2020 Television Year in Review
Wait, what? I'm reviewing television shows? I, who didn't even have an television until M moved in, was watching television? Well, the pandemic changed all sorts of things. Beyond watching movies at home, the other thing I did this year for basically the first time as an adult was consistently watch television shows that weren't professional baseball.
That was the first time this happened since the very first season of South Park back in 1997. Of course, thanks to the wonders of streaming services it's not like we had to be in front of the television at a specific time like we did in 1997. In any event, I finished five different television seasons in 2020. Or really I should say we, as M and I watched all of these together. I list them here with the date we finished them.
The Mandalorian, Season 1 - F 7/10
DareDevil, Season 1 - Su 10/11
DareDevil, Season 2 - M 11/02
DareDevil, Season 3 - Su 12/06
The Mandalorian, Season 2 - F 12/18
Personally, I thought the first season of The Mandalorian was very hit or miss. I couldn't quite understand why people loved it so much, aside from it being Star Wars. The second season started strong, was terrible for three episodes, and then got steadily better until the final episode, which was fantastic. We also managed to watch the last episode of season 2 the day it came out, which means for once I was one with the zeitgeist!
As far as DareDevil goes, the less Matt Murdock whined about being DareDevil, the better it was. Unfortunately, he spent most of season 2 and season 3 whining about being DareDevil. This helped cause some pacing issues that occasionally made the show boring. It didn't help that there started to be a certain repetition in the fight scenes toward the end. It's great when they homage things like the single shot hallway fight in Oldboy, but they fell into so many fights in close quarters that the season two finale fight on a large rooftop seemed very new and exciting by comparison.
Fortunately, his villains and supporting case usually picked up Matt and made the show interesting enough to hold our interest. I think this version of Karen Page might be the best version yet, and I was quite pleased with how Ben Urich turned out on screen. I also liked Claire the "not the Night Nurse" character. As far as villains go, Wilson Fisk was very good although I would have liked him to be more physically imposing. Bulleye was great, and the Punisher... well, I look forward to watching the spin off at some point.
None of these seasons were binged, by the way. I realize that's not how most people do it, but I can only think of one time that we watched two episodes in the same day, and even that was one DareDevil and one Mandalorian episode so we didn't even manage to binge two episodes of the same show in one day.
So yeah, that's the story of my first adventures in television in a long time. I think M is pleased. She's been telling me for years that television has gotten really good. Maybe I'll branch out into shows that aren't Star Wars or Marvel at some point. On the other hand, maybe not. Right now as I write this we're almost through the first season of Jessica Jones, and Disney has all sorts of other things coming out soon in their two main big franchises.
With that said, if you've got television suggestions, I'm listening.
That was the first time this happened since the very first season of South Park back in 1997. Of course, thanks to the wonders of streaming services it's not like we had to be in front of the television at a specific time like we did in 1997. In any event, I finished five different television seasons in 2020. Or really I should say we, as M and I watched all of these together. I list them here with the date we finished them.
The Mandalorian, Season 1 - F 7/10
DareDevil, Season 1 - Su 10/11
DareDevil, Season 2 - M 11/02
DareDevil, Season 3 - Su 12/06
The Mandalorian, Season 2 - F 12/18
Personally, I thought the first season of The Mandalorian was very hit or miss. I couldn't quite understand why people loved it so much, aside from it being Star Wars. The second season started strong, was terrible for three episodes, and then got steadily better until the final episode, which was fantastic. We also managed to watch the last episode of season 2 the day it came out, which means for once I was one with the zeitgeist!
As far as DareDevil goes, the less Matt Murdock whined about being DareDevil, the better it was. Unfortunately, he spent most of season 2 and season 3 whining about being DareDevil. This helped cause some pacing issues that occasionally made the show boring. It didn't help that there started to be a certain repetition in the fight scenes toward the end. It's great when they homage things like the single shot hallway fight in Oldboy, but they fell into so many fights in close quarters that the season two finale fight on a large rooftop seemed very new and exciting by comparison.
Fortunately, his villains and supporting case usually picked up Matt and made the show interesting enough to hold our interest. I think this version of Karen Page might be the best version yet, and I was quite pleased with how Ben Urich turned out on screen. I also liked Claire the "not the Night Nurse" character. As far as villains go, Wilson Fisk was very good although I would have liked him to be more physically imposing. Bulleye was great, and the Punisher... well, I look forward to watching the spin off at some point.
None of these seasons were binged, by the way. I realize that's not how most people do it, but I can only think of one time that we watched two episodes in the same day, and even that was one DareDevil and one Mandalorian episode so we didn't even manage to binge two episodes of the same show in one day.
So yeah, that's the story of my first adventures in television in a long time. I think M is pleased. She's been telling me for years that television has gotten really good. Maybe I'll branch out into shows that aren't Star Wars or Marvel at some point. On the other hand, maybe not. Right now as I write this we're almost through the first season of Jessica Jones, and Disney has all sorts of other things coming out soon in their two main big franchises.
With that said, if you've got television suggestions, I'm listening.