Best of 2020 Part 3: TV & Movies

Best movie: 

I’m not a Christopher Nolan junkie, nor a spy thriller fan, so it’s quite a surprise that I loved Tenet as much as I did.  I think I understand 95% of it now, and I’ve only watched it three times, so that’s not bad.  Seriously, I think John David Washington is great, as was the whole cast.  One normal and one inverted thumb up for a movie I file in my science fiction collection.  Great stuff.

Best shows:

5. Jeopardy! – final season with Alex

4. Star Trek: Picard – Season 1

3. American Dad! – Season 17

2. Star Trek: Discovery – Season 3

1. Star Wars: The Mandalorian – Season 2

Jeopardy’s never made my lists here before but watching Alex Trebek keep on going and going only weeks before his death is awe-inspiring.

American Dad had a better than average season this year.  Some of the episodes this year will go down as the series’ best:  “Brave N00B World“, “300“, and “First, Do No Farm”.  The latter features a new Weird Al Yankovic called “Rabbitage” based on — you guessed it — “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys.  The season also featured pop star The Weeknd in an episode called “A Starboy is Born”.

I’m jumping the gun a little bit on Discovery as the season hasn’t ended yet.  However, setting the season over 900 past the days of Kirk and Spock has opened the show up to new possibilities and…discoveries.  It has been a great season with some standout episodes that felt more like The Next Generation than anything since.  Contemplative episodes with minimal (sometimes zero) violence.  Trek is back, and Discovery is currently the superior show, even over Picard, which was pretty good itself.

And finally we have Mandalorian, which despite an unimpressive initial teaser trailer went on to be the show we always hoped it could be.  And it was Bill fucking Burr’s Mayfeld that really pushed it late in the season, adding some much needed character development.  All this made it so much more delicious when Giancarlo Esposito’s Moff Gideon did all the moustache-twirling villain stuff at the end.  Then we get Boba, more vicious and primal, and the stoic but intense Jedi.  Bonus points for doing what Qui-Gon Jinn failed to do in Episode I:  just crush the fucking droid with the Force already!  Thanks, Luke.

2020 was the Year Without a Marvel.  Boo.

32 comments

  1. I thought you said that Discovery was better than Mando. Maybe that was before the finale. It definitely deserves that spot. And I know, Bill Burr of all people with those acting chops. I’d say that surprised a lot of people.

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        2. Dude, Harrison’s right. I think there was a particularly Billy moment this season where I just went, “Well shit. That’s the most powerful emotion we’ve seen on this show yet.” And it was 100% Burr! Really impressed. They have to have him back next year.

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        3. I’d laugh my butt of f if he became the next comedian turned acclaimed actor, given that he’s doesn’t think he can act. He said he was talking to Travolta and John was telling him how Vince Vega had a different walk than say, Danny Zuko. Bill’s thinking to himself, “All my characters walk like me!”

          He also got compliments in The Front Runner when he’s interviewing an angry Hugh Jackman and drops his notebook. Actors told him they loved the choice he made to drop the notebook, and he said he wasn’t acting. He was legitimately freaked out a moment because he was standing next to an agitated Wolverine.

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    3. I’m glad you liked Discovery man! I think I have a few issues but we will see how the series wraps up. I think my biggest disappointment with Discovery (so far) is that they introduced the amazing Adira character and now they are relegated to a tiny role, and we almost never see Gray. There has been a lot going on this season, perhaps too many new characters. Book has been amazing, love Book. But want MORE Book! I think the problem was they had spin off Michelle Yeoh into her own series, and so her stories were dominant over Adira/Gray and Book.

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  2. Star Wars ended in ’83. Star Trek ended on life support with some DS9 episodes in ’99. Can’t wait for both to make comebacks with good shows!

    For some good sci-fi, I’ve been enjoying Doctor Who and still waiting for the Orville to sail off into the sunset!

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    1. Did Kontrarian Kopp hack your account? :)

      Sigh, I wish I could turn you around on some of these things, but we do have the Orville eventually. There was a Family Guy episode recently where Peter wasn’t taking any calls from the Orville people.

      Haven’t watched Doctor Who in a few years, but what if I told you Tom Baker has a Star Wars character called the Bendu?

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  3. Mandalorian turned out to be amazing. I am so glad I stuck with it because it delivered in every way I had hoped it would. And I agree on Jeopardy as well. We have watched a lot of this season and it was cool there was this guy recently that was winning numerous days and with lots of money as Alex always loved that.

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    1. You can really tell Alex loved his job. He loved any time something rare happened on the show, he loved the big numbers and the come from behind wins. I hope Ken is as watchable as Alex, but he has mighty big shoes to fill.

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      1. Yes he did. You could see the excitement during the some of the games. He loved the really daring and smart contestants.

        And Ken, I am excited to see him do it, but not sure he is the right fit. No one can fill those shoes and shouldn’t even try. There will never be another Alex.

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      2. I wish David Lee Roth had been the replacement like in the “Hot for Teacher” video. Lord knows he’s accumulated the knowledge over his adventurous years to do it.

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  5. Of those shows we only get Mandalorian here on Disney plus. American Dad is on at times too, but haven’t watched much of that. The other shows are not shown here. Agree on Mandalorian, only seen the first season so far.
    Listening to C.I.T.A. Relapse of Reason. My friend shuffle served this one today. Had forgotten about this album. It’s a really good one.

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    1. I watched on headphones and I found it fine. The music soundtrack is very loud but I found that to be an appropriate choice. The music is really good and part of the action.

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      1. we just rented the movie..watching it tonight…good to hear that it’s a good one.
        How did u guys do on yesterdays game? Over here they are only showing our own games on free channels. Haven’t been reading the news over the holidays.
        Good to see that u got the Loudness live set for Christmas. I got a pocket knife for work, box of candy, a few cd’s and we started on a puzzle I got last Christmas, it’s a picture of Eiffel Tower at night. been eyeing those album cover puzzles but don’t think my son would be up for those.
        I got Lego Yellow submarine set a few Christmases ago and it’s still in the box.
        One of the cds I got is Loverboy Big ones. I love Loverboy. Are u sick of hearing them over there? They never got played on the radio here, not even back in the day.

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