Blogocentric Formulations

November Watch List

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I keep meticulous track of all the books, scripts, and comics I read every year. Plus the podcasts I listen to. But the one thing I don't do very often is write about the things I watch. I don't really know why I haven't until this point, but I recently noticed that a friend of mine writes up a "media consumption" post on Facebook every month and I thought I might start doing the same.

To qualify for the list, it has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, it just can't be reruns of something I've already seen. So if I'm including it in this list, it means this month is the first time I've watched it. I won't list the stuff I lost interest in quickly, but I'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish.

Movies

          The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
          I Am Vanessa Guillen
          Samaritan
          The Star
          The Swimmers

Television

          Partner Track
          Tales of the Jedi
          White Lotus (Season 2)
          The World Cup

On the movie side of things, I really liked THE SWIMMERS a lot more than I thought I would. It's a biographical drama about the story of real-life Syrian refugee sisters Yusra and Sara Mardini, who crossed the Aegean Sea by swimming alongside a dinghy full of other refugees to lighten the load. Yusra eventually became an Olympic swimmer, and Sara joined a refugee rights group. I'm normally not big on biopics, but this one was really well done, with a great underlying true story and excellent acting and filmmaking to accompany it. The only other notable movie I watched as SAMARITAN, although not because it was a good movie. On the contrary, it was actually pretty bad, but it's notable because it has a twist at the end of it that I've contemplated for one of my own scripts for years, and it's always a little frustrating when you find someone else has beaten you to an idea, especially when it doesn't quite live up to the potential of the concept.

For the television I watched this month, the second season of WHITE LOTUS is decent and I like the idea that the new season is basically a new set of characters at a new resort somewhere in the world. Talk about a great concept. Every time they want to renew the show for another season, they go to the showrunner and he probably goes, "Okay, the next season will be set in the White Lotus luxury resort in... hmm, where do I want to travel next?" And TALES FROM THE JEDI is an interesting collection of shorts. There are six of them and, like any collection of shorts, they're not all winners. I'd say there's probably one really good one, two okay ones, and three that really didn't do much for me at all.

The real highlight of this month has been watching the World Cup. I splurged on a Hulu + Live TV subscription so that I could watch a few of the games. I wasn't particularly looking forward to it because the whole thing being set in Qatar has been a real case study in corruption and human rights violations, but the actual sport itself has been great, including some surprisingly results, really intense games, and amazing goals. I'm not a huge soccer fan like my brother, who follows a ton of the international teams throughout the years between, but I get on the bandwagon every four years for the World Cup and have really enjoyed watching it so far.

TOP PICK: The World Cup