Each week, I check out the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart, and then I rearrange the top 25 based on my estimation of their quality. I used to rank all of the top 25, now I just rank the cream of the crop.
Original Version
1. Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”
2. Imagine Dragons – “Thunder”
3. Imagine Dragons – “Believer”
4. Portugal. The Man – “Feel It Still”
5. Foster the People – “Sit Next to Me”
6. Bad Wolves – “Zombie”
7. John Mayer – “New Light”
8. Panic! at the Disco – “Say Amen (Saturday Night)”
9. Alice Merton – “No Roots”
10. Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”
11. lovelytheband – “Broken”
12. Arctic Monkeys – “Four Out of Five”
13. Godsmack – “Bulletproof”
14. Florence + the Machine – “Hunger”
15. Bastille – “Quarter Past Midnight”
16. Five Finger Death Punch – “Gone Away”
17. Vance Joy – “Saturday Sun”
18. Shinedown – “Devil”
19. Two Feet – “I Feel Like I’m Drowning”
20. Muse – “Thought Contagion”
21. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – “You Worry Me”
22. Dave Matthews Band – “Samurai Cop (Oh Joy Begin)”
23. Sir Sly – “& Run”
24. 30 Seconds to Mars – “Dangerous Night”
25. Five Finger Death Punch – “Sham Pain”
Jmunney’s Revision
1. Bohemian Rhapsody
2. No Roots
3. Feel It Still
4. You Worry Me
5. I Feel Like I’m Drowning
6. Four Out of Five
7. &Run
8. New Light
9. Hunger
10. Thought Contagion
Each week, I check out the Billboard Hot 100, and then I rearrange the top 20 based on my estimation of their quality. I used to rank all 20, now I just rank the cream of the crop.
Original Version
1. Childish Gambino – “This Is America”
2. Drake – “Nice for What”
3. Drake – “God’s Plan”
4. Post Malone ft. Ty Dolla $ign – “Psycho”
5. Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line – “Meant to Be”
6. Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey – “The Middle”
7. Ariana Grande – “No Tears Left to Cry”
8. BlocBoy JB ft. Drake – “Look Alive”
9. Camila Cabello – “Never Be the Same”
10. Ed Sheeran – “Perfect”
11. Ella Mai – “Boo’d Up”
12. Migos ft. Drake – “Walk It Talk It”
13. Lil Dicky ft. Chris Brown – “Freaky Friday”
14. Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”
15. Kane Brown – “Heaven”
16. Marshmello and Anne-Marie – “Friends”
17. Bazzi – “Mine”
18. The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar – “Pray for Me”
19. Post Malone ft. 21 Savage – “Rockstar”
20. Shawn Mendes – “In My Blood”
Jmunney’s Revision
1. No Tears Left to Cry
2. This Is America
3. Pray for Me
4. Boo’d Up
5. Never Be the Same
This review was originally published on News Cult in May 2018.
Network: ABC
Showrunners: DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler
Main Cast: Patricia Heaton, Neil Flynn, Charlie McDermott, Eden Sher, Atticus Shaffer
Notable Guest Stars: Daniela Bobadilla, Casey Burke, Jen Ray, Beau Wirick, Brock Ciarlelli, Alphonso McAuley, Sean O’Bryan, Pat Finn, Jackson White, Paul Hipp, Lisa Rinna, Gregory Harrison, French Stewart, Marsha Mason, Brian Doyle-Murray, John Cullum, Norm Macdonald, Corbin Bleu, Brooke Shields, Dave Foley, Jack McBrayer, Katlin Mastandrea
Episode Running Time: 22 Minutes
The Middle is my favorite comfort food show of the past ten years, and possibly of all time. That term may imply lack of ambition, but it nonetheless takes serious skill to be consistently satisfying in the way The Middle has been for nearly a decade. It may not be a treatise on the human condition in the way that a Lost or a Mad Men is, and it may not tackle social issues head-on the way that other sitcoms like black-ish or One Day at a Time do, but it is not as if it ignores any of that. It recognizes the bigger world all around it, but it is focused on drawing meaning from its one particular family and its one particular community. Life goes on all the over the place, while the townfolk of Orson carry on in their own particular pocket. Ergo, the appropriate snugness of the show’s title.
This final season has been the most comfort food-style of The Middle’s run ‒ more than we needed to sustain ourselves, but not so much as to become overstuffed. It could have ended a few years ago and gone out on the highest of high notes. The Season 6 finale was the most valedictory, with a triumphant high school graduation for Sue, the series’ heart and soul. But life continues to go on with its usual rhythms after our big celebrations, and so it goes for the Heck family. With Axl now out of school and Sue a few years into college, their foibles are perhaps less structured than they used to be (Brick’s misadventures have always been unmoored), so even into Season 9, The Middle rarely suffered diminishing returns or shamelessly repeated itself. It did not have to bring out the big spectacles to satisfy us, it just had to keep on being itself, and so that is what it did.
That is not to say that Season 9 was not completely devoid of a few celebrations. When The Middle finds something worth celebrating, it tends to make for some of the best episodes, even if the festivities may look a little silly to outsiders, or even a few insiders. Take for example the 200th episode, aptly titled “The 200th,” which aptly finds everyone in Orson putting together some festivities after finally being named one of the 200 Friendliest Places to Live … in Indiana. Everyone takes it all a bit too seriously, except for the notoriously unsentimental Mike, but he ultimately comes around in one of his rare but always welcome displays of emotion. He delivers a speech that could be a summary of the whole series, about how Orson is a town where people look out for each other, just like how this show has always looked out for its audience.
A major throughline for this season has been each of the Heck children’s romantic relationships. Axl remains happily coupled with Lexie, even though it has been never clear to me exactly where the attraction arose between them in the first place. (I always thought Devin Levin was a much more compatible match.) But now that they are officially together, it is clear that they like and respect each other, and they do in fat work well together, as she has plenty of patience to deal with his lesser qualities. The most fraught relationship is of course that between Sue and Sean, who keep getting crossed up in mixed signals, some that strain credulity a bit much. But ultimately, ridiculous plot twists can be forgiven if the couple itself is worth rooting for, and this is a fine pairing. A mix of neighbor/brother’s best friend/globetrotting doctor is an ideal mix for Sue’s strains of devotion to home and silver-lining-focused ambition. Interestingly enough, Brick has been in the longest active relationship of all of his siblings, and we can only hope that as he continues to mature, he unforgettably realizes what a rare breed he has found in Cindy and does not break up with her again for no good reason.
This is all tied up with how Frankie and Mike have to deal with an imminent empty nest, which they never expected would come so soon. For how could Axl ever give up the amenities of his parents looking after him, how would Sue ever want to move away from home, and Brick, well, can you imagine Brick on his own? So sure, there will not be a complete empty nest anytime soon, but miracle of miracles, Axl has actually gained some life skills the past few years. While the Heck kids have already reached most of the clearly demarcated life checkpoints in previous seasons, new jobs and new homes are perpetually looming, less-than-predictable possibilities in young adulthood. And so a road trip out to Denver to send Axl off on a new journey thousands of miles away proves to be the perfectly bittersweet series finale setup. But if this show wants to remain forever comforting, the ending cannot be too sad. And so we are treated to a flash-forward that assures us that everyone remains close to Orson in the not-too-distant future. It’s almost a little too perfect, but come on, it’s family, and sometimes your family lets you be a little perfect.
Best Episodes: “The 200th,” “Great Heckspecktations,” “Split Decision,” “A Heck of a Ride”
How Does It Compare to Previous Seasons? This is not the best season (that is probably Season 6, capped off by Sue’s high school graduation), nor is it the biggest, but appropriately enough for a show that has always consistently and rewardingly tracked its characters’ maturation, it is the most mature.
The Middle is Recommended If You Like: Roseanne but want something a little sweeter, Fresh Off the Boat, The Goldbergs, Speechless
Where to Watch: Streaming options are unfortunately a little limited. The last five episodes are currently available on Hulu, while individual episodes and seasons are available for purchase on Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, and YouTube. And DVD’s still exist!
This review was originally published on News Cult in May 2018.
Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover, Joonas Suotamo, Paul Bettany, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Director: Ron Howard
Running Time: 135 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Lasers and Space Derring-Do
Release Date: May 25, 2018
Nobody can play Han Solo as iconically as Harrison Ford, or so the conventional wisdom goes. Now that we actually have Alden Ehrenreich’s version to dissect, we can render a more practical verdict about just how successful he is or isn’t. And while indeed young Solo has nothing on classic Solo, the task is not necessarily as impossible as originally advertised, which we know because we do not have to look far to find someone else pulling off that goal, as Donald Glover’s take on Lando Calrissian manages to be just as iconic as, if not more so (time will tell, ultimately), Billy Dee Williams’ version.
To be fair, Glover probably has the easier task, insofar as it is the less restricted one. While Ford is one of the major players in four Star Wars films, Williams only has about 15 minutes of screen time across two episodes. Ergo, Glover has plenty more freedom to fill in the blanks and create new blanks never hinted at previously, while Ehrenreich is locked into coloring necessary backstory, like earning the life debt that Chewie owes him and making the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs. But the biggest difference is in the quality of preparation. Glover feels like someone who has been auditioning to play Lando his whole life, while Ehrenreich feels like someone who has been training to be an actor, and maybe more specifically a movie star, but not so specifically Han Solo in particular. That specificity and passion is almost certainly necessary to pull off the job of simultaneously paying homage to a famous character and making it one’s own. Maybe there are some folks out there who have been playing Han Solo in front of the mirror their whole lives, but Ehrenreich is probably not one of them. He gets the job done, but he does not take it to the next level.
Solo does not rely entirely on checking off a bunch of backstory checkpoints. Like any well-bred Star Wars movie, it is populated with a menagerie of diverse characters. As far as the new faces go, most prominent are Emilia Clarke as Qi’ra, Han’s childhood friend and partner-in-crime, and Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett, Han’s smuggling mentor. They are appropriately cast, but they feel like could be any Emilia Clarke or Woody Harrelson character, as opposed to the roles of a lifetime that add new definition to what a Star War can be. Same goes for crime lord Dryden Vos, who can be easily and unfussily added to Paul Bettany’s murderers’ row of villain roles.
But not-so-quietly revolutionary is Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s motion-capture performance as L3-37, Lando’s feisty, herky-jerky droid companion. Waller-Bridge’s success comes from a starting point totally opposite of Glover’s, as she had never seen a Star Wars film before auditioning. Consequently, her performance is not beholden to any droids that have preceded her. She takes full advantage of the individuality inherent to a set of beings that seem to have plenty of free will despite also being conditioned by their programming. Her relationship with Lando suggests an open-minded (pansexual even) imagination that might as well be explored in a cinematic universe as vast as this one. And therein lies a template for keeping fresh the perhaps infinite number of future Star Wars: anchor them in a deepened spin on the familiar while introducing a high-risk, wholly fresh concoction.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is Recommended If You Like: Community’s Star Wars homages, Watching poker when you have no idea what the rules are, Human-cyborg relations
Each week, I check out the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart, and then I rearrange the top 25 based on my estimation of their quality. I used to rank all of the top 25, now I just rank the cream of the crop.
Original Version
1. Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”
2. Imagine Dragons – “Thunder”
3. Imagine Dragons – “Believer”
4. Portugal. The Man – “Feel It Still”
5. Bad Wolves – “Zombie”
6. Foster the People – “Sit Next to Me”
7. Alice Merton – “No Roots”
8. Panic! at the Disco – “Say Amen (Saturday Night)”
9. Florence + the Machine – “Hunger”
10. lovelytheband – “Broken”
11. Shinedown – “Devil”
12. Five Finger Death Punch – “Gone Away”
13. Godsmack – “Bulletproof”
14. Vance Joy – “Saturday Sun”
15. Muse – “Thought Contagion”
16. Two Feet – “I Feel Like I’m Drowning”
17. Portugal. The Man – “Live in the Moment”
18. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – “You Worry Me”
19. Sir Sly – “&Run”
20. 30 Seconds to Mars – “Dangerous Night”
21. AWOLNATION – “Handyman”
22. Three Days Grace – “The Mountain”
23. Five Finger Death Punch – “Sham Pain”
24. Florence + the Machine – “Sky Full of Song”
25. Guns N’ Roses – “Shadow of Your Love”
Jmunney’s Revision
1. No Roots
2. Feel It Still
3. You Worry Me
4. I Feel Like I’m Drowning
5. Live in the Moment
6. &Run
7. Sky Full of Song
8. Hunger
9. Thought Contagion
10. Handyman
Each week, I check out the Billboard Hot 100, and then I rearrange the top 20 based on my estimation of their quality. I used to rank all 20, now I just rank the cream of the crop.
Original Version
1. Childish Gambino – “This Is America”
2. Drake – “Nice for What”
3. Drake – “God’s Plan”
4. Post Malone ft. Ty Dolla $ign – “Pyscho”
5. Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line – “Meant to Be”
6. Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey – “The Middle”
7. BlocBoy JB ft. Drake – “Look Alive”
8. Camila Cabello – “Never Be the Same”
9. Ed Sheeran – “Perfect”
10. Ariana Grande – “No Tears Left to Cry”
11. Lil Dicky ft. Chris Brown – “Freaky Friday”
12. Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”
13. Post Malone ft. 21 Savage – “Rockstar”
14. Migos ft. Drake – “Walk It Talk It”
15. Bazzi – “Mine”
16. Travis Scott ft. Lil Uzi Vert and Kanye West – “Watch”
17. Ella Mai – “Boo’d Up”
18. Cardi B, Bad Bunny, and J Balvin – “I Like It”
19. Nicki Minaj – “Chun-Li”
20. Kane Brown – “Heaven”
Jmunney’s Revision
1. No Tears Left to Cry
2. This Is America
3. Boo’d Up
4. Never Be the Same
This review was originally posted on News Cult in May 2018.
Network: FOX
Showrunners: Brett Baer, Dave Finkel, Liz Meriwether
Main Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, Lamorne Morris, Hannah Simone, Nasim Pedrad, Danielle Rockoff, Rhiannon Rockoff
Notable Guest Stars: Damon Wayans, Jr., Brian Huskey, Rob Reiner, Dermot Mulroney, Gillian Vigman, JB Smoove, Sarah Baker, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ralph Ahn, Robert Smigel
Episode Running Time: 22 Minutes
This review contains spoilers, but this isn’t really a spoil-able type of show.
New Girl Season 7 is one of the most inessential seasons in television history. That is not a criticism, but rather, a description of an unnecessary, but very satisfying batch of episodes. All television, and all storytelling more generally, is inessential, insofar as we could survive without it. Life would be much less enriching without entertainment, certainly, but it would be possible. But once a story begins to be told, there is a sense of necessity that it must be concluded. And it could easily be argued that by the end of Season 6, New Girl had reached that conclusion, with all of its main characters having achieved major milestones in personal and professional fulfillment. But this show, at its best, has been about so much more (or so much less, but in a good way) than checking off the major storytelling checkpoints.
Nick and Jess are one of my favorite TV couples of all time, and if the last we saw of them was their kiss in the elevator at the end of “Five Stars for Beezus,” I would have rested easy in the belief that they had a long and happy union together. But I am usually hungry to see what happens when the tension of a potential couple turns into the comfort of an actual couple, and New Girl has shown itself to be the type of show uniquely suited for making that pivot interesting. With a three-year time jump to kick off the season, it seemed like we would be heading into a new status quo, but then we discover … Jess and Nick still aren’t married yet? There’s no need to panic; they are still together and happy, they have just been busy with other things, like Nick’s book tour for The Pepperwood Chronicles. But still, you would think they could find some time to put a ring on it. It turns out that much of the delay is attributable to Nick ensuring that his proposal is absolutely perfect. That obsession could have caused major strife in the past, but it is a mark of maturity for both the characters and the show that it is ultimately no big deal.
While Jess and Nick remain the last two residents of the loft, and perhaps a little bit stuck in neutral, the rest of the main crew has decidedly moved ahead to the next stages of their lives. Schmidt and Cece’s toddler Ruth Bader (Danielle and Rhiannon Rockoff) is genuinely adorable but also filled with the sort of moxie and traces of anxiety you would expect in a child whose parents are a mix of blunt and high-strung. Winston and Aly are expecting their first child; his strange propensities, and her incredible ability to accept them, are still intact, just transferred to the minutiae of pending parenthood. For the most part, the unique ways that this whole group communicates with each other remains just as intact. They are sometimes applied in fascinating new ways, as when Schmidt and Jess hash out who has the best approach for Ruth auditioning to a prestigious pre-school. But that sameness also results in hijinks that probably should not be happening anymore, as when Cece and then Nick get locked out of Ruth’s school and get mistaken for creepy lurkers, and it is like: okay, guys, we’re getting a little too old for these shenanigans.
Season 7 is not completely allergic to big final season moments, but it presents them in the uniquely askew New Girl manner. There is a one-year anniversary memorial service for a close friend who died during the time jump, and that close friend is … Furguson, of course. Winston insists that everything be performed in the Jewish manner, because he always saw his cat as Jewish, and while that does sound ridiculous, it also sounds perfectly logical when Lamorne Morris explains it with such certainty. We also, rest assured, do get that last anticipated bit of matrimony, but it all goes delightfully sideways, with a scratched cornea, an impromptu service in a hospital, and Tran’s first ever spoken line of dialogue.
Naturally unnaturally enough, there is still one more episode left to go. “Engram Pattersky” does at first appear to fit into a classic series finale box, i.e., the pack-up-and-move conclusion. It really is time for for Nick and Jess to get out of that rickety old loft and start a new chapter in their lives, even it takes an eviction notice to get them to that realization. The final reveal that the eviction angle is actually Winston’s greatest prank ever is perfectly in line with the show’s ethos, but also a little stunning. Winston never suggests that he was just trying to give his friends the motivation they needed to move forward. And that really is the New Girl way. If you want to find meaning in this young adult life, then you have to do so amidst all the chaos and indirect communication, as you scream and hopefully laugh along the way.
Best Episodes: “The Curse of the Pirate Bride,” “Engram Pattersky”
How Does It Compare to Previous Seasons? This is definitely an epilogue season, but for this show, that means it has never been more sure of its identity than at any other time during its run. It does not reach its most classic heights, but that is perfectly okay.
New Girl is Recommended If You Like: Happy Endings, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, How I Met Your Mother, Parks and Recreation, Friends
Where to Watch: Season 7 is currently available on Hulu, while Seasons 1-6 are on Netflix.
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