2018 TV Watching Retrospective

As I did an exhaustive analysis of my movie watching in 2018, which soared, my TV watching sorely declined. After nailing 867 episodes of 81 shows last year, all I could manage was 476 episodes of 54 shows. TV is declining for me, what can I say? Here's a graph!

Show	Episodes	Percentage of Total
Seinfeld	35	7.35%
The Good Place	32	6.72%
Arrested Development	31	6.51%
The Office	28	5.88%
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia	23	4.83%
The Simpsons	23	4.83%
Saturday Night Live	21	4.41%
The Venture Bros	20	4.20%
BoJack Horseman	20	4.20%
South Park	18	3.78%
American Vandal	17	3.57%
Ash vs. Evil Dead	15	3.15%
Last Week Tonight	14	2.94%
Broad City	14	2.94%
Future Man	13	2.73%
Brooklyn Nine-Nine	12	2.52%
Rick and Morty	12	2.52%
Mary Shelley's Frankenhole	11	2.31%
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee	10	2.10%
The Fix	10	2.10%
The Last Man on Earth	9	1.89%
Marvel Avengers Assemble	9	1.89%
The End of the Fucking World	8	1.68%
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	8	1.68%
Disenchantment	8	1.68%
Adventure Time	5	1.05%
Documentary Now!	5	1.05%
Evil Genius	4	0.84%
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law	4	0.84%
Big Mouth	4	0.84%
Monty Python's Flying Circus	3	0.63%
Mystery Science Theater 3000	3	0.63%
Black Mirror	2	0.42%
Community	2	0.42%
Aggretsuko	2	0.42%
Drunk History	2	0.42%
Bob's Burgers	2	0.42%
Dave Chappelle: Equanimity	1	0.21%
The Detour	1	0.21%
Dave Chappelle: The Bird Revelation	1	0.21%
30 Rock	1	0.21%
American Ninja Warrior	1	0.21%
Korgoth of Barbaria	1	0.21%
The Terror	1	0.21%
Seth Rogen's Hilarity for Charity	1	0.21%
Review	1	0.21%
Gurren Lagann	1	0.21%
Futurama	1	0.21%
Sense8	1	0.21%
Maniac	1	0.21%
Family Guy	1	0.21%
Rocko's Modern Life	1	0.21%
A Young Doctor's Notebook	1	0.21%
The Tigers of Scotland	1	0.21%

The most serious show I watched was probably Evil Genius, followed by Tigers of Scotland. Seinfeld won, of course. My Simpsons was way down, after hitting 105 last year and 222 the year before that.

Arrested Development and Always Sunny remain pretty strong, but props to The Good Place for being a relatively recent, contemporary show and not something that peaked in the 90s! I was definitely off my game for most of the year, and not into a ton of new shows like I used to be. The Last Man on Earth was cancelled, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is coming back but not this fall, and I just can't do The Flash anymore. To be honest, I've been kind of sick of The Simpsons after they couldn't have handled their Apu controversy with less aplomb. I'm still super into everything...90s... but stopped regularly watching every week.

I mean, it wasn't that hard to because the show got terrible. STARTING WITH SEASON 28.

What did you watch this year?

Twenty GREATteen: Top Movie Moments

Alright ladies and gentlemen, we're almost at the end of 2018, which means a ton of retrospective lists thrown your way. We'll get to our Top Films of the Year eventually, maybe even before New Year's Eve, but we want to take a moment and reconcile all the other fun stuff we got this year! Let's start with all the best scenes, some from terrible movies, some from great movies, but all from movies.

Best Movie Moments of 2018

Avengers: Infinity War - Thor & Rocket

So you could have a lot from this movie. The snap, Thor's arrival, the Soul Stone, bubble gun, "I don't feel so well", a lot of it was instantly iconic. However, the best scene in the movie is when it slows down a bit and Thor actually reflects on the tragedy in his life, something that THOR: Ragnarok (2017) was too fast-paced and goofy to do. It's a quiet conversation between Thor and Rocket Raccoon of all people. It's all pain covered by ego and a fine performance from Hemsworth.



Black Panther - Killmonger steals the mask

This is another film full of possible moments. The best, most clever, most character-driven scene though, is our introduction to Eric Killmonger. I love how the expectations of each character shifts dramatically as the white / black power structure is revealed, exploited, and turned on its head.



Upgrade - STEM takes over

This was a super underrated movie this year about a paralyzed man whose body is taken over by a computer chip that makes him a badass. The cool thing about scenes like this is watching Logan Marshall-Green's horrified face as it doesn't line up with the brutality his body is achieving. It reminds me a bit of Venom (2018), not the least because Logan Marshall-Green looks exactly like Tom Hardy. Anyway, the enigmatic camera work sucks you into the scene as the STEM chip takes over. It's darkly fun, horrifying, and sweet.



Hold the Dark - Iraq

Hold the Dark, a long contemplative movie about wolves eating children in Alaska that somehow isn't that great has a handful of spectacular moments, including an oft-talked about shootout in an old barn, but the mid-film break to focus on Alexander Skarsgard in Iraq really did it for me. The cold righteousness, the American domineering presence, the lone cigarette. It all captures chaos and war in an ironically noble way.



VICE - Mid-Movie Credits

This one just dropped, but I've never seen a movie so drip with dry sarcasm as when just before Dick Cheney gets the call from George W., the movie paused and presents an alternate history where he never entered politics again and spent the rest of his life peacefully fishing with his family. As the film's credits literally start to roll on this saccharine ending, we get a big "JUST KIDDING" and Adam McKay's playfully insane romp through the VP's life rolls on.

Hereditary - Watch Out for that Sign!

Spoiler here and I won't even link the clip because I can't deal with it, but there's nothing like a weird-looking little kid sticking her face out the window and getting bashed by a street sign. Like everything in this movie it's depressing, intense, and played perfectly.

Blindspotting - Rap Scene

I haven't seen this movie nor do I really know what it's about, but it's got to be some kind of white cop killing black folk movie, but all those complicated feelings about the issue are wrapped up in this one four-minute-long rap by Daveed Diggs. I knew this dude from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and this is all sorts of amazing acting. It'll grab you by the pooper.



Sorry to Bother You - Horses

This scene is better left unwatched if you have't yet seen Boots Reilly's Sorry to Bother You because it's that moment where the film completely comes off the rails and you can't tell if it's a dream or not. From there the film gets insane and bonkers but always stays thematically coherent. A close runner-up is this scene, which captures white appropriation and mindless pop more than anything else in any movie ever.



BlacKkKlansman - Final Phone Call

There are a lot of great moments as BlacKkKlansman draws to its focal point - from the ironic deaths of KKK members to the final phone call between Ron Stallworth and David Duke where he blatantly exhibits a vocal tick that Duke had previously espoused to Stallworth as emblematic of the Negro persuasion. Duke's hypocrisy is revealed once more, Stallworth has his last laugh, and then of course, the film goes on to show that despite this small victory, not a whole lot else has changed in succeeding forty years.

Bohemian Rhapsody - LiveAID

This flick has appeared on a decent amount of year-end lists, and whether folks loved it or hated it, we can call agree that the ending Live AID sequence is phenomenal. It uses the event as the apex of Freddie Mercury's career - that wasn't really true, but it works great for the narrative the film was trying to tell. It's meticulously recreated and a true stunner for those of us who didn't experience the concert firsthand or those of us who forgot how great of a band Queen really was.



Annihilation - That Bear

There are a lot of pretty insane body horror moments in Annihilation, but nothing beats the Bear. As the weird alien bubble is mixing up genes and souls and whatever else, somehow Tuva Novotny's character Cassie gets absorbed or at least copied by a big scary scull bear who then roams around the room of our other protagonists. We're at a loss for the madness taking place within the bubble and what exactly is going on, but that's part of what makes the Lovecraftian horror of the film so effective. Damn that scream...



Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - Leap of Faith

Stan Lee's cameo (likely to be one of his last) is a good candidate here, but this scene choked me up. Miles Morales finally ascends to become the Spider-Man he can be - claiming his own spin on the suit, fulfilling the Leap of Faith forshadowing, and expressing more than any other film has the actual thrill and danger you must feel jumping off a building and hoping your web shooters latch on to something. In a close to perfect movie, a close to perfect scene.



Deadpool 2 - High Wind Advisory

The second Deadpool movie starts to take aim at superhero team-ups, recruiting a who's who of modern trendy actors like Terry Crews, Bill Skarsgard, and Brad Pitt and promptly kills them all in a horrible skydiving scene. It's a subtle play - from Shatterstar who is trying so hard to be cooler than everyone else (killed by his own cool hair blocking his view of helicopter blades) to poor Peter, his last act of nobility killed by acidy spit. It's what Suicide Squad (2016) tried so hard to achieve. Of course, Domino and her luck lands perfectly and the entire scene is set up by continuous wind advisories. It's a fantastic moment.



What did you dig this year? Stay tuned for more movie stuff and maybe even some reviews!

Twenty GREATteen: Best in Music

It's about time we round out every little pop culture facet of 2018 - or as we're calling it for some reason, Two-Thousand GREAT-teen. It was pretty great, right?

Remember when we could even say that years were great? What was the last great year we had? The world is awful. That's why we have some fun music to jam out to - something needs to distract us from real problems. Whether or not there's value to both pursuing fruitless entertainment and making lists about it is beyond our scope. Let's have fun!

Best Songs of 2018:

There were actually a lot of songs I dug hardcore this year. As we do, without much evaluation, here is a smattering of the best we had, new and old from this GREAT year:

"Psycho" - Post Malone ft. Ty Dolla $ign
"Finesse" by Bruno Mars ft. Cardi B
"Nice for What" - Drake
"Stir Fry" - Migos
"All the Stars" - Kendrick Lamar ft. SZA
"Pray for Me" - The Weeknd ft. Kendrick Lamar
"Be Careful" - Cardi B
"King's Dead" - Jay Rock, Kenny, Future, James Blake
"This is America" - Childish Gambino
"Feels Like Summer" - Childish Gambino
"Girls Like You" by Maroon 5 ft. Cardi B
"Taste" by Tyga
"Humility" - Gorillaz
"Crush" - Tessa Violet
"Nice for What" - Drake
"In My Feelings" - Drake
"Hunnybee" - Unknown Mortal Orchestra
"Best Hugs" - DRAM
"Mo Bamba" - Sheck Wes
"See You Again" - Tyler the Creator ft. Kali Uchis
"Thunderclouds" - LSD
"Thank U, Next" - Ariana Grande
"Sicko Mode" - Travis Scott ft. Drake
"Sunflower" - Swae Lee, Post Malone
"Just a Stranger" - Kali Uchis ft. Steven Lacey

That's some list. My favourite song of the year of course is WIN by Jay Rock.



Some stray observations - this was a huge year for many artists. Travis Scott, Drake, Childish Gambino, Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello, it was maddening. Ariana Grande made a really great case for Artist of the Year and no one made a bigger hyped album than she did with Sweetener, only to then drop her greatest single as a response to the heartbreak that followed the Pete Davidson puppy love that made said alubm. "Thank U, Next" ended up being one of her best tracks of the year and one of the best songs anywhere.

However, it's gotta be the B. 2017 was a huge year for her blasting on to the scene, but 2018 proved that she has the goods to stay. She was on every song ever, dropping four singles of her own, but being featured on an additional nine tracks. Led by "Finesse", "I Like It", and "Girls Like You" spreads over a solid amount of genres and across the entire year. She's a bridge between hip-hop, pop, and Latin and the most 2018 artist ever.

This year was also a tipping point in how we listen to music. Radio Top 40, Spotify Top 40, and album sales had nothing to do with each other. I named Camila's "Never Be the Same" the Summer Jam Queen, but few agreed with me. It was probably Drake. It's not like adaptation is bad - we just need to figure this shit out.

Music Video of the Year:



As soon as it dropped, there was no question. There's no video more in the political moment, with a beat and flow that stands on its own, lyrical relevancy to both what's on screen and in its own context and also dramatically captured our attention. Between Atlanta, SOLO (2018), and everything he did as Childish Gambino over summer ("Feels Like Summer" was also an amazing video), Donald Glover had a hell of a year.

Albums of the Year:

Rock:

As we usually do, I like to separate music into three big mega-genres. Pop, Hip-Hop, and Rock. Rock never has any good albums anymore, so we'll start there. There was some interesting stuff made by Father John Misty and the Gorillaz that I'm into, but nothing that stood out as the best they've done (or better than even 2017. Also they're barely even rock).

No, we'll give 2018 to the 1975 and they're album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. The album oscillates between these Vampire Weekend hipster vibes and some slow contemplative work that straddles genre, autotune, and simultaneously uplifting and depressing beats. There's super 80s synth on "It's Not Living" and that Tool Time song is poppy and engaging as hell. Some tracks are a little on the saccharine side, but there's always a bite around the corner.

Top Tracks: "Love It If We Made It", "I Like America & America Likes Me", "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)."

Pop:

There were a lot of great pop albums this year. Ariana's Sweetener would be the obvious choice because it's super popular and pretty damn good. Robyn's Honey was also notable, but to be honest, sounds like the same exact stuff she made ten years ago. I mean, I like that, but it just seemed like nothing innovative. No, we'll give it to newcomer Kali Uchis and her debut, Isolation.

Her vocals are haunting, seductive, and scathing. Every single track is an earworm. It's awesome. There's a pop sensibility there with a beat that has a little more edge. She had some high-profile collabos with Gorillaz, Tyler the Creator, and Bootsy Collins but always appears as the dominant voice. To be honest, I was looked with the first real track, "Miami" and never let go. There's some funky lovemaking shit on this album, boi.

Top Tracks: "Your Teeth in My Neck", "Dead to Me", "Tomorrow", "After the Storm"

Hip-Hop:

I had a tough time with this, actually. Scorpion? Astroworld? Invasion of Privacy? Ye? There were a lot of high profile albums, and even though the latter there will surely be left off a lot of lists because of his pro-Trumpiness, Kanye actually made a lot of good shit this year. Instead, let's cop out and just say it's the whole Black Panther album.

It was a solid flick - I'd call it good and not great, but it delivered one of the best inspired by Albums of all time. I like how Hip-Hop artists take this on, like Jay-Z with American Gangster (2007). Anyway, Kendrick Lamar could have phoned it in - instead this album has relevant movie tracks, a great launching point for some monster songs this year, and room for some actual introspective shit. This is maybe a cop-out to just give it to Kendrick Lamar this year, who seemed to mostly spend it having fun with Jay Rock. I don't actually plan on highlighting Panther all that much in my Top Movies Post, so let's jazz on it here.

Top Tracks: "Opps", "Paramedic!", "Redemption"

And there you have it, folks. That's all you need to know about the music of 2018! What do you think? It was an underrated year as I look back on it. Keep jamming, baby!!

Twenty GREATteen: Best Films That I Saw, Regardless of Year

We have a couple weeks left to go in 2018 but I'm not sure any film I see will crack this Top Ten, so here we go.

Each year in addition to our traditional end of year lists that every website ever makes, we take some time for personal evaluation of any and all movies seen for the first time in the Calendar Year 2018. We've been at this for a while now, and it's more a cool motivation to think critically about all movies you watch, catch up on some old ones that you've never seen, and for you, the viewer to gain some insight into my madness.

First, let's recap the last few years:

2017: Blade Runner 2049 (2017): I was really into BR2049. I still am. It was my #1 anticipated movie, the best of the year, and the best of anything I saw that year.
2016: Seven Samurai (1954): A great example of catching up with a classic that I had never seen and it totally blowing me away. I encourage you to check it out!
2015: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014): This was me getting into a film from the previous year that I had simply missed before 2014 was over. It was still great.

And, because I'm insane I also did this at the mid-year break. To be fair, without looking at that I made the following list, and amazingly, I kept five of my top six, in roughly the same order.

So, regardless of year, let's dip into the Top Ten of 20GREATTeen. I just copied this from the mega-list, we'll keep the method of viewing because that's always interesting. Also, sign up for Netflix DVD service.

#10: Boyz N the Hood (1991) - Netflix DVD

Why It's Here: When you watch upwards of 240 movies a year what matters most by December is what stands out. This was the first of a wave of early 90s Ghetto films that have never really stopped, but it's still the best. The cast is a who's who of 90s Black Actors, most of whom have become great 2010s Black Actors like Cuba, Angela Bassett, Ice Cube, Morpheus, Morris Chestnut, and Nia Long. It tightens its grip on your and never lets go, while never necessarily fetishizing, glamourizing, or exploiting hood gang violence like it easily could have.

Why Did I Watch This? This had been in my DVD queue for a while because it's just a notable movie, but certainly riding that post-Straight Outta Compton (2015) wave of gangsta films my interest was peaked in seeing something a little more authentic and focused. It also clued me into a lot of 90s references, from Eek the Cat! to Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996).

#9: mother! (2017) - Netflix DVD

Why It's Here: Okay, this is a divisive movie that most people hated, but I think it's bloody brilliant. As soon as I realized the whole thing was a parable I was super on board, sussing out the layers of metaphor. The final fifteen minutes is one of the most amazing tour de forces of cinema I've ever seen. There are few who agree with me.

Why Did I Watch This? All the controversy, insanity, and hype, both negative and positive, coming off the recent release the previous Autumn.

#8: Good Time (2017) - Netflix DVD

Why It's Here: There are a lot of "night gone bad" movies out there, but few with such immediate and visceral action and reaction as Good Time. Robert Pattinson has done incredible post-Twilight work just about everywhere and he endures nonsense here from beginning to end as his character can't quite shake the criminal he is at heart despite being pulled in tragic other paths of family, poverty, and neglected redemption. It's really engaging stuff.

Why Did I Watch This? It showed up on a lot of Best of 2017 lists, but what pushed me over the edge was Pete Davidson just LOVING this movie. He knows his stuff.

#7: Thelma & Louise (1991) - Hulu

Why It's Here: The great irony of this movie is that it's totally a fitting movie for 2018 yet you get the sense that it would never be released in 2018. I weirdly watched a solid number of Geena Davis movies in 2018 (I think three of them, two are on this list). This movie just kept unfurling and I was awestruck how spot on every single line of dialogue was for a film made nearly thirty years ago. It was really depressing. This movie was crazy popular, too! It was a film that has etched itself in pop culture lore and well worth catching up on.

Why Did I Watch This? At the time it filled a niche both on expiring soon from Hulu and me needing a 1991 movie to fill one film from every year. But that could have been any film - from my more familiar Simpsons knowledge to the definitive relevancy, this was a good pick.

#6: The Death of Stalin (2018) - Theater

Why It's Here: I miss witty, conniving comedies so much, and this was the wittiest, most conniving comedy I've seen in a long long time. Consistently hilarious, dark, brutal, timely, and really well-shot, this just hit all the right buttons for me. Armando Iannucci is a masterful screenwriter, but I also feel like this film isn't getting nearly its just dues come December. I watched it and knew it'd immediately be at or near the top of my 2018 list.

Why Did I Watch This? I had heard about the production years ago and it seemed interesting, then got far more interesting when I learned it was a comedy. The trailer sealed it for me, a local theater was playing it, and there we go.

#5: Sorry to Bother You (2018) - Theater

Why It's Here: I knew I'd fall in love with this. Similar to Death of Stalin this is right up my alley with its dark but clever humour. That's always the key - this film gets outlandish, more outlandish than just about any other movie I've ever seen, but the satire is always purposeful, stuffed with metaphor and relevant. It's uncanny. The cast is full of hot young actors from LaKeith Stanfield, who should be in everything, Steven Yeun, to Tessa Thompson who WAS in everything this year, and Armie Hammer, who I think is the most underrated actor in anything he shows up in. Did I mention how nuts this film gets? It's best not to spoil anything and let the magical realism take you in.

Why Did I Watch This? The trailer really sealed the deal, but knowing LaKeith from Atlanta and Get Out (2017) and Straight Outta Compton (2015) helps. Also Boots Reilly from The Coup as director was really intriguing. Mostly I heard this film was bonkers and it reliably was, which made me happy.

#4: City of God (2002) - Netflix Streaming

Why It's Here: This is a truly epic piece of filmmaking. There is hardly another film made that captures an entire generation of an entire city in two hours, but City of God destroys all competitors. I give the film a tremendous amount of credit for introducing dozens of characters played by unknown or even non-actors but imbuing all of them with a personality, function, actions, and reactions that reverberate throughout the city and the film itself. The protagonist may not even be the main character. It's a fantastic achievement.

Why Did I Watch This? I heard about this film years ago but didn't know much about it, only that it was notable but I think I read it in a big 1001 Movies to Watch Before You Die book, and it also helped me get a 2002 film. Netflix Streaming helps.

#3: Shin Godzilla (2016) - Netflix DVD

Why It's Here: In the wake of a long span of time with no Godzilla, and then a lot of spins on the Kaiju but no real innovation, Toho decided to completely reinvent their own creation. We've had the American version - Godzilla (2014), which was by and large pretty good, the animated Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017) which is nigh unwatchable, and sure, let's through in the Pacific Rim movies to round out our recent Kaiju splurge. But no film was as flat out excellent as Shin Godzilla, which recrafts the Godzilla mythos into a disaster relief film in the wake of Fukujima. Godzilla is weird, deathly, and truly terrifying. His atomic ray is purple and shoots out of his back, tail, and a horrifying separating jaw. The human drama is actually compelling and casts a critical eye on Japan-US relations, self-reliance, relief, and prevention. It's top to bottom amazing and far beyond any mindless Kaiju Beat 'em up. Okay, I'm still looking forward to Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), though.

Why Did I Watch This? I heard it was good a while ago, and wanted to catch it, especially after watching this video essay. It was also October and I sorta justified it as a Halloween Monster film.

#2: They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) - Netflix DVD

Why It's Here: Yeah, this is an obscure one. It was actually nominated for nine Academy Awards but only won one. It is truly a bizarre film, taking place almost solely in a brutal 1000+ hour long dance competition in the Depression Era, when people were just desperate enough to submit their minds and bodies to grueling spectacle for a quick buck. It's a real bleak film full of madness and despair disguised as a fun romp. It's precise, the acting is sublime by Jane Fonda, Gig Young, and many more, and you feel every bit the pain they go through until it becomes a meaningless exercise as futile as their misguided hope was in the first place. It's rad, man.

Why Did I Watch This? I forget how I got into it, but there is this weird sector of old entertainment of like, people putting hands on cars the longest, or dancing the longest and the insanity that ensued. It's a weird forgotten corner of our pop culture history. Also that Always Sunny episode. I think I just saw the title of this on a Wikipedia list or something and thought, "Damn, that's a weird title." It is and damn it's brutal. So metal! But I like exploring these subaltern, forgotten zones. Also, this wasn't even available on Netflix DVD for the longest time, I had to literally wait years.

#1: The Fly (1986) - Hulu

Why It's Here: It starts perfectly in media res, has an incredibly focused and limited cast of characters, believes in science, hubris, love, regret, body horror, it's so good. In 2018 Geena Davis' boss / stalker coming to save her is troubling, but the film works out that he gets some pretty rough comeuppance and she ends up being her own hero. Then again, this is a film without any real heroes - only complicated characters full of dreams, danger, and gross acne. From the slow transformation both physically and mentally to the doomed love story, this is a brilliantly constructed screenplay. Could have used a monkey-cat though.

Why Did I Watch This? I'm a big Goldblum fan and the pop culture relevancy of this is strong. Again, mostly Simpsons tho that's mostly the 1958 version. I watched this pretty recently because it was leaving Hulu, and I knew it'd be good, but damn I was blown away.

What did you watch this year? Am I too big on The Fly? Bet you didn't see that one coming.