Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
January 15, 2021
Entertainment To-Do List, Television Disenchantment, grown-ish, Nancy Drew, RIverdale, WandaVision Leave a comment
WandaVision (CREDIT: Marvel Entertainment/YouTube Screenshot)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
TV
–Disenchantment Part 3 (January 15 on Netflix)
–WandaVision (January 15 on Disney+) – The MCU heads to the burbs.
–Nancy Drew Season 2 Premiere (January 20 on The CW)
–Riverdale Season 5 Premiere (January 20 on The CW)
–grown-ish Season 3 Midseason Premiere (January 21 on Freeform)
January 8, 2021
Entertainment To-Do List, Television A Discovery of Witches, Critics Choice Super Awards, Dickinson, Search Party, Teresa Palmer, Whose Line is it Anyway? Leave a comment
Dickinson (CREDIT: Apple TV/YouTube Screenshot)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
TV
–Dickinson Season 2 Premiere (January 8 on Apple TV+) – I just started watching Season 1, and I hope to be caught up soon!
–Whose Line is it Anyway? Season 17 Premiere (January 8 on The CW)
–A Discovery of Witches Season 2 Premiere (January 9 on Shudder and Sundance Now) – You know I GOT TO watch a show with Teresa Palmer.
–Critics Choice Super Awards (January 10 on The CW)
–Search Party Season 4 Premiere (January 14 on HBO Max) – The third season arrived less than a year ago!
January 6, 2021
Best of 2020, Best of TV 2020, Television A.P. Bio, American Dad!, Animaniacs, Beef House, Best of 2020, Better Call Saul, Big Mouth, Dispatches From Elsewhere, How to with John Wilson, Joe Pera Talks with You, Killing Eve, Middleditch & Schwartz, Never Have I Ever, PEN15, Rick and Morty, Search Party, The Baby-Sitters Club, The Mandalorian, What We Do in the Shadows, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist Leave a comment
(CREDIT: FX/YouTube Screenshot)
When making Best Episode lists, some TV critics limit themselves to one entry per show, but I never operate by that self-imposition, as certain shows are just masterful when crafting a single hour or half-hour (or whatever runtime they feel like using), and that ought to be reflected in the ledger. So you’ll find that several shows have wound up more than once in this list, and those tended to be the ones that also fared the best on my Best Shows of 2020 list. You’ll also find at least one program that didn’t make my Best Shows list, as it’s possible to have one excellent outing within an otherwise disappointing season. So forthwith, if someone who missed all TV in 2020 asked me for a refresher, here is where I would direct them:
January 4, 2021
Best of 2020, Best of TV 2020, Television A.P. Bio, American Dad!, American Housewife, Animaniacs, Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, B Positive, Beef House, Best of 2020, Better Call Saul, Better Things, Big Mouth, black-ish, Bob's Burgers, Bojack Horseman, Devs, Dicktown, Dispatches From Elsewhere, Earth to Ned, Fargo, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, grown-ish, His Dark Materials, Holey Moley, How to with John Wilson, Jeopardy!, Joe Pera Talks with You, Last Week Tonight, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Match Game, McMillion$, Mike Tyson Mysteries, mixed-ish, Mrs. America, Muppets Now, Nancy Drew, Never Have I Ever, Normal People, PEN15, Rick and Morty, RIverdale, RuPaul's Drag Race, Saved by the Bell, Search Party, Sex Education, Solar Opposites, Stargirl, Superstore, The Conners, The Eric Andre Show, The Goldbergs, The Good Fight, The Good Lord Bird, The Last Dance, The Last O.G., The Mandalorian, The Masked Singer, The New Pope, The Plot Against America, The Twilight Zone, The Unicorn, Three Busy Debras, Unorthodox, What We Do in the Shadows, Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Whose Line is it Anyway?, Wilmore, Young Sheldon, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist 2 Comments
Clockwise from Top Left: What We Do in the Shadows, Never Have I Ever, Better Call Saul, How To with John Wilson (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshots)
Last year, I decided to rank as many TV shows as I felt like recognizing in my year-end list, and that worked out so well that I decided to do it again for 2020. So welcome to my ranking of the 67 Best TV Shows of 2020! Not every show is accompanied by a blurb, just the ones that I felt like I really needed to say something about.
I worked with a self-imposed rule that I had to have watched at least 50% of a show’s 2020 output for it to be eligible, but there were some shows that I’ve only just begun to watch that I wanted to recognize as well, so they’ve got their own Honorable Mention section. And there were also some shows that aired relatively few episodes in 2020 to the point that I didn’t think they should be eligible either, so they’ve also got an Honorable Mention section. And then there’s one more show that’s managed to establish its very own Honorable Mention section, and that’s where we start.
January 1, 2021
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Television Alex Trebek, Brad Rutter, Call Me Kat, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, Craig Ferguson, Doctor Who, Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks, Earth to Ned, History of Swear Words, James Holzhauer, Jane Krakowski, Jenny Slate, Jeopardy!, Ken Jennings, Mayim Bialik, Megan Mullally, Mr. Mayor, Name That Tune, Nick Offerman, Nicolas Cage, Pieces of a Woman, RuPaul's Drag Race, Sara Haines, Ted Danson, The Chase, The Great North, The Hustler, Will Forte, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist Leave a comment
The Chase; Celebrity Wheel of Fortune; The Hustler (CREDIT: Ron Batzdorff/ABC; Carol Kaelson/ABC; Christopher Willard/ABC)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Pieces of a Woman (January 7 on Netflix)
TV
–Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks (January 1 on BBC America)
–Earth to Ned Season 1 Part 2 (January 1 on Disney+) – A delightful talk show hosted by an alien. I wrote about it on my newsletter.
–RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 Premiere (January 1 on VH1)
–Call Me Kat Series Premiere (January 3 on FOX) – Starring Mayim Bialik and cats.
–The Great North Series Premiere (January 3 on FOX) – New animated show with the voices of Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Jenny Slate, Will Forte, and others.
-Alex Trebek’s last week of new Jeopardy! episodes (January 4-8, check local listings)
–The Hustler Series Premiere (January 4 on ABC) – Another game show on ABC! This one’s hosted by Craig Ferguson.
–History of Swear Words (January 5 on Netflix) – Hosted by Nicolas Cage himself.
–Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist Season 2 Premiere (January 5 on NBC)
–Name That Tune Reboot Premiere (January 6 on FOX) – Hosted by the one and only Jane Krakowski.
–Celebrity Wheel of Fortune Series Premiere (January 7 on ABC)
–The Chase Reboot Premiere (January 7 on ABC) – Jeopardy! all-time greats Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and James Holzhauer square off against contestants. Sara Haines hosts.
–Mr. Mayor Series Premiere (January 7 on NBC) – Ted Danson gets right back in the sitcom swing.
December 25, 2020
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Television Charlie Brooker, Death to 2020, Joel McHale, Ken Jeong, New Year's Eve Toast & Roast, Promising Young Woman, Soul, The Masked Dancer, Wonder Woman 1984 Leave a comment
Death to 2020 (CREDIT: Saeed Adyani/Netflix)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Promising Young Woman (Theaters)
–Soul (December 25 on Disney+)
–Wonder Woman 1984 (Theaters and HBO Max)
TV
–Death to 2020 – Some sort of comedy special from Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker.
–The Masked Dancer Series Premiere (December 27 on FOX) – The Masked Dynasty expands.
–New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast (December 31 on FOX) – Hosted by Joel McHale and Ken Jeong!
December 20, 2020
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television Dua Lipa, Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 46, SNL, SNL Season 46 1 Comment
SNL: Dua Lipa, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)
The final Saturday Night Live episode of 2020 aired six days before Christmas and was hosted by Kristen Wiig, who was accompanied by musical guest Dua Lipa. I love Christmas! Kristen Wiig has made me laugh, often! Dua Lipa’s songs have brought me so much joy! Sounds like we’re in for a good time…
I actually watched one (1) full sketch before I even started to eat my breakfast. Now onto my review…
The cold opening sketch is very, very, very often based on a notable piece of news from the past week, and that is indeed the case here, as Mike Pence Gets the Vaccine (Grade: A Plain Lollipop). Some silly impressions, Rudy pops in for a rabies joke, la la la la la, onto the opening montage.
December 18, 2020
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television Alex Trebek, American Dad!, Ariana Grande, Chadwick Boseman, Evermore, I Love You Daddy, Jeopardy!, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, McCartney III, Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, Viola Davis Leave a comment
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (December 18 on Netflix) – Viola Davis plays the title role alongside Chadwick in his final role.
TV
–American Dad! Holiday Episode (December 21 on TBS)
–Jeopardy!: “Around the World with Alex” (December 21-January 1, check local listings) – 2 weeks of classic episodes of Alex presenting clues from across the globe.
Music
-Paul McCartney, McCartney III – Macca making more music.
-Taylor Swift, Evermore – This came out last week. Taylor keeps sneaking up on us with surprise releases.
Music Documentary
–Excuse Me, I Love You (December 21 on Netflix) – Ariana Grande in concert, hurray!
December 13, 2020
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 46, SNL, SNL Season 46, Timothée Chalamet 2 Comments
SNL: Timothée Chalamet, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Cecily Strong (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)
The eighth episode of the 46th season of Saturday Night Live (now concluded [the episode, not the season]) was hosted by Timothée Chalamet, who at 24 years, 11 months, and 15 days is the youngest host of the season thus far. Here’s another Timothée Chalamet factoid: on last week’s Card Sharks, there was a question in which a group of 100 women were asked if they thought “Timothée Chalamet” was an actor or a fancy wine, and more than half said wine!
The musical guest was Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. Everybody loves it when The Boss, Patti, Little Stevie, Max Weinberg, The Professor, and The Big Man’s nephew come to town, don’t they? I sure do!
I had cereal for breakfast while watching, but this time, my Honey Nut Cheerios were Medley Crunch.
The very first sketch headed to the Situation Room (Grade: 2 and a Half Coors Light Cold Activated Cans), as Drs. Fauci and Birx discuss the Covid vaccine rollout. And no, your eyes don’t deceive you, Brad Pitt hasn’t suddenly started looking like Kate McKinnon, but rather Kate is playing Fauci now, instead of Brad when he zoomed in back in the spring.
December 11, 2020
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Television A Recipe for Seduction, Colonel Sanders, Mario Lopez, Wild Mountain Thyme Leave a comment
A Recipe for Seduction (CREDIT: Lifetime/YouTube Screenshot)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Wild Mountain Thyme (Theaters and On Demand) – Overwrought romance in Ireland.
TV
–A Recipe for Seduction (December 13 on Lifetime) – Mario Lopez plays Colonel Sanders on Lifetime.
Jmunney's Blog 