Blogocentric Formulations

November Watch List

To qualify for my Watch List every month, the following has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, but it can't be reruns or rewatches 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'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish.


Movies

          Bad Boys: Ride or Die
          Canary Black
          Dirty Harry
          The Hateful Eight
          My Old Ass
          Transformers One
          Wolfs

My favorite movie this month was probably either My Old Ass or Wolfs, both of which were pretty entertaining. Aubrey Plaza was great in the former, and it was a fun take on a coming of age movie, and for the latter, it's always fun to see Brad Pitt and George Clooney in a movie together where you can just tell they're having fun. And the premise of two different fixers showing up to help get rid of a dead body was a fun premise.

Transformers One was also a lot of fun and probably the best Transformers movie since the old animated one from the 1980s. The rest of the movies, though, were just kind of blah. Bad Boys: Ride or Die continued the trend of the movies in that franchise getting progressively worse, and Canary Black was an entirely forgettable spy thriller that didn't have a single story beat that hasn't been done a thousand times. Dirty Harry was incredibly dated at this point, although I can understand why it was so popular in the 1970s when it came out. And I'm finally getting around to watching Quentin Tarantino's most recent movies. I actually worked on this one back in the day but never watched the final cut. It was okay except for - like so many of Tarantino's movies - being way too long and self-indulgent.


Television

          Agatha All Along
          The Day of the Jackal (Season 1)
          Formula One: Drive to Survive (Season 1)
          The Old Man (Season 2)
          Only Murders in the Building (Season 3)
          What If...? (Season 2)

With the exception of the second season of The Old Man (which is really slow), I really enjoyed all the other shows I watched this month. Agatha All Along was super fun, and I finally got around to watching What If...? (Season 2) in preparation for the next season; I'm now officially caught up on all the shows I've worked on at Marvel. Only Murders in the Building (Season 3) was pretty good, but I think the first and second seasons were way better and this one felt like the premise was getting stretched a bit.

My favorite for most of the month was The Day of the Jackal (Season 1), which is a really great remake of the prior movies (and the book they were based on). I've really been enjoying it and was ready to put it as my top pick of the month ... but then I watched Formula One: Drive to Survive and got absolutely hooked. It's a Netflix docuseries where each season follows one year in the Formula One season, complete with interviews with the drivers, team principals, journalists, etc. It's a great introduction into the sport and I'm definitely hooked on both this show and the sport in general now. So much goes into Formula One and I find it all fascinating. Highly recommended for anyone who likes sports docuseries.

TOP PICK:
Formula One: Drive to Survive (Season 1)

RUNNER-UP:
The Day of the Jackal (Season 1)