Your 2020 in review: TV highlights
End of the year, good time as ever for a review.
I started tracking my shows and movies with trakt in 2019, so i actually have a year of data to showcase. Keeping in mind that a lot of replays in this are me leaving the tv on in the background / while I sleep, here is my year:
https://trakt.tv/users/jleclanche/year/2020
Some highlights for me... I discovered Only Connect, what became by far my favourite game show. In general I've been enjoying game shows quite a lot and, since Trebek's diagnosis, have been going through some of Jeopardy when bored.
New seasons: I loved the latest season of Westworld, it's sweet seeing Nolan going back to his Person of Interest roots. Archer also went back to its roots and it's been great. Sabrina got even darker, loved it. Watched the last season of stranger things and got a lot less excited about it (i do remember it getting better but this is a show that should have ended after 1, maybe two seasons).
Reboots: Ducktales... What a revelation! And I just started the revived Animaniacs, also looking great. Finally watched the new Aladdin, very much enjoyed it! Lion King was ok, nothing special. Also, Sonic I thought was kinda funny; watched it for shits and giggles but honestly enjoyed it.
Watched and rewatched Hamilton. Already liked it as just a playlist but as a show it truly is phenomenal.
Some other discoveries... The Good Place. Good Girls. Ozark. All of them excellent. Started After Life but didn't get past episode 1 even though I quite want to. I finally started King of the Hill (in my watchlist for years) but I frankly can't get into it, i dislike the animation, the voices and the characters; it is witty and i can definitely see Judge's writing seeping out, but it's not smart enough to make up for the rest. And Swedish Dicks; haven't finished it as I'm watching it with a friend but loving it so far.
How was your tv year?
https://trakt.tv/users/nubs/year/2020-2020
Huh... It felt like I barely watched any TV in comparison to other years, but I guess that's not true. :P
My most watched shows were:
Time Team - 3d 42m - 93 plays (binge rewatched almost the entire show)
Doctor Who - 1d 1h 57m - 34 plays (caught up on missed seasons)
Sneaky Pete - 1d 24m - 30 plays (binged it all)
And the next few on that same list were ones where I just binged the latest season:
The Boyz
Better Call Saul
Jack Ryan
Ozark
All shows I would highly recommend. Time Team is especially recommended if you enjoy archeology, although it can unfortunately be a bit hard to track down. I wound up VPNing to the UK, and signing up for Channel 4's site using my old UK address, so I could watch it there. I also watched the latest seasons of Good Place and Westworld as well, though they didn't show up in the "most watched" list, and I definitely second your recommendations of them too.
p.s. While not TV related, my highest rated movie this year was The Lighthouse, which I would also highly, highly, highly recommend if you're into art-house cinema. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are absolutely captivating in it. I only knew Pattinson as the dude in Twilight before this, so he really blew me away with his performance.
I see from your profile you're still watching Supernatural. Did you finish it? I sort of tuned off after season… 209 or so I think. The leviathans I think are the last season I watched. I mean I loved that show but … fuckin' hell did it become repetitive. The fact no death can ever be taken seriously kind of made me care less about the show. Also I think the weird fanbase turned me off (I guess, a lot of fangirls fantasizing on sam & dean…).
I only got 13 episodes in and got kinda bored of it, TBH. It was a bit too cheesy for me, and even though I have heard it gets much better after the first few seasons, I couldn't manage to get that far into it.
ahah, okay, yeah if you didn't like the first season you won't like the rest (especially since S1 is the least cheesy of all of them, it's pretty dark, was my favourite)
Ah, okay. Well that's good to know, so I don't waste my time trying to give it another chance again later.
p.s. It's funny because Doctor Who 2005+ is pretty damn cheesy in a similar way, and can also get quite repetitive as well... but for some reason I love that show. I guess it's the British vs American accents that makes the difference for me. :P
Yeah doctor who and supernatural are similar in many many ways. They definitely have a different vibe though; Supernatural is very american. I'd say in fact that Supernatural is as close as it gets to an american adaptation of Torchwood.
Have you given the Stargate series a shot? Looking at your profile, I'd say you might like it (start with SG-1). It's also pretty involved and the show evolves and progresses a lot over time which is fascinating, very few series can do that.
Yep. It's one of my favorites series, along with Star Trek. :)
Haha well, I told you so then I guess ;)
Sell me on SGU! I haven't watched it. I've heard a lot of both good and bad things about it.
Honestly, SGU is my favorite of the bunch. It's way more dark and serious than the others, and Robert Carlyle (Begbie from Trainspotting) is fucking amazing in it. It's just a shame it was cancelled so early in its run. That's its only real downside, IMO. :(
p.s. Farscape is pretty awesome too. If you haven't seen it yet you might enjoy it as well. And you may even recognize the actor who plays the main character in it, Ben Browder, from SG-1 as well.
Oh, and Fringe is really really good too. It's similar to SGU in how serious and dark it is, but is a bit like a cross between X-files and Stargate. So you might enjoy that too.
Yeah, both Farscape and Fringe are in my watchlist. Okay, I'll bump them up, and add SGU to the mix then :)