I received feedback from my number one fan that the 2024 film and TV best of list felt like a bit of a rushed job; bashed together higgledy-piggeldy and with far too much to cover for one post.
She (my wife) is definitely onto something. Despite learning from past mistakes and actually keeping a running tally of visual treats on my phone during the year, that came with no comment or context, which meant many of my end-of-year reviews were often barely more than a sentence long. As I alluded to in the intro of that entry, it's also quite a challenge making any kind of thematic sense or readable flow from such a lengthy and diverse bunch of programmes and movies.
Her solution was to keep a monthly blog, where more expansive explanations of chosen media are possible; in turn informing a more concise and conclusive 2025 rundown.
So here we are, the end of inarguably the worst month of the year, on a Sunday night after a big storm, bashing out a draft of all the things I have consumed that are worth sharing.
Perhaps during this experiment I'll figure out some sensible structure to this, but until then, I'm going to start with some new telly.
The most obvious distraction from the cold, pennilessness of January was the second series of Squid Game - in much the same way the first's runaway popularity was at least in part bolstered by so much of the globe being in pandemic lockdown.
It was never going to be able to match the shock value of Hwang Dong-hyuk's original, but the evolution of Gi-hun into a hardened survivor hell-bent on revenge and justice was well developed during those couple of episodes before he returns to the island. I wasn't aware it was going to split in two, so the lack of satisfying conclusion pissed me off somewhat, but I suppose that's something to look forward to.
I really liked the good/bad sides of his face, eventuated by red/white lighting
Another one that started during Christmas week, but we didn't catch up on until early Jan was the third season of What If? The fact that it spanned the merrineum is partly to blame, but it's also because the inventiveness of the series has really trailed off since that captivating initial run. As our MCU sage Erik Voss agrees, there seem to be an awful lot of episodes created purely for novelty value, or what appears like executives trying to get popular characters to cross-over.
For the uninitiated, I should back up a bit. One of Marvel's many mini-series', the premise is animated single-episode spins on the 'what if' scenarios happening on other reality timelines in the endless multiverse that anyone watching one of the comic book dynasty's films in the last few years has had to get their head around. It started out strong, off the back of that first year of intriguing live-action series' on Disney+, with a particular highlight being a deliciously dark episode where Steven Strange used his magic powers selfishly, to engineer his own universe where the car crash than knackered his fingers never happened. It was especially good because it aligned with the most recent Spiderman film he popped up in, and in its place towards the end of the series, sparked off an explanation of the overarching idea of The Watcher.
Fast forward to the end of the third series, and without getting too spoiler-y, the separate universe he created comes in handy to conclude the smashiest, crashiest, energy-beam-shootin', planet-destroyin' cartoon super battle imaginable. It's all very silly, but mostly good fun; especially at only half an hour a pop.
Staying on the subject of superheroes, The Franchise is a satire of exactly the ludicrousness that Marvel's 'cinematic universe' has become, making light of some of the darker stories to come out of the many tortured productions that make it (or sometimes don't) to our screens. Executive produced by Armando Iannucci and Sam Mendes - and with a solid cast of mostly British comedic actors; it's got a lot going for it. I must admit, however, that I only made it about half way through, in much the same way I have done with some of the real-life studio's lesser fare. There's plenty of In The Thick of It-style witty repartee and innovative verbal abuse, but not enough is made of the main characters and the overarching storyline of a film going wrong just became so dispiriting I gave up in search of other things to watch.
Like, for instance, a lovely wee documentary about the life of Michele Mouton. During the peak of rally driving's popularity in the eighties, she emerged into the male-dominated motorsport to come within a race of winning the world championship. There's so much more to love about her though, plus for a racing car geek like me, there was loads of great archive footage of those amazing vehicles being pushed to the absolute limit on winding wee roads, often lined with spectators far too close to the action.
I should say, that unlike seemingly the rest of the UK, I have not been watching Traitors. From what I can gather, it seems similar to the game of Werewolf, which I once saw reduce a perfectly pleasant family game night into such rancour that someone literally stormed out the house. I am absolutely not someone who thrives on such drama - actively avoiding conflict wherever possible - so I'm quite happy not to be swept up in this particular zeitgeist. I also haven't started the second season of Severance, but in that case, it's just because we don't pay for Apple TV and I'm going to wait until all episodes are out before binging the lot during a week's free trial; like I did for the first series.
Other than that, there hasn't been that much new stuff on the box that's enticed me at the start of this year, so instead I've been working through older things that I've recorded onto our Sky box.
One of the newer of those is Brian and Charles, a quirky little charmer of a film from 2022. In parts of North Wales that look very similar to where we used to have a cottage, Brian is a lonely inventor of fairly useless crap. One day a bolt of lighting turns his latest robot creation into a sentient being and then the fun really starts. This is entirely formulaic stuff, but very funny, heartwarming and pleasingly low consequence for a fragile time of year.
Going back a bit from there, 2019's Little Monsters must have been given a good review by someone I follow. After sitting through it, I'm not entirely sold though. Its a zombie-rom-com, which puts it in a small genre sub-section and immediately brings to mind the peerless Shaun of the Dead. This certainly shares some similarities, but without half as much of the wit and originality. Lupita Nyong'o is great, as per, and the final third is just about worth plodding through for, but I certainly wouldn't call this a wholehearted recommendation.
Same goes for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Terry Gilliam's 2018 release with Adam Driver gradually losing the plot, along the lines of the famous Cervantes novel of roughly the same name. I'd heard about the tortuous production and lukewarm critical response, but wanted to see for myself. There's a lot to like, but overall it's a bit like The Life of Brian or The Holy Grail, except without all the laughs.
Slightly better was Nick Moran's 2021 adaptation of Irvine Welsh's autobiography of Alan McGee, Creation Stories. There have certainly been better films made about rock'n'roll excess, and all the usual cliches are ticked off here, but it's nonetheless a story worth telling; given how crucial that label was to the era and some of its best bands.
And a couple I'd seen before, but thought were worth a watch while recovering from Hogmanay: Sexy Beast is still brilliant - a solid gangster-being-pulled-in-for-one-last-job story elevated by Jonathan Glazer's weird and wonderful style and Ben Kingsley's manic performance - while a good 25 years since I first saw it, Local Hero is just as lovely as I remember, with so many Scottish acting alumni faces to spot and odd little sub-plots to delight in.
Also, shout out to the latest Wallace & Gromit movie, which didn't make it into the end of year round-up, but is an absolute delight from start to finish. There's a strong argument to be made for Feathers McGraw being among the best baddies ever committed to film.
So many wee jokes designed solely for the British audience
As has become the way these days, the only thing I've actually seen in the cinema has been a treat for the boy; in this case the third Sonic movie. We booked ourselves into the 4DX 'extreme experience' at Cineworld, which I don't think I ever want to do again - the puffs of air in my ears every now and again got pretty exasperating - but was probably about as well-paired to this film as any I can imagine. It was genuinely quite entertaining, with Jim Carey's energetic Robotnik performance just about counteracting the insipid James Marsden, and plenty of knowing lines inserted to keep the adults chuckling along.
The only half-decent fare on Sky Cinema of late has been Wonka - is there anything Chalamet can't turn his hand to? - and Fall Guy - where some decent chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt is elevated by the slightly meta conceit of it all being an action film within a film; with plenty of love for the actual craft of great stunt work.
And I didn't think I needed, or could really handle, another Alien outing; especially without Ridley Scott at the helm. But, to be fair to Fede Alvarez and his young cast, this latest Romulus version is pretty good. I mean, it's very much a game of two halves, with the suspenseful, Weyland-Yutani world-building stuff at the start giving way to keep-the-studio-bosses-happy Xenomorph greatest hits later on. But I can't say I regretted that couple of hours on the sofa.
The month has also seen the passing of a few notable legends. To commemorate maybe Scotland's finest footballer, Denis Law, I watched the excellent Law Man documentary, in honour of the auteur's auteur, David Lynch, I gave Mullholland Drive another spin (fun fact, when I first saw it at the cinema with my parents, because I was grounded and they were bored, my mum loudly commented on the magnificence of Naomi Watt's erect nipples, but we did have a deeeeep discussion afterwards about how to interpret what we'd just seen) and in memoriam for Popbitch regular Paul Dannan I scrolled through the best of his superb spoof Instagram page.
While we're online for a second, I feel like a mention of Bobby Fingers is long overdue. If you haven't come across the YouTube account then please take this as the strongest possible recommendation. It's fairly indescribable stuff, but basically involves a hilariously deadpan Irish chap creating painstaking dioramas of controversial pop culture moments, with increasingly wild diversions from the task at hand. I haven't done it anywhere near justice, but implore you to watch and enjoy.
At this stage I don't have a great deal of music to share, but the very first building blocks of 2025's playlist have begun to be assembled.
Whether these stand the test of time, I'm not sure, but so far this year I quite like the new Mogwai record, the latest single by Doves (although it does sound an awful lot like Jetstream), that new FKA Twigs album and the EP teaser from Blockhead.
So I reckon that'll do it for the first of presumably 12 such screeds.
I hope you've enjoyed reading it. I'm currently experimenting with other publishing platforms that would enable me to email out blog posts should one want to subscribe; but we'll worry about that in time for February's instalment.