Colin Wessman

I love those oldies and hoagies, give me some beefcakes and cheesesteaks

Colin’s Top Ten TV Shows Of The 2010s

Making my best of the decade list for TV was both very frustrating and very easy. Frustrating because unlike an album or a movie, you can’t easily rewatch a whole TV series in the name of research. So instead of spending hundreds of hours rewatching these shows, I’m doing this all from how well I remember them. Which, of course made things all very easy, considering the lack of research and reassessment involved in writing this. So… let’s just hope these shows are still as good as I remember. Continue reading →

Colin’s Top Ten Albums of the 2010s

The 2010s were a complicated decade for me, musically speaking. It was the first decade where I felt like I was more or less in touch with new music for the entirety of the decade, and yet it was also the first time that I truly felt old while discovering new artists that were younger than me. It was a decade that saw countless albums that I loved, and also in many ways felt like a decade where two of my favorite things — albums and rock music — seemed to decrease noticeably in cultural relevance. It was the decade where I eventually took over as “the music guy” at Mildly Pleased, and thus spent a lot of time writing about the kinds of albums that’ll be appearing on my list. Well, let’s take one last gander at them. Continue reading →

Mildly Pleased’s Top Ten Movies of 2019

Now that you’ve seen our individual lists, it’s time for us to put together an overall list of the top ten movies of 2019. This year was undoubtedly a good year for movies, so much so that we didn’t see all of each other’s picks. Fortunately, there were a lot of movies we were able to agree on in terms of greatness, while we even sprinkle in a bit of Oscar talk throughout the podcast. Continue reading →

Colin’s Top Ten Movies of 2019

I think there’s little disputing that 2019 was a great year for movies, and I’m not sure I have much to add to that sentiment. It was a great year for movies if you wanted to see something small and artsy, it was a great year if you want to something mid-budget and weird (thanks A24), and it was a great year if you wanted to see something grand and spectacular at your local multiplex (sans a disappointing Star Wars conclusion). I felt like I stayed fairly up-to-date with all the movies worth seeing this year, and yet there’s still a few I wished I’d been able to cram in. But hey, that’s not a bad problem to have. Continue reading →

The Eighth Annual Mildly Pleased Awards

Another year in the books, another year of mildly pleasing pop culture. Though we may be living in a world of extremes, here we take a look each year at the most middling things that the year had to offer. 2019 had no shortage of things that struck our pleasure centers right in the middle, as this awards podcast sees us discussing the likes of revamped Sonic the Hedgehog, Keanu Reeves, and the 30-50 Feral Hogs that serve as a constant threat. Continue reading →

Colin’s Top Ten TV Shows of 2019

I’ve made my peace with the fact that Top Ten TV Shows is the list I spend the least amount of time pouring over. Possibly because I don’t feel like I’ve watched 10 shows I really love until I’ve binge-watched one final show right before constructing my list. Still, I felt a bit more on top of TV this year than usual, and yet because there are just so many darn shows out there, before I get to the list, I present you once again with… Continue reading →

The Pick: The Rise of Skywalker

Ever since The Force Awakens came out 4 years ago, we’ve reviewed a Star Wars movie almost every year in podcast form (sorry Solo). And almost every time, our takes have been fairly cold, seeing as these movies often come out around the holidays, when its hardest to coordinate a podcast among Mildly Pleased’s contributors. Alas, here is our review of the final movie in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker. We’re joined by our friend and Star Wars superfan Matt Carstens for a lively (and long) discussion about went wrong with The Rise of Skywalker, what went right, and where things go from here. Continue reading →