Blogocentric Formulations

January Watch List

I keep meticulous track of all the books, scripts, and comics I read every year. Plus the podcasts I listen to. But the one thing I don't do very often is write about the things I watch. I don't really know why I haven't until this point, but I recently noticed that a friend of mine writes up a "media consumption" post on Facebook every month and I thought I might start doing the same.

To qualify for the list, it has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, it just can't be reruns of something I've already seen. So if I'm including it in this list, it means this month is the first time I've watched it. I won't list the stuff I lost interest in quickly, but I'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish.

So without further ado, here's January's watch list:


Viewing in Progress

          Mayor of Kingstown


Movies

          Dune
          Encanto
          Hotel Transylvania: Transformania!
          Matrix Resurrections, The
          Ron's Gone Wrong
          Sing 2
          tick, tick... BOOM!


Television

          And Just Like That...
          Book of Boba Fett, The
          Cleaning Lady, The (DNF)
          Peacemaker
          Real Housewives of OC, The
          Sex Lives of College Girls, The


I enjoyed a lot of the stuff I watched this month. Except Dune and Hotel Transylvania: Transformania which were pretty meh. I'm also only watching And Just Like That... (which feels like a soulless cash grab) and the evergreen dumpster fire than is RHOC because those are my wife's guilty-pleasure shows.

I highly recommend Encanto and Ron's Gone Wrong which are both really touching animated movies that both kids and adults can enjoy. Peacemaker is delightfully crude and funny. But I'm going to try to do a single "top pick" each month and January's is...

TOP PICK: The Sex Lives of College Girls

Continuing Mindy Kaling's strong run as a television creator, it follows four college freshman who end up sharing the same dorm room: a spoiled rich girl, a lower-middle class awkward scholarship student, a star athlete, and a wild child. The four of them have realistic roommate chemistry (they don't all get along right away) as they all navigate sex and relationships, being out on their own and adulting for the first time, etc. It's really well written, smart and funny. I highly recommend it, especially if you like Mindy Kaling's other shows like Never Have I Ever... and her work on The Office or The Mindy Project.