January 2019

There were 16 posts published in January 2019 (this is page 2 of 3).

John’s Top Ten Movies of 2018

Is it list making time already? Every year it feels like I’m playing catch up. Even as I’m writing this there are so many 2018 movies I still want to see; A Star is Born, The Favourite, The Guilty, Blaze, Burning, Free Solo, They Shall Not Grow Old, and Paddington 2 which is apparently the greatest movie ever made. I had a lot of trouble making a list this year. Maybe it’s not my fault. Maybe it’s 2018’s fault. I mean, Bohemian Rhapsody won “Best Drama” at the Golden Globes so who the hell knows what’s good anymore. Enough small talk. Let’s do this…

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Colin’s Top Ten TV Shows of 2018

This was undoubtedly the year-end list I was dreading having to write the most. I was simply checked out on a lot of TV this year. I keep questioning whether “Peak TV” and “A Golden Age of Television” is necessarily the same thing. Sure, there’s a lot of TV out there, but I don’t know. There’s only a handful of TV shows out there that impact me as much as, say the best 15 or so movies in a given year. Still, there seemed to be plenty of memorable TV to come out this year, and I probably watched only a small fraction of it. Continue reading →

John’s Top Ten TV Shows of 2018

I don’t know how many Top Ten TV posts I’ve written that dropped the phrase the “Golden Age of Television” but I’m going to keep doing it until it feels wrong. An issue with this outlook is it makes it hard to write a new intro to every year’s list. What can I say about the landscape that I didn’t say last year or the year before that? How about a shoutout to the quality of shows over a wide variety of platforms? I have shows on my list from Netflix, Adult Swim, AMC, Amazon Prime, HBO, FX, Cinemax. That’s right CINEMAX. When I was a kid Cinemax was the porn channel. Now they have a show from the King of the Hill guy. Who knows where next year’s best shows will come from. Penthouse TV? Only time will tell.

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Sean’s Top 10 TV Shows of 2018

Doing these annual lists has definitely screwed up my media consumption habits. Late November through mid January has become a mad sprint, where I re-interrogate all the albums I enjoyed, catch up with the Oscar bait/indie/foreign films that are hard to see in the warmer months, and finish up a few massive games so I can feel good about writing about them. The one department in exception is my favorite shows, where, since I diligently keep up-to-date, my list is pretty much set months in advance. So the most consistently reliable entertainment medium for me becomes the one I’m least excited to write about. To help me get over that humdrum attitude, this year I’m going to try to passionately pitch these shows to you, instead of just writing about why I like them. Is that really that different? Let’s find out!

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My Year At Hogwarts

As we wrap up 2018 (very slowly) here at Mildly Pleased, I figured I’d take the time to reflect on an unexpected pop culture journey that I went on over the course of last year. Which apparently involves a universe in which people just poo wherever they like…

There are often enormously popular franchises that I tend to let pass me by, which is almost certainly a product of my own snobbishness. Is this kind of apathy a good way to go through life? Well, considering people these days often make social connections over the pop culture they love, and embracing some of the more popular ones would possibly lead to a healthier social life… maybe. However, my Harry Potter fandom (or lack thereof) is a little more complicated than mere apathy. Continue reading →

Colin’s Top Ten Songs of 2018

Honestly, I’m not sure why we’re doing this. I pretty much said everything I had to say about 2018 music in my Top Albums of the Year post. Or, at least, I did before I looked at it and saw that it read exactly like something someone would’ve begrudgingly written at midnight on Christmas Day. Regardless, I probably won’t put a ton of effort into this post. But then again, I guess that’s what top ten lists are for. No one comes to these things for the immaculate prose. It’s just all about those rankings… Continue reading →