Blogocentric Formulations

December 2024 Watch List

To qualify for my Watch List every month, the following has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, but it can't be reruns or rewatches 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'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish.


Movies

          101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure
          Challengers
          Moana 2
          Sonic the Hedgehog 3
          Spellbound

There wasn't a lot that was great in the feature film department this month. Moana 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 were both serviceable sequels, but not as good as their predecessors, and 101 Dalmations II was yet another of the early-2000s sequel cash-ins that Disney did and my kids seem to love, so I end up watching them too. None of them have been particularly impressive. And speaking of not-that-impressive, Spellbound was one of the animated features I worked on during my brief time at Skydance, and - along with Luck - these two were supposed to be the resurgence of John Lasseter as an animation genius after being ousted from Disney and Pixar. Luck was pretty good, but I remember everyone at the company at the time was like, "That one's okay, but Spellbound is going to be John's opus." So I was a little surprised to have liked Luck considerably better than Spellbound. It just felt so... generic.

Challengers, on the other hand, while a far from perfect movie, was a really interesting watch. I'm not sure I totally buy into Luca Guadagnino as a "visionary" filmmaker, but he definitely has a clear and specific point of view and I can appreciate that about his movies. I love tennis too, so being set in that world kept my interest, especially when approaching it from a perspective of what a day-to-day journeyman tennis player experiences, as opposed to the celebrities at the top of the game. I actually thought the acting of the two guys (Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor) were weak points of the movie even as others have praised them; but the directing, Zendaya's performance, and the storytelling was excellent.


Television

          A Man on the Inside (Season 1)
          Arcane (Season 1)
          Black Doves (Season 1)
          Formula 1: Drive to Survive (Season 2)
          Formula 1: Drive to Survive (Season 3)
          Formula 1: Drive to Survive (Season 4)
          Law & Order (Season 24)
          The Rookie (Season 6)
          Shrinking (Season 2)

This was a really good month for television. A Man on the Inside saw showrunner Mike Shur and Ted Danson re-team for another show, this one about a retiree who goes undercover in a retirement community to help a private investigator with a theft she's been hired to solve, and it's delightful. I'm really looking forward to what I hope will be a second season. Black Doves was an interesting espionage thriller starring Keira Knightley that got better as it went, and the second season of Shrinking on Apple TV+ really delivered on a lot of the setup and groundwork that was established in the first season. The emotional character arcs might be as good as Ted Lasso, depending on how the third season goes.

The runaway top pick for television this month, though, was Formula 1: Drive to Survive, which I'm officially hooked on. Season 4 was the most dramatic so far (it covered the 2021 season where Lewis Hamilton lost his bid for a record-setting eighth Driver's Championship to Max Verstappen, who has dominated the Driver's Championship ever since. That year the Driver's Championship was hotly contested all year long and came down to the very last race, which ended up being quite controversial with some of the calls that were made. I'll definitely be caught up on Season 5 and Season 6 before the presumed release of Season 7 ahead of the new Formula 1 season starts in March of 2025. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys sports docuseries; this one is exceptionally well-produced.

TOP PICK:
Formula 1: Drive to Survive (Season 4)