MONTH OF ROMANTIC FILMS

Now, I am the person least likely to go out of my way to watch a romantic film or what I call a film that appeals mostly to the female audience but because I love all film genres in general, I wanted to dedicate a whole month to catching up with films in the genre.  Unfortunately, I decided that this would be my film watching theme halfway through April, so I decided to extend the theme to May.  So, April and May became my Month of Romantic Films!

I generally love a good film with strong female characters which is where most romantic films fall as they try to balance the story between the two love interests.  This is a very delicate balance when done right.  When done wrong the female or male character comes off as two dimensional and borderline boring or a cliché and that can ruin the effectiveness of the film.  The other bad thing about the genre is that the general hallmarks of the romantic film have now made itself known in pretty much every sub-genre of film.  As modern day film-makers and storytellers try to balance the relationships of the characters and fill out the supporting characters, creating romantic relationships is one of the easiest ways to do this.  Another caveat to this change is the fact that we are getting more films with strong female characters in which the male characters are supporting; this is where the second group of films come in.  These films do not necessarily have or are centered around a romantic storyline, but they present stories that cater to the female journey and/or experience.

These types of films were once labelled “chick flicks” but I’ve never liked that label, so I won’t be using it here.  Needless to say, these are the films that I decided to focus on.

 

TRADITIONAL ROMANTIC FILMS.

Traditional romantic films are what I rarely decide to watch even if they have an actor I like.  Some of the films I finally caught up with were What a Girl Wants (2003), Remember Me (2010), Lovesong (2016), My Week with Marilyn (2011), She’s Gotta Have It (1986), A Ghost Story (2017), The Danish Girl (2015), The Theory of Everything (2014), and The Promise (2016).  A Ghost Story is the closest you are going to get to a horror-romantic film while The Promise is a war-romantic film while The Theory of Everything and The Danish Girl are dramatic-romantic films.  The thing to remember at the center of all these films is a strong romantic relationship between two or more of the characters.

None of the films were bad and they each have their good and bad elements. The films I enjoyed the most were The Theory of Everything, The Promise, A Ghost Story, and Lovesong.  What a Girl Wants was cute but not a film with any new ideas and not one I will ever bother to watch again while Remember Me was decent and had some interesting ideas.  She’s Gotta Have It was more of a “I need to watch” film since it was Spike Lee’s first film.

 

STRONG FEMALE STORIES.

A more interesting list of films that I viewed during these months were those films that fit within this category.  This includes Julie & Julia (2009), Good Hair (2009), Jackie: A Tale of Two Sisters (2017), Betty White: First Lady of Television (2018), What Would Sophia Loren Do? (2021), 20^th Century Women (2016), Suffragette (2015), Radium Girls (2015), Philomena (2013), The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017), Like a Boss (2020), Venus in Fur (2013), and Profile (2018).

Everyone of these films presents some extremely strong women in some great stories about important women’s issues.  Radium Girls, Suffragette, Good Hair, and 20^th Century Women deal with some strong female stories and are headlined by some amazing performances.  Documentaries also featured heavily here especially in regard to presenting some amazing women in Jackie Kennedy, Betty White, and Sophia Loren.

My personal favorites of this group were Philomena, Venus in Fur, and Profile.  Profile was an exceptional film that dealt with a romantic relationship while also dealing with subterfuge and terrorism while being presented through modern day film-making techniques.

 

THE TELEVISION SERIES.

I only watched three series that could be included in this group which were I’m Not Okay with This (Season 1), Mortel (Season 1), and Downton Abbey (Season 1-4).  Mortel was the unusual series that strived to be a coming-of-age show that dealt with two teens given supernatural powers that only work when they are in close contact with one another.  This was a bold escapist show that also had at its core the romantic relationships of the main characters.  I’m Not Okay with This was similar that felt like what if Stephen King’s Carrie was expanded into a series in which you got to hear the thoughts of Carrie all the time.  Downton Abbey is the epidemy of the primetime soap opera with all the characters having some type of romantic relationship.  My wife and I watched four seasons of the show and thus was one of the key things in my romantic viewing for the two months.

 

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All in all, these two months I managed to catch up with a lot of films that were not originally on my watch list.  In fact, apart from The Danish Girl, She’s Gotta Have It, and The Theory of Everything, the rest of the films were a last minute or blind pick.

BEST OF 2020: GRAPHIC NOVELS

Now, over the last several years I have broadened my graphic novel reading interests.  I have never been much of a superhero genre reader so there will be very little to sometimes no Marvel or DC comic titles on my list.  Over the years I have been more interested in the output of particular creators and titles derived from some of my favorite film and TV characters since most film and TV franchises thrive in the novel and graphic novel forms.

What I can say is that due to the COVID shutdown I read 134 volumes which is a higher-than-normal count than usual.  Most of these titles were Image, Dark Horse, Aftershock, Boom! Studios, Eibon Press, IDW, and Titan. 

 

WILL EISNER.

Over the last couple years, I have discovered the amazing talents of the celebrated graphic novel writer/artist Will Eisner.  I have always known who he was but never read any of his work until 2019 at which I became obsessed with reading everything he ever created.  This year I read Fagin The Jew, The Last Knight: An Introduction to Don Quixote, Life On Another Planet, The Lost Work of Will Eisner: The Earliest Comics of the Legendary Cartoonist, The Name of the Game, The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of Zion, The Princess & The Frog, and Sundiata: A Legend of Africa.  Even though most of these titles were the less known works of Eisner this does not mean that they are not just as good as his most famous works.  Eisner brought his amazing storytelling talent to whatever story he crafted no matter how big or small.  If you have never read an Eisner any one of these books will be a great introduction.

 

OSAMU TEZUKA & SHIGERU MIZUKI.

This year I took a break from reading Osamu Tezuka having only read his Atomcat.  He has plenty of works that I’ve yet to read and normally I try to read as much of his work that I can but this year I decided to catch up on some of my other favorite writers of which Shigeru Mizuki was one of the main ones.  I decided to finish his Showa series (Showa 1939-1944, Showa 1944-1953, and Showa 1953-1989). This is one of the best series ever crafted and its expansion is like something from Tezuka Budha or Adolph series. 

 

FROM COMIC TO ADAPTATION AND VICE VERSA.

There are a lot of titles that I finally got around to because they were adapted as films and TV series.  One of the series was Locke & Key (volumes 3-6), The Crow: Hack/Slash, The Kitchen, I Am Not Okay with This, Outcast (volumes 6-7), October Faction (Volumes 1-5) and Umbrella Academy (volumes 1-3).  I enjoyed all three of these series (and their TV counterparts).

 

Some of the graphic novels that derived from film and TV that I managed to read are the following – Firefly (This Sting, The Unification War Part 1&2), Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, Fight Club 3, Aliens: Rescue, Labyrinth: Coronation (volumes 1-3), Lost in Space: Countdown to Danger (volume 3), Night of the Living Dead (volume 2), Penny Dreadful: The Ongoing Series (volumes 2-3), Plan 9 From Outer Space, Sadako At the End of the World, Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia Part 1, Django/Zorro, Stranger Things (Into the Fire, The Bully, and Zombie Boys), The Walking Dead: Here’s Negan, and Your Name: Another Side: Earthbound (volume 1-2).

I have always been someone that loved to immerse myself into stories beyond just the film or TV series.  Titles like Penny Dreadful, Lost in Space, Stranger Things, and especially Aliens (which I’ve been reading for over thirty years).  The reverse is true of titles that were adaptations.  I love to know how the original creator envisioned his story and then watch how a different created interpreted the material.  I loved Locke & Key, October Faction, and Umbrella Academy and the adaptations (and changes made therein) were also quite good.

 

MIKE MIGNOLA.

Anyone that knows me well, knows that I’m a huge Mignola fan especially his Hellboy universe.  I only read the single Hellboy graphic novel Hellboy & B.P.R.D.: 1956 but I finally got around to reading the entire Joe Golem: Occult Detective series (volume 1-4), Baltimore (volume 6), and Our Encounters with Evil: The Adventures of Professor J.T. Meinhardt & His Assistant Mr. Knox.  2020 was just a light year for Hellboy Universe items but I am sure that 2021 will be the year that I catch up with everything I missed out on.

 

NOVELS TO GRAPHIC NOVELS.

There are a few graphic novels that were adapted from novels.  I read yet another version of one of my favorite stories of all time Beowulf (from Image Comics and Santiago Garcia & David Rubin).  I probably have six or more versions of this story that have been adapted over the years and I am sure I will read more.  I also read Blade Runner 2019 (volume 2), Terry Pratchett’s The Discworld Graphic Novels – The Colour of Magic & The Light Fantastic, Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels: The Communist Manifesto, Marvel Illustrated: Moby Dick, and Titan Comics Millennium trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest). 

I have noticed that there is a new trend to adapt into graphic novel form all the major classic novels as well as some of the more popular modern novels and I for one am okay with this.  I would love to see more of Stephen King, Ira Levin, Clive Barker, and others adapted.

 

EIBON PRESS.

I include Eibon Press despite most of there output being single issues, but they craft some of the very best comic books that can be considered graphic novels if not for the low page count.  Their VHS box style comics are some of the most visually stunning on the market and will appeal to everyone.  The thing that might turn readers away is the graphic nature of their books since they freely adapt movies from infamous director Lucio Fulci.  This includes The Beyond (issue #1-3) and House by the Cemetery (issue #1-3).  I also read their original series Wasteland:1989 (issue #1-2).  I have pretty much read everything they’ve produced and will continue to do so since they are unique to the industry.

 

MY ONGOING SERIES.

There are a few ongoing series that I would like to mention!  Since I do not read individual issues of any comic (except for the Eibon Press titles) there are many that I read and have been reading for years!  One of the longest running titles I’ve been reading is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of which it was light for me this year (Volume 23, The Ultimate Collection Vol 6, and Batman/TMNT II and III).  I plan on catching up with my TMNT reading soon!

Other titles include Beyond the Clouds: The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (volume 1-2), Ascender (volume 2), The Beauty (volume 5), Black Science (volume 8-9), Blood on the Tracks (volume 1-3), Dark Ark (volume 2-3), Ghost (volume 3-4), Happiness (volume 10), Manor Black (volume 1), Pretty Deadly (volume 3), Sandman (volume 6), Tales From Harrow County (volume 1), Trinity Seven: The Seven Magicians (volume 13-15.5), and Vampirella (Dejah Thoris and Hollywood Horror).

 

THE OTHERS.

There are a lot of others that I would like to take mention of especially since I have a love of blind buys and reads simply because the back cover blurb is interesting.  I am always interested in reading something I was not expecting.  For this reason alone, I enjoy just walking into a bookstore and seeing what gen I can find.

Some of the titles that fall in this list are Berlin (from Jason Lutes), Dissolving Classroom (from Junji Ito), Downfall (from Inio Asano), Eleanor & The Egret (from Sam Keith), A Fire Story (from Brian Fies), Grass (from Keum Suk Gendry Kim), High Crimes, Hot Lunch, Knights Temporal, The Last Space Race, Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron (from Daniel Clowes), The Man Who Came Down the Attic Stairs (from Celine Loup), Mary Shelley Monsterhunter, My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, No Ivy League (from Hazel Newlevant), Poe, Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D, Shipwreck, The Story of My Tits (from Jennifer Hayden), Transparent Light Blue, Venus in the Blind Spot (from Junji Ito), The Wonderful World of Perfecto (from Paul Oakenfold), and Zombie Tales Omnibus: Undead.  This is probably one of the most diverse years I have ever had with me taking a chance on so many different creators.

One of the real surprises is just how much I loved the titles from Aftershock Comics.  I was seeking out many of the above titles just because they had been published through them.  This does not dismiss the fact that I still had time to read titles from Kitchen Sink Press, Drawn & Quarterly, Viz Media, Dynamite Comics, Kondansha Comics, and Vertical Comics.  I ended up reading only a single Marvel title (Moby Dick) and it was an adaptation.  For DC I only read four titles. 

 

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For 2021 I’m looking forward to expanding my reading list especially since I’m hoping to end some of my long-term reading titles.  There are a lot of titles that I still need to catch up with since I did not read anything from them this year which includes Animosity, The Woods, Ultraman, and more.  I did not mention every title that I had read but I hope this is a good year to catch up and to add a few new titles to my read list.

I hope you enjoyed this list and I look forward to letting you all know what I ended up reading in 2021!

 

BEST OF 2020: TV SERIES

Now this list has been a long time coming and its now July and I’m just now getting around to posting this.  Hey, I’ve been very busy.  As part of my 2020 television watch during the year of COVID I can honestly say that my taste were all over the place.  There was no particular genre that interested me more than any other and 2020 actually allowed me to catch up with a lot of material that I just hadn’t had time to watch.  To be honest there is just too much content out there and with the explosion of original streaming content there is just way to much to choose from. 

To put everything into perspective, I watched 153 seasons of TV.  The episodes per season can range from as little as four to as many of twenty-two (or more).  Traditional network shows usually have about twenty-two episodes but streaming series have no particular number of regular episode count.  I watched a ton of streaming series especially on Netflix and Shudder so many of the series will be familiar to people who are fans of those services.

This being said let me get started!

 

OLDIES BUT GOODIES:

To start off, I’d like to name a few series that either haven’t been on the air for a long time or recently wrapped their final seasons.  I finally finished Arrested Development Season 4 (Fateful Consequences) and 5.  I loved this show but watching the re-edit of the 4^th season took me a while to get through which is why getting to S5 took extra-long.  I also have to say that I watched all five seasons of Bates Motel and finally got around to finishing Scare Tactics (Season 4-5), Weeds (Season 7-8), Zoo (Seasons 1-3), Wayward Pines (Season 2), Warehouse 13 (Season 1-3), Newsroom (Season 2-3), Disjointed (Part 1-2), Homicide: Life on the Streets (Season 6-7), Homeland (7-8), Friday the 13^th: The Series (Season 2), Knight Rider (Season 1), and D.C. Follies (Season 2).  This is a lot, I know, and from all different eras.  There are always shows that are on my list to watch that I’ve never had the chance to actually sit down and enjoy but these are but a small sampling of what is on my “watch list.”

 

I was especially glad to finally get around to finishing Newsroom and Homicide: Life on the Streets while I was disappointed by Bates Motel and Weeds and Zoo, which got worse with each season, which I’m afraid is my view on Warehouse 13 but I’ll have to wait until I get to the final season of that show.  Scare Tactics and Friday the 13^th: The Series were both pretty damn bad.

 

THE LIMITED SERIES:

One of the things I enjoy the most is the Limited Series which I watched my fair share of those both old and new.  Some of these titles may also be shows that don’t say whether or not they are a limited series or not or were cancelled after one season but I still watched them anyways.  Some of these titles are – Ares, Betaal, Chernobyl, The Pharmacist, The Code, Daybreak, The Devil Next Door, Surviving R. Kelly (Season 1-2), Dracula (2020), Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer, Ghoul, James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, Robert Kirkman’s Secret of Comics, The Innocent Man, Jinn, Challenger: The Final Flight, Cursed Films, Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez, Nightflyers, October Faction, Paranoid, Harlen Coben’s Safe & The Stranger, Supermax, TIME: The Kalief Browder Story, The Trial, Trial 4, The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez, Unabomber: In His Own Words, V-Wars, Waco, and Wild Wild Country.  

 

Most of these were crime series as I think Netflix has some of the best and way more than any other streaming service.  I also took some chances with a lot more international shows like Bataal and Ghoul.  The very best was Chernobyl and Waco while the ones to completely avoid were Jinn, Bataal, and Nightflyers.  Supermax is violent and an acquired taste while V-Wars and Dracula had great ideas that fell short so I’m not surprised they were cancelled after a single season.  I would’ve liked to have seen additional seasons of October Faction and Daybreak.  The crime series are a mixed bag as some I thought needed to be shorter while other longer than they were.

 

THE ANIMATED SERIES:

I caught up with a lot of animated series last year, probably more than any previous year and I hope that this is the start of a very good trend.  Many of my friends have given me a list of shows I need to watch so I’m glad to say that I’ve finally got around to some of them.  I also took a chance of some newer titles as well.  Some of them were Beetlejuice: The Series (Season 1-3), Blood of Zeus (Season 1), Castlevannia (Season 3), Cyborg 009: Call of Justice, Dino-Riders, Disenchanted (Season 1-2), Dragon’s Dogma, Fish Police, Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 (Season 1), RoboCop: The Animated Series, and Ultraman (2019, Season 1). 

 

I especially loved Blood of Zeus, Dragon’s Dogma, Ultraman, and Disenchanted.  Beetlejuice and Dino-Riders were great reminders of my childhood and this gave me the chance to watch the episodes in order for the first time!  This was I first time watching Fish Police and RoboCop (finally) as I found those on You Tube of all places.  Castlevannia is one of my favorite ongoing series and I can’t wait to watch the new season!

 

SUPERHERO STUFF:

Now, I just need to say this first, but I’m getting a little tired of all the superhero shows, movies, etc. and for me they’ve kind of over saturated pop culture to the point where I’m not even bothering with most of it.   This being said, there is plenty that I did watch last year and tons that I didn’t care anything about.  The shows I did watch and/or finish are Agent Carter (Season 2), Heroes: Reborn (Season 1), Gotham (Season 1), Jessica Jones (Season 3), The Punisher (Season 2), Swamp Thing (Season 1), The Tick (Season 1), and The Umbrella Academy (Season 1-2), and Krypton (Season 2).

 

Surprisingly, I enjoyed most of this sampling except Heroes: Reborn (too many new characters not remotely interesting), The Tick (at least it was better than the first season), and Krypton (I’m sad that it ended prematurely).  The true stand out were The Punisher, The Umbrella Academy, and Agent Carter (a show I surprisingly really enjoyed).

 

THE GAME SHOWS:

Now, the thing that surprised me the most last year was just how many reality shows (aka game shows) I ended up watching.  Being on lockdown meant it was easier for me to fall down a rabbit hole after watching the first one.  Some of the shows I got to where The American Barbeque Showdown (Season 1), Blown Away (Season 1), Dragula: The Search for the Next Drag Supermonster (Season 2), Crazy Delicious (Season 1), Floor is Lava (Season 1), Million Pound Menu (Season 1-2), The Movies That Made Us (Season1), The Great British Baking Show (Season 1) & Holidays (Season 3) & Masterclass (Season 3 & 5), Sugar Rush (Season 1-3) & Christmas (Season 1-2), The Toys That Made Us (Season 1-3), The Big Family Cooking Show (Season 1-2), and Zumbo’s Just Deserts (Season 1-2).

I love Blown Away and The Great British Baking Show, while Sugar Rush and Zumbo’s Just Deserts are just plain entertaining as hell.  Floor is Lava is a show I’d love to take part in while The Toys that Made Us is just plain entertaining and educational.

 

ONGOING SHOWS:

Now there are tons of shows out there that are ongoing.  There are just too many to really watch but here are some of the ones I decided to either take a chance on or were shows I regularly watch.  Show of my regulars are American Horror Story (Season 8-9), Black Spot (Season 1-2), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Season 7), Criminal: UK (Season 2), Deadwind (Season 2), Fear the Walking Dead (Season 4), Good Girls (Season 2), The Kingdom (Season 1-2), The Kominski Method (Season 2), Westworld (Season 2), Lost In Space (Season 2),  The OA (Season 2), Ozark (Season 3), The Rain (Season 3), Sex Education (Season 2), and The Walking Dead (Season 8).  Some of the shows that I took a chance on are Another Life (Season 1), Bloodride (Season 1), Brotherhood (Season 1), The Confession Killers (Season 1), Creepshow (Season 1), Fargo (Season 1), Goedam (Season 1), Into the Badlands (Season 1), Into the Night (Season 1), Eli Roth’s History of Horror (Season 1), Ju-On: Origins (Season 1), Locke & Key (Season 1), Marianne (Season 1), Reality Z (Season 1), Super Force (Season 1), Unit 42 (Season 1), War of the Worlds (Season 1), The Witcher (Season 1), Wolf Creek (Season 1), and The Woods (Season 1). 

 

A lot of these shows I will continue to watch but the one show I detested was the new version of War of the Worlds.  I just thought that was god awful and still surprised it got a second season.  I hope that Into the Night, Super Force, Bloodride, and Ju-on get additional seasons whereas I’m already watching additional seasons of Into the Badlands, Fargo, Wolf Creek, and Creepshow.

 

Here lies the complete list of TV shows that I managed to get through for 2020!  It was an immersive list that I’m sure I won’t be able to duplicate since we are now closer to normal times and I have a lot less time on my hands. 

 

If you’ve managed to see some of the shows that I have, I would love to hear your thoughts!