Transmissions from the Northern Outpost

Tag: movies

  • My 10 favorite TV series and movies watched this year

    Alphabetically, here are my 10 favorite TV series and movies that I watched this year.

    • Arcane: League of Legends
    • Come See Me in the Good Light
    • Corner Gas
    • Death Inc./Fisk
    • Detective Montalbano
    • Ghosts UK, Seasons 4 & 5
    • KPop Demon Hunters
    • The Studio
    • The Venture Brothers
    • Wednesday

    The list is mostly in no particular order, except for the top being my favorite discovery of the year and best show I’ve seen in a long time. I’m not going to give a synopsis of each, or on what streaming platforms they can be found (you have the power of the Interwebs).

    A few notes:

    • I included the TV shows Death Inc. & Fisk as one because of their shared, awkward quirkiness.
    • Kim and I watched Ghosts UK years ago, but we never were able to watch the last two seasons because it wasn’t avaliable on any streaming services we were paying for. We bought the complete series on DVD and finally got to see the final two seasons. It was worth the wait.
    • Three of the four were animated, but none of them were like the others. I also just learned last night that The Venture Brothers has seven seasons. Netflix only has three seasons. We’ll watch the rest on the Adult Swim app with commercials unfortunately.
    • Only one is nonfiction, Come See Me in the Good Light. It’s about the last year of the life of poet Andrea Gibson, who died this past summer.
    • Earlier this year, I finished the last five books in the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri, and so I’ve been making my way slowly through the series based on the books.

    The one my wife Kim and I watched the most together was Corner Gas, a light Canadian comedy that aired from 2004 to 2009. It now is found on various platforms. I’ll leave you with the opening of the first show, which pretty much sets the six seasons of the show perfectly.

    What are some of your favorite TV shows and movies that you watched this year? Share in the comments.

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  • A Child’s Christmas in Wales

    Tonight, my wife Kim and I will be watching the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol, with Alistair Sim as Scrooge, and in our minds, the definitive production of the Christmas classic. We watch it every Christmas. However, every Christmas I also watch another production I consider a classic too, the 1987 adaptation of Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales or listen to Thomas himself reading it.

    I shared both with my sister and a friend via text. My friend sent me this version by Richard Burton:

    My friend gave this analysis, which I thought was right on and the reason I like the Elliot version the best:

    Elliot gives a gentler, friendlier performance, and of course that’s partly because it’s a video production. The others are reading. There’s a serious authority to Thomas and a kind of repressed ferocity (as there often is) with Burton.

    As a result of our conversation, for some reason, I was reminded of another production from 1987, The Dead, an adaptation of James Joyce’s short story of the same name in the collection Dubliners. It is one of my favorite movies, especially for the ending monologue (um, trigger warning, not a merry ending):

    I found the entire movie on the Howdy channel on Roku. It also is free on Tubi. I’m watching it now.

    Do you have Christmas TV or movie traditions? Share in the comments.

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  • Fantastic Four & more!

    Every Thursday, I share three good things from today, in the past week, and/or in the week or weeks to come, to focus on what is good. I encourage you to share in the comments your three good things too, if you want. I was introduced to thinking on three good things for the week by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz who lists hers every Sunday on her blog.

    I’m going to keep this simple today, compared to other days when this is very complex, ha.

    Kim is visiting her dad and stepmom in Maryland , and they’ll be visiting her sister, our brother-in-law, and their two daughters, who live about half an hour away. Kim got there yesterday and she’ll be back Sunday. So that’s Good Thing No. 1, that she’s able to see them. It’s been awhile.

    Meanwhile, I have today and tomorrow off, and I’m catching up on movies that Kim didn’t want to watch but I do. So, this is Good Thing No. 2. First up, and one I’m watching even now in the background with closed captions as I dictate this, is The Fantastic 4: First Steps. I’m about an hour and 10 minutes in, and it’s pretty good , if not great. (I actually finished by time I finished this post and can recommend, although maybe not highly – but fun, if in right mood, which I was). Of course it doesn’t take much to be better than the other iterations of this.

    Among the other movies on my list are Jurassic World Rebirth, Thursday Murder Club, and Prey, part of the Predator series, which I’ve had in queue for a while. I’m planning on watching in Comanche, which is one of the options.

    Good Thing No. 3 is when Kim returns home, her vacation continues into the following week and ends the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. On Sunday, Nov. 23, we also celebrate our 29th wedding anniversary. Nothing special planned but I’m also off from work, so that will be good too.

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  • Ghosts, sports, and Twilight

    Every Thursday, and sometimes Friday like today, I share three good things from today, in the past week, and/or in the week or weeks to come, to focus on what is good. I encourage you to share in the comments your three good things too, if you want. I was introduced to thinking on three good things for the week by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz who lists hers every Sunday on her blog.

    Starting today, Kim and I are off for three days. So, basically those are the three good things this week. However, within the three days also are three good things:

    Ghosts Marathon

    We never finished the British version, the original one, of the series Ghosts, so this weekend, we’re planning on rectifying that. Last year I bought the series on DVD and I think we have seasons 4 & 5 left. We’re looking forward to seeing the gang again.

    Sports

    Kim and I were “into baseball” this past season. Even though our teams are out of it, we’re still following the World Series with Game 6 tonight. We don’t have cable so we’ll be catching the game through the MLB app with highlights usually shortly after they happen. We’re both pulling for the Blue Jays.

    I also have been following Major League Soccer, and the teams that are left are now in the playoffs with a slate of games scheduled Saturday afternoon and night. I’m not really pulling for one team or one player as much as I am just watching the passes (like a cat watching a tennis ball) and the play on and off the ball.

    Twilight movies

    A few years ago, we purchased the Rifftrax soundtracks for the Twilight movies and watched them(you sync them up with the movies) . Now we’re going to try them again with the commentary from Mike, Kevim, and Bill, which really is the only way to watch them. They really are horrible, horrible movies but the Rifftrax guys make it more than tolerable. Here’s a sample:

    So what are you all up to this Halloween weekend?

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  • A four-day break from work

    Every Thursday, I share three good things from today, in the past week, and/or in the week or weeks to come, to focus on what is good. I encourage you to share in the comments your three good things too, if you want. I was introduced to thinking on three good things for the week by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz who lists hers every Sunday on her blog.

    Today begins a four-day break from work. Nothing special, just the way my schedule works part-time, with two longer days Monday and Tuesday. So really I have four good things this week to be thankful for.

    Kim is off a couple of days within the four-day stretch: Friday and Saturday, but we have no big plans. Friday night we are doing a theme night, which I’m dubbing “Finale Friday.” We will be watching the finales of Season 8 of Rick & Morty and Season 2 of Peacemaker to start the night, and end with the final Mission Impossible movie, Final Reckoning.

    Other than finales, I would like to get some reading in and catching up on podcasts with Tara Brach and Eckhart Tolle.

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  • A Real Pain, a clean bill of health, and a reunion

    Every Thursday, or sometimes Friday, – like today when I thought I hit “Publish” yesterday, but didn’t – I share three good things from today, in the past week, and/or in the week or weeks to come, to focus on what is good. I encourage you to share in the comments your three good things too, if you want. I was introduced to thinking on three good things for the week by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz who lists hers every Sunday on her blog.

    Today (Thursday)

    Kim and I are off today together and one of the things we did was watch this movie.

    I’ve had it in our Hulu queue for several months. It was very good. It was directed by Jesse Eisenberg and starred both him and Kieran Culkin, who was outstanding.

    The Past Week

    I had a follow-up appointment Monday with my primary for blood pressure and recent bloodwork, and all was well. I also had therapy yesterday and it went well too. I’m not as crazy as I thought. Ha.

    The Week(s) To Come

    Next weekend to start October, Kim and I are going to her high school reunion in southern New Jersey. We’re staying at the hotel where the reunion is being held for two nights, then with her sister in Delaware Sunday night before coming back Monday morning. The reunion is also a multi-year reunion, so Kim’s sister, who graduated a few years before Kim, will be there too.

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  • My 20 Favorite Best Picture Winners and Nominees

    Since The Oscars are on tonight, I thought I’d look back at my favorite Best Picture winners and nominees for each decade since the 1940s. I skipped the 1920s and 1930s, because I don’t know any of the movies from those decades. I picked two from each decade (*winners) and two honorable mentions:

    • 1940s: Rebecca* and Casablanca*
    • 1950s: All About Eve* and Sunset Boulevard
    • 1960s: Judgment at Nuremberg and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Paul Newman and Robert Redford)
    • 1970s: The Godfather Part II* and The Conversation (special shout out to the late Gene Hackman), honorable mention: Network (so relevant always)
    • 1980s: Broadcast News and Field of Dreams, honorable mention: Moonstruck, one of of my wife’s favorite movies
    • 1990s: Schindler’s List* and Goodfellas
    • 2000s: Gladiator* and Up in the Air
    • 2010s: Winter’s Bone and Beasts of the Southern Wild
    • 2020s: Drive My Car and Everything Everywhere All At Once

    If I had to pick just one that I’d say you must see, it would be Sunset Boulevard for lines like this: “I am big, it’s the pictures that got small.“

    What are some of your favorite Best Picture winners and/or nominees?

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