Eloise's Thoughts and Fancies

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 m...

The Sandman (S1) Wednesday (S1) Warrior Nun (S2) Slow Horses (S1) Severance (S1) Dr Who (Specials) Motherland Fort Salem (S4) First Kill (S1) Derry Girls (S3) Cracow Monsters (S1 and only?) All of us are Dead (S1) Killing Eve (S4) The Ipcress File (one season special) A Discovery of Witches (S3) The Witcher (S2) Foundation (S1) Hot Skull Conversations with Friends (one season special) Stranger Things (S4) This is not an exhaustive list of the TV I watched this year, it’s a list of the TV I was moved to review this year which is not the same. I’m aware of at least a couple of shows I watched all the way through that I didn’t review for various reasons. There are all a number of shows that I started and didn’t finish, which I guess is a review of its own to some extent, but they’re not listed here. As is usual, this list is not really ranked. While it might be possible to rank Warrior Nun and Wednesday against each other, how do you rank either of those against The Sandman or S...

Everything Everywhere, All at Once Avatar: The Way of Water Top Gun: Maverick The Northman Love and Leashes The Batman The Woman King Thor: Love And Thunder Don’t Worry Darling Jurassic World: Dominion D.E.B.S. The Half of It Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Elvis Licorice Pizza Don’t Look Up I only saw 16 films this year, that includes two that are old films that I caught up on. I have a few lurking on my Netflix list to watch as well that I will get around to eventually. That’s not the lowest number of films I’ve seen since I started this list, but it is way down. There are a mix of reasons for that, changes in my domestic life, fewer films I want to see (there are some really long gaps between good films being released at the cinema this year) and, like a sizeable chunk of people, I’m not so good at sitting down at home to watch a movie. I’m much more likely to watch an episode or two of whatever the latest show I’m hooked on might be. Two episodes might be the same ...