I've always watched more media than I review, but lately I've felt like I've been skipping over an awful lot of titles, some of them pretty high profile. For instance, I decided to put off writing anything about "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" until I could pair it with one of the recent "Godzilla" theatrical films, because I didn't have much to say about the series. Well, it turns out that I didn't have to say much about the latest "Godzilla x Kong" either, and had to disqualify myself from writing anything about "Godzilla Minus One" (more on that below), so I scrapped the whole thing. And that got me thinking about what my criteria have been for what media I watch gets a review and what doesn't.
Since I don't write this blog professionally, I've always had the luxury of choosing what media I want to consume, and what I want to write about. If a highly buzzed about title or performance turns out to be a snore, like "Immaculate" with Sydney Sweeny, I don't have to waste time thinking about it. Conversely, if a title turns out to be something I don't feel I have the necessary resources or capability to analyze the way that it deserves, like the Lincoln assassination miniseries "Manhunt" or the second season of "The Jinx," I'm not obligated to make an attempt. "Manhunt" is one of those cases where the show's ambition exceeds its abilities, but getting into why would involve discussions of historical accuracy and other portrayals of Lincoln and the Civil War that would require a lot of effort to articulate. And "Manhunt" just isn't consequential enough that I feel a need to make that kind of effort for it.
I don't talk about this aspect of my blogging very often, but curation is absolutely part of what I'm doing. I want to point the readers toward the smaller, more easily overlooked titles like "Robot Dreams" and "Molli and Max" when I can, boosting their profiles, instead of providing the millionth take on why the "Road House" remake fell flat. I also don't like trashing films and shows just for the sake of trashing them. I want this blog to reflect my actual tastes, even if I'm trying to stay relevant to the wider cultural conversation. If I'm obsessing over "Hazbin Hotel" as much as I'm obsessing over the far more popular "Shogun" series, the writing should reflect that. Not every piece of media needs a review, but sometimes I'll write an entry just to highlight something I feel needs more attention or acknowledgement. I wrote a "Bluey" entry a while ago that was less of a review and more of an analysis piece, trying to explain what it was doing so much better than other children's media.
Then again, sometimes I don't write a review for something because I have failed to live up to my own standards. Hulu's "A Murder at the End of the World" is a miniseries I dutifully watched from start to finish, but I found it tremendously difficult to pay attention to. In the end, I'd completely been unable to form any sort of reaction to it at all except for a mild dislike. Any review I'd have tried to write would have been mostly a recap of events, with some discussion of Emma Corrin and Brit Marling's hairstyles, and kvetching about post-apocalyptic media trends. And frankly, that's not uncommon with me.
"Godzilla Minus One" isn't getting a review because I was completely overhyped for it, which threw my expectations totally out of whack. And I realized about halfway through that the movie was hitting a major pet peeve of mine - Asian melodrama histrionics - that completely took me out of the story. I was never going to be able to give the movie a fair shake, even though I ultimately ended up liking it. I would have spent half of my word count on qualifiers and self-interrogations, which I prefer to keep contained in specific blog entries like this one.
This doesn't just happen with films I dislike, but excellent ones like "20 Days in Mariupol." With the good films, however, I'm usually able to find other avenues to talk about them eventually, like with top ten lists or other kinds of features. On the other hand, because I often watch things so much later than everyone else, it's not wise to assume I dislike a title just because it's never come up on this blog.
And I guess that's the takeaway. There's a lot of media out there. I can't watch everything, and I can't review everything, but here are some takes on the bigger titles, and some recommendations for smaller ones. And what's here is more important than what isn't.
Happy watching.
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