introduction songs are there? How did Macavity gain powers to teleport other cats? Why are we suddenly getting an entire musical number dedicated to Shimbleshanks the railway cat, someone we’ve never seen before? The spinning of the camera over the gross CGI cat bodies started to make me feel queasy. It was a carnival ride that went on for way too long. By the time Judi Dench does her bizarre monologue to the audience, I was basically standing up, just waiting for it to be over. I liked Taylor Swift’s number though.
“After seeing the hilarious reviews for Cats, my friends and I decided to sneak some booze in and go see it. We’d laugh and scream and the cat titties, dance to the songs and just have a good time.”I love this, and the rest of your description is fun too. Could you have quietly exited and sat in on another film after it peaked? I don’t go to theatres anymore, but I would def. do this because none of the employees seem to care. I have never been able to watch a movie ‘under the influence’ (can’t remember anything). Watching a bad movie in that condition would be excruciating.
Got Fallout 76 for $10, so I gave that a go. I don’t hate it! Probably would if I had paid full price, or if I gave a shit about multiplayer.
Watched “The Witcher” on Netflix and started a new
playthrough of The Witcher 3. I’m not
even halfway through and enjoying it as much as I did in 2015-16.
My gf and I finished Justified and I have to ask if anyone else noticed it ended weirdly similar to Vice Principals (and LotR I guess)?
Die Hard, Knives Out, and finishing off S3 of Mrs. Maisel. I don’t get to the movies nearly often enough.
I just saw Home Alone with the kiddos today for our post Christmas-meal coma. (In Serbia Christmas is celebrated on Jan 7th, i.e. December 25th according to the Julian Calendar), first time in ages.
A couple of things struck me:
-It’s a complete travesty Macaulay Culkin couldn’t transport this level of charisma and screen presence into an adult acting career.
-Movies 30 years ago were simply made differently. Home Alone contains tons of ‘dead weight’, i.e. scenes that could easily be cut and lead nowhere, and the middle part of the movie is painfully slow, but it allows the entire movie to breathe, to assert itself and draw you into its universe.
-At the same time, the characterization of the entire family (sans Kevin) is more or less paper thin. In the opening scene the whole family is cruel and malicious to Kevin to an almost stupefying degree in ways that would today in many of the more liberal places in the west probably be classified as child abuse. Then when Kevin is forgotten, the whole family, more or less, does a 180. If the movie was made today, a lot of pop culture critics would be screaming about ‘character development.’
-An old man approaching a child in church and asking to sit next to him? But seriously, we need more of that in today’s pop culture. Adults having dignified and mature conversations with children about difficult topics. It was pure genius to include this moment in church before the showdown with the bandits. The old man with the shovel is the heart and soul of this movie and his reunification with his family is one of the best acted and most heartwarming Christmas scenes ever.
In addition to seeing Rise of Skywalker like everyone (though I waited a week because we decided early on it wasn’t a money worth spending babysitter money on, so we waited until we were visiting family and left kiddo with grandparents), I watched Lost in Space. The first half of the season definitely was giving me disaster fatigue, like season 1 did, but towards the end of the season the story really tightened up and the disasters actually felt like they were driven by the narrative, rather than happening for the sake of drama.
I love the Original Star Trek series,so I decided to go through the reboot JJ Abrams trilogy. They were okay, but I’m genuinely curious to know if JJ has ever actually seen an episode of the original series.
I was surprised how much I enjoyed ‘Astronomy Club’. As a white Australian I was prepared to be totally lost (and there were definitely a few cultural references that went over my head), but the sketches are so well written and it’s such a strong troop of performers that I had a ball.
grandma’s got a boyfriend, and her boyfriend’s name is paul
The focus group sketch is superb, and yet it was only the second-best focus group sketch on Netflix in 2019.
Our family enjoyed 3 perennial pop-culture traditions during New Years:The Twilight Zone marathon – since SyFy and Decades were holding simultaneous marathons, my daughter and I would switch between the two stations depending on which episode was coming up.
Marx Brothers – best of the early movies: Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup and Night at the Opera. Or in order of brilliance, Duck Soup, Night at the Opera, Horse Feathers, Animal Crackers, Monkey BusinessThe Thin Man and After the Thin Man. A lot of San Francisco location shots in the latter – love it when William Powell drives up to his house in what is obviously the drive outside Coit Tower.
Also:The Crown S3 – Very impressed and entertained. The great Olivia Colman didn’t disappoint, nor did Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret. But the real greats in the season were Erin Doherty as Princess Anne, Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip, Geraldine Chaplin as Wallis Simpson and Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles. Jason Watkins’ Harold Wilson, Derek Jacobi’s Duke of Windsor, Jane Lapotaire’s Princess Alice and Charles Dance’s Lord Mountbatten were also great.
Only complaint was Marion Bailey as the Queen Mother. When she was still alive, I thought the Queen Mum was vaguely silly. Then I saw footage of her and King George VI during the Blitz and thought I was wrong. Same after recent film depictions, including HBC in “The King’s Speech.” But Bailey made me think I may have been right the first time.Thanks to Patrick Gomez for his “Imagineering Story” shout out. It’s been the best new program on Disney+ since the service launched.
I spent it watching Babylon 5 for the first time. I made it 3/5 of the way through the series, and I can’t wait to finish it! For a guy who loves Deep Space Nine it really hit a lot of similar buttons.
It’s so good. Did my seventh watch through late in 2019.There are AVClub recaps actually. You should check them out.Season 4 is some of the best TV ever.We live for the one, we die for the one.
I finally got around to watching “On Becoming a God in Central Florida” which I absolutely loved and will eagerly continue to watch when it returns next season. I’m surprised it’s taken this long for someone to make a TV show about an MLM cult. Kiersten Dunst is an absolute inspiration, she’s so damn good in this show, as are Mel Rodriguez and Beth Ditto (seriously! Beth Ditto!). They get the look and feel of the show so right it’s almost scary.
The Witcher – Fantastic. Henry Cavill is the new king nerd. Show gets that fantasy should be a bit bonkers and the whole thing felt like how I felt playing RPGs in the 90s. I think I’ll actually play the game next.The Leftovers – After having got over my aversion to Damon Lindelof with Watchmen, I couldn’t wait to get into Leftovers next (thanks for the recommendations AVCers!). Whilst not the height of the brilliance of Watchmen, season 1 definitely scratched that Lynchian itch. I hear 2-3 are even better, so starting that this weekend.Star Wars – Rise of Skywalker, meh. Mandalorian, B for Baby Yoda.Jojo Rabbit – Strangely empty for a Taika Waititi film. Seems to have miscalculated the humour / seriousness balance in fear of offending anyone.
I watched the Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2019, the Big Fat Quiz of the Decade, the Christmas episodes of The Last Leg and Qi, and the new season opener 2 parter of Doctor Who.
Thanks so much for reminding me that Joe Pera is back. I’m not sure if he’s mildly autistic or a few notches too midwestern nice, but it’s a complete delight every time.Can you imagine not having to bend over to pick a bean?
Oh wait, I’ve got a picture.
I spent this holiday season almost obsessively getting into the UK panel/game show Taskmaster. Watching a gaggle of British comedians bumble around competing to do novelty tasks involving eggs and rubber ducks while Greg Davies takes the piss out of them is oddly calming and therapeutic.
It all happened so fast I can’t really remember, but I did manage to get in some game time after getting Jedi Fallen Order for Christmas. Also Christmas Eve was the alistair sim version of scrooge on loop for 6 hours as I finished wrapping presents and building a kitchen cart for the Mrs. Actually Christmas movies were probably the majority of my movie watching for a change, Gremlins, it’s a wonderful Life in 4k, holiday inn and white Christmas, miracle on 34th Street and Nobody’s fool (technically not a Christmas movie but a movie that takes place around the holidays, still one of my all time faves)
I got Pokemon Shield. Love it except for some of the characters; Hop gets on my last nerve.Got a bunch of Doc Savage magazines. Not exactly the best written stuff or the most politically correct, but I’ll stick with them regardless.Watched some Christmas movies with mom along with Once Upon a Time In Hollywood. Rather good but most Tarantino movies are one-and-done deals with me. Also, I know they had to include the Spahn Ranch because of the Manson Family but why did it have to be so drawn out? Nice to see Margot Robbie not in a ton of make-up.
I binged all three seasons of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. Well worth it. One season flows seamlessly into the next.
Binge-watched seasons 3-7 of Star-Trek Voyager thanks to the gift of Netflix subscription card. Does that count?Now on Ds9 season 2. Season one was a little sexist, which I didn’t notice back in the day.
Signed up with Amazon and finally watched The Boys, Fleagbag and Undone. To my surprise, all 3 of these are fantastic.
We (not using the royal we there, I’m including my wife in this) just finished up the final season of Occupied (Okupert) a Norwegian series that you should all watch.We also, quite late to the party, caught up on The Good Place in time for th upcoming final four episodes.I have, as I am wont to do, watched Mad Men (I’m on watchthrough 13, I may have a problem).Civ VI came out for the xbox one, I’ve spent many hours playing.
I haven’t caught up yet, but thank you for making me realize “The Answer” wasn’t the series finale of The Good Place.
Dr. Who. All day, every day. Also some books.
I finally got around to seeing Doctor Sleep at a cheap late-run theater. In spite of the A.V. Club’s review, I actually quite enjoyed it. Or rather, I enjoyed every part of it that wasn’t reminding me that it was a sequel to The Shining (so, about two thirds of it). Flanagan has some fun with the story and characters, and invests a lot of time and energy into style, which I find refreshing. I’ll definitely be checking out his upcoming Netflix offerings.