Film and TV reviews of 2023

Normally I do separate posts for these, but this year, I only saw four films, so it’s pretty hard to justify a post just for the films. My TV shows count is a bit down too. Some of those are related things - 2023 wasn’t a great year, and I spent a chunk of time rewatching comfort shows. With 50 episodes of The Untamed and 23 plus a film of Sense8 that’s a lot of my “TV space” chewed up. I also changed my viewing habits and watched far more YouTube than in previous years, which affected my TV viewership. Details in my personal life also changed, which meant I got fewer opportunities to go to the cinema but, in fairness, I also had far fewer films that appealed to me. I’m capable of getting myself to the cinema, or watching the film elsewhere if it appeals enough - I did for Barbie for example. Hollywood runs on a paradigm of “blockbusters must appeal to the 18-35 year olds” and I’m massively outside that age range. The array of mid-budget films that used to be there for older people mostly haven’t appealed this year either. Some of that is the Hollywood strikes - Dune Part Two would have been a slam dunk for me but that’s been pushed back because they couldn’t get the stars out to do publicity. But some of it is that I’m just looking at the films that were put out, including before the strikes, and thinking “Dafuq, why would I waste my time watching this dross?”

Films

In strict order of preference

1. Barbie
2. Rebel Moon
3. Blonde
4. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

This was pretty easy. One film I loved, one I enjoyed, one where I was hooked by a singular performance in a film I found hard to watch and one where my review was “gorgeous but WTF?” Time has been kinder to Blonde than Pinocchio - that performance was amazing, but WTF lingers more than gorgeous.

Of these films, 75% passed the Bechdel Test (not Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, 67% passed the Ko Test (not Blonde, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio was null for lots of animation) and only 25% passed the Russo Test (Blonde). But with such a small sample size it’s not meaningful to compare them to other years.

TV

Some provisos here. I know that Stupid Wife season three is out, but I haven’t watched it yet, Likewise Slow Horses season three. I am currently in the middle of both. Everything down to number 11 I would say is excellent and I’ve swapped the order around several times over the course of preparing this review. Take the numbers as a broad indication rather than set in stone. The only thing I’m sure about is that Stupid Wife season two is better than season one in that top 11. But I’m pretty happy with that order.

After that, we have entertaining but awkward in places for 12 and then just bad. You’ll notice I only did You season four, part one - how the mighty have fallen! Part one was so bad I just couldn’t bring myself to watch part two. Probably more than the films, this list has suffered from then 80+ hours of rewatching Sense8 and The Untamed this year, making it shorter than ever.

1. Stupid Wife (Season two)
2. Vigil
3. Dr Who (Christmas Special)
4. The Legend of Vox Machina (season two)
5. Silo
6. Shadow and Bone (Season two)
7. The Fall of the House of Usher
8. Lupin (Part 3)
9. Slow Horses (season two)
10. Sexify (season two)
11. Stupid Wife (season one)
12. Dr Who (60th Anniversary Specials)
13. You (Season four, part one)
14. Obsession

Of these shows 100% passed the Bechdel Test, 55% passed the Ko Test (5/9, 5 were null for being animated or not in English as a first language), and 71% passed the Russo Test. This is an increase for the Bechdel Test and Russo Test (although Stupid Wife appears twice, it shouldn’t bias it that much) and a small fall for the Ko Test. Some of that is due to quite a lot more shows being scored null for various reasons, which shifts the results a bit, about the same number of shows failed this year as last year but with smaller numbers of qualifying shows, the percentage passing looks worse. (That may be counterintuitive, but if 5/9 pass and 13/17 pass that means four shows fail each year, but 55% pass and 76% pass in the two years, which is quite a startling difference in pass rate.) As usual there are shows I watched and didn’t review I’m sure. Certainly there are shows I started watching and didn’t complete. The Night Manager just bored me. I started Sex Education season four at a bad time, but fully intend to circle back and finish it off. There are things like the chapters of Candela Obscura that I haven’t reviewed as TV Shows; I don’t think Actual Play streamed shows are the same thing, but when they’re three parts and done they certainly cross over into similar territory and I equally certainly could do reviews of them. I’m certainly not going to do reviews of Critical Role, that’s just too huge to leave to campaign by campaign and too daunting to do episode by episode. I would like to say that the TV I’ve watched this year has, admittedly by my standards, mostly been freaking excellent. Last year I had a three part split too, but it looked kind of like a normal distribution curve over the 20 shows I recorded: five in the top category, 13 in the middle and two in the bottom. This year, only 14 shows, but 11 of them in the top category and a tail of “the rest”. That’s quite a shift up into the top category. I think this year I was more willing to stop watching a show that I was struggling with than in years gone by, but even allowing for that, I’d need a lot of shows in the middle and bottom category to make it up to normal distribution curve. The year that’s just started should get off to a good start, who knows what it will hold in store though.