Rank 'Em: The Animated Rankin Bass Features

I was originally planning to write up a "Great Directors" post for Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass of Rankin/Bass, who were responsible for a ton of early television animation, including their beloved Christmas specials.  They made several films, some of them theatrically released.  However, the more I  dug into their filmography, the more I realized that there was a major stumbling block.  Rankin and Bass credited themselves as the directors of all of their projects, but often the animation was totally outsourced to other studios, including TOEI, Topcraft, and Eiken/TCJ.  I couldn't in good conscience call Rankin and Bass "great directors" when in several cases they just provided the dialogue and story for productions handled by entirely different artists.   

On the other hand, these films wouldn't exist without them.  Since I'd done all the prep and watched all the films, I decided to change course and write up a "Rank 'Em" list instead, similar to the ones I've done for other animation studios like Aardman.  I've decided to count anything longer than an hour as a feature, and though Rankin is listed as a producer, I'm leaving off Morgan Creek's "The King and I," which is counted as one of their features in some resources.  I'm also not counting the Rankin/Bass live action films, which include several creature features and an adaptation of "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

From best to worst, here are the animated Rankin/Bass features. 

The Last Unicorn (1982) - One of the nearly forgotten animated masterpieces of the 1980s is a melancholy fairy tale about an oddball group of failures and disappointments who try to help a unicorn fulfill her quest.  It's a remarkably somber, serious fantasy that talks about heavy subjects and allows its characters some real depth and dimension.  Like many of the later Rankin/Bass films, the animation was done by Japan's Studio Topcraft.  

The Hobbit (1977) - Still stands tall as the best adaptation of J.R.R. Tokein's "The Hobbit."  Its 77 minute length required trimming down the story, but feels about the right length.  The character designs and animation are very unique and evocative.  Many critics of the time despised it, but this was the first introduction to Tolkein that many of us had, and turned out to be a far sturdier piece of work than filmmakers with far bigger budgets turned out.      

The Flight of Dragons (1982) - Here's a title that would stand out in any catalog, an ambitious made-for-television film about a hero on a quest to determine whether magic and science can coexist in the world.   Like "The Last Unicorn" there's an unusual degree of genre awareness and existential questioning in play, but more time is spent on typical adventure quest exercises, and the fantasy characters don't really break out of their tropes.   

Mad Monster Party? (1967) - Rankin/Bass was famous for its puppet animation, but only four of its features used the famous "Animagc" stop-motion animation.  This is easily my favorite of them, using puppet versions of the Universal Monsters for a silly horror-themed romp.  Mad Magazine staffers helped to write the screenplay and design characters.  Also, Boris Karloff heads the cast, making his last screen appearance as Frankenstein's monster.

The Wind in the Willows (1987) - A childhood favorite, that I primarily remember for the Judy Collins songs and the very faithful adaptation of the source novel.  This was the last production of the original Rankin/Bass studio before they were shut down, and I originally saw it broadcast as one of the ABC Weekend Specials on a Saturday morning.  The voice cast is especially memorable, including Charles Nelson Reilly as Toad and Roddy McDowall as Ratty. 

The Return of the King (1980) - "The Hobbit" did so well that the same team tried to make a follow up adapting part of "The Lord of the Rings."  Ralph Bakshi had gotten there first, with the 1978 "The Lord of the Rings" feature, so Rankin/Bass settled for animating the last unadapted book, "The Return of the King."  It's not up to the standards of "The Hobbit," but it remains extremely watchable and I certainly prefer the old school animation to Bakshi's rotoscoping.   

Willy McBean and his Magic Machine (1965) - I can't imagine that this film wasn't heavily influenced by the "Peabody's Improbable History" segments of "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle."  The Magic Machine is of course a time machine, and Willy McBean is a schoolboy who has to go stop a villain from mucking up history, with the help of a bilingual monkey named Pablo.  The time traveling hijinks are mildly diverting, but not especially funny or memorable.    

Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979) - Rankin/Bass's two biggest characters, Rudolph and Frosty, meet at last in this feature length adventure.  Frosty takes on puppet form for an off-season adventure with Rudolph, involving a circus, evil wizards, and the Fourth of July.  It's not one of the better holiday specials, but worth a look if you're particularly attached to these characters.  It's nice to know Frosty settled down with a snow lady voiced by Shelley Winters.   

The Daydreamer (1966) - Our final two titles are for the Rankin/Bass completionists.  "The Daydreamer" is a solo directing effort from Jules Bass, with Rankin on scripting duty.  It amounts to a cute pastiche of Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales told with Animagic puppets, live action bookends, and an all-star cast.  Contributions by other artists include Al Hirschfeld drawings in the opening credits and Robert Goulet on the soundtrack singing the title song.  

The Wacky World of Mother Goose (1967) - The studio's first foray into traditional animation is not very memorable.  Like "The Daydreamer," it's based on fairy tales - this time Charles Perrault stories and some nursery rhymes.  However, aside from Margaret Rutherford voicing Mother Goose, the cast is far more obscure and the production is less impressive.  It looks like TOEI did some of the animation, which is unfortunately very 60s TV quality.

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Getting Twisted With "Mary & George"

The historical dramas on premium cable have always had a certain salacious reputation because of the looser content restrictions.  And with HBO mostly in the business of prestige productions these days, and originals on Cinemax essentially kaput, that leaves Starz to be America's primary source of steamy costume dramas like "Spartacus," "Outlander" and the new miniseries "Mary & George." 

In the reign of King James I (Tony Curran), the ambitious Mary Villiers (Julianne Moore) is recently widowed and pins her hopes for the future on her second son George (Nicholas Galitzine).  She intends to position him as a potential lover and advisor to the King, and eventually have him supplant the current favorite, the Earl of Somerset (Laurie Davidson).  Mary and George have to contend with several enemies and allies, including Queen Anne (Trine Dyrholm), the Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon (Mark O'Halloran), and the future King Charles I (Samuel Blenkin).

The series covers events from roughly 1587 to 1628, but takes a lot of liberties with history.  The whole series is predicated on King James's relationships with his favored courtiers being sexual, resulting in a lot of torrid romance.  This adds a sexual dimension to most of the power games going on at court.  Mary is also portrayed as being a commoner who bought her titles, and has her own female lover, a prostitute turned lady-in-waiting named Sandie (Niamh Algar).  To put it bluntly, there's a lot of sex in this show, though portrayed tastefully, without much actual nudity.  The visuals are designed to look like the paintings of the era - Rembrandts in particular- often dimly lit with darkened backgrounds and interiors.  This helps to suggest that there's more onscreen than there actually is.  The dialogue, however, is pretty filthy, with even the stuffiest characters barely bothering with snide insinuations.  

The performances are good, with Julianne Moore valiantly leading the charge.  However, the characters are so caught up in their machinations that there's not much room for interiority.  It's often hard to parse the nature of the relationships, even the fairly straightforward ones.  We know that George has some real affection for King James, and frequently chafes against his mother's control, though he's mostly on her side.  We know that Mary puts all her efforts into securing the best marriages and positions for all of her children, including the mentally unstable John (Tom Victor), but perhaps the only person she truly loves is Sandie.  There's enough incident and enough exciting English history going on that the series is never boring - and when it is boring, the show's creators have no issue with embellishing the truth until it's not.  However, the characters remain disappointingly shallow despite ample opportunity to dig into the psyches of a passel of interesting characters.  

I suspect that the series overextended itself, trying to shoehorn romantic and melodramatic tropes into the existing framework of English history.  The Earl of Somerset, for instance, is the major obstacle to George's rise early in the series and should be a significant character, but the writing limits him to acting like a seventeenth century mean girl for most of his screen time.  When he becomes embroiled in scandal, it unfolds far too quickly and lacks emotional impact.  Perhaps the show works better for those who are more well versed in history.  Tony Curran has a few good scenes as King James, but the character's behavior is so erratic from episode to episode that you can't say he really has any kind of arc.  O'Halloran caught my attention with his introductory scenes as Francis Bacon, but I had trouble keeping track of his loyalties, and in the end he was treated as just another minor player, despite his importance to history.     

I appreciate having this story told through a LGBT lens, though all the LGBT characters are privileged enough that their sexuality isn't any great barrier to getting what they want.  However, the fact that the homosexual couplings are as matter-of-fact and as numerous as the heterosexual sex scenes we normally get in premium cable shows ought to count for something.  If this seems like the kind of show you'd enjoy, be assured that the creators don't pull their punches when it comes to the sexuality.  However, I was hoping for a little more substance to go along with it.  

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Your 2024 Emmy Nominees

Ready or not, we're about to have our second Emmy ceremony of the year.  As usual, I've seen most of the drama series contenders, very few of the comedies, and all of the limited/anthology series.  

I don't feel qualified to make predictions about  most of the races, but the buzz is that "Shogun," "Hacks," and "Baby Reindeer" are the frontrunners.  I would have expected that "The Bear" would be sweeping again, since this set of nominations is supposed to be for their highly lauded second season, but the mixed reactions to the third season may be having a negative impact.  I won't say much more about any of the comedy races, except to say that I don't remember Paul Rudd being in the last season of "Only Murders in the Building," and Bowen Yang's yearly nod for "SNL" is still hilarious.   

In the Drama and Limited categories, I'll be rooting for "Shogun" and "Fargo."  All the nominees in the Limited category are very strong, but the Drama nominees are much more mixed.  "3 Body Problem" and "Slow Horses" weren't to my taste, and "The Crown" had a pretty poor season.  I'm glad that "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" made the cut.  "Loki" was campaigning pretty hard for a spot, but I don't feel like it was good enough to qualify as a snub.  I'm surprised "The Curse" didn't show up anywhere, though I don't know what category it goes in.  "Feud: Capote v. The Swans" is a more obvious omission from Limited, especially considering the acting nominations that it racked up.  However, I don't know which show it would replace.    

There aren't many surprises among the acting nominees.  I'm glad that Nava Mau got in for "Baby Reindeer," Aja Naomi King got a nod for "Lessons in Chemistry," and Kali Reis is here for "True Detective: Night Country," but no Jennifer Jason Leigh for "Fargo"?  No Sam Spruell?  "The Crown" is taking up entirely too much room, as usual - Jonathan Pryce got in for playing Prince Philip in "The Crown"?  However, "The Morning Show" is the real juggernaut this time around.  I counted seven nominations in the supporting actor categories, which is almost as egregious as the "Succession" tidal wave last time, but not quite.  Watch more shows, Emmy voters.    

Congratulations to Salli Richardson-Whitfield for now being an Emmy-nominated director for an episode of "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty."  Always good to have more female director nominees!  And it's Interesting that Guy Ritchie's directing nod is the only major nomination that "The Gentlemen" got, which was a pretty strong contender for Best Comedy. 

Moving on to the categories that will not be part of the Emmys broadcast, I've seen all of the Outstanding Television Movie nominees, aside from the "Monk" one, because it's a Peacock exclusive.  It's a more eclectic bunch than we've seen in previous years, but it's clear why this year's batch of TV movies didn't generate any nominations for any other major categories like acting or directing.  Nominees include  "Quiz Lady," "Scoop," "Unfrosted," and "Red, White, & Royal Blue."  I guess "Scoop" is winning.  I wonder if this means that prestige television films are being turned into movies whenever possible.        

Animated Series is a nice surprise this year, with "Scavenger's Reign," "Blue Eye Samurai," and "X-men '97" joining "Bob's Burgers" and "The Simpsons."  It feels like a proper, competitive category for once.

Documentaries that will not be eligible for the Oscars next year include "Girls State," "The Greatest Night in Pop," and the docs about Albert Brooks, Jim Henson, and Steve Martin (because they all got nominated here).    

Among the also-rans, there are plenty of technical nominations for "Masters of the Air," which really didn't make a dent in the public consciousness this year.  "The Idol" picked up a nod for Choreography.  "The Brothers Sun," "Warrior," and "The Continental" each got some recognition for Stunts.  And weirdly, so did "The Righteous Gemstones."  No MCU or "Star Wars" series got major nominations, though they're all over categories like VFX, costume design, and makeup.  

Finally, I can't let the appearance of the Tom Brady roast in Outstanding Variety Special (Live) go unremarked upon.  So, there it is.

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I Saw "I Saw the TV Glow"

Jane Schoenbrun's latest film, "I Saw the TV Glow" occupies similar real estate as her directing debut, "We're All Going to the World's Fair."  Once again, we're in the realm of disaffected, disconnected youth, living out their lives in front of eerie glowing screens.  This time, instead of internet creepypasta, Maddy (Brigett Lundy-Paine) and Owen (Justice Smith) are obsessed with a YA supernatural television series called "The Pink Opaque."  7th grader Owen starts watching the show because he wants to be friends with 9th grader Maddy, whose behavior is obsessive and erratic.  He witnesses her parasocial relationship with "The Pink Opaque" turn into something sinister and terrifying as they grow up and become adults.

"I Saw the TV Glow"  was intended by Schoenbrun to be a transgender allegory, which makes sense in light of the body horror, the alienated young characters, and the existential themes.  However, the experience of watching the film without knowing the director's intentions still offers plenty to chew on.  Owen and Maddy's lives are depressing and bleak, and Owen has a lot of trouble communicating with other people, including his parents.  The images the kids see on their screens are frequently horrific, and the characters in the fictional stories all seem to meet with terrible ends, but perhaps this is preferable to their empty, zombie-like existence in the real world, where they can't do anything about the steadily compounding tragedies that continue to eat away at them.  

At times it's difficult to watch "I Saw the TV Glow" because it looks like a horror film, but doesn't behave like one.  The characters are so monotone and dead-eyed most of the time, they're difficult to connect to.  Schoenbrun favors long, long shots that sometimes tested my patience.  The scares and the dread are well-earned, building steadily throughout the film, but it isn't until about midway through the film that the story becomes truly horrific.  And even then, it's liminal David Lynchian horror, couched in layers of symbolism and surrealism.  The production of "I Saw the TV Glow" has a larger budget than "World's Fair," and features several mainstream actors, but at times feels more experimental and self-indulgent.  Some of the nightmare imagery is very impressive, with roots in shock memes straight from the internet imageboards.  I can imagine that horror fans who stumble across this film unaware of its art house bonafides would come away frustrated and confused.   

I knew what I was getting into and still came out pretty frustrated.  This is not a film that cares about being entertaining, though at times it is impressive for the depth of feeling it evokes.  The actors do a good job with extremely limited roles, especially Brigett Lundy-Paine delivering a crucial monologue.  However, I found it difficult to take the movie at face value.  I think part of the issue was the film's treatment of Owen and Maddy as media fans.  I was initially interested in how the parasocial relationship was going to be portrayed, especially upon learning that "The Pink Opaque" was heavily influenced by "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."  I was a big "Buffy" fan in my teenage and college years, and spent some time in the wilder corners of online fandom.  Owen and Maddy are shown connecting through the show, but we don't really get much of a sense of their relationship to the media itself or how they function as fans, except obliquely.  Owen doesn't seem nearly as interested in "The Pink Opaque"  as he is in Maddy, and Maddy's fixation feels like a symptom of deteriorating mental health.  However, I like that Schoenbrun makes the point that "The Pink Opaque" itself is not sinister or malevolent.  Rather, Maddy and Owen's projections of their own issues on the show are the main source of the horror.

"I Saw the TV Glow" is one of those movies that it's much more fun to talk about than to watch.  And I'm not sure that sorting out Maddy's terrible home life or determining what actually happened in the last episode of "The Pink Opaque" is worth the time spent watching the blank-faced characters numbly failing to connect to each other, over and over again for 100 stultifying minutes.   Jane Schoenbrun is not a mainstream filmmaker and I root for their success, but their depressive stories and internet meme aesthetics don't work for me.  This feels like "Donnie Darko" all over again, but content to stay small and surreal and for the very, very niche.  And that's where I'm going to leave it.  

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Hello "Helluva Boss"

I liked Vivienne Medrano's "Hazbin Hotel," enough that I sought out her other series, the independently produced "Helluva Boss," which has put out a  pilot and fifteen episodes over the last five years (at the time of writing).  It's a rare successful web-distributed cartoon, a gleefully vulgar, noisy piece of work that feels like it came out of the most anarchic depths of the internet.    

"Helluva Boss" takes place in the same universe as "Hazbin Hotel," though a different neighborhood.  The I.M.P. (Immediate Murder Professionals) consist of Blitzo (Brandon Rogers), Moxxie (Richard Horvitz), and Millie (Vivian Nixon), all Hell-dwelling imps who have set themselves up as professional killers.  They take jobs from the recently deceased to assassinate their enemies on Earth, usually in the most scorched-Earth way possible.  Blitzo's adopted daughter Loona (Erica Lindbeck) and boyfriend Stolas (Bryce Pinkham), also make regular appearances.  Like "Hazbin," there's a song number or two in every episode, lots of cursing, and lots of characters who look like overdesigned furries (Loona's a "hellhound," and Stolas is an anthropomorphized owl demon).  Unlike "Hazbin," the animation is rougher, the storylines are more chaotic, and it doesn't feel like the plot is in any hurry to get anywhere.  And that's just fine.  

The first eight-episode season is very crude, with inconsistent animation quality, some performances dialed up way too high, and adult content overkill.  Sometimes this is funny, but not as often as I hoped.  The episodes that actually follow the stated premise of I.M.P. going on missions to Earth are usually the most boring ones.  "Helluva Boss" doesn't hit its stride until it shifts its attention to more character-centric stories, which have been more earnest and sincere.  Medrano clearly has a penchant for LGBT+ romances, father-daughter reconciliations, and stories about overcoming abusive relationships.  In the second season, "Helluva Boss" spotlights peripherally connected characters like Blitzo's childhood friend Fizzarolli (Alex Brightman) and his boyfriend Asmodeus (James Monroe Iglehart).  Stolas and Blitzo have emerged as the show's most solid leads, both deeply flawed single dads with a lot of personal baggage.  While I like Moxxie and Millie and their terribly sweet romance, they don't have a whole lot to do compared to the rest of the cast.    

I don't mind the show constantly going off on tangents, especially as they're expanding the universe and showing how the various parts of Hell function.  And I don't mind that the stories are getting more touchy-feely as we spend less time at I.M.P. and delve into everybody's backstories.  However, it's clear why the "Helluva Boss" fandom is so notoriously contentious, because this definitely isn't the show that Medrano and company started out making in 2019.  There's still plenty of vulgarity and some beautifully animated carnage in most episodes, but the emphasis on humor has waned considerably.  Instead of fighting murderous human tots or making chumps out of annoying cherubs, episodes are now devoted to mental health struggles and toxic relationships.  Some of the major characters are also feeling sidelined.  Loona, for instance, was pretty well established in the first season as a surly Goth teenager who works as the I.M.P. receptionist, and bails the gang out of trouble when necessary.  She disappeared for most of the second season, along with all traces of the tentative self-discovery storyline she seemed to be starting on.       

On top of this, "Helluva Boss" is a true independent production, without the backing of a major studio or streamer, so the releases have always been kind of a mess.  Long hiatuses are the norm, and Medrano doesn't seem to be the best at marketing or curbing expectations, so the fanbase is pretty feral.  Still, I think it's a positive that Medrano and her collaborators can do things like hold back the final episode of the first season to fix production issues, and roll ahead with the release of the second season in the meantime.  The production quality is getting better, and attracting some interesting collaborators and guest stars.

"Helluva Boss" feels like the most 2024 show I am currently watching - culturally, aesthetically, and experientially.  I binged most of the episodes off of a Youtube playlist and wound up down a rabbit hole of analysis and reaction videos in the process.  There is definitely more fan-made content than official content out there.  A recent trailer promises that the rest of the second season is supposed to release in 2024, but we'll see.  I think the show is worth the wait and the frustration though.  There's definitely nothing else quite like it.    

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And What Didn't Make My Top Ten Episodes of 2023-2024

I usually write a companion piece for my Top Ten Movies list every year, discussing some of the major titles that didn't make the list.  I want to do the same thing with my Top Ten list for television, but this is going to be trickier.  Due to the nature of television, there's not really a critical consensus outside of a very few titles.  Also, there's a far greater percentage of titles that I didn't watch and can't discuss like "The Curse," "A Small Light," "The Sympathizer," "Ahsoka," and "Fellow Travelers."  I've already highlighted some of these omissions in a prior post.

Still, I think there's some value in looking back on the past television season, doing some direct comparing and contrasting, and talking about certain shows as part of specific categories.  I considered breaking the shows down by streaming service or genre, but I think it makes the most sense to group them by where they are in the television life cycle.  I will not be discussing any shows from my Top Ten post or the Honorable Mentions.

So, let's look at the shiny new series first, the ones just starting out that look like they're going to be around for a while.  "Fallout" was a big success, which I liked fine - it's doing a lot of familiar things in a very straightforward way, and it's nice that Jonathan Nolan is putting aside the mystery boxes.  However, it's too splattery and not cerebral enough for me to really latch on to.  I much prefer my sci-fi in the vein of Netflix's "3 Body Problem," which had a bumpy first season, but I'm optimistic that it'll get better as it adapts more dramatic material in the seasons to come.  I'm very glad it got a renewal.  I'm a little mystified, however, by the renewal of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters," which was supposed to be the "Godzilla" franchise's show that gave us more compelling human characters.  And it really didn't.  

"One Piece" is a miraculous anime adaptation that works in live action, largely thanks to a phenomenal cast.  However, the first season has visible growing pains, and is very constrained by the limits of its source material.  The long awaited "Hazbin Hotel," an ambitious A24 adult animated musical, is an indulgent mess.  However, it's a very interesting indulgent mess, and I'm curious as to where it's going to go.  "Sugar" was a beautiful magic trick that I don't know works so well a second time.  Finally, Guy Richie's "The Gentlemen" is a lot of fun for two episodes, and the rest of the season sort of spun its wheels.  This one's technically not slated to come back, but it was a substantial hit and I expect we'll see some sort of continuation eventually.  

Next category is one-season wonders and limited series.  "Masters of the Air" is a prestige WWII drama that shares lineage with "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific," but it feels much smaller than either of those earlier series.  I don't know if it's that the rest of television has caught up, or if streaming on Apple TV+ just made the show feel like less of an event.  Maybe "Masters of the Air" just came too late, and COVID impacted the quality for the worse.  Even the participation of major stars like Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan couldn't pull this one out of a straight dive toward obscurity.  

Other limited shows I like, but not enough to hand out kudos to, include "Lessons in Chemistry," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "A Gentleman in Moscow," and "Monsieur Spade."  "The Brothers Sun" has some of the most entertaining fight scenes I've ever seen in a series, and I was looking forward to more, but its cancellation makes it a one-season wonder.  Same with "Dead Boy Detectives," which is a very slight YA genre series, but the characters were great.  The "Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show" also deserves a mention, which I admit I only watched for the secret Bo Burnham cameos.  Carmichael lets the cameras get way too close and personal, and I have to admit that it's fascinating.  

Returning shows that operate on more of an anthology format, include "True Detective: Night Country" and "Feud: Capote vs The Swans," which I have no complaints about.  They gave me pretty much exactly what I expected, and never did anything superlative, which is fine.  "Night Country" ending up in the middle of the culture war was pretty unpleasant though.  The unexpected sequel series to "The Jinx," dubbed "The Jinx Part Two" isn't very satisfying.  It came far too late, and six episodes was excessive.  Also, I came away from "Good Omens 2" a little annoyed that it left me on a cliffhanger and waiting for a "Good Omens 3."

A few revivals like "Doctor Who" made waves.  There are several "Who" episodes from the Russell T. Davies led creative team that I like, and Ncuti Gatwa is great, but not quite enough to call them all-timers.  Probably the revival with the most buzz was "X-men '97," which gives every '90s kid the version of the show they always wanted, and makes it clear that the superhero audience is far from done with nostalgia.  While I like "X-men '97," I'm not nearly as high on it as the Marvel crowd, and it doesn't tick any boxes for me beyond great animation and an admirable commitment to premium cheese.  I don't need it to transcend Saturday morning cartoon status.

Returning shows that tend to function as more dependable ongoing series include a pretty good year of "For All Mankind," a significantly improved second season of "Foundation," and my favorite round of "Only Murders in the Building" so far, because the creators finally gave in to the inevitable and put the gang on Broadway.  This year's batch of "Invincible" is one of the bigger disappointments of the year, though I suspect that a lot of this is due to production problems.  

Finally, some goodbyes.  I will not miss "The Witcher," which never seemed to sort out its writing problems and didn't even bother to give Henry Cavill a decent sendoff.  I know the show is continuing, but I won't be watching.  "The Crown" bowed out with more dignity, but it was too little too late.  I think the series peaked with the Emma Corrin and Josh O'Connor season, and then spent way too much time on tabloid fodder.  I like the last season fine, but it feels like an afterthought that just happened to coincide with the passing of QE2.  "Our Flag Means Death" and "Extraordinary" have both been canceled after two seasons.  They didn't have great sophomore years and reached natural stopping points, so I'm not too upset, but I think they still had plenty of life in them.     

Then there's "Loki," the only Disney+ live action series I bothered watching after the disaster that was "Secret Invasion."  The finale was perfect, and I'm glad the character got a satisfying ending, but I couldn't explain what was going on in any other episode.  

And God forbid this is the end of "Bluey," but if it is, "The Sign" and "Surprise" were a perfectly lovely way to go out.  Yes, I am a heartless monster because they didn't make me cry.  

And I hope Pat Sajak enjoys his retirement.

Shows that almost made the list include the investigation and courtroom drama "Mr. Bates vs the Post Office," which aired on ITV in the UK and PBS in the US., a lively take on "The Artful Dodger" on Hulu, "The New Look" with Juliet Binoche playing a vicious Coco Chanel on Apple TV +, and the quirky little Netflix talk show experiment, "John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in LA," specifically the last episode with Flea.

And that's my 2023-2024 television season.  Good grief, it's a lot.

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A Chilling "Civil War"

I went into Alex Garland's latest film, "Civil War," about a fictional modern day American Civil War, deeply skeptical.  Recent films trying to comment on the American left/right cultural divide like "The Hunt" and "Don't Look Up" haven't turned out very well, usually coming off as either toothless or ham handed in the extreme.  I wasn't looking forward to another potentially incendiary piece of satire in the middle of an election year.  However, "Civil War" isn't a satire, and isn't too keen on taking sides.

From the outset, "Civil War" has no interest in the specifics of any political ideologies.  The three-term American president, played by Nick Offerman, is clearly a Trump analog, but we don't know if he's a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, or something else.  The United States has fractured into several different factions.  Texas and California have joined forces, against the authoritarian regime running Washington DC.  Our POV characters are a group of journalists and war photographers who decide to take a very dangerous trip to Washington D.C. to interview the president.  Lee (Kirsten Dunst), her colleague Joel (Wagner Moura), and her mentor Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) plan to drive from New York City to the front lines in Virginia.  At the last minute they're joined by an aspiring young photographer named Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), who is a fan of Lee's.  

The group encounters dangerous situations, one after another.  Society has broken down in many areas, so there are an awful lot of gun-toting, paranoid, would-be combatants everywhere, who don't answer to anyone, and have taken matters into their own hands.   Our protagonists are able to defuse some of these bad encounters, but not all of them.  Again and again they find people who cannot be reasoned with - who can only be dealt with by flattery, bribery, or the threat of harm.  Because Garland doesn't let us choose sides, the viewer is forced to confront the acts of the violence as presented - soldiers carrying out an execution, looters being tortured, and a pair of racist militiamen who simply shoot whoever they don't like.  Jessie's improvement as a photographer directly correlates to her becoming more and more desensitized to the horrors around her.    

For an Alex Garland film, there's relatively little plot.  We watch Lee's group travel down the Eastern seaboard, collecting stories and photos, and reach Washington just as the situation there reaches a critical point, so we have a big action finale.  Garland seems more interested in maintaining an atmosphere of chaos and dread.  The use of music is key, such as a De La Soul needle drop during the execution scene, and Christmas tunes backing a sniper sequence.  The characters are thinly drawn, but the whole cast is strong, and I enjoyed their performances.  Dunst, Moura, and McKinley have always been dependably great onscreen, and Cailee Spaeny is certainly on the right track. 

Very late in the film, I considered that Garland might be criticizing the media through the actions of Lee's team.  However, it's so ambiguous that I'm not sure this was the intention.  Frankly, there's a lot that you could read into "Civil War," but every attempt I made to try and dissect the film left me feeling like I was grasping at straws.  I understand what it's trying to do, and its aims are admirable on paper, but without a stronger thematic throughline, a lot of it feels muddled and unfocused.  The scenarios that Garland comes up with, and his treatment of the subject matter are all very good.  The action scenes in particular are very grounded and not sensationalized, often using low lighting and tight POV shots.  This is reportedly the most expensive A24 film to date, and the money was well spent.  

However, I couldn't help feeling in the end that I was missing something.  Surely this wasn't all the film wanted to say, was it?  Showing us realistic modern warfare happening in the United States is not a new idea, and though the execution is very good, it's just not as shocking or compelling as I'd hoped.  I wonder if the film would've hit harder if I'd recognized any of the locations on the trip, or if we'd spent time with people other than the neutral reporters.  I know the particulars of this alternate universe aren't the point, but leaving them out just makes me want to know more - similar to the premise of "The Purge" being way more interesting than the fairly typical home invasion movie it created an excuse for.  "Civil War" is a fine movie, but doesn't feel like it lived up to its potential.

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My Top Ten Episodes of 2023-2024

We come to the end of another television year, and I want to do things a little differently this time.  Since I do a sum-up post for other highly regarded movies after writing my movie Top Ten list, I'm going to write one for television shows too.  I'm not a television completist due to the sheer logistical impossibility, but I do watch an awful lot of television and web series - enough that I think it makes sense to discuss some of the shows that didn't make the cut.  You'll see that post in a few days.  

Now, on to the top ten list.  A quick reminder before we start that I watch a lot of genre television, I'm notoriously bad with comedies, and have a neverending "To Watch" list.  I use the Emmy rules for cutoff dates, which means that this list covers everything from the start of June, 2023 to the end of May, 2024.   Entries below are unranked, and I'm limiting myself to one episode per show or miniseries.

Here we go.  I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum.

Fargo, "Biscuit" - The fifth season of "Fargo" is my favorite to date.  A big reason why is that it nailed the last episode, the last scene, and the very last shot.  Sam Spruell's Ole Munch is one of the most fascinating television characters of the year, this ancient, monstrous presence that seems like a weird inclusion in the story - until you realize that he's the whole point.  And Juno Temple's Dot figuring out how to defeat him with love is one of the most satisfying things I've ever seen.  

The Bear, "Forks" - I picked "Forks" out of several good options because it completely turned me around on my least favorite character in the show.  Ebon Moss-Bachrach's Richie has been the asshole screw-up in Carmy's crew up until this point, but a stint at a high-end restaurant run by (spoiler) gives him the tools he needs to be better.  And Richie steps up.  I've never liked Taylor Swift more than that scene of Richie blasting "Love Story" in his car, and triumphantly singing along at the top of his lungs.     

Blue Eye Samurai, "The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride" - The reason why "Blue Eye Samurai" works where a lot of similar projects have stumbled is because the characters are so compelling.  Our heroine, Mizu, does impossible things in every episode, but she's also a perpetual outcast with deep wells of self-loathing.  This episode, which reveals that Mizu once ruined a chance at a happier life, is far more interesting for its character dynamics and deft melodrama than its beautiful action scenes.  

Rick and Morty, "That's Amorte" - We're in the seventh season of "Rick and Morty," and still getting incredibly dark, twisted, and insightful episodes like this.  Because it turns out that the best spaghetti in the universe comes the bodies of certain suicidal aliens.  And of course Morty's attempts to get his spaghetti ethically turn the aliens' planet into a nightmare hellscape.  The ending's a little pat (nihilism wins again!), but the gutsy premise and willingness to grapple with tough subjects impressed me.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith, "Infidelity" - The fun of this show is that it's a kickass action series where the main characters, played by Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, are also going through the beats of a very realistic, tumultuous romantic relationship.  After several episodes of doubts and disappointments, the big rift happens over infidelity suspicions - and the other woman turns out to be a rival spy!  Played by Michaela Coel!  The fights are great, the chases are great, and the whole situation in the deli is a blast.  

Ripley, "Sommerso" - Some spoilers ahead if you aren't familiar with the plot of "The Talented Mr. Ripley."  This is the episode where the first murder happens, along with the aftermath.  I don't think I've seen an onscreen depiction of body disposal quite this involved, but it's very engrossing.  The fact that so much of it plays out with no dialogue, with black-and-white cinematography, and the murderer is not very good at this, occasionally sends the episode awfully close to silent-era slapstick.  And it's great!

Shogun, "Servants of Two Masters" - It wasn't until the end of the second episode of the new "Shogun" that the show's major characters and relationships finally snapped into place.  Up to that point, the show's creators did a fantastic job of showing off their meticulous recreation of seventeenth century Japan.  However, it's that first real conversation between Blackthorne and Toranaga, with Mariko translating, where the pieces start to connect and everyone realizes that the world just got bigger. 

Baby Reindeer, "Episode 6" - I nearly went with the finale because it features more of Jessica Gunning's already absolutely iconic performance as Martha, but "Episode 6" really felt like the climax of the show.  Richard Gadd takes us back to the stage play version of "Baby Reindeer" with Donny's soul-baring onstage monologue at the comedy competition.  Also, we do get some good scenes with Martha here, including the tense scene in the bar where Donny finally confronts her with her past misdeeds.   

Scavengers Reign, "The Wall" - It was a very good year for animation, especially animation aimed at older audiences.  "Scavengers Reign" has a lot of DNA from European comics and animation, and I love that it takes place on an alien world that feels like a truly alien place.  The early episodes, including "The Wall," have almost no dialogue and nothing to explain what's going on.  It makes the experience far more immersive and wondrous, like you're discovering the world right along with the stranded characters. 

Black Mirror, "Joan is Awful" - In light of the recent Scarlett Johanssen beef with Open AI, it is amazing how topical this episode is.  Charlie Kaufman has a ball skewering Netflix's own programming decisions and corporate culture, while sending us on a journey through multiple levels of simulated realities that have been spawned from one woman's life.  Alex Garland should take notes.  Special Kudos to Annie Murphy for anchoring the whole thing with her performance, and Salma Hayek for being a good sport.  

Honorable Mentions:

I'm a Virgo, "A Metaphor for What," - This was on the list for a very long time, and by far my hardest cut.  I still don't understand how Amazon paid for Boots Riley to make such a stridently anti-Capitalist call to action in the guise of a superhero show.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "Those Old Scientists" - The "Strange New Worlds" and "Lower Decks" crossover episode.  Because I'm a nerd.

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My Top Ten Films of 1939

This list is part of my Top Ten project covering films released before I began writing this blog.  The entries below are unranked. And because it might be a long while until the next installment, thanks for reading.

The Wizard of Oz - If you haven't been to see the Wizard lately, it's worth taking a trip back to Oz and visiting old friends.  The film's Technicolor charms are as delightful as they always were.  The songs remain irresistible earworms, and the actors' enthusiasm is infectious. On my latest rewatch Frank Morgan stood out, one of those dependable character actors who was in everything in the '30s and '40s, and is so immediately memorable.

Gone With the Wind - This was a film I had to warm up to over time, and though aspects of it have aged badly over the years - to the point that I'd never recommend this to the uninformed - the will-they-won't-they romance of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler still holds up just fine.  Scarlett in particular is such a fascinating character, an unusually strong heroine with challenging faults and an irrepressible spirit.  Love her or hate her, you have to give her her due.  

Ninotchka - "Garbo Laughs!"  I've written several times about "Ninotchka," the only film where Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder crossed paths with Greta Garbo, and subverted her usual, very serious screen persona to very good effect.  I will never understand why Garbo didn't do more comedy, as her deadpan delivery of so many iconic lines is absolutely priceless.  Then again, once you worked with Lubitsch and Wilder, could anything else compare?

The Rules of the Game - I don't think I'm French enough to really get the full effect of the social satire on display here, but I admire Jean Renoir's filmmaking to bits.  There are shots and sequences in the film that are still astonishing to see play out, and images that aren't easily forgotten.  Among the performers, it's ironically Jean Renoir himself that I regard the most fondly, playing a hapless guest who never quite manages to find his footing in the love game. 

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - Features one of the most iconic Jimmy Stewart roles, Jefferson Smith, and an idealistic view of the American government that comes across as rather poignant today.  I wish all of our problems could be solved with inspirational speeches and appeals to man's better nature.  Despite its earnestness, this is one of Frank Capra's less sentimental pictures, spending as much time criticizing the state of American politics as it does lauding it.

At the Circus - I am not a complicated person.  "At the Circus" is my favorite Marx brothers film because it's the one where Harpo hangs out with a seal, the orchestra floats out to sea, there are circus hijinks galore, and Groucho sings "Lydia the Tattooed Lady."  I have no idea why this is considered one of their lesser comedy works, but then again nostalgia is doing a lot here.  I respond to physical gags more than '30s patter, and this movie has some of their best.

Confessions of a Nazi Spy - Considered one of the first anti-Nazi Hollywood projects, and fairly controversial when it was first released.  Though billed as an espionage story, this is really an examination of Nazi recruitment efforts among German Americans.  Alas, the film has proven to be very timely, especially its depiction of how the Nazis used propaganda and misinformation tactics to spread their influence.  It's still one of the better depictions of the U.S. lead-up to WWII.  

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex - One of my favorite showbiz stories is the one about Bette Davis watching a screening of this film decades after its release, and grudgingly admitting she was wrong about the performance of her co-star, Errol Flynn.  Davis and Flynn are an odd couple onscreen, but it's an odd couple that shines, with Davis giving the portrayal of Elizabeth the authenticity that it needed, while Flynn livened up the proceedings with his matinee idol charm.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame - A very Hollywood adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel, but one that gives us an iconic Charles Laughton performance as Quasimodo and a lively supporting cast, including Maureen O'Hara in her breakout role.  RKO overspent on the production but it was worth it.  Part Gothic thriller and part adventure spectacle, this is still the best screen "Hunchback" by a considerable margin.  

Bachelor Mother - Ginger Rogers stars as a loveable shop girl who mistakenly ends up as the new mother of a foundling, with David Niven as her love interest.  It's a fun workplace and romantic farce, surprisingly featuring an army of Donald Duck figurines in a major role.  And I don't know which is cuter - the baby or Charles Coburn jumping at the chance to be the little tyke's grandfather.  

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