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.
Alex Trebek (CREDIT: Jeopardy!/YouTube Screenshot)
In honor of Alex Trebek’s last week of new episodes, the That’s Auntertainment team is re-releasing their Jeopardy! episode (original airdate: 12/7/19), in which 2019 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions semifinalist Steven Grade joins Jeff and Aunt Beth to discuss all things Jeopardy!
We all feel a little out of space sometimes (PHOTO CREDIT: Selfie)
Post-March, the options for seeing a movie in the theatre 100% safely were notably limited in 2020. As such, this list of my moviegoing is far from an exhaustive representation of all the new films I saw this past year.
(Included with the list of titles are grades, dates, showtimes, theatre locations, and folks I saw the movies with.)
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.
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, Donnell Rawlings, Angela Bassett, Questlove
Directors: Pete Docter and Kemp Powers
Running Time: 106 Minutes
Rating: PG
Release Date: December 25, 2020 (Disney+)
Graham Norton as a hippie sign waver? I wasn’t expecting that. I like it!
I’m going to go ahead and whip out the “Does this movie make me want to do what it’s about?” type of review. So here goes: does Soul make me want to have a soul? Very much so! I may already have one, but if I don’t … I’d like one! Also relevant: when I’m listening and/or singing along to soul music, that’s pretty dang invigorating as well. (Soul features more jazz than soul, but soul and jazz are often in conversation with each other.)
It’s ultimately a religio-philosophical matter whether or not an inner essence exists, and what it should be called, and how it should be defined. Which is all to say, we probably can’t fully ever know all there is to know about the soul. This film is part of that inquiry, and if its inquiring essence resonates with anybody, then it might just be worth incorporating its ideas into our personal philosophies. Soul posits that our purpose isn’t what we’re passionate about, but how we’re passionate. That’s pretty damn life-affirming from my vantage point.
Wonder Woman 1984 (CREDIT: Warner Bros. Pictures/YouTube Screenshot)
Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen
Director: Patty Jenkins
Running Time: 151 Minutes
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: December 25, 2020 (Theaters/HBO Max)
Wonder Woman 1984 was … not exactly what I was expecting. It’s a “Monkey’s Paw”/be careful what you wish for-type story. In fact, at one point Diana Prince literally says “Monkey’s Paw.” Multiple times, if I’m remembering correctly. You see, there’s this stone that grants wishes to whomever’s touching it. Which sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right? But alas of course, something important is taken from the wish-grantee in turn. Not exactly mold-breaking in terms of the history of storytelling, but quite unusual in the realm of big-budget superhero cinema. At the very least, I gotta give Patty Jenkins and company credit for very much not taking the road most travelled.
I wish I could say I was thrilled by the execution, though! Instead, I was trying to figure out what the whole deal with the execution was throughout most of the movie. And this is a long movie! Spending more than two hours trying to figure out a movie’s whole deal is not my preferred way of watching a movie. I could envision some structural changes to the script/editing that would make character motivations a bit more clear and resonant. I’m pretty sure I got what Diana’s situation was, and K-Wiig as Barbara Minerva and Mr. Pedro Pascal started with intriguing setups, but at the end, I found myself thinking, in multiple ways, “Wait, how’s that again?” Also, this movie took place in the 80s, but there were very few, if any, scenes of people doing coke or voting for Ronald Reagan.
Promising Young Woman (CREDIT : Merie Weismiller Wallace/Focus Features)
I’ve already published a rave review of Promising Young Woman that you can check out here, and now that the release date has finally arrived, I’ve got some spoiler-rific thoughts to share. This is all to say: SPOILER ALERT! So you know, don’t read this unless you’ve seen it or if you’re fine with knowing all the details ahead of time.
ONE LAST WARNING! Don’t click ahead unless you really mean to…
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!
News of the World (CREDIT: Bruce W. Talamon/Universal Pictures)
Starring: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel, Michael Covino, Mare Winningham, Elizabeth Marvel, Thomas Francis Murphy, Bill Camp
Director: Paul Greengrass
Running Time: 118 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for A Particularly Tense Shootout and a Few Other Occasional Bursts of Western Meanness
Release Date: December 25, 2020
The title of Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks’ latest collaboration might lead you to believe that America’s Dad is finally getting his Frank Sinatra on. And while he does indeed start spreading those titular news, the focus is much more squarely on his journey with a young girl in a sort of gentler spin on The Searchers. Both elements of the story are about the importance and difficulty of communication. Hanks plays Captain Jefferson Kidd, a widowed Civil War veteran who traverses the Texas frontier to tell tales of recent events of notes to whomever is willing to listen to them. During his journeys, he encounters 10-year-old Johanna (Helena Zengel), who’s been raised by the Kiowa tribe ever since they killed her German immigrant parents. She fancies herself a Kiowa now, so when the family she’s been living with is also killed, she becomes an orphan twice over. She then winds up in the captain’s care as he attempts to deliver her to her aunt and uncle, which is not a plan she’s exactly a fan of.
News of the World demonstrates the value of an unexpected title. There are only a handful of scenes of Captain Kidd delivering those news, so I don’t think I would have considered them very deeply if the title hadn’t primed me to. In a setting with rudimentary mass communication, these stories are orphans that find themselves in as precarious a position as Johanna. There is no guarantee that the ears they fall on will even accept them. They benefit immensely from a patient medium like Captain Kidd. Both the news of the world and Johanna require love and support in getting from where they are to where they need to be going. I wasn’t expecting the philosophy of Marshall McLuhan to be so starkly clear in the latest Greengrass film, but in this case, the medium absolutely is the message.
News of the World is Recommended If You Like: A kind and gentle (but not that gentle) approach to Westerns, Clutch supporting turns from Bill Camp and Elizabeth Marvel
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