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| Solitaire: my favorite video game of 2019 |
Here are the three best and the one worst of 2019 for a few different categories.
Top Three Movies I Saw in 2019
3. The Big Chill
Made for boomers, approved by millennials.
2. Mind the Gap
I am going to make it through this year if it kills me.
1. Roma
[slowly pans the camera from left to right, surveying 2019's destruction]
(HONORABLE MENTION, UGH: Booksmart—if comedies trend in this direction, then there will be no one-dimensional characters left)
The Worst Movie I Saw in 2019
LemonThe movie that convinced us that Pam really needs to check Rotten Tomatoes on nights when it's her turn to pick the movie.
Top Three TV Shows I Watched in 2019
3. This Is Us
This is the corniest show that will ever air on any television screen for all of time, and I cannot get enough. A.k.a. the only show that my mother and I both watch, at least since I quit watching Survivor nineteen years ago.
2. High Maintenance
The absolute best show at capturing the infinite tapestry of the human condition, all through a delightful haze of smoke.
1. Lodge 49
I have never known a pain as deep as I do now, knowing that we will never know the truth about the Order of the Lynx's precious mysteries. I have never known joy as deep as I do now, having gotten the opportunity to even brush up against Dud's bottomless well of optimism.
(HONORABLE MENTIONS, UGH: BoJack Horseman for continuing to be BoJack Horseman, and Russian Doll for, against all odds, successfully turning Groundhog Day into a prestige drama.)
The Worst TV Show I Watched in 2019
This is an anthology series, so supposedly it tells a different story every episode, but for some reason it keeps coming back to this shitty couple who have an ongoing experiment with an open marriage. They completely give the concept of opening up a bad name, over and over, and that really pisses me off for reasons I'm not going to explain on a blog.
Top Three Books I Read in 2019
3. Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968 by Ryan H. Walsh
If you think it's weird that someone wrote a whole book about a Van Morrison album, just wait till you read about the Boston cults tangentially related to it.
2. The Throwback Special by Chris Bachelder
I am starting to prepare for middle age by reading about those refusing to accept middle age.
1. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Like Jane the Virgin did with Spanish telenovelas, Kavalier & Clay deftly dissects the superhero genre while actually becoming one too.
(HONORABLE MENTION, UGH: White Noise by Don DeLillo interested me immensely while reading it, even if I felt a little hollow afterward)
The Worst Book I Read in 2019
And it's not even close. But guess what? It turns out that shitty books make for EXCELLENT book club discussions.
2 comments:
I was gonna mention this on your last post, but it's always nice+surprising to see a Lodge 49 fan in real life. Having stumbled upon it during a bad 3rd date, the show's funny and insightful. Another in the long line of shows axed too quickly.
Also nice to remember Keep Her Safe, in its own way.
Gotta find some connections between Lodge 49 and The Overstory so we can discuss at next book club!
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