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07 January 2016

2015 Media Consumption: What Have We Learned?

For the first time, in the vein of Steven Soderbergh, I kept track of every single movie and TV show I watched for the entire year, 2015. This is obviously an insane task if I actually wrote down every single clip on TV I saw (or YouTube, for that matter), so to count I included any film I saw at least 51% of in some form either online, on television, or in the theater.

You may find this monstrous list of 198 films (close to an average of a movie every other day) and 96 distinct television shows here. Let's dig into the data:

There were seven movies that I saw twice. These are the following:

Fast Five (2011)
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)
The Avengers (2012)
How High (2001)
Be Kind Rewind (2008)
The Campaign (2012)
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015).

The Force Awakens was the only film I saw both times in theaters. The rest were on TV with the exception of Fast Five, which I watched on Blu Ray before Furious 7 (2015) and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, which I watched on a charter bus during a 24-hour ride to Florida.

This gives me a grand total of 189 distinct films

Breakdown by Viewing Medium:

Disc:
DVD: 12
BluRay: 2
Local DVD Rental: 1

Streaming:
Netflix: 71*
YouTube: 5
Download: 4
HBOGO: 3
Crackle: 1
DailyMotion: 1

Theater: 10

On TV: 86

*I lumped both Netflix streaming and Netflix DVD Rentals in the same category, which I'll probably break-up next year. Still, the vast majority of my movie watching comes from Television, which has all sorts of interesting implications on how that shapes culture.

Breakdown by Month:

January: 16
February: 14
March: 16
April: 25
May: 13
June: 8
July: 18
August: 25
September: 13
October: 10
November: 10
December: 28

December clearly wins as I had a strong push to see a lot of great films before the year ended to make some sweet best of lists. You can tell that I lost my TV in May, gained it back in July, then started a new job in September.

Breakdown by Year:

Current Year: I watched 27 movies that came out in 2015, or 14%.
Current Decade: 97 movies from 2010 - 2015 (49%)
2000s: 38 (19%)
1990s: 23 (12%)
1980s: 22 (11%)
1970s: 9 (5%)

The oldest movie I watched was actually surprising, the 1971 Bruce Lee film The Big Boss. I assuredly need to up my classics viewing for 2016. I'm actually decently surprised that the 90s and 80s are so similar. The most repeated year is 2015 with 27, 2014 takes second with 21, and 2012 is third with 20.

Most repeated pre-2010 year: 2008 (9)

Be Kind Rewind 
Bronson 
Cloverfield 
Pineapple Express 
The Good, The Bad, The Weird 
The Happening 
Tropic Thunder 
You Don't Mess With the Zohan 
Zack and Miri Make a Porno 

Most repeated pre-2000 year: Tie between 1997 and 1987 with the most random assortment ever:

1997:
Con Air 
Face/Off 
Jackie Brown 
Romy & Michele's High School Reunion 
The Fifth Element 

1987:
Dragnet 
Planes, Trains, & Automobiles 
Predator 
The Monster Squad 
The Running Man 

Years without a film watched: 1991, 1980, 1976, 1974, 1973

Most Watched Television Shows:

I didn't keep track of what show I watched every day, just for the month, which is a trend I think I'll continue. Here were the shows I watched the most:

The Simpsons: A direct result of me losing FXX caused me to miss an episode in July (11 months)
Seinfeld: Only in February and March did I fail to watch at least one episode (10 months)
Archer: Missed in September and December (10 months)
South Park: Missed in January, May, and June (9 months)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Missed in April, May, and November (9 months)

Other Shows I watched at least one episode of for six months or more:

Adventuretime
Bob's Burgers
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Futurama
Last Week Tonight
New Girl
Rick and Morty
Saturday Night Live
The Flash
Workaholics

This should clearly indicate where my tastes are.

TV Shows Watched Not Currently on the Air

Most shows I watched live but there were plenty of things I caught up on from either long or recently cancelled programs, such as:

30 Rock
Angry Beavers
Chappelle Show
Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23
Home Improvement
Korgoth of Barbaria
Raising Hope
The Amazing Screw-On Head
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Tiny Toon Adventures
Weird Loners
WKRP in Cincinnati

Dramas I Actually Watched:

I know what you're thinking, I am so damn Drama-adverse. Everything is a sitcom or cartoon. True story. But I did actually watch some compelling TV this year, including:

American Horror Story: Hotel
Ballers
Better Call Saul
Fargo
Gotham
Sense8
Sleepy Hollow
True Detective

Ok, fine, those are all genre shows.

What does your 2015 List look like? I've already started 2016 list, which you can follow all year long right here!

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