After several failed attempts to convince my fellow Mildly Pleasers to do a Burt Reynolds-themed month (Novem-Burt could have been something beautiful) for our movie podcast, The Pick, I’ve made the difficult but necessary decision to go it alone and devote four Fridays this month to Hollywood’s top-grossing star from 1978 to 1982.
Every year we ask ourselves “Was BLANK a good year for movies?” But I don’t care about that. All I care about is whether BLANK was a good movie year for the FREAKS and PERVERTS. If you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about, it’s whether or not it was a good year for horror and was it a good year for horny movies.
For horror we had; Abigail, The First Omen, Late Night with the Devil, Longlegs, Oddity, and Strange Darling to name a few critical hits.
For horny we had; Anora, Babygirl, Challengers, Hit Man, Love Lies Bleeding, and Queer. I’d name more but my hands are getting sweaty.
That leaves everything else. Which was good too. I wish I’d seen Nickel Boys and A Real Pain but decided on Strange Darling at the last minute because it felt like more of a John movie. Except it only made my honorable mentions so I probably should have gone the other way. I’m sure Colin will cover those other two.
Here’s a list for the freaks and perverts:
So many shows, so little time. Sorry Shogun and The Penguin and Da Bear. I’m very movie focused in my day-to-day media consumption so unless a show has an insane premise or more buzz than the beehive that killed Macaulay Culkin in My Girl, it’s gonna end up in the “To Do” pile.
I want to note that I did start The Penguin and The Sympathizer but I don’t have that binge me in anymore. Purge? Yes. Binge? No. Here are all the shows that escaped the purge.
Every year I start this post making excuses for why my list isn’t more “hip”. Last year I talked about finding peace in my growingly mainstream lists. This year I feel the same BUT I want to make a vow that I’ll never start another one of these lists with apologizing. I put a lot of time into movies, podcasts and books. What, I’m supposed to be Anthony Fantano too? No more. Welcome to my basic bitch era.
As for “What Kind of Year was 2024 for Music?” I have no fucking idea. A lot of pop. Like, real talk if we didn’t all sleep on Chappell Roan last year and her debut came out this year then she would 1000% be my number one. I got a couple of pop princesses but 2024 was Chappell’s year. Anyways here’s some bullshit:
Original Air Date: October 28, 2018
Originally, I planned to review an episode of Millennium, “The Curse of Frank Black,” but it’s nowhere to be found—not even on the darkest corners of the web. So instead, I’m bringing you one of my favorite Halloween specials of recent years: Inside No. 9’s “Dead Line,” which, much like my last-minute substitution, also gave BBC Two viewers something very unexpected.
Just a week ago, I finished reading Ray Bradbury’s 1972 novel The Halloween Tree. It’s a breezy read at about 160 pages, filled with rich history and pastoral imagery, but it doesn’t hold a candle (even in a Jack-o’-lantern) to Hanna-Barbera’s 1993 animated made-for-TV adaptation. I’m biased, being a child of the ’90s, but The Halloween Tree feels tailor-made for animation. The image of a gnarled tree with pumpkins hanging from its branches has to be seen to be appreciated—and after all these years, I still do.
Season 2, Episode 8
Original Air Date: October 31, 1990
I should have known better than to doubt the powerhouse producing duo of Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley. It’s crazy that two of the biggest TV giants of all time—Bochco (Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue) and Kelley (Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Boston Legal, Ally McBeal)—created a show together. It’s even crazier that the show they created was about a 16-year-old doctor.
