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!

A MONTH OF ANIMATION

 

Last November I spent the month catching up with the various animated films and series that had passed me by mostly due to there being so much content out there.  My original intension was to get through as many films that I had missed as I could but instead I actually got through a lot more series than I was expecting.

 

SERIES:

To start off, I took this month to, finally, get through season 2-3 of the original Beetlejuice: The Animated Series.  I didn’t actually watch a lot of this show when it was originally released but found myself purchasing the entire series on DVD.  I used this month to get through two of the series’ for seasons.  The best thing to come of this is the fact that it is now one of my son’s favorite animated shows.  Being an Ultraman fan I decided to watch the first season of the Netflix Ultraman series based on the current manga series.  It follows closely to the manga and overall is an excellent update to the character and series.

Next up I decided to catch up on Ghost in the Shell with the SAC_2045 series (also on Netflix) and the first three films in the ARISE collection (Border 1: Ghost Pain, Border 2: Ghost Whisper, and Border 3: Ghost Tears).  I enjoyed the SAC_2045 series but wasn’t a big fan of the ARISE series; I still have the final two films in the ARISE series to watch and previous animated series in the franchise but both contain some interesting ideas and concepts.

This brings up another manga and classic series that got a facelift which is the Cyborg 009: Call of Justice series from 2017 which is actually a really good update on the old series and manga.  The next show based on a popular manga I managed to get to is Parasyte: The Maxim which is one of my favorite manga and since the show follows the manga pretty closely I ended up loving this one as well.

On a different level are the animated series Dragon’s Dogma and Netflix’s Blood of Zeus both of which are violent and exceptionally good in their own right.  But my favorite series of the month happens to be Japan Sinks: 2020 but if you’re not in the mood for a series that gets increasingly bleak and somber before the final episode then this one is not for you.

FILMS:

Unfortunately, due to all the series that I watched I was unable to watch very many films but the ones I did manage to view are the following – Seoul Station (2016), Mirai (2018), Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Arthur Christmas (2011), and A Creepshow Animated Special (2020).  Of particular notice were A Creepshow Animated Special and Seoul Station which were the two horror films viewed despite some of the other series containing a lot more violence.  Creepshow was an interesting way to do a film during the COVID pandemic while Seoul Station adds tremendously to the Train to Busan franchise.

My favorite film ended up being Arthur Christmas despite my not being a big fan of Christmas films.  This was just an amazing film that I had been missing for far too long.

*****

I would have liked to have seen more animated films as my watch list continues to grow each year but I did manage to shorten my series list tremendously.  I think that when another animation month comes around I’ll focus on either series or films but not both.

Well, I hope this list provides you notice of new films to seek out.  I didn’t actually see anything that was truly horrible but I’ll let you be the real judge of that.

 

Book Review: KILLER KAIJU MONSTERS: STRANGE BEASTS OF JAPANESE FILM Edited by Ivan Vartanian

Giant monsters have always been a huge draw for horror fans and especially young audiences.  Most of our early association with giant monsters is with the numerous Godzilla films and even Mighty Morphing Power Rangers or Ultraman.  Ivan Vartanian has taken our love of the giant monster (and more specifically the Japanese giant monster) and crafted the book Killer Kaiju Monsters: Strange Beasts of Japanese Film.  Although not a complete and comprehensive guide to Japanese monsters it does give readers a quick overview of some of the most popular starting with the Big G himself – Godzilla. 

Each monster in the book is accompanied with stills from the films that they were featured in as well as a filmography of those films (for the completest that needs to see all the films their favorite giant monster may have appeared in).  You can’t understand what Japanese giant monster films are unless you understand the term “kaiju” and Vartanian does a great job explaining to the casual viewer what a kaiju is and what it meant in the original Japanese giant monster films.  In fact, Vartanian also delves into character design and presents cross sections of kaiju in addition to illustrations and various forms of artwork that has been inspired by the kaiju.  

A real highlight of the book is the look at soft-vinyl figure collecting and the plethora of pictures showcasing the various figures created over the years.  There is even a paper craft kaiju in the book that allows you to put together your own “little” giant monster.  One of the highlights for me was the Japanese illustrated comic at the end depicting kaiju against yokai (spirits and paranormal world creatures) in order to dramatize the thematic and stylistic differences between the two types of characters.  Despite being exclusively in Japanese I can plainly understand what is going on due to the illustrations.

As I mentioned before this is in no way a comprehensive book as it really only focuses on Godzilla and his rogue’s gallery of monsters with a small mention of Gamera.  I could’ve gone for a longer book that had more info on many more overlooked kaiju but this is a great starting on point for those wanting to know more as this is the basics.