Things I Watched in 2023

Here is my yearly list of things I watched via various streaming platforms...and in one very rare time, at the movie theater.

Red denotes shows or movies I disliked.

Blue denotes shows I especially loved.  Though sometimes I forget the love I felt if a lot of time has passed between watching the show and making the list. The love often fades.  More recent watchings are more likely to be blue.  

Never mind that.  I'm ending that part of my tradition.  It's too hard for me to decide whether or not I simply liked a show or whether I loved it.  

I've divided the shows by location...in terms of where it was set rather than where it was filmed.

Some shows might be listed for multiple places.

If you're interested, here is my list for 2017, 2020, 2021, and 2022 list.

One big thing I almost forgot to mention is I completely changed the way I do my to-watch list.

My old way involved having a limited number of spaces for shows/movies on the list—idea being I needed to finish and cross off a movie or show before adding something new.  

Now I'm using the same method I use for my author's list. There is no limit to the number of things on the list.  And before adding to the list, I don't take time to make sure it's not already on the list. 

I'm fine with things being on the list multiple times. Sometimes I actually purposely add things multiple time, so there will be more of a chance that Random.org will choose it for me. 

I was going to list which seasons of a show I've watched, but I've decided that's going to make the list too clunky and complicated.  I might do it sometimes.

Warning: I might have things wrong about the setting of the Marvel movies we watched.  My memory is muddled.  If any particular experts want to help by correcting me, I would feel appreciative and not offended. 

AUSTRALIA

Neighbours-Having Neighbours return, and be available for me to easily watch, was one of the top best things that happened to me this year. I've been watching the current episodes and slowly making my way through the provided Classic Neighbours episodes.  

All Saints-Every few years, Random.org gifts me with another season of this show.  I feel emotionally attached.  

Deadloch- This was one of the very rare times that Tim and I watched an Australian TV show together.  I almost quit after the first episode, because I misunderstood what it was. I thought it was supposed to be a parody of shows like Broadchurch.  I was picturing like a Naked Gun/Airplane kind of thing.  So watching the first episode, it just felt really off.  Like the show had failed at what it was trying to do.  Then I realized it was more of a drama-comedy-mystery.  Or a drama-mystery with comic relief characters.  After accepting the show for what it was supposed to be, I loved it.  

DENMARK

The Bear Only one episode.  That particular episode gave me a lot of anxiety and dread, because we had plans to go on a trip to Copenhagen, and I was extremely anxious about traveling.  But it all had a happy ending. I ended up having a wonderful time on the trip 

GERMANY

All the Light We Cannot See-Wasn't interested in this when my parents highly recommended it but then became interested when I saw an actor from Dark was one of the stars. 

Unorthodox-Inspired to watch this after watching Shira Haas in Bodies.  And I had also read the book this year and liked that a lot.  

I'm hoping Disney doesn't cave to pressure and that we'll be able to see Haas in the new Captain America movie.  

ISRAEL

Fauda- Currently watching this.  I've read reviews saying it's biased against Palestinians.  From what I've seen so far, it seems much less biased than I would have expected from an Israeli TV show about the conflict. 

I think it shows Palestinians in a very sympathetic way and sometimes shows Israelis in a quite negative way.  Really...all in all, it seems fairly sympathetic towards both sides.  

A pessimistic, judgmental side of me feels some reviewers would see this show as unbiased and fair only if all the the Israelis were shown as completely evil, heartless oppressive colonizers and the Palestinians as angelic, loving, innocent victims.  

ITALY

Mrs. Davies 

A Haunting in Venice- I liked the set design but besides that...didn't really love this one. 

JAPAN

Invasion 

NETHERLANDS

Ted Lasso-I loved that episode.  Though like The Bear's travel episode, this one also gave me anxiety, because of our upcoming trip.  Unlike some people I know, I don't continue to confuse the Danish with the Dutch.  However, it still made me think of our upcoming trip, because of the canal, Europe in general, etc.  

NORWAY-

Thor: Love and Thunder I forget where else it takes place. In the Metaverse? The Multiverse? Another Planet?  

SOUTH KOREA

Uncanny Counter 

Extraordinary Attorney Woo- I tried working on Korean by rewatching one of the episodes repeatedly.  Then I got tired of it and stopped.

Burning-Critics and reviewer people seemed to like this one much more than Tim and I did.  

Business Proposal-Fictional Australians seem to die tragically from being hit by a car while walking, standing, picking up someone else's bulk trash, etc.  Koreans seem to be in danger of losing their parents as children and teens via a car accident.  This is the case for this show, Uncanny Counter, and also Sweet Home.  Are there others I've forgotten?  

I should say that I've watched a teeny tiny fraction of the Korean dramas that are out there.  There may be a more common way for fictional Koreans to die.

UNITED KINGDOM

Black Mirror 

Ted Lasso-The ending gave me a lot of sadness in the same way The Good Place gave me a lot of sadness.  I mean sadness for the same type of reason.  

Invasion

Bodies-I liked this show a lot until I read about the massive differences to the comic book.  I really need to stop trying to compare books with shows.  It messes too much with my head when there are huge changes.  Especially if the changes are enormous.  With the TV series, time travel seemed very much to be the main point of the whole story.  Then I learn that time travel didn't play a part at all in the original material.

Coronation Street-This...and now Neighbours...are my constants.  I don't rely on Random.org to pick it for me.  I try hard to watch it every day that an episode is available to me.  

THE UNITED STATES

Lucifer-I love this show to the point that I sometimes feel stupid for allowing my viewing to be ruled so much by Random.org.  It's sad to consider that it may be twenty years later before I watch season 5.  On the other hand, I think I will feel a huge loss when I finish watching the show.  So, it's kind of nice living my life knowing I still have two seasons left to watch

Nashville- Speaking of....This one took me a long time to get back to.  There were some years between my watching season two and three.  Again, though, it's nice knowing I have more seasons left to watch.

Mythic Quest 

Crown Heights

Bosch

The Peripheral-I liked the idea of this more than the result.  

Only Murders in the Building-I love this show. It brings me a very happy kind of nostalgia to see Steve Martin and Martin Short.  

Parenthood- This was a hate-like show for me.  

It was the most offensive show dealing with autism I have ever seen.  It made my blood boil. It's as if someone took the infamous Autism Speaks promotional video and said, Hey, let's turn this into a TV show. But I liked the other aspects of the show and enjoyed seeing how it actually does connect to the movie. 

Yellow Jackets- I'm not sure where the plane crashed, though. 

This is Us- I love this show...and it's another one where I worry Random.org won't ever pick again for me but at the same time am glad I still have seasons left to watch.  

The Good Doctor

The Last of Us

Law and Order- I watched just a couple of episodes while staying at my parent's house for a few nights. 

The Wire-Rewatched a portion of the first episode when staying with my parents.  They hadn't seen it before, and I had wondered if they might like it.  

Chicago Med- Another show my parents shared with me.  

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend-Rewatched a couple of episodes with my parents.  My staycation at their house  was like a TV show Show and Tell kind of thing. They liked this show more than The Wire.  To be fair, I loved The Wire, but it took me several episodes before I got into it. 

Servent-I'm impressed that this show took a very dark and depressing subject and somehow turned it into a wild, fun, addictive roller coaster.  

Spiderman: No Way Home 

Avengers: Infinity War  

Avengers: EndGame

Bodies Bodies Bodies 

Beef-This was beautiful.  I wanted...needed it to end a certain way.  And it did.  So I was very satisfied with that.  

Werewolf by Night- I think?  Or did it take place elsewhere?  I can't remember.  I Googled and couldn't easily find the answer. 

The Magicians

From- I became somewhat obsessed with this show.  I love it but at the same time I worry it borrows from the worst qualities of Lost (which I love, love, love while at the same time recognizing its flaws) 

Mrs. Davies

13 Reasons Why 

The Brady Bunch- I added a lot of nostalgic stuff to my list...and old stuff I haven't ever watched. 

To really feel old school, I sometimes add these shows by individual seasons. Because in the past, we just watched things as they came along via syndication.  We didn't start with episode 1.  So with The Brady Bunch, I ended up with season 4.  The one with the Hawaii adventure.

The Wilds-I'm not sure where the island is supposed to be.  I forget.  Though I Googled and saw it was filmed in New Zealand.  

I watched this after watching the first season of Yellow Jackets and declared that I preferred it much more to Yellow Jackets.  But then we watched season two of Yellow Jackets and...well now it's about even.

Mario Bros

The Bear

Black Mirror

Invasion

The Afterparty-Tim and I enjoyed this one a lot.  The premise is a lot of fun and well-executed.  

What We Do in the Shadows- I like the storyline about Guillermo's new development 

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia- I liked this show but much less than Tim does.  But I watched only the first season.  Maybe if I watch more seasons, it will grow on me more.  

Ratched-I liked this, but I I have problems with sympathetic character who we know are doomed to become villains. I had the same feelings about Bates Motel.

A Knock at the Cabin

Haunted Mansion- I liked this much more than I expected to.  

Totally Killer

The Blackening

Renfield

Loki 

American Horror Story: Hotel- Tim often rewatches shows that I haven't seen yet.  This was one of the rare times that I rewatched a show that he hadn't seen yet.  

Upload 

Leave the World Behind

Unorthodox-

Barbie-We watched this a few nights ago, and I loved, loved, loved, loved, loved it.

The Fall of the House of Usher-This is what we're currently watching.  So far, neither Tim nor I are loving it.  But hopefully we will grow to like it as we get further in.  

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special-(eta) Tim and I watched this one Christmas Eve.  We both loved the songs and are wanting to listen to more music from the heroic Kevin Bacon and Old 97's.

 I had some confusion—some annoyed-confusion—over whether we were dealing with A) A Kevin Bacon from a universe in which The Avengers and other Marvel characters are real people known for saving the world B) A universe where The Avengers exist as fictional characters.  C)A universe in which Marvel Characters exist but are unknown by regular people.  

Kevin Bacon's initial reaction gave me the sense that it was the third option which didn't sit well with me.  BUT...thinking about it...even if we lived in a world where people with super human abilities existed and are known of by the general public, it wouldn't mean these people would be commonplace.  And if some unusual beings came to our door, we might assume they were people in costume.  

Party Down (eta) The existence of this show scares me, because it has quite a few well-known actors and seems fairly well-liked.  Yet I've never heard of it.  

And I'm someone who spends a lot of time on IMDb.  

No, I don't think something supernatural is going on.  It's just...for me...evidence...that there's way too much content out there.  It's impossible to keep up.  That would be okay...except I have major FOMO when it comes to TV shows.  

The Other Two (eta)

LOCATION UNKNOWN 

The Menu-I found aspects of this offensive but also found it somewhat interesting and entertaining.  

From

NOT EARTH 

The 100 - Watched season 2.  It had been a long time since I watched season 2, so it took me awhile to get into it and to care about the characters again.  But once I did, I enjoyed it.  

Avengers: Endgame

Solo: A Star Wars Story 

Foundation-Tim offered to rewatch with me, because he liked it a lot.  I was unable to get into it, I dropped out.

Black Mirror-

The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special 

MULTIVERSE

(I struggled labeling this, because technically speaking all fiction happens in not-our-universe

Spiderman: No Way Home 

Avengers: Infinity War (I think?  I kind of forget, actually) 

Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse-I would have probably liked this more if I had seen the first movie, before going to the theater to watch this. Speaking of, I think this was actually the one time that Tim and I saw a movie at an actual theater this year.  Jack had invited us to go.  I think movie-going has become something we do only when it offers us a chance to go on a field trip with our child. 

Loki

MYSTICAL PLACE 

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever- I liked the ending with the song much more than I liked the rest of the movie. 

House of Dragon-Tim and I had to really struggle to get ourselves to like this. We managed to sort of like it by the end but not enough to want to watch any future seasons of it.  

I can imagine that for huge fans of the Westeros universe, the show might have been satisfying.  But for me, it didn't ease my longing for Game of Thrones.  It just made me feel confused and frustrated.  The characters are just too distant from the GOT characters.

It's like...would a show about the great-great-great-great-great grandparents of Monica and Ross satisfy people who miss watching Friends?

Thor Raganok 

The Magicians 

Mario Bros 

Dungeons and Dragons-This movie does a good job of being accessible to those of us who never played the game.

Lost-I totally forgot I watched this (season 3) until looking at my records.  Which is strange, because I'm actually playing around with writing a novel about a fan of Lost. 

By playing around I mean I'm doing research, taking notes, creating character and family bios, etc. with no huge desire to actually write the novel.  

I'm having fun with the journey, though.  If I think about it as a waste of time, I tell myself it's similar to playing Minecraft or Sims.  It's just about having fun with my imagination and my love of researching.  

Yes, I'd rather have a finished product, and I'd want that finished product to be read and liked by others.  But if it's not read and if I don't even write it...that's all okay too.  

Thor: Love and Thunder-I'm struggling here, trying to remember if it would also fit into the multiverse.  Maybe all The Avengers movies do?  

The Santa Clauses- See? Tim Allen was not fired from Disney for not being Woke enough or too white. I've never actually seen the movies.  But I liked the show. A little bit.  It was corny but enjoyable.

ONLINE

The Peripheral 

Upload 

MULTIPLE LOCATIONS

How to be a Tyrant-One of the few documentaries I watched 

Lost-

Invasion

Behind the Attraction-Another documentary.  We watched only...I think two episodes?  I liked it at first but then I felt it got old after awhile. It was probably less about the subject matter and more about the format?   

Well....

That's it for now.  I will probably add shows/movies that I watch in the last few weeks.  

Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

TV Shows and Movies I Watched in 2022

Here's a list of what I watched in 2022...well in terms of movies and scripted TV shows.  I'm not including all the YouTube and Instagram videos...or the many videos my family shares via text. I also don't count the shows that I get a glimpse of when I go into the kitchen and Tim is watching something.  Although if I sit down to watch; then I count it.

Shows and movies are divided by geography—settling location not necessarily the filming location. I put some shows in multiple places if applicable.  

Blue font means I especially loved the show or movie.  Though lack of blue doesn't mean a lack of love...at the time. Sometimes I will love a show when I see it but then later my enthusiasm fades. I'm going to try, though, to remember my initial love for a show.

Red font means I didn't like it.

Orange font is for shows that I watched a little bit of when I had control of the remote control during MY 50th Birthday Disney trip.  I was so excited to have control of the TV and do the old fashioned thing of flipping through channels.  I decided if I sat down to watch at least 5-10 minutes of something (before flipping to the next thing), I was going to count it.  

There are certain shows in which I sort of lie about location because of spoiler issues. I'm not going to specify which shows, because that in itself would be a spoiler.  It's kind of like when people tell you there's a twist at the end of the movie and just knowing there is a twist ends up being a sort of spoiler.  

Also....I started writing this a few weeks before posting.  It gets a bit confusing, because things are a bit out of order.  Most of the stuff I watched in the past throughout the year.  But other shows, I watched in the midst of working on the post.  Because this post is ordered by geography rather than time-of-watching, with the more recent watchings, there's a Doctor-River Song sort of vibe.       

For anyone interested: Here's my 2017, 2020, and 2021 list.  

CANADA

Turning Red

The Handmaid's Tale 

Trevor Noah-I Wish You Would

COLUMBIA

Encanto

EGYPT

Moon Knight 

GREECE

Glass Oven: A Knives out Mystery

IRELAND

Belfast-Didn't remember to add this until January 5.  I had forgotten to add it to my Google Docs where I write down everything I watch.  I can't remember how I thought of it.  But then I went through texts to find the conversation with my parents inviting me over to watch.  Hopefully, I didn't miss any other movies or TV shows    

ITALY

The White Lotus-What we're currently watching.  It will probably be our 2022-2023 bridge show.  

JAPAN

Mushishi-I was bored.

KOREA

Train to Busan-Koreans are very good at horror.

Dr. Brain

Miss Granny 

All of Us Are Dead-I loved this and was disappointed that we didn't see any trick or treaters dressed as the students.

The Call-Very scary. I realized while watching that it was a scary version of The Lake House. And then with some Googling, I learned the Lake House is actually a remake of a Korean movie.

Seoul Station

Extraordinary Attorney Woo

SOUTH AFRICA

Chappie-I actually more-listened to this than watched.  I used the Netflix narration.  I enjoyed the experience.  

UNITED KINGDOM

Coronation Street

Ted Lasso-This is one of those shows where I also even liked the odd low-rated-on-IMDb episode.

Afterlife-I like this show.  BUT it could have done without the transphobic joke. I also found it annoying that the deceased wife was shown as being so overly perfect.   

Green Wing-It took quite awhile for this to grow on me.  But by the last episode of season one, I was okay with it. 

Cold Feet-The more seasons I watch of this, the more emotionally attached I get.  

Moon Knight-I think this was the first show we watched on our new big screen in the theater/media room.  

Doctor Who-Two years ago, I was very much into Jodie Whitaker as the doctor...like crush level.  Now as I plan to get back to the show I feel nothing.  I'm just eager for the 14th Doctor.  Though by the time I reach the end of the season, I'll probably be back in love with the 13th Doctor and heartbroken that she's leaving.  BUT...I'm excited for Millie Gibson as a companion. I had sat on our backyard bench crying with relief when I realized I misunderstood spoilers and that Kelly Neelan was not going to fall gruesomely to her death; she was just moving away from the street. Then to find out, the Tardis was picking her up? What wonderful news.  I'm eager to see her adventures with the Doctor.  I'm also hopeful that one day Kelly Neelan will return to Coronation Street.  

The Sandman - I love it but it took me several episodes to get to that point. 

I was confused and bothered by the show not seeming to be in the same universe as Lucifer. I wish they were more connected.  Or that we, at least, had answers to explain away the differences.  Why are Cain and Abel together in dream realm in The Sandman but in Lucifer Cain has supposedly been walking the earth for many many years?  Why does Lucifer have a human face in hell in The Sandman? Why wouldn't he be using his demonic face?

Thinking...From what I know, Lucifer is a spin-off of The Sandman.  And knowing that different realms have different timelines, maybe in The Sandman, Cain and Able are in a before-period.  And God punishing Cain comes after their time in the dreaming realms?  Or whatever realm they're in. I'm not 100% sure it's the dreaming realm.   

I personally would have preferred that they use the same cast, director, writers, mood as Lucifer.  I mean the casts would be different, because the central characters are different.  But I would have preferred the same Lucifer, the same Cain, the same Mazikeen, etc.  (Guest appearance kind of things  Or at least have Gwendolyn Christie-Lucifer mention or show that she/he has shift-shaping abilities.

Anyway....Although I never disliked the show, my like turned to love with the Rose Walker storyline.  

 UNITED STATES 

Nine Perfect Strangers

The Power of the Dog-We saw this with my parents.  My parents and I rarely agree on anything. But we were united in thinking this movie was quite awful. Well, I wouldn't say it was awful.  I think, as a piece of art, it's great.  But I found it very unenjoyable.

American Horror Story-I'm not sure which seasons we watched this year.  Maybe "Roanoke" and "Double Feature"?  I think most of my strong-liking comes from the settings.  

Criminal Minds

Cobra Kai-We watched two seasons this year

Empire-I watched one season of this in the beginning of the year and another towards the end of the year.

What We Do in the Shadows-I still love this show, but I loved the latest season a little bit less than the other seasons.

Ozark-I can't believe the priest that helped the family in Chicago and all those foster kids on that Island turned out to be such a violent shithead.  

Schitt's Creek-LOVED this show and was super into it.  And then suddenly I wasn't.  It's nothing about the show itself.  I think it's personal issues really.  I was going to tie my fading love to trauma.  But you know, I think what really happened is I got really into using headphones and am almost constantly listening to TV shows, audiobooks, podcasts.  Prior to that, while I did kitchen chores, I had this whole thing of re-watching Schitt's Creek.  But then I stopped.  And well, actually...part of that was because of climate-trauma and moving.  But mostly...I think it was the headphones. In my quest to re-watch...I left off at the second to last episode.  I think it's kind of this unfinished business for me. I feel uneasy about the whole thing.  

Scandal-This show keeps getting better and better.  The more outrageous it gets, the more I like it.

Orange is the New Black-Watched the first season.  Hope Random.org picks more seasons for me...someday.

Succession-One of my ChatGPT adventures was asking the AI to write a pitch for a crossover TV show between this one and Empire.  

 Upload

West Side Story-I tried watching this with Tim, thinking I was being supportive.  Because the original is one of his favorite movies.  I didn't like it...and I don't think he was as into watching the remake as I expected. 

The Last Man on Earth-This is such a fun show. 

Greenleaf

Stranger Things-I greatly enjoyed this but then all the Holocaust stuff kind of put a damper on things.  Still. It's a fun show.

Outer Range-We watched the whole season.  By the end, I had sort of warmed to it.  But looking back, I feel cold towards it.   

Brooklyn 99

Flight Attendant 

The Shining Girls

Shameless-I was less into the 2nd season than the 1st.  But I still liked it.  

Community 

 The Handmaid's Tale-Well...it sort of (partly) takes place in the United States.  Location-wise.  

Complete Unknown-I had to Google this movie to remind myself what it was. I now can remember it. BUT I have no idea of whether I liked it, disliked it or loved it.  I should check to see if I rated it on IMDb.  That might help.

Severance- This show is SO SO SO good.

Nope-This was one of those things where I didn't like something UNTIL talking to other people and reading about it...and thinking about it.  My initial feeling was that I liked it much less than Get Out and Us.  But later...well, I still prefer Us and maybe Get Out,  But now, I also like Nope.

Heredity-Super creepy.  I didn't like the message the movie (intentionally/unintentionally) sends about mental health and people with neurological differences. Well, I want to say more but it would be total spoilers.  I think what I'll do is write something at the way bottom of this post...  I didn't like the movie, because I found it offensive.  But I did like the movie, because it was so creepy. Although the creepiness scared me which I find unpleasant.  At the same time, the fact that it scared me impressed me.  

Station Eleven-This miniseries is so beautiful.  Although not exactly in its entirety. Some of the episodes were amazing. Others were mediocre.  I think Tim and I both preferred the flashback episodes.  It's a great story about stories, and it replies to the assholes who think writers, artists, actors, filmmakers, musicians are not doing important work or were a waste of space during the pandemic. 

 I became obsessed with one of the trailers—watching it repeatedly and memorizing the lines.  I like to recite it sometimes.  ALSO...the miniseries is part of what inspired me to work on turning bits of my blog and my novel into a book-book instead of just an online thing. 

The whole miniseries revolves around a graphic novel written by a woman who makes only a few copies before a pandemic kills most of the population.  It made me think of how my writing is very unpopular now.  But there's a chance it could be super popular during the apocalypse when there's less reading material out there.  Or it might not be popular, but it might be special to one or two survivors.  And that would be nice.  I mean...so sad about the apocalypse.  Of course!

The Bear-I probably would have liked this more if I didn't watch it while addicted to the color-water sorting game.  My heart and mine were more into the game. That being said...I still liked the show.  

Chasing Life

The Lost City 

Invasion of the Body Snatchers-I'm pretty sure this was the first time I watched the entire movie.  I think we watched bits and pieces during my childhood. It was scarier than I expected. It makes me want to watch more horror movies of the 1960's, 1970's, and early 1980's.  

Poltergeist-Wrote a whole post about this one.

Bosch-It's nice to see a universe where Sophia survives and grows up...well reaches her teen years, at least. 

Modern Family-The last two seasons.  Our family enthusiastically watched the first three or four seasons; then the interest faded.  A few years ago, Tim and I got back into it and watched some of it...kind of jumped into where they were rather than going back to catch up with what we had missed.  We kind of forgot about it (or really it got buried underneath everyone else in our to-watch agenda.  Then a few months ago, Tim started watching the whole series from the beginning. I asked if he'd mind stopping at season 10, because that's where we left off.  So we watched 10 and 11 together...actually a few episodes at the end of episode 9 as well.   

Reboot

Enchanted 

Just Go With It 

The Conners-This was comforting in that I'm-not-the-only-one-aging kind of way. 

Family Guy

Charmed

Young Sheldon

Legends

The Sandman

Wednesday - I like it.  But I'm tired of seeing the dance everywhere.  In some ways, I like social media trends. It's cool seeing humanity come together to inspire and copy each other.  On the other hand, I'm realizing I much prefer original content.  I mean nothing is 100% original.  But I think I prefer the stuff that's vaguely inspired rather than seeing the same thing (with tiny variations) over and over.    

Lucifer-Just got back to watching this...I'm on season 4.  I usually love it, but it's probably going to take me a couple of episodes to get back into it.  

VARIOUS

Don't Look Up-Sometimes comedies have very sad moments.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness-This is one of those movies where I feel I should like it more, because of the subject matter.  But I don't. I didn't like Wanda turning evil.  I have a huge soft spot for bad characters turning good and find the opposite depressing.  I mean I know she also did bad things in WandaVision.  But I think all that was more understandable...and also fun.  

1899

Everything Everywhere All At Once-I liked this much more than Doctor Strange. 

NOT EARTH

Obi-Wan Kenobi For the stronger Star Wars fans like Tim and Jack...going on Rise of the Resistance was like, Oh, it's just like the movie!  For me, I watch this TV show and think Cool! I feel like I'm on the ride I love so much!  I'm really NOT into the Star Wars franchise...compared to Tim, Jack, and other people. At least when it comes to movies and shows.  Yet I've decided my favorite land of all the Disney parks is Galaxy's Edge. 

Mandalorian-I wanted to like this and expected to like this but was kind of bored.  I think we watched only one or two episodes. We would have probably watched more, so I could give it more of a chance.  But there were too many other shows we wanted to watch.  Just for the record: Tim had already watched it on his own and liked it. (I don't want inadvertently smear his Star Wars fan reputation) 

Rogue One-This one we watched recently.  I started to have certain questions about the Star Wars universe.  If this is a whole galaxy, why is there a Star Wars look?  Why does the design and landscape of so many different planets look similar?  Tim tried to explain it away with the imperialism, because I think he thought I was referring to the Vader stuff.  But no...I was referring more to the rebel and town/village sort of places.  It all very much looks like Galaxy's Edge.  However, then we saw the palm tree area...which I appreciated.  

ALSO...during the movie I started to think they should make a PRE-PRE prequel about one of the planets before they all became intergalactic. I think it would be cool to have a  (first) UFO/alien encounter movie in the Star Wars Universe. Does anyone know which planet initiated contact?  Or were there multiple planets having success simultaneously?  Googling....

And now giving up.  It looks like there is a very elaborate and long history...thousands of years.  I can't easily find anything pre-republic.

Added weeks later: I just asked ChatGPT, and it says the planet Coruscant was the first to travel through the galaxy.  Cool.  Unless they're wrong.  

Andor-Watching this now (at time of writing...this post).  I've now thought of justification for why there's a Star Wars look so prevalent throughout the entire galaxy.  It's just like how, with the Internet, on Earth we're probably starting to see and will continue to see more similarities between different countries whether it be in conspiracy theories, architecture, language, art, popular culture, etc.  

I didn't much like Andor except for the storyline involving Andy Serkis. That I loved. I told Tim that Disney should make an attraction based on these scenes. Disney guests can pay to have the chance to build equipment for the Imagineers. It would also provide more career placements for cast members who tend to be snarky/grumpy rather than cheerful and friendly.  

Lightyear- But maybe they were sometimes on Earth?  I forget.

The Midnight Club-Not bad, but I liked it less than the Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Midnight Mass.  It was fun seeing Heather Langenkamp.  

MYSTICAL PLACE

Schmigadoon-We watched only one episode.  I love musicals.  But I didn't like the songs. And since the songs were a big part of the show, I let Tim know I wasn't interested in continuing with it.  I don't think he was either.  Sometimes, one of us will like a show the other wants to quit; then we end up watching it alone.  OR, in my case, I put it in my long too-watch list and hope that Random.org comes through for me.    

Some shows that Tim has dropped out of that I'm waiting for Random.org to pick for me: Evil, The Walking Dead, and Doctor Who.  Good news is...my last Random.org pick was for Doctor Who.  I'm excited for that.  

Upload

Lost City-An island somewhere.  I was just trying to find out where it was supposed to take place and Google informed me it is similar to Romancing the Stone.  I vaguely remember liking that movie, but I guess I didn't remember the movie itself enough to recognize the similarities.

Westworld-I liked season four better than season three but much less than season one and two.  I was just thinking.  It's not just the loss of the main setting that bothered me. It's more Aaron Paul.  And I think Aaron Paul is wonderful.  I love him as Todd in BoJack Horseman.  I also loved him in The Path.  But in Westworld, he almost feels like a cousin Oliver. 

I think it would have been fine to add Paul to the cast. But they didn't just do that.  They made him the central character.  My heart wasn't with him.  It was almost like the creators were thinking...we can't have women robots or a Black man robot as our  main protagonist. We need a white man.    

Maleficent

Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

My issue with Heredity: The daughter in the movie acts...strange, different.  She seemed kind of autistic. As an autistic person myself, I had that secret wish that in the end, it would turn out that despite her weirdness, creepiness...it would turn out she was a good person.  Instead...if you dig deep and read what the director intended, the daughter was possessed by a demon all along.  Also, with the title and other scenes, the movie seemed to imply that the whole family was believed to have mental health challenges and/or neurological differences.  Instead, it turns out...they were just involved with demonic stuff.  The movie could provide a pretty big contribution to negative mental health stigmas.    

TV Shows and Movies I watched in 2021

I think I might make this a tradition.

Speaking of, here is my 2017 list  and my 2020 list.

Oh! I didn't realize I skipped two years until just now.

Anyway...here is my list divided my geography (setting not filming).  Some stuff I'm listing twice if it took place significantly in multiple places. 

Blue font means I especially loved the show or movie.  Though lack of blue doesn't mean a lack of love...at the time.  Sometimes I will love a show when I see it but then later my enthusiasm fades.  

Red font means I didn't like it.

UNITED STATES 

Death to 2020

The Good Witch 

Cobra Kai 

The Fosters 

Shameless 

WandaVision (this show was such a home-bridge for us.  I started watching it with Jack at our old house. Then we stayed at my parents house for the Texas snow disaster and watched some of the episodes there...in their very fancy home theater.  And for the last one or two episodes, I watched with Tim in our temporary-housing-townhouse.  

Finding Oahu I hate this show, because a) I felt it didn't live up to Goonies b) They badmouthed Lost! c) This was the last thing we watched on our TV before our electricity went out in the Texas snow disaster.  

Lucifer - This is one of the first shows I watched when we moved to the townhouse.  I would watch/listen to it on my walks in the amazing, wonderful parks near us. And I think the show made the park even more magical to me.  This show helped me to realize, that my brain does these very strong association things.  I can remember certain episodes or scenes from shows and remember where in the park I was listening to that episode.

I Care a Lot - We watched this at my parent's house, but I saw only half, because it was past my bedtime.

Law and Order SVU - I just watched one episode...joined in when my parents were watching.

Golden Globes  

Nomadland 

Ozark- This was Tim's and my first official townhouse show together.  (I feel my grammar might be fucked up here but I'm too lazy to give myself a lesson and fix things).

The Vast of Night I had mixed feelings about this one but now when I think back, it gives me a kind of nostalgia feeling. 

South Park - just the pandemic episode 

Minari 

Scandal

Palm Springs

The Sound of Metal 

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - I watched season 3. There were two songs I could extremely relate to.  I think this show helped me with my own mental health adventures.

BoJack Horseman

Carol- 

The Queen's Gambit - Liked this more, before I read about the controversy. 

Poor Boy's Game-

The Assistant - 

Grey's Anatomy (season 2) - The Neegan scenes were so heartbreaking. 

Four Christmases- Watched second half at the lake house.  My family had watched the night before when I hadn't been there.  

Touch- that show about autism that never mentions autism.  

Split 

Unbreakable

Glass 

Black Jesus 

Last Man on Earth

Gilmore Girls - This is another show where I have a strong memory association.  I remember walking across a bridge near our townhouse while watching the scene with the school dance.

The Mindy Project

Freaky

The Final Girls-

The Making of WandaVision 

Fear the Walking Dead - Who would ever think a zombie show could jump the shark? But somehow, they managed it.  Jack had been binge-watching The Walking Dead before we started watching season 5, and a few times I told him that I might actually prefer Fear better.  That all changed after we got to the end of the season. Holy shit.  But on a positive yet somber note...I think this season achieved the most brilliant, shocking super sad zombie-caused death since Sophia.

Songbird

Invincible-

Mythic Quest-I really want to heart emoji this a ton of times. 

Pushing Daisies- I heard so many good things about this show.  But it really made me anxious. I mean really.  How many times do we accidentally touch the people we are with?  Why take that risk? I did like the setting and Kristen Chenoweth.  And I liked Ned. I might have even had a tiny twinge of a crush....until we saw Lee Pace in...

Halt and Catch Fire - This was one of a handful of shows that Tim was happily willing to rewatch, because he thought I'd like it too (Ozark and Mythic Quest were two of the others).  I grew to at-best sort of like the show.  In the end, we both decided to knock Pushing Daisies off our list, and I requested that Tim watch the rest of Halt and Catch Fire on his own (he still had a few episodes left from when he watched it alone).  I'm not redding these shows, though.  Because...yeah, I developed some kind of weird aversion to Lee Pace.  But still...there were aspects of the shows that I liked a lot. 

Coda  

Greenleaf

Hart of Dixie

Selfless

American Horror Story-We watched Apocalypse and Roanoke.  I liked both but liked the latter a little bit better. 

This is Us - I had watched season 1 and 2 with Tim.  He lost the love, so I watched this one alone.  The Vietnam storyline was SO sad.   

GirlBoss

Criminal Minds - One of the shows I'm watching now.  The show might be a bit guilty in terms of increasing stigma surrounding mental health conditions.  But still...I find it interesting and entertaining.  One funny thing is Matthew Gray Gubler looked so familar to me.  Then I remembered one of my mutual-follower-Instagram-people used to be a huge fangirl for him.  I never paid much attention to what she was fan-girling on.  I just adored her enthusiasm.  

Goliath-

The Mare of Easttown 

Everything is Going to be Okay-A show about autism written by an autistic person and starring at least two autistic actors.  Mostly funny and awkward. Sometimes touching.  I was talking to Tim in the car one day and decided to tell him about the last episode of season 1.  Oh!  I remember. We were talking about the best ways to be supportive of autistic people.  I described how the characters were so beautifully supportive in that episode but then realized also how incredibly sad the episode was.  So I'm sitting there telling him what happened, and I started sobbing.  So it was really hard for me to talk and get the story out.  And Tim's just sitting there so patiently listening.  

Now that I think of it, Tim was providing another good example of how to be supportive towards an autistic person.  

Midnight Mass- At least I think it's the United States. It was filmed in Canada... I'm not sure if it was supposed to take place in Canada or the U.S.  It kind of felt more like Canada.

What's kind of strange is we watched this and it had a particular storyline/theme that I feel I've not seen before.  Then a short time later, we watched the Korean show Hellbound, and it had a VERY similar theme/storyline.  I feel the universe might be trying to tell me something?  Or really not just me personally.  Because they're both fairly popular Netflix series.  So maybe the universe is sending a message that society, in general, needs to hear.  

The Originals - I think I was really into this series a few years ago.  But then it took Random.org a shitload of time to reunite me with the show.  I still liked it a lot...but I think some of my love faded.

White Lotus- I think this is one of those shows where the love would fade after a few months or even weeks.  But we watched it fairly recently, so it's blue for now.

Imperial Dreams

Empire- I just started watching this one today. I'm liking it so far. It reminds me a lot of Succession.  

AUSTRALIA

Rake

"Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" - A short film I watched during my failed Charlotte Nicdao post. 

Content - I had Tim watch this with me since we both adore Charlotte Nicdao. We loved it but somehow missed the last couple of episodes.  I think we meant to watch the rest after Tim returned from out of town but we never got around to it.  I blame Tim, because he seems to have this thing about forgetting to continue a TV show he was watching and liking.  Well. Yeah. I know. I could have intervened. So I need to take some of the blame.

Now it feels kind of too late.

UK

Doctor Who (this was our 2020-2021 crossover show)

Death to 2020

Coronation Street 

Broadchurch 

The Man Who Invented Christmas 

KOREA 

Sweet Home 

Hellbound-The little red there is for the creepy CGI baby.  But besides that....very good show.  (also see: Midnight Mass above) 

VIETNAM

This is Us

CHINA

Marco Polo- I was pretty bored.  But this show was noteworthy for me, because it's the first time I used the Netflix audio-narrating.  

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings-

GILLIAD

The Handmaid's Tale

CANADA

Schitt's Creek (I loved this show so much in 2020.  I started rewatching it in 2021. My plan was to watch it on the Alexa Echo while I did kitchen chores.  But then I got into using my headphones and various audio things while doing chores. And I have been horribly slow with the rewatching.  I've been on the 11th episode of the last season for months now.  It's like I've put the Schitt family in limbo at that escape room place.  Anyway. This show used to be a blue for me, and it still deserves to be blue. It's just instead of giving me happy, warm feelings, it now makes me feel kind of neglectful.  

Note: I think there is disagreement about whether the show takes place in Canada or the US.  But I'm going to put it in Canada.  

The Handmaid's Tale

Kim's Convenience 

Being Erica

FRANCE

Things to Come - I think I liked this one more than I loved it...back when I saw it.  But now it's giving me these warm nostalgic feelings.  For some reason, it makes me feel my childhood Madison and St. Louis days. So I have to blue it.

ITALY

Luca

VARIOUS

The Last Ship (mostly Asia and South America)

Doctor Strange (although now I can't remember where....)

A Gurl's World (watched one episode when doing my failed-never-posted post on Charlotte Nicdao)

NOT EARTH

Doctor Who

NOT OUR UNIVERSE

Loki (But I guess also our universe?  I forget.  This is not blue not because it's not good but because it's not WandaVision.  After seeing WandaVision, I wanted all Marvel stuff to be WandaVision. 

Doctor Strange

This is the area of the park that I
loved most and then loved even more after I 
watched/listened to Lucifer while walking
through it.  It was the episode where Lucifer (Tom Ellis)
and Cain (Tom Welling) pretend to be a couple
in the suburban neighborhood. So...it's kind of
like I love Lucifer and I love the park. And the 
combination of the two increased my love
for both.  

Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

Age, Strangerland, Filming Locations, and More Age of Consent Stuff

1. Dreamed that, we go to see Grease. We sit in a crowded theater.  

It's pointed out to us that Olivia Newton John is there. She's sitting to our right, wearing pink or red. The people with me turn to get a glance at her. They do it in a kind of rude and obvious way.

Then we see that Olivia Newton John has gone to the stage. I notice that she looks old, and I see it as symbolizing the way we've all aged.

Or something like that.  

This morning I thought of the symbolism it could represent.

In the film Grease, Olivia Newton John is very young. I think that symbolizes the way many of us feel. I may be forty-three, but I still feel like a teen or young adult. Sometimes I even feel like a child. I never or rarely feel like I'm a woman in my forties.  

I don't feel, though, that I'm this immature person among all these other mature people. I feel everyone I know is like a child, teen, or young adult.  

So, to me the Grease film represents the idea that no matter what our age, we're still kind of like high school teenagers. Then the aged Olivia Newton-John represents our real biological ages—how we look on the outside.  

2. Started watching an episode of Home and Away.

3. Thought about what I wrote in my post yesterday—about people breaking up with someone; then gaining interest back once that someone is dating someone else.

BECAUSE it's happening on the episode I'm watching today.

A while back, Oscar (Jake Speer) broke up with Maddie (Kassandra Clementi). It seemed to me, he had gone off her. Now he thinks she has feelings for Matt (Alec Snow), and he's jealous.Also, he changes the tune...from what I can see. Now he's claiming it wasn't a lack of love that made him break up with her. It was all about timing.

Really?

It seems a bit far-fetched to me.

I think the truth is that Oscar only has interest in Maddie when she's unavailable.

4. Liked the apology scene between Leah (Ada Nicodemou) and Matt. 

Leah apologizes to Matt, because earlier when he tried to talk to her about the Maddie drama, Leah totally bit his head off.

Leah's apology is very kind and mature. She doesn't make excuses or try to downplay anything. She acts like she genuinely feels bad about her actions. In return, Matt is extremely gracious. He doesn't just accept her apology. He goes beyond that by complimenting her. He tells Leah she's been there for him many times in the past.Then he jokes that he'll give her plenty of opportunity to be there for him in the future.  

5. Thought that not all bitchiness merits an apology, and not all apologies merit forgiveness, compliments, and good humor.

But I think with Leah, this was a case of a usually supportive person having a bad moment. Plus, she has brain damage, so she actually DOES have an excuse for her behavior. It would be different if Leah had a history of being bitchy when people came to her for advice. In that case, her apology might just be annoying.  

6. Started watching Strangerland.

7. Got idea from the credits, that the film might be an Australian-Irish movie.

8. Looked at IMDb, and they confirm that.

9. Saw a sign for a place called Nathgari.

Is it a real place?  

10. Saw from Google that Nathgari is not a real place. It was invented for the movie.

The town that played the part of Nathgari was Canowindra.  

This article talks about what it's like to have your real town turned into a fake town.  

It makes me think of an article I once read about The Walking Dead.  I forgot the details exactly. It was something like the film studio bought a neighborhood and sold the houses to the general public. But the stipulation was that the people living there would have to accept that filming goes on there sometimes.  

11. Found an article about The Walking Dead thing.  

I think it's really awesome.  

It's like a backlot set where people can actually live.  

I think, though, that it would be better appreciated by fans of The Walking Dead or people who are interested in the film and television industry. For people who are not fans, it would just be an annoying inconvenience.  

If people filmed a movie or TV show in my neighborhood, I'd be partly annoyed. I'd be bothered by the traffic jams, the changes, the noises, etc.  But mostly, I think I'd be very excited.  

When we lived in New York, we'd see filming on streets. Well, really we'd see mostly just signs and trailers. That in itself was a huge thrill.  

12. Saw kangaroo carcases hanging on a hills hoist.

Interesting.....

13. Saw Joseph Fiennes. 

Whenever I see him, I think of him as the priest in American Horror Story. I liked the scene where he had sex with Satan. That was pretty sexy. Although now that I've written it out, it sounds, to me, like an episode of South Park. 

14. Thought that Maddison Brown, the actress who plays young Lily, in Strangerland, looks like a mix of Rose McGowan, Drew Barrymore, and some other actresses.

15. Thought that the personality of Lily reminds me a little bit of someone I know.

16. Thought the movie was interesting, so far.

I'm intrigued by the family dynamics.

Lily is a very sexual and flirty teenager. Her father, Matthew (Fiennes) is strict and uptight. Matthew's wife, Catherine (Nicole Kidman) reveals that she used to be like Lily. She's older and wiser now but still interested in sex. She flirts with Matthew, and he rejects her.

Why is that interesting to me?

I don't know, really.

I guess it's the dynamics between the strict father and out of control daughter.  I think maybe what I'm used to seeing is strict parents with subservient kids or out of control kids with permissive parents. This is something different.

17. Realized it's NOT actually different from what I've seen in real life.

I've seen parents who want to be strict and in control; yet their children have a mind of their own.

I don't know what I was talking about above. Maybe it's what I see in fiction.

Maybe the stereotype I have is along the lines of Jessica on True Blood...before she became a vampire.  

18. Thought of another thing that fits the stereotype in my head.

It was on old 1980's Neighbours. There was a girl with a very strict mom.  I think maybe the girl's name was Kim? From what I remember, she acted very subservient to the mother—was very nervous around her. But then secretly, she was a bit wild. I think she got pregnant.  

I think the stereotype I have, really, is the strict parent with the seemingly obedient child. But then the child secretly rebels. Or she waits until she gets bitten by a Civil War veteran and then rebels.  

19. Intrigued by the mystery in the film.

Matthew watches his two kids walk out of the house in the middle of the night. He doesn't stop them.

The next morning, Catherine wakes up to find them gone. She calls her husband to ask if the kids are with him, and he says they're not.  He says nothing about seeing them walk out in the middle of the night.

From what I read of the movie, the plot centers around the parents trying to find their missing kids.  I'm wondering what happened to them. Did they have somewhere to go? Were they meeting someone? Were they possessed by some spirit calling out to them?  

And why didn't the father stop them? Why didn't he call out to them? Why didn't he tell his wife what he saw?

20. Learned that the son, Tom (Nicholas Hamilton) has a habit of walking at night when he can't sleep. So that must be the reason why his father didn't make a fuss when he saw him leaving the house at night. It's something he's seen before.

21. Saw that this is yet another Australian movie with a young person having sex with an adult. I feel I keep running into this.

In this one, it IS illegal. The girl was fifteen or younger. The adult she had sex with was her teacher.

 I think the age of consent goes up if it involves a teacher or other supervisor/guardian type person.  

22. Looked for verification about the supervisor/guardian thing. It took awhile. Finally, Lord Wiki helped me. He led me to this website about New South Wales laws.  

It says that a person having sex with a person under their care that's age sixteen is liable to imprisonment for eight years.  If the teenager is seventeen years old, the perpetrator is liable to imprisonment for four years.  

The website gives lists of examples of care-type relationships. These are parents, stepparents, foster parents, teachers, teachers, any other type of tutor-pupil relationship, custodial officers, and pupils.

23. Assumed this means that a teacher, at a school, can have an affair with a sixteen or seventeen year old student IF the student isn't his pupil. It would also have to be that teacher isn't the leader of any of the student's activities. So it wouldn't be okay to be the drama club advisor and then have sex with one of the club members.

In that case, how would the teacher and student have met in the first place?  

24. Saw something interesting at the bottom of the page. 

It says, A person does not commit an offence under this section if the person and the other person to whom the charge relates were, at the time the offence is alleged to have been committed, married to each other.

Wow. So, what is the legal age for marriage then?

25. Saw from this website that the minimum age for marriage in New South Wales is eighteen. Though you can make an appeal to a court.

I wonder how often these appeals happen and how often they're granted.

I can't really imagine a court official granting marriage permission to a teacher so he can legally have sex with his sixteen-year-old student.

26. Confused about the teacher (Martin Dingle Wall) in Strangerland.

Matthew goes to his house to see if his missing daughter is there. The wife of the teacher treats Matthew like he's the criminal—like he's harassing their family.  Both the teacher and the wife act like they're the victims.

What's going on there?

First of all, why wasn't the teacher arrested for having sex with Lily?

I'm wondering if it didn't happen the way that Matthew and Catherine imagined.

Maybe Lily had been stalking the teacher? Maybe it's believed by the teacher's wife that Lily lied about having sex with him?  And...maybe that's true?

27.  Saw that the film might have some bits of magical-realism. There are hints of psychic feelings and visions.

28. Impressed with the cinematography in the movie.

I think it's visually stimulating and creative but not overly indulgent. I feel it fits well with the story.

Sometimes I see fancy camera work in a boring movie, and it just feels like someone is trying to show off.

29. Thought that Nicole Kidman is beautiful in this movie.

I think she sometimes looks too much like an expensive porcelain doll, but here she looks very natural.

30. Thought that Kidman actually looks less pretty than she usually does, but it somehow makes her more beautiful.

Does that make any sense?

Probably not.

Well, it WOULD make sense if I could communicate it properly.

31. Got the idea, from some dialogue, that incest plays a part in the story.

Speaking of incest, while doing laundry, I thought more about the age of consent laws and realized that not-parental relatives were not listed on the law website.

Does that mean it would be legal for an aunt or uncle to have sex with their niece and nephew? What about an older cousin with a younger cousin?

32. Realized some of that could fall into anti-incest laws. Though Australia allows relations between cousins.

I'm not sure if Australia allows marriage between aunts and uncles with nieces and nephews.

33. Consulted Lord Wiki. He says incest includes parents, siblings, and grandparents.

So I THINK it might be legal for a man or woman to have sex with their sixteen or seventeen year old nephew.

I don't think that's right. I think those relationships should fall into the same category as teacher, health care worker, counselor, etc.

34. Argued with myself.

Is there that much of a difference between an aunt and one of your mom's best friends? How about a neighbor?

35. Thought again about how it's probably just best if adults don't have sex with sixteen or seventeen-year-olds.

I can see, though, that there might be some rare exceptions.

I think it also depends on the age. A twenty-year-old having sex with a seventeen year old is different from a forty year old having sex with a seventeen year old.

36. Thought about how I definitely do have a double standard when it comes to gender.

I cringe at the idea of a forty-year-old man having sex with a seventeen-year-old girl. It feels like child abuse. It's an afternoon special or a TV movie of the week. But then I imagine a seventeen year old guy getting it on with his female neighbor, and it feels more like a comedy than a drama.

37. Thought about homosexual relationships.

The older man with the young man is a quirky independent film.

The older woman with the young woman is a psychological thriller or a psychological drama.

38. Realized what I'm feeling is that it's okay for teenage boys to have sex but not teenage girls.

It's totally a double standard.

Well, this is with teens having sex with adults.

I think my feelings are equal when it concerns teens having sex with other teens—no matter what the gender or sexual orientation.

39. Decided to stop watching the film for today.

I'll watch the rest tomorrow.

I gotta say, so far, I'm not agreeing with the ratings I saw yesterday.

I like the movie a lot. I like the acting. I like the camera work. I like the mystery.

I want to know what happens next.

I have a rule that when I watch movies for this blog, I split it into two days. That way I feel less overwhelmed. Usually, I feel a great relief when I get to the half-way mark and can stop the film for the day.  But with this one, it was hard for me to stop.

There's still a part of that wants to continue.

40. Decided not to continue, because with all by babbling, it might take me all night to watch the movie. And this blog post will grow to be way too long.

41. Thought that no matter what, Strangerland can't be a bad movie, because Hugo Weaving is one of the stars.

Can a movie be bad if it stars Hugo Weaving?

No, I don't think so.

It's like a dessert with hot fudge. It might not be fantastic, but it will be at least sort of good.

Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

Maddie's Cancer, Teenage Secrets, Baboons, and Names for Fruit

1. Started to watch an episode of Home and Away.

2. Wondered about Maddie's (Kassandra Clementi) cancer. Since I've started watching it, I've not heard what type she has.  

I'm guessing it's some kind of cancer that's common in teens.

Maddie seems open to the idea of dying.  It's not that she's excited about the idea. But she seems to have accepted the possibility. When she tries to talk to her friends about this, they're dismissive. They act as if death is not an option. Maddie just needs to go through with the treatment, and all will be well.  

I'm wondering, then, if Maddie has a very treatable cancer, and she's overreacting. Or is fairly likely she'll die, and her friends just don't know how to respond to that fear?

3. Wondered about this Summer Bay High trip to the Anzac Memorial.

I'm getting the idea that this field trip was not connected to any curriculum.

I think the teachers just brought the kids to the museum with the idea that seeing artifacts would make the kids learn something and feel something.  

Evie (Philippa Northeast) sees the field trip as a waste of time—time taken away from what they need to be studying. I'm doubting she'd feel the same way if they were actually studying World War I in history class.  

4. Saw that with one short, passionate lecture, Marilyn (Emily Symons) was able to miraculously transform the high school students from callous selfie-taking brats to deep-thinking, caring kids.  

5. Had a brief moment of emotion.  

It was when Alf added a poppy to the memorial. Evie, who had belittled the war multiple times in front of Alf, watched him and then put her hand on his back as a sign up support.  

Evie's rude attitude was fixed by Marilyn's speech, AND also, she was transformed by looking at some stained glass artwork. For some reason, the stained glass made her see the error of her ways.

6. Heard Maddie tell her estranged mom that she has cancer. Her mom asks what type. I was thinking, oh. Funny. The day I wonder about what kind of cancer she has, it's going to be revealed to me.

Except I couldn't understand what Maddie said.

It sounded like Cevarian cancer? Maybe it's cervical cancer?  Maybe Australians have a different name than we do?  

7. Googled Cevarian cancer Australia and was redirected to cervical cancer.

8. Listened again to see if it might be ovarian cancer.

But it doesn't sound like that.

9.  Looked up Maddie's mom, because she looked familar to me.

The actress is Kathryn Hartman. She played Sally Clements on McLeod's Daughters. I'm not sure who that is, but I'm guessing maybe she's the woman who was engaged to Nick (Myles Pollard).

10. Started watching an episode of Tangle.

11. Learned from Tangle, that people in Australia call traffic cones, witches hats.  

Or at least some of them do.  

12. Had some synchronicity between my episode of Home and Away and my episode of Tangle today.

Both shows have a teenager who has moved out of their home and gone to live with someone else.

On Home and Away, Maddie is living with Roo (Georgie Parker), in Summer Bay, rather than with her mother in the city. 

On Tangle, Max (Blake Davis) has left his adopted mother Christine (Catherine McClements) and has gone to live with his birth mother, Nat (Kat Stewart) 

Today, in both episodes, the abandoned mother gets mad at the temporary guardian for withholding information.

Maddie's mom is mad that Roo didn't tell her about the cancer.

Christine is mad that she wasn't told that Nat's troublesome ex-boyfriend (Dan Wylie) has come to live in the same house as her son.  

13. Tried to figure out how I feel about the above.

I guess I don't know except that I have sympathy for all of them.

I have sympathy for the teens not wanting to share information with their parents.

I have sympathy for the mothers who were kept in the dark.

I have sympathy for the temporary guardians who were caught in the middle of it all.

I've actually thought about something similar before. What would I do if one of my nieces and nephews shared something with me that they didn't tell their parents? And what if Jack shared something with one of my sisters that he didn't share with me?

I think if it's just something personal and not something that puts the child in direct danger, the aunt or uncle should keep it a secret. Sometimes a child needs an adult besides their parent to talk to.  

I guess the biggest example that comes to my head is homosexuality.  It would be nice if kids could/would come out to their parents first, but if for some reason, they'd rather first come out to an aunt, uncle, or other adult; I think that's fine.  

The times where I think parents should be told is when professional intervention is likely to needed— That might include things like suicidal plans, eating disorders, scary medical symptoms, being a victim of crime, etc.  

14. Hoped that the second category of things never comes into play for the kids in our family. 

I also hope that the kids in our family feel most comfortable talking to their parents. And if not, I hope all of us parents can be forgiving of the other adult who hears the information first.  

15. Went to the Tropfest website.

The film I'm going to watch today is a 2010 finalist called "My Neighbourhood has Been Overrun by Baboons". 

It looks animated and not the type of animated movie I like.

16. Decided to dislike all Tropfest finalist films by default.

Hopefully, every so often a film will make me veer away from my default setting.  

17. Started to question the Tropfest judges.

At the very least, I know they don't have the same taste in film than I do.  

18. Started watching the film.

19. Finished watching the baboon film.

I'll have to step away from my default mood, mostly for the song.  

The film is a music video.  

It's cute.

20. Saw that the script consultant for "My Neighbourhood has Been Overrun by Baboons" was Simon Butters.  

I can see from IMDb that Butters has done a lot of writing and/or script work for popular teen/kid shows in Australia—Pirate Islands, Scooter: Secret Agent, Wicked Science, H20: Just Add Water, The Elephant Princess, etc.  

21. Consulted Lord Wiki about The Dairy Brothers. They're the ones who are responsible for the Baboon song.  If I'm understanding Lord Wiki correctly, The Dairy Brothers also do work as the band The Beards.  I think I have one of their songs on my Spotify list. It's about beards.  

22. Got the name of the song from Lord Wiki.  It's "You Should Consider Having Sex with a Bearded Man".

23. Started watching the video for "All the Bearded Ladies".

I expected it to be a parody of "All the Single Ladies", but it's not.  

24. Liked the sound of the song.

I'm not sure I care about the lyrics.  

25. Learned from Lord Wiki that The Beards have at least forty-eight songs about beards.  

I think that would get old after awhile...but maybe not, if someone is really into beards.

Are there people who are that into beards?  

26. Found a website that asks, who's better, The Beards or The Dairy Brothers?

Is that a joke, or did Lord Wiki mislead me?

27.  Visited one of Lord Wiki's cousins—a guy who has a passion for the Adelaide music scene.

He says members of The Beards ended up forming The Dairy Brothers.  

28. Saw I got it backwards.

The Beards didn't become the Dairy Brothers. The Dairy Brothers became The Beards.

29. Started watching "Grapefruit" by the Dairy Brothers.

30. Thought the song brings up some important questions and issues.

Why is a grapefruit called a grapefruit when it is nothing like a grape?

Why is a pineapple called a pineapple when it has nothing to do with an apple?

Really. Who made up these names?

31. Thought of eggplants.

That's a crazy one too.

32. Thought maybe Australians call eggplants a different name.

I think I may have come across it at some point.  

33. Learned that Australians call eggplant, Aubergine.  

Or at least the British do.  I'm assuming Australians use the same word.

34. Learned from this website that eggplant got that name because the  white and yellow versions of the fruit were thought to look like goose eggs.  

35. Started to watch video of Wolfmother singing "Wuthering Heights".

I was inspired to do so, because Jack and I learned about the novel today.

36. Thought I had another cover of the song on my Australian Spotify list.  

I don't remember who sang it, though.

I'm pretty sure it's not Wolfmother.

37. Looked at the list.

It's Josh Pyke.

I'm not sure who he is.

I assume he's Australian.  

38. Decided to look at my Spotify list and see if I have any other Josh Pyke songs.  

39. Liked the Josh Pyke cover of the song better than the Wolfmother one, but I don't dislike the Wolfmother one.  

40. Saw that I have only one other Josh Pyke song on my Spotify list.  It's called "Particles".

I'm not sure I've ever listened to it.

Sometimes I add songs; then never hear them.

My Spotify lists are WAY too long.  

41. Started to listen to "Particles".

It doesn't sound familar to me.

I wonder which song I added first—"Particles" or "Wuthering Heights".

And how did I hear of Josh Pyke in the first place?

Did I hear one of his songs on a TV Show? Was I looking at a list of Aussie singers so I could grow my Spotify list into something massive?

42. Decided I should listen to the original Kate Bush version of "Wuthering Heights".

I have a hard time watching and listening it.  

It's creepy in an American Horror Story kind of way.   

I like American Horror Story, but I don't want to associate Kate Bush with that. 

I want to associate her with Kevin Bacon in the hospital waiting room.  

Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

Globalization, Searching for Motivation, Patrick, and Demented Forms of Love

1. Started watching Patrick on Netflix.

2. Saw an actress that looks like Saskia Burmeister, but I don't see her in the credits. I guess it's not her.

3. Thought about globalization, because that's what we're going to be doing in world history today.

In terms of cultural globalization, I personally think it's mainly a very good thing. The only drawback is that it's dominated by American culture. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with American culture. I actually think it's quite wonderful.  It's just I don't think any country should be dominating the world so much.

SO....

I think we should all do our part by bringing other cultures into our lives. Americans should especially do this since then, there will be more give and take.

I feel I do my part by watching a lot of Australian television; and now movies. I listen to Australian music, and have read many Australian books. I also buy Australian food sometimes. Then almost every night, I watch a British soap opera.

I feel very hopeful for Americans, because Hulu has a huge amount of foreign content—SO much anime!

4. Thought of my Utah friend who watches Korean TV shows. She's doing her part.

5. Thought of people I know who are massive consumers of Japanese culture.

6. Felt that every time we do something non-American, we're doing our part to help American culture not overly dominate the world.

It's fine to watch The Walking Dead, but then maybe also watch Wentworth or House Husbands.

It's fine to grab McDonalds for lunch but then maybe pick up some Thai food for dinner.

7. Did not feel it's bad if we lose all the individual cultures and become one.  It's just different.

And a little sad.

It's kind of why sometimes I think of going to Australia and wonder, what the hell is the point?  In a way, the only point is to see the Platypus, because they're not in any zoos here.

Do I want to hear Australian accents?  I can watch an Australian TV show.

Do I want to eat Australian candy? I can order it from a store in the US, and I can find some stuff at my local grocery store.

Do I want to see Australian trees?  Well, there are plenty in California. It's much cheaper to get a plane ticket there.

Do I want to see kangaroos? We can drive just ten minutes to our local zoo.

8. Remembered another reason to go to Australia.

I like to see the wild parrots.

We can see Australian parrots here in the US, but it's different seeing them wild and free.

Really. I think I go to Australia for the parrots.

9. Thought about how I also love being in Australia, simply for the major immersion experience. Yeah. I can buy Australian food and hear Australian accents if I click on a certain website.  It's different, though, when you're surrounded by Australia stuff.

ALTHOUGH are we fully surrounded by Australia stuff when we're in Australia?  Often we turn on the TV and see an American show playing. Turn on the radio, and we're likely to hear an American or British singer.  Look up at the news playing on the TV, in the shop, and we're likely see a report about an American shooting incident.

10. Enjoyed what I've seen of Patrick so far.

It's very melodramatic, but I think that's fine. It's what it's supposed to be.

11. Liked that the movie has a gothic feel but then there are modern things like a nurse updating social media on a Mac computer. Although that might be common in horror movies these days. I don't watch a lot of them.

I have watched American Horror Story. I guess that too combines modern with gothic horror—at least the Murder House and Coven seasons.

12. Recognized one of the Patrick actresses as being from Satisfaction.

The thing is I KNEW there was a Satisfaction actress on Patrick, because I saw it on IMDb. And I've been looking at this woman for about five minutes.  But it took me that long to see the woman I knew from Satisfaction.

Am I making any sense to anyone?

Anyway, the actress is Peta Sergeant. I think, on Satisfaction, she played the lesbian trying to get pregnant.

13. Thought that one of the actors on Patrick was a bit stilted.

I'm guessing it's a case of bad acting, and not part of the storyline. But maybe I'm wrong.

14. Thought that Doctor Roget (Charles Dance), in the movie, reminds me of very rigid, skeptical atheists—the type who would ignore any evidence that might suggest supernatural causes. Or they work very hard to try to prove that there's a scientific, unmiraculous explanation.

Nurse Kathy (Sharni Vinson) has communicated with comatose patient Patrick (Jackson Gallagher) by asking him to spit once for yes and twice for no. Yes, it can be a coincidence that he spits right after each of her questions.  But in a way, isn't that coincidence more outlandish than the idea that he has some sort of consciousness?

Doctor Roget refuses to take the nurse seriously, and "proves" Patrick is mindless by making a dead frog jump.  Yes, you can make a dead thing move with electrical impulses. But all that proves is you can make a dead thing move with electrical impulses. It doesn't disprove a patient in the hospital is experiencing consciousness. It doesn't even prove the frog isn't experiencing some type of consciousness while dead.

Let's say there is no life after death or consciousness outside of what can be measured by brain waves.

Could it be  possible the brain wave detecting machine made a mistake in the past? Is it possible that certain brain wave activity isn't measurable? Is it possible that a brain could be experiencing no-activity, but then later awaken?

I'm just saying that the doctor could at least give the nurse's idea a chance.

15. Remember that Doctor Roget actually did examine Patrick, and Kathy tried to show him the spitting thing.

So, that was good of him.

My theory is that Patrick can turn off his brain waves to trick the doctor. It's quite plausible, seeing that he's telekinetic.

16. Thought that the doctor's attitude reminded me of the Crash Course we watched yesterday about Animal Behavior. There's that mindset that everything an animal does is only for the sake of eating and reproducing. It's so incredibly soulless.

17. Wanted Patrick not to be evil.

I want it to be a story of a decent man with psychic powers who's trapped in a coma and being kept prisoner at a hospital.

It's okay if he does bad things to get attention or to try to save himself.  I'm also okay with him doing bad things,  because he's suffering from major emotional instability.

I don't want it to be a story about a purely evil man.

I worry that might be the case, though, because the tagline of the movie is Evil Awakens.

Moral ambiguity is much more interesting to me than pure evil.

18. Had hope that when they say Evil awakens, they mean partially evil, and not 100% evil.

19. Faced the facts.

Patrick is pretty bad.

He's already killed two people.

And as for moral ambiguity. Maybe it's overrated.

Everyone is probably a mixture of good and evil. No one is purely good or purely evil.  So...probably everyone has moral ambiguity.

I guess what I'd want is for Patrick to be half and half—half good and half evil.  Or maybe even a little more good than evil.  Instead, I'm guessing he's about 80% evil and 20% good.

I think he has some amount of feelings for Nurse Kathy, but I don't think it's a healthy, giving type of love. I think it's a suffocating, controlling, abusive type of love.

20. Learned that Patrick killed only one person—at least that we've been shown.

Still. Killing one person is bad enough....especially if it's for sinister reasons.

21. Thought that the movie had a great line. The only thing more dangerous than his hate is his love.

22. Realized I might be wrong.

Patrick might have killed two people.

I forgot that he has the power to control other people. So if we think there's another murderer, it still might be Patrick.

23. Thought Patrick does a good job of the hopelessness thing.

There's the sense that there's no way to defeat Patrick—kind of that claustrophobic feeling.

There's no escaping.

24. Finished watching Patrick.

I thought it was pretty good as far as horror movies go.

I might have liked it more if Patrick was less powerful. I can buy the whole telekinetic thing, but I think he should have limits to his power.  It seemed to me that he was doing too much at once. He seemed omnipotent, which I think made things less interesting.

25. Had questions in my mind after watching the movie, which I guess is a good thing. Maybe?

One of the questions is whether Patrick was born bad. In flashbacks, his mother called him a perv. She was mean to him. Is this because he WAS a perv, and she couldn't handle having a creepy child. Or did he become a creepy, evil child because his mother was emotionally abusive?

Maybe it was a combination of both things—disturbed child stresses out mother; she becomes abusive; and that makes him more disturbed.

26. Had another question, but now I've forgotten it.

27. Remembered the question.

How did Patrick become telekinetic? He didn't seem to have powers in the flashback unless I missed something.

I think he electrocuted his parents, so maybe that event did something to his brain.

OR did Dr. Roget cause the telekinesis with all his experimentation?

28. Learned from Lord Wiki that Patrick got a pretty high rating on Rotten Tomatoes (83).

29. Did not feel scared, but I worry that tonight I will.

Well, it is night, actually.

But later...when I'm trying to sleep, I might get scared.

30. Went to Random.org to find out what I plan to be watching on Thursday.

It's The Efficiency Expert.

I think that's the one with Anthony Hopkins.

31. Saw that Dan Wylie is in the movie.  It's from 1992, so he'll be quite young.

What's the youngest I've seen Wylie?

32. Looked at Dan Wylie's filmography.

I would have seen him in Muriel's Wedding; though I don't remember him.

The Efficiency Expert is actually his first screen thing.

33. Saw that Randall Berger is in the film.

I remember writing about him.

He's an American-Australian; I saw him in Come in Spinner.

34. Saw a sort-of contradiction while reading this post.

In  #23, I talked about how Patrick does a good job with the hopelessness thing—no escape.

Then in #24 I talked about how Patrick was too powerful.

(By the way, there was a time space between those two items. I'm not sure how long.  It took me pretty much the whole day to watch the movie, with housework, homeschooling, and other stuff in-between)

Anyway, I still agree with both things I said.

I think Patrick could have been less omnipotent and still remained a suffocating threat.  The guy can watch people from far away. He can possess people, and he can move objects.

He can kill you without being in the room with you. I think that's enough to make anyone feel extremely controlled and trapped.

I just think it would be good if he had a weakness, and that would be that he can't do two things at once.

35. Concluded that I liked the movie, but I might have liked it more if Patrick wasn't so damn good at multi-tasking.

Read my novel: The Dead are Online