Hot on the heels of yesterday’s post about importing my movie list into Google Sheets, I present to you my list of everything I watched and read in 2020 a little early this year. If I happen to watch or read anything between now and New Year’s, they will go on next year’s list.
MOVIES
In 2020, I watched 110 movies. That’s almost exactly how many I watched in 2018 (111), less than I watched in 2017 (127), and more than I watched in 2016 (82). There are 52 weeks in a year, so 110 is just barely over 2 movies a week. It seems like I watched more than that, but the numbers don’t lie (unless I forget to write them down).
Of those 110 movies, 87 were regular films and 23 were documentaries. The first movie I watched in 2020 was the Mr. Rogers film, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. The last film I watched was a film that is destined to become a holiday classic, Santa Jaws.
25 of the 110 movies were released in 2020. The oldest movies I watched were Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and A Stranger in Town (1943). I watched 7 movies made in the 1950s including Kill the Umpire, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and I Bury the Living. I also tried to watch 30 horror movies during October, but only made it halfway through my list. There were some real stinkers in there, like The Chooper, Blue Monkey, and Evil Toons. If I try to do that again next October, remind me to pick better films. Around that same time I went on a bit of a shark kick and watched Ouija Shark, Jaws 1-3, Raiders of the Lost Shark, Post Apocalyptic Commando Shark, Ghost Shark, and the afore mentioned Santa Jaws. Each of these films (except Jaws) were as awful as they sound.
Of all the documentaries I watched, the ones that stuck with me are Never Surrender (about Galaxy Quest), Jasper Mall which was a film about a dying mall, Inmate 1: The Rise of Danny Trejo, The Speed Cubers (about Rubik’s Cube competitions), and Class Action Park.
TELEVISION
My television viewing habits didn’t change much from previous years. I watched a lot of reality cooking shows (which I don’t track here), random shows before bed on the iPad, and binge watched a few entire series.
Like nearly everyone, in 2020 I watched Joe Exotic Tiger King and McMillions. It barely seems like those came out this year! Another new show I watched this year was the new season of Unsolved Mysteries, which I wrote about on my blog a few times.
Older shows I binged included all six seasons of Schitt’s Creek, both seasons of Cobra Kai (why did I wait so long to watch this?), and all six seasons of Community. Several people recommended Community to me. I can see why people loved it, and toward the end I can see why it was cancelled.
My bedtime viewing consisted of every episode of the Superfriends cartoon from the 1970s and 1980s, and more episodes of Cutthroat Kitchen. It was great to revisit the Superfriends cartoons — I hadn’t seen them in many years.
Finally, I watched the second season of The Mandalorian. What a great show. Quite possibly the best Star Wars “anything” since the release of the original trilogy.
BOOKS
Every year I apologize for how few books I read. This year is no different. I read both of Jordan Mechner’s journals in which he detailed the creation of two of his games, Karateka and Prince of Persia. I read both of Adam Minter’s books about the life of “things”, Junkyard Planet and Secondhand Travels in the New Global Garage Sale. I read Edward Snowden’s book, Permanent Record. The only work of fiction I read from beginning to end was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I swear — to myself, not to you — that I will read more in 2021.
SUMMARY
I watched a lot of crap in 2020. In 2021 I’d like to focus on more classic films. I have so many classics in my personal library that I’ve never watched, so maybe I will focus on those. I’d also like to spend more time dissecting films and studying how they work. Maybe next year I will watch fewer bad movies and spend a bit more time reading.
Now that my home theater is complete, I plan on watching more movies out there in 2021. This includes classics, blockbusters, and hosting some movie nights for friends and family.
One thing that was unique about 2020 was due to the pandemic, watching sports was a strange and unrewarding experience. I watched a little football in 2020, and had to force myself to watch basketball games. Now that the Thunder has let go every player I know, I don’t feel compelled to watch every game.
As always, here is a link to the entire list.
EDIT: Link updated!