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 

Starting New TV Shows, IMDb Fun, Dominic Purcell, and Rarmian Newton

1. Thought that most of this blog post will be about Australians in American TV shows.

I'm not watching any Australian show today, because my rule is that I don't start my new TV show until two days after I pick it on Random.org.

Why do I have that rule?

I don't know.

Actually, I do.

It's mostly to give me time to catch up on other shows. Then sometimes it gives me time to mourn the show I've just lost.

2. Decided that I liked Review with Myles Barlow. Sort of. I didn't love it. Sometimes I was bored by it. Sometimes I found it interesting.

But I certainly don't need to mourn it.

3. Went to the TV Guide fall preview feature.

The next show for me to look at is called Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. It's about a woman who moves from Manhattan to Los Angeles.

Why is that supposed to be interesting?

I'm just wondering.

The star of the show is Rachel Bloom. I've never heard of her. Maybe she's Australian.

4. Learned from IMDb that Rachel Bloom is American not Australian.

5. Looked at the cast list for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.  I don't see any Australian actors I recognize.

I'll click on some names to see if there are Australians that are new to me.

6. Saw that Hans from Frozen is on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. He's not Australian, but I thought that was a fun piece of trivia.

Who is Hans? I'm guessing he was Anna's love interest.

7. Done with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I did not see any Australians.

8. Went to the next TV show. It's Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, starring Gary Sinise.

Any Australians?

9. Looked at the cast list.

10. Did not find any Australians on Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders; but did see that Noah, from The Walking Dead, is on the show. That's kind of exciting.

11. Worried I won't find any Australians today.

12. Ate a Tim Tam.

I think I might prefer the originals over the caramel ones.

13. Looked at the next American TV show on TV Guide.  It's called Crowded.

I don't know if there are any Aussies, but there are some Yanks I recognize.

First, there's iCarly herself—Miranda Cosgrove! We used to love iCarly. 

Then there's Carrie Preston from True Blood.  I also know her as being married to Michael Emerson from Lost.

The premise of Crowded is a husband and wife that suddenly have their grown children and parents moving in with them. Sound a bit familiar?

It's not exactly Packed to the Rafters, but there are some major similarities.

14. Started looking at the cast list for Crowded.

15. Found an actor that's not Australian, but he looks Australian to me. Ryan Dorsey.

Maybe he was Australian in a past life.

Sometimes people just have an Aussie aura.

16. Did not find any Australians on Crowded.

17. Looked at the next TV show. It's called DC's Legends of Tomorrow.

Guess who's the star?!

Arthur Darvill!  No, he's not Australian, but he's from Doctor Who, and that's equally exciting.

18. Saw from IMDb that Legends of Tomorrow isn't starting until 2016. That's not exactly fall. Not to be picky, or anything.

19. Found an Australian on Legends of Tomorrow.

Dominic Purcell was born in England, but grew up in Australia.

Purcell was on three episodes of Home and Away in 1991.

He was on two episodes of season three of Water Rats.

He was on Heartbreak High.

I think that's it for the major Australian shows. Most of his work has been done in the US. He has a pretty extensive filmography.

20. Saw that Dominic Purcell is probably most known for Prison Break.

21. Saw another Walking Dead star popping back onto television—Sarah Wayne Callies, who played Lori Grimes.

22. Saw at least three of the stars of Legends of Tomorrow were also stars of Prison Break.

23. Added one to the three. Now I have four.

And there's probably more.

24. Moved up five....

25. Saw that the creator of Legends of Tomorrow is the same guy who created Prison Break.

I kind of guessed that.

26. Went to the next show on TV Guide.  It's called Dr. Ken. It's a family comedy about a doctor who's good with the medical bits, but not so good with the patients.

27. Saw a man in the cast picture who reminds me of Kevin Rudd.

28. Saw from the cast list of Dr. Ken that the Kevin Rudd guy is Dave Foley.  I remember him.

29. Thought that maybe Tim told me about this show.  I vaguely remember him telling me about an Asian actor who's also a doctor. And that's the case with Ken Jeong, the guy who plays Dr. Ken.

When we had the conversation, I brought up Jeremy Cumpston from All Saints. He's not a doctor playing a doctor, but he's pretty close. He's a doctor who played a nurse.

30. Looked at the next show. It's a thriller called The Family.  It's about a family who lost a child; then he returns ten years later. The thing is, they don't know if it's really him or not.  I guess they didn't save a DNA sample when the child was lost?

Maybe that's not usually done with missing children.

31. Found an Australian in The Family!

It's Rarmian Newton. He's from Melbourne.

Newton plays young Danny.  I'm not sure who that is—probably not the missing child, because Newton is in his twenties. And from what I gather from TV Guide, the child was supposed to be young when he got lost.

32. Saw that Rarmian Newton was in four episodes of Dance Academy—the second season. He played Michael Slade.

I don't remember him.

33. Learned, from Lord Wiki's cousin, that Michael Slade was a dancer from a Tasmanian school. He competed against the Sydney kids.

34. Went to the Triple J 2014 list.

Today I'm going to listen to the 70th song, which is "Is it a Banger" by Odd Mob.

What is a banger?

Google says it's a sausage or a a bad car.

Oh! Yeah. I think I've heard the sausage one. Bangers and mash.

35. Could not find an official video for "Is it a Banger".

Or maybe this is official but isn't labeled official. I'm not sure.

36. Liked the beginning of the song.

37. Liked the sound of the song, though, not sure why he's so against the Lumineers.

I love the Lumineers.

38. Started to look at the cast list of the first episode of season two of Underbelly.

I plan to watch that tomorrow.

39. Saw Roy Billing's name.

I know him from Wonderland.

40. Saw that there's an actor from Water Rats—Scott Burgess.

I don't know if I remember him.

His name sounds familiar, though.

41. Found a photo of Scott Burgess.

Now I remember him on Water Rats.

42. Recognized Damon Gameau's name.

I didn't remember who he was at first but then saw that he was on Slide.

43. Saw Asher Keddie!

I think I knew she was on the Underbelly; or I least knew that some Offspring stars were also Underbelly stars.

44. Wondered from where I knew Matthew Newton.

It turns out he's from Farscape! He played the long lost son of Ka D'argo.

45. Saw Myles Pollard's name.

I know him from McLeod's Daughters.