As often is the case, I'll hear an interesting idea when listening to a podcast and envision myself as the sort of industrious person that can pull off said idea. Screen play plots, thematic improv shows, a party where we recreate my favorite live album (the difficult to locate Hey, Everything's Fine by Limbeck)—all have been contemplated, none have been executed.
When my child was born, I felt very much that one chapter of my life was ending and another was beginning. That proved very true, and many of my creative ventures fell by the wayside, while I (willingly and lovingly) absorbed myself in all that is my daughter.
Still, I needed a creative outlet more rewarding than changing the lyrics to nursery rhymes to trick my daughter to sit down in the tub.
While listening to The Watch podcast, hosts Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald discussed director Steven Soderbergh's chronicling of his consumption habits. He published the list on his blog (the Soderblogh) and called it "Seen, Read 2018." Pretty much, that's his only blog post since 2016, an annual list of what he has watched, read, or listened to.
I came across this concept around when my daughter was born in spring 2018, and thought, "Well, I can watch things and write them down." So, I did. I bought the pictured composition book and dutifully jotted down my media habits while home on paternity leave and over the course of 2018-19.
Initially, I included music, sporting events, and concerts, but those became obsolete pretty quick. So I nixed them. Still, I wrote down every movie, TV show, and book that I read to completion. At the end of the first year (June 2019), I tallied them all up, and even made top 10 lists. I wasn't writing that much at the time, and while I toyed with posting them somewhere, I never got around to it. But I kept watching and continued to keep track.
Now, with Year Two completed, and me quarantined for the foreseeable future, I figured I should analyze myself a bit. Thanks to Puke on Your Birthday, I'll present my Best Of lists in several categories in posts over the next month or so.
There's no rule as to what's included, other than I saw it during a calendar year (from June 1, 2019 until May 31, 2020). I divided my lists into Movies, Books, Short TV Shows, and Long TV Shows. The television breakdown exists only because that's how I mentally treat shows—short and long. There will be top 10 lists for each category, except for books, as I only read 14 books during the time.
For prosperity, below are my lists for 2018-19. Thank you for indulging me in this whim.
2018-19
Top 10 Long TV Shows (out of 24 shows)
1. Succession, Season 1, HBO
2. Game of Thrones, Season 8, HBO
3. Killing Eve, Season 1, BBC America
4. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Season 2, Amazon Prime
5. Dark, Season 1, Netflix
6. Counterpart, Season 1, Cinemax
7. Lodge 49, Season 1, AMC
8. Better Call Saul, Season 4, AMC
9. True Detective, Season 3, HBO
10. Little Drummer Girl, Season 1, AMC
Top 10 Short TV Shows (out of 16 shows)
1. The Good Place, Season 3, NBC
2. Atlanta, Season 2, FXX
3. Big Mouth, Season 2, Netflix
4. GLOW, Season 2, Netflix
5. Barry, Season 1, HBO
6. BoJack Horseman, Season 2, Netflix
7. American Vandal, Season 2, Netflix
8. Insecure, Season 3, HBO
9. Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, (I guess Season 2?), Netflix
T10. Everything Sucks!, Season 1, Netflix / One Day at a Time, Season 2, Netflix
Top 10 Movies (out of 45 films)
1. Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock, 1960, BBC America
2. Coco, Lee Unkrich, 2017, Netflix
3. Double Indemnity, Billy Wilder, 1944, TCM
4. Crazy Rich Asians, John M. Chu, 2018, HBO
5. The Favourite, Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018, Xfinity OnDemand
6. A Monster Calls, J.A. Bayona, 2016, Cinemax
7. Roma, Alfonso Cuarรณn, 2018, Netflix
8. A Star Is Born, Bradley Cooper, 2018, AMC-Plymouth Meeting
9. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Jake Kasdan, 2017, Starz
10. Isle of Dogs, Wes Anderson, 2018, HBO
Top 5 Books (out of 11 books)
1. Watership Down, Richard Adams, 1972
2. Outline, Rachel Cusk, 2014
3. IQ84, Haruki Murakami, 2009
4. Beartown, Fredrik Backman, 2016
5. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley, 1991
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