Movie Reaction: Grudge Match

Formula: Raging Bull + 33 years
                           or
                    Rocky 7

Why I Saw It: I try to see as much as I can this time of year and I had a couple free hours.

Cast: Sylvester Stallone is the de facto "good guy" as the famous boxer who walked away from a career in his prime. Robert De Niro isn't a Bond villain, but he is clearly the antagonist as Stallone's biggest rival in and outside the ring. Kevin Hart is a joke machine promoter's son who along with Alan Arkin (Stallone's trainer) are there for comedic relief when the script forgets to do anything funny with the leads. Kim Bassinger, still looking very good for someone older than my mom, is a surprisingly age appropriate love interest. Shane Jon Bernthal is very good casting as De Niro's estranged son.

Plot: This movie has all the tropes. All of them. Every last plot point you think could be here is: long lost son, former love returning, irresponsible man learns to accept the new responsibilities of family, loner learns to let people in, fighting for a mentor's health bills. All of them! The end result is something wholly generic which neither stars seems all that engaged in. There's a chuckle or two, mainly from Hart and Arkin. So much of the movie has a "kids, these days" attitude that turned me off.

Elephant in the Room: So is it a parody of their boxing movies? I wish I could tell you. There a lot of nods to their past movies. The Rocky referencing is most common. At the same time, this isn't really parody. The movie works hard to show that there's still dignity in these two older men doing this fight, and that's what they have to do, I guess. It sure didn't make it very interesting though.

To Sum Things Up:
This is far from the worst movie I've seen this year. It isn't all that funny. It isn't all that original. It isn't all that clever. Yet, it isn't all that bad. I can't recommend it to anyone who didn't already see Bullet to the Head and The Family in theaters. There's too many better options right now.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Movie Reaction: The Wolf of Wall Street

Formula: (Casino + Wall Street) / Blow

Why I Saw It: Scorsese. Need I say more?

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio is on for three hours. I don't mean on the screen. I mean, he does not let up. It's one of his best performances in a string of great ones with Scorsese. Jonah Hill just keeps getting better. As much as I like him, I was ready to call Moneyball a fluke, he's got some range. The real surprise here is Margot Robbie. I saw her in About Time as that insanely attractive woman. At first, I assumed it would be the same but she stepped up and went toe to toe with DiCaprio the whole way through. And, I was shocked to realize that she is actually Australian. Great accent work. Everyone else has limited roles. Matthew McConaughey has one killer scene early on. Jean Dujardin gets to smile and be foreign. Rob Reiner reminded me how fucking funny he can be. Kyle Chandler is Coach Taylor with an FBI badge. There's all sorts of other people who will send to IMDB to figure out "where have I seen that guy before?".

Plot: The story is of the rise and spectacular fall or Jordan Belfort who I only sort of remember from infomercials years ago. It was a very new story to me but it is also very clearly is not meant to be taken as all true. Everything is exaggerated and gloriously so. The image it paints of stock brokers is not pretty. This is a deliriously crazy world. The drugs and the misogyny are rampant and it is a full world. Few filmmakers can make 3 hours feel as short as Scorsese. Something is constantly happening and it is always interesting, be it his rise from failed Wall Street broker to becoming the Wolf, his drug fueled year at the top, maneuvering around the SEC and FBI, or his fall from power amidst an attempt to clean up his act.

Elephant in the Room: I've heard it is pretty misogynistic. It totally is. It is a movie filled with hyper alpha-males and the ratio of naked women to clothed ones has to be somewhere around 5:1. It all completely fits with this world. The question you should be asking yourself is if Scorsese is trying to have his cake and eat it too by clearly condemning the depravity but featuring it all the same. It didn't bother me, especially with Margot Robbie playing such a strong role.

To Sum Things Up:
This is a fully enjoyable experience. I'm glad Sorsese detoured into a different kind of movie with the delightful Hugo, but it's nice to see him back to what we are used to. He is an established enough brand that you already know whether or not this is your kind of movie. It isn't as violent as his other movies although it makes up for it with copious amounts of drugs and nudity so it still isn't for the faint. I'd place this in the top tier of 2013 movies, but what else is new.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: 21 & Over

The Pitch: The Hangover and Superbad have a love child.

What Took Me So Long: After how much I hated Project X, I was not about to see this in theaters. When it showed up on Netflix, that seemed like a much smaller gamble.

Why I Saw It: This really benefits from how much I liked Miles Teller in The Spectacular Now and how much I liked Pitch Perfect, which Skylar Austin was in (not totally meant as a dig at him). That goodwill went a long way. This is another modern Odyssey aimed at the teenage male demographic. There's alcohol, nudity, profanity, gross-out humor, and a touch of real human emotion. On paper, it has everything one would hope for.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: And yet, it's not at the level of Superbad, or even Road Trip. Something's not right. It doesn't feel genuine. Behind everything in Superbad, for instance, is a script that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were writing since they were in high school. It is layered and rich with detail. There's a love of the characters that is obvious. 21 & Over wants that but isn't sure how to achieve it. Miller is a douche. The fact that he comes even moderately close to being likable is all on Miles Teller's ability to sell it. Casey is a bland everyman. Jeff Chang is a prop for the vast majority of the movie and rarely an effectively used one. Sarah Wright is likable in this. I mainly want to mention her because it blows my mind that she is also the same actress who dated Rob Lowe in Park and Rec. To be honest, the main thing hurting this is my affection for Superbad and other movies that came before it. Slap the "American Pie" or "National Lampoon" logo on it and it fits in perfectly. Compared to Project X, it's fantastic.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Frances Ha

The Pitch: you get it's like Girls...No. No 'but'. That was a full thought.

What Took Me So Long: This is going to make me sound bad, but black and white made it sound like it would be a little high minded for what I was in the mood for most of the time.

Why I Saw It: Still, it is a movie that everyone I know who saw it liked a lot. Greta Gerwig is one of those actresses I really like somehow even though I've seen her in nothing that I can remember. She does a great job being a complete train-wreck for most of the movie.I like how so much of the movie is filled with pointless conversations because they come off as very genuine. Mostly, I loved the ending. I struggle liking movies with characters who never help themselves, even if that's the point.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: I was all prepared to give the black and white my seal of disapproval because I'm a philistine, but as I watched it, I completely forgot that I was even watching something without color. What's that? Story matters most. Yeah, I get that. I'm stupid. The other thing I was ready to attack: it's Girls as a movie. That one I wasn't as wrong about. It's pretty similar. The voice of the writers and directors are different enough that I didn't care, but topically, it's pretty damn similar. At some point I will fatigue of shows about listless 20-somethings living bohemian lives in New York. I'm yet to reach that point.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Olympus Has Fallen

The Pitch: The {country we don't currently like}s take over the White House. Things explode.

What Took Me So Long: I had to hear second-hand whether is was worth seeing this or White House Down. When I found out the answer was neither, I opted to go chronologically.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) At first, I was excited that I'd get to see an Ashley Judd movie...so much for that. It's a moderately engaging premise, like the White House version of Air Force One, where the President is somehow gruff, brave, and in action movie hero shape. Koreans killed a puppy. That happened early. I assume this was to establish them as villains. It's good to see that rule of thumb is still as true as ever.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: First of all, I cannot compliment the CGI effects at all in this. A lot of the effects look like they upped the deadline for the effects by a month and took whatever the effects company had ready. It was distracting. This was also trope-tastic. Example: It's convenient that there's always an ex-Special Forces Patriot down on his luck whenever there's a takeover in movies like this.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Movie Reaction: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Formula: Stranger Than Fiction + travel

Why I Saw It: When I look back on it, I'm actually a big fan of the movies Ben Stiller has directed.

Cast: Ben Stiller is the only person that matters in this. Kristen Wiig steps up whenever it is asked of her although it is a very secondary character. It is great to see her playing a human being, especially after watching Anchorman 2. Adam Scott is basically evil Ben Wyatt, complete with an awful beard. Kathryn Hahn has the beginning of a character but never gets to do enough with it to be anything. Sean Penn as the adventurous photographer, Sean O'Connell, is more symbol than character. He does get one great scene. As I said, it's all about Walter Mitty and I flat out don't buy him as a character. Here's why...

Plot: Too much. Too fast. That's the quickest way I can sum it up. I have a sweet spot for stories of guys who break out of their shells and do something with their lives (I can't imagine why I would), so this should be an easy sell. I absolutely don't buy any of it. At the beginning, Walter is painted as always spacing out and imagining a greater life. You think it is just because it's in his character. You know, he's meek and spineless. Pretty quickly the movie makes it clear that he's only the way he is because he had to be responsible for his, I guess, skill-less mother and useless sister. He's no Harold Crick. He's just been slowed down by life. There's a scene early on with him on a skateboard that sums the character up because it shows that he's unlucky not that he's unwilling to do more. The bulk of the movie is him on an adventure to find the Sean Penn's character (O'Connell). All of it is too much right place, right time for my taste and his transformation from mild-mannered negatives associate to rugged, cool guy is so fast and so complete that I couldn't buy any of it. For Christ's sake, he goes from working in an office to climbing a mountain in the Himalayas by himself in less than a month. Too much. Too fast.

Elephant in the Room: Is this really one big advertisement for Life magazine? If that's what you take away from this movie, then you're doing it wrong. Gun to my head, I couldn't even tell you if Life magazine is still around. It only exists as a launching point for the plot. I'm a little shocked that they didn't just make up a magazine. In a year with blatant corporate pandering that included The Internship, I don't see how anyone could find this egregious.

To Sum Things Up:
I wanted to like this movie a lot. I was prepared for this to be one of those "critics be damned" films that I hold dear. It shares a lot of DNA with Stranger Than Fiction which I hold sacrosanct so the fact that it can't measure up is going to make me critique is more harshly than most things I watch. This is a good enough movie. The locations look great and are nearly worth the ticket by themselves. The humor is surprisingly quieter than I've come to expect from Stiller, but in a good way. I appreciate what the movie aspires to be but I think it falls short of that goal by a lot.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

2013 - The Shows I Didn't Watch

I've exhausted going through my year in TV watching, ranking and examining the shows is a vain attempt to give meaning to all the time I'm spent sitting on my couch. There's so much good TV on, so many channels I don't have, so many shows that I found out about late. So, I decided to create one last top ten list: The best TV Shows that I didn't get to watch.

Boardwalk Empire
Why I Didn't Watch It: I don't have HBO and I'm several seasons behind.
Why I Need to Change That: Great cast and I hear that few shows build to a finale as well as this one.

Justified
Why I Didn't Watch It: Several seasons behind and it is too low on my "catch up list".
Why I Need to Change That: It's set in Kentucky (filmed in California, bleh). That's a good start. I understand that it has a strong rotation of actors and I'm a big Walton Goggins fan now that I've watched The Shield.

Orphan Black
Why I Didn't Watch It: I don't have BBC America.
Why I Need to Change That: Tatiana Maslany. I've heard countless times that she is fantastic in this. It doesn't hurt that I enjoyed her in the couple episodes of Parks & Rec. she did this fall.

The Returned
Why I Didn't Watch It: I don't have Sundance Channel
Why I Need to Change That: It's a different kind of zombie show. Actually, it sounds more similar to The 4400, with people in a small French town returning from the dead. It's an interesting premise and anything that is seen as good enough to air in America with subtitles is worth giving a try, I think.

Top of the Lake
Why I Didn't Watch It: Not sure. It's in my Netflix queue. I keep saving it for when I can promise it my full attention.
Why I Need to Change That: It has Elisabeth Moss. That's all I need. Strong reviews too. I barely know what it's even about. A murder investigation, I think,

It's Always Sunny...
Why I Didn't Watch It: I don't have FXX
Why I Need to Change That: It is consistently one of my favorite shows on TV. I think the past couple seasons have been some of their strongest which is remarkable for a comedy in its ninth season.

The League
Why I Didn't Watch It: I don't have FXX
Why I Need to Change That: While I don't like it quite as much as It's Always Sunny... it is the perfect companion show for it. It has one of those casts that show up all over the place (Mark Duplass as the Midwife on The Mindy Project immediately comes to mind) and make me like them more.

The Good Wife
Why I Didn't Watch It: I'm hopelessly behind on the show.
Why I Need to Change That: Everything I've heard is this is probably the show's best season yet and I'm running out of excuses for not watching it.

Portlandia
Why I Didn't Watch It: I don't have IFC for the initial run and I keep forgetting that the third season is on Netflix now.
Why I Need to Change That: I've loved the past two seasons enough to make me not hate Fred Armisen. There's no reason to think the third season will stop that trend.

Homeland
Why I Didn't Watch It: I don't have Showtime anymore.
Why I Need to Change That: The first season was great. The second season was good. I'm curious to see if it continues to falter.

Masters of Sex
Why I Didn't Watch It: I don't have Showtime anymore.
Why I Need to Change That: I've heard this is one of the best new shows of the fall. I like both Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan, so I'm instantly interested.

---

And there's so many I didn't include: Drunk History, Family Tree, Key & Peele, and a bunch of others I'm blanking on, not to mention the late night shows like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Conan. The point is, there's a lot of great TV and I'm sad that I can't keep up with it all.

Delayed Reaction: I Give It a Year

The Pitch: You see, sometimes getting a divorce isn't a bad thing. Here's why...

What Took Me So Long: Quite frankly, I don't know why it would be assumed that I would ever see this.

Why I Saw It: It has Rose Byrne and Anna Faris. That's enough to catch my interest. Has Anna Faris ever played the best friend in a comedy before? I can't remember a time when she wasn't the lead in a movie like this. It was strange to see. So, apparently, the writer director of this has written a lot of Sacha Baron Cohen products and that comes through a lot. There's a bluntness to nearly everything. The Stephen Merchant character could only exist with material that allows him to be simply repugnant. Most of the best jokes as especially dark or uncomfortable.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: At the end of the day though, it is still a painfully formulaic romantic comedy though. In this case, it is in reverse as the happy ending is the end of a marriage. Rose Byrne and Rafe Spall play two of the least likable romantic leads I've ever seen. Byrne is the typical overbearing wife and Spall is the "seen it a hundred times before" oaf of a husband. My biggest problem with the entire movie is that there is no way these two people get married in the first place. There are three picture at the beginning to explain how that happened and nothing else in the movies even tries to. With a foundation that shaky, no wonder the whole thing crashes down on itself.

Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend

2013 - The Other Shows I Watched

Let's see. I've done a top 10. I've followed that up with my top 10 runners up. Seeing that I don't know where to stop, I might as well go over the rest of what I watched this year. There were an abundance of good shows and I'd hate for me to not have a my say on a the ones I bothered to invest time into.
I've divided the shows into groups and ranked them within those groups. Originally, I came up with rankings from top to bottom. The daily variation killed that though.

New and [Hopefully] Improving

Orange is the New Black - Everyone lost their shit over this show. I enjoyed it, but I was a little let down. Perhaps with fewer expectations, I'd've responded a bit better to it.

The Crazy Ones - The pilot had Kelly Clarkson. No show has ever endeared itself to me so quickly. It is still settling in but I've liked what it's done so far.

Back in the Game - Perhaps I'd invest in ranking it higher if it had a future. I'll miss it, but it figured itself out a lot faster than most new shows this season.
Legit - A little gem of a show. It's so rough that I have a hard time placing it higher. There's some funny stuff here and I really like Jim Jeffries after watching this.

House of Cards - I'll give it this. It's bingeable as hell.

Trophy Wife - It's a nice new show. Still figuring itself out and getting better. Not there yet. It ended the year strong with the Christmas episode. Very strong.

Agents of SHIELD - It is starting to come into its own. I'm still mainly watching for the potential of what it could be.

Maron - It's pretty obvious that Marc Maron is new to doing TV acting. There's room to grow and it will get a chance with a second season.

The Michael J Fox Show - This show has been a bummer so far. While not bad, exactly, if Michael J Fox wasn't the lead, there'd be no chance I'd still be watching.

The Bridge - I love the atmosphere and cast, hate the story. Thankfully, story is the easiest of the three to fix for the second season.

R.I.P.
The Office - It ended pretty strong. Everything leading up to it was so disappointing though.

Go On - It died with a whimper. I would've liked to see what a second season would look like but that cast was too unwieldy.

Don't Trust the B... from Apt. 23 - Once it got cancelled, I didn't watch the last batch of episodes. That's on me. It still doesn't mean the show was great or that I miss it much.

Chugging Along
Saturday Night Live - As it always is, there's a mixed bag of episodes. For every Melissa McCarthy, there's a Vince Vaughn. A could more stand out episodes and I'd be ranking this a lot higher.

The Mindy Project - This was like watching 6 different shows. There were some very good episodes and few shows could as reliably make me laugh. Inconsistency is its biggest enemy.

How I Met Your Mother - My god, the Farhampton Inn is killing me. And, last season gave us even more Ted being in love with Robin and Ted dating Abby Elliott. "The Time Travelers" and a couple appearances of the mother have not been enough to save it. Hopefully, they can really stick the landing with the end of the season.

Community - This certainly was the Britta of Community seasons. I thing people overstated how bad it was, but not by much.

The Walking Dead - The Governor killed 2013 for me. Anytime I started to like something going on, he ruined it.

Wilfred - Solid season. At this point, I've accepted that it has limited upside.

Suburgatory - Hurt by both a lack of episodes in 2013 and wild shifting of focus. Week to week it changed dramatically.

Recent Pickups
Parenthood - Only 4 episodes of season 4 were in 2013 and all of this god-awful election arc was. I really wanted to put this on a list since I started watching it this year and loved the previous seasons. Alas, I couldn't justify it.

The Newsroom - Aaron Sorkin can't help himself. This is a very frustrating show. Despite that, I couldn't stop watching. Great cast.


Biggest Disappointments

5. Burn Notice 

There was a time when this would've made my top ten list. Alas, the show got stale and went on a couple seasons too long. They toyed with a new structure for the last season, with Michael being a mole for the bad guys. Sadly, they ended up trying to introduce too much with precious little time, so the finale was rushed when all I think anyone really wanted was a fun sendoff for Michael, Same, Fi, Jesse, and Madeline. I hate putting it on this list. they forced my hand.
4. Californication

This has always been a fun show that takes delight in being as wrong as possible. On paper, this season had all that, but it was all pretty listless. It's reminiscent of the last couple seasons of Weeds: Everyone involved seemed bored. Maggie Grace should never be used to breath new life into things.
3. Nashville

 

Full disclosure, I stopped after season 1. I've heard that season 2 has been much better. Regardless, season 1 was disappointing enough that I'm not going out of my way to catch up. This has been one of those few shows that promised something in the pilot that I'd've much preferred. It burned through plot too quickly and almost always went big over small when given a choice. I often repeated that this might not be a bad show as much as it's not for me.

2. Dexter

Somehow this isn't the worst show I've watched this year. That's pretty remarkable. The season started off okay and couldn't've ended in a worse place as far as I'm concerned. There was no "Nebraska" this year, although the finale was atrocious in its own right. I don't even know where to be. Dexter leaves Harrison with his serial killer girlfriend in a foreign country instead of, you know, with his siblings in, I want to say, Orlando. Dexter had the lamest of psuedo-reveals when he kills Big Bad #57 in the prison. Deb dies. I don't know who was thinking that was a good idea. Dexter becomes a lumberjack in Canada. Then there's the realization in the end that he isn't a sociopath murderer. In fact, he cares too much about the people he loves, so that's why he fakes his death: to get out of their lives. Bah! Maybe this was my least favorite show in 2013.

1. House of Lies

I don't get it. I want to like this show. Don Cheadle is a great actor and pulls off this character as well as anyone. Kristen Bell is damn near perfect in general. Ben Schwartz has near infinite goodwill built up for playing Jean-Ralphio. It's a show about bad people, not trying to be good which is normally a sweet spot for me. The simple fact is that I don't find it funny, at all. I can barely find a chuckle in the whole season. I wish I could point to something in particular to say what I hated so much but I can't. I wish all of the people involved would move onto something else because I am so ready and willing to like something they are working on. Not this though.

---

As you can see, that makes 3/5s of my Disappointment List from Showtime. I went back and forth on whether or not to get rid of Showtime this year. After all, it's where I get Shameless. Homeland, while not perfect, is still quite good. Masters of Sex is one of the new shows I've been most interested to watch this season. The batting average is too low though.

Better luck next year, am I right?

2013 - My Next 10 Favorite Shows

You've seen my top 10 from 2013. Time for the 10 that almost made it in.

11. The Middle
Favorite Episode "The Graduation"
This is the rare show that I like more with each season. I don't think any show on TV has as good a historian. Most episodes are rich with callbacks or details that I completely forgot about.

12. Happy Endings
Favorite Episode "The Marry Prankster"
R.I.P. This would probably break into my top 10 had the whole season aired in 2013. With only a handful of episodes, I couldn't justify putting one of the best joke machines on TV any higher. Now I get to have fun following where everyone moves to next. So far, Adam Pally is trying to fit in on The Mindy Project and Damon Wayans Jr. reprises the role that his job on Happy Endings forced him to quit as Coach on New Girl. Here's to hoping Elisha Cuthbert joins Parks & Rec. as Leslie's new best friend.

13. Hannibal
Favorite Episode "Roti"
I laughed off this show when I first heard about it. I mean, aren't there enough shows about serial killers on TV and to base this on the most famous fictional character of all. I'm glad I gave it a chance though. It's one of the darkest and prettiest shows on TV. Hugh Dancy proves that Claire Danes doesn't have all the crazy energy in that marriage and Mads Mikkelsen has done the unthinkable, creating a Hannibal Lector of his own, if not equaling Anthony Hopkins' then certainly coming close.

14. The Americans
Favorite Episode "In Control"
It's really a show about marital troubles with an 80s Soviet vibe. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys do a better job carrying this than I expected. The story manages to work inside actual events in history without feeling fettered by them. Look no further than the response to Reagan being shot for proof.

15. New Girl
Favorite Episode "Quick Hardening Caulk"
Season 2 ended so strong, ending with Nick and Jess deciding to date. I'll admit, I kept waiting for them to ruin that, but it never happened. Sadly, this has been held down by a very disappointing start to the third season. Hopefully the new year comes with a better focus for the season.

16. Archer
Favorite Episode "Fugue and Riffs" for the opening scene alone
The season couldn't've started off more brilliantly with the Bob's Burgers scene. Then, there was one of my favorite exchanges of dialogue all year:
"That is the third saddest thing I have heard all day."
"What are the other things?"
"Pam told me a story about a girl who drowned trying to save a puppy."
"Oh my god! What was the second saddest thing?"
"The puppy drowned, too. "
Other than that, it was a good season. As I've discussed before, I'm not sure this'll ever be a top tier show for me, although it's always in consideration

17. Cougar Town
Favorite Episode "Flirting with Time"
It turns out that the move to TBS didn't hurt at all. It's nice to still have the Cul-de-sac Crew around and I, for one, quite enjoyed the Target commercials that came along with the season.

18. Brooklyn Nine Nine
Favorite Episode "Old School"
Its young. It's messy. Andy Sanburg is still being calibrated. Still, this has the best new ensemble of the fall and is figuring itself out faster than any new comedy this year. I can't wait to see comes next.

19. The Big Bang Theory
Favorite Episode "The Closet Reconfiguration"
For all my whining about what this show isn't there's one thing that it is: funny. This is an ensemble that is in its late series stride. You can't find this kind of chemistry in any freshman series and the addition of Raj being able to speak to women sober has been a fresh new element to an aging formula.

20. Modern Family
Favorite Episode "Goodnight Gracie"
Another show that I complain about  but also wouldn't consider dropping. Its Emmy count doesn't match its quality. That doesn't mean it's bad though. The younger cast keeps getting more to do which I am all for. If they could just stop undercutting every human moment with a joke I could like it as much as I did in the first season.

2013 - Top 10 TV Shows

2013 is coming to an end so that means it's time for one of my favorite activities: making lists. First up is TV shows. Of course, a simple top ten list was never going to suffice so I'll be running through pretty much everything that I've watched over the past 12 months. It's what I do.
It's best to start with my aforementioned top ten. As always, there's a lot that I admit that I haven't seen and I clearly prefer comedies.Strong arguments can be made for a lot of shows being better, but these are the one I enjoyed or appreciated the most. Lastly, I did only include episodes that aired in 2013 which is really awkward for how seasons air.

1. Breaking Bad
Favorite Episode: So many to choose from but Ozymandias has to be the best.
Look, I hate consensus because it's very rarely right. This year, that's not the case. There is undeniable greatness to this last season of one of the finest dramas TV has ever seen. Few shows have ever ended so strong. I was so worried that they had too much to cover in these final eight episodes. If anything, they covered too much though. I was on the edge of my seat for virtually the entire season and have no lingering questions about the end (when does that ever happen?). My TV schedule is a lot emptier these days.

2. Parks and Recreation
Favorite Episode: Leslie and Ben
It's getting to the point that the only thing Parks & Rec. has to compete against is itself. Last year, it was my favorite show. This year, it is second to one of the greatest series finales of all time. See what I mean? This year didn't have anything as engaging as the election, but it did have the Leslie and Ben wedding, a trip to London, the best bachelor party in history, Ron as a talk show host, Patton Oswalt's legendary filibuster, and countless other wonderful stories. There's some unevenness due to having to continually prepare for potential cancellation, but I'm hard pressed to find anything else wrong with it.

3. Girls
Favorite Episode: Boys
This show is flat out funny. It doesn't sit on its funny moments like a lot of comedies. It just has funny lines if you want to catch them and moves on. The second season is the only show this year that I liked significantly more the second time I watched it. With the short turnaround time for the season, I was worried that the quality would suffer. As is, I am in awe of Lena Dunham. I know I picked Boys as my favorite episode, but that's been changing by the hour. I've heard some people complaining about One Man's Trash, for instance, but I found that to be a wonderful little experimental episode. Then there's the awkwardness of Video Games or the constant laughs of Bad Friend. So much to love!

4. 30 Rock
Favorite Episode: Last Lunch
This would be higher on my list if more than the final 5 episodes aired in 2013. You see, while Breaking Bad had one of the all-time great final seasons for a drama, I'd say 30 Rock did the same for a comedy. In short, they did it right. They knew this would be the final season and every episode worked toward that. Every single character got an end to his or her story that was right. Find me another time when that has happened. This was already one of my favorite shows of all time, but there's something nice about when it doesn't end leaving a bad taste in your mouth.

5. Game of Thrones
Favorite Episode: I think I have to pick The Rains of Castamere, right?
I'll never be as obsessed with the show as some people I know. That doesn't mean I'm not more than happy to keep up with it. No show demands my undivided attention more than this one due to sheer number of characters and stories and it is well worth it. This may have been the best season yet, with moments like the Red Wedding and Daenerys freeing the slaves. Just thinking about it makes me realize how much I've already forgotten...I need to start studying before the next season.

6. Shameless
Favorite Episode: A Long Way from Home
Few shows are able to both make me howl with laughter and affect me emotionally like this show. It is so very wrong. Just this season had Frank as a gay rights spokesperson, a Kevin, Veronica, and Veronica's mom three-way, Lip hitting on a former child molester, and anything dealing with Carl. It also had emotional highs like Fi's custody hearing. I've always enjoyed the show, but it's now reached the point that I've considered getting Showtime just so I can keep up with it. Too bad the rest of the lineup can't keep up.

7. Rectify
Favorite Episode: Jacob's Ladder
This show kind of came out of nowhere. Sundance has made quite a name for itself this year. I still need to see Top of the Lake, but this is one series I did get to watch and I'm glad I caught it. It's filled with out of nowhere fantastic performances from Aden Young, Abigail Spencer, Adelaide Clemens, and so many others. There's only six episodes and that's not enough of this quiet drama about life for a man once he gets out of prison for a crime he [probably] didn't commit. I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did. Thankfully, it's been picked up for a second season.

8. Veep
Favorite Episode: Running
I liked but didn't love the first season. The second was a near complete improvement, especially in the second half of the season. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tony Hale are totally deserving of their Emmy wins this year.

9. Mad Men
Favorite Episode: In  Care of
It's a shame that the series is aging. People are getting used to it. I'd say it's as good as it's ever been. Sadly, there's not as many new things to do and we are in the thick of the parts of the 60s that everyone is used to, so we have things like an obligatory MLK Jr. assassination episode and everyone growing facial hair. That shouldn't negate how amazing this cast continues to be. To think that Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery. None of them will likely earn Emmys for their work on this show. That's crazy.

10. Arrested Development
Favorite Episode: The B. Team
There's a lot of shows I could've picked for this last spot. It changed a couple times. Alas, I had to include the return of A. D. in my best of. It was a drop from the quality of previous seasons, I'll admit. All the regulars returned, which pleased me, along with newcomers like Isla Fischer and Maria Bamford who did good work. More than anything, I respect the giant puzzle that was this season. Hampered by conflicting schedules, Hurwitz wrote the season to focus on different characters each episode, showing numerous sides to almost every story, often changing the meanings entirely. It's the ambition that moves it into my top 10.

More to come.

Delayed Reaction: Four Christmases

The Pitch: Christmas. Romantic comedy. Aren't families crazy? I know, right?

What Took Me So Long: Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon's height disparity deeply unsettles me.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) "Christmas comedy" is not a very demanding sub-genre. Vince Vaughn is doing his thing, as is Reese Witherspoon. I like what both of them do. Pretty much every supporting character is exactly what you expect them to be. Jon Voight, Sissy Spacek, and Robert Duvall make this the best cast of 1975. These days, it doesn't mean much. 

Why I Wish I Hadn't: What do you want me to say? It's a very forgettable movie. It's Christmas with the Kranks. It's I'll Be Home For Christmas. It's Survivng Christmas. It's Deck the Halls. There's one almost every year. The DNA is the same. There's a lot of pratfalls and farce. It has a lot of people who you liked a lot better in other movies. And, happy ending. This is hardly a chore to get through but I also didn't laugh at any point.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Polar Express

The Pitch: Remember that picture book? Let's make a whole movie about it.

What Took Me So Long: I was afraid of the dead eyes I always heard about.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Despite itself, it seems to be rather firmly in the Christmas movie rotation over the past decade. Anything with this much Tom Hanks (I lost track of how many characters he was) can't be all bad. I was surprised by how quiet the movie is. It is clearly targeted with kids in mind but doesn't try to ramp up, well, everything about it. It is impressive restraint.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: As much as I appreciated the quiet, it left the movie feeling dead a lot of the time. Even something like the hot chocolate song was oddly restrained. I finally appreciate what everyone meant about all the "uncanny valley" talk with the animation. The animation looks good except for the people who have those dead eyes and don't seem to move quite right. Oh, and I cannot express how distracting it was for me having the voice of Mandark in this. Normally, I'm forgiving, but that is such a cartoonish voice, it sounded wrong coming from a realistic character.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Movie Reaction: Saving Mr. Banks

Formula: Mary Poppins - The Singing - The Animation - The Color Red

Why I Saw It: You had me at Tom Hanks playing Walt Disney.

Cast: Emma Thompson is pretty great. We can all agree on that, right? Basically, she is the opposite of Karen Eiffel, the uptight, wet blanket, P. L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins. She is so good too. I was expecting a completely one-note character and was pleasantly surprised. Tom Hanks as Walt Disney is unfair. Why don't you just cast Dustin Hoffman as, I don't know, Lenny Bruce (...what's that? They did? Good god! How have I not seen that?!). Hanks is able to pull off Disney which is tougher than it sounds. Those are some big shoes to fill. There are some people out there hoping for a darker look at Disney. I could not agree less. I found this to be a very appropriate look at him for this movie. Paul Giamatti has a surprisingly emotional turn as Travers' driver in L.A.. Bradley Whitford, B.J. Novak, and Jason Schwartzman are the screenwriters that work with Travers and are mostly there for so laughs and for Travers to have someone to foil. Colin Farrell is Travers' father in flashbacks and does a solid job.

Plot: Apparently, Travers was not the easiest woman to work with. The movie retells the final stages of Disney courting her for the rights to Mary Poppins and the development process of the story. The movie has one major flaw as far as I am concerned. It doesn't approach the flashback scenes, of which there are many, with anywhere near the interest it does in the movie's present. The flashbacks are absolutely vital to the story but they almost always were a drag to watch. Everything in the movie's present I enjoyed greatly. I've heard this described as "a crowd pleaser", which sounds  a little diminutive. Then again, that's exactly what it is. It broaches some darker themes but never gets too bogged down in them and offers a small glimpse into the days of Walt's Disney.

Elephant in the Room: This sure seems pretty whitewashed. If you enjoy this movie, do yourself a favor and don't read up on the actual events. Disney and Travers rather famously clashed and the movie makes is seem more cordial than it apparently was. If you are looking for the dark side of Disney, you won't find it. First of all, why would Disney release a movie like that? More importantly, that wouldn't serve the story at all.

To Sum Things Up:
I ate this movie up.I'm a sucker for just about everything it did. The look at Disney studios in the 60s. The script writing process. Walt Disney in the flesh. By the time it ends, it leaves you in a good place and that's all I wanted from it. Simply put, if you have any affection for the Disney company, especially its history, there's plenty to enjoy.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend