Wow – what a great December for Pop Culture! 2015 has been great as a whole, but December really took it to 11! I hope you were able to get some pop culture activities taken care of this month – here’s a few of my favorites.
Movies
Like everyone else in the world – I saw Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, 3 times so far (I don’t judge you…). My dad was visiting for the month so we watched episodes I-VI in order over the past month as well. Episodes I & II are terrible movies, but I didn’t remember most of Episode III and it’s actually pretty good! While The Empire Strikes Back has been my favorite, VII was so good it may be my favorite now…
I also had a chance to go see Sisters – with my two favorites, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. It was hilarious and everything I wanted it to be. Go see this movie, it’s a great ab workout.
TV
There was such great TV this fall and a few things wrapped up worth noting…
The Leftovers – This will go down as one of my favorite TV seasons on record (Justified S2 and Dexter S4 are also on the list). It was fantastic story telling and a crazy story. International Assassin may be a flawless episode of television (to me anyway).
Fargo – Season 2 lived up to it’s name sake and was another amazing season of television. Ed & Peggy Bloomquist were two of the dumbest (but funnest) characters I’ve enjoyed watching in a while. And I will watch whatever else Bokeem Woodbine does. He was incredible. As was Nick Offerman, who I have absolutely watched drink scotch by a fire this holiday season.
Jessica Jones – WOW I loved this! What a great female superhero and story. Sure it would have been tighter with 2 or 3 less episodes, but that was one of the creepier bad guys in a show in some time. I loved almost everything about this show (pro tip: maybe don’t watch this show with your parents, there’s probably more sex than you’d like to watch while they’re on the couch next to you…)
Black Mirror, White Christmas – Oh Jon Hamm how I love you. Black Mirror is a show I discovered a while back on Netflix. It’s 21st century Twlight Zone and it’s amazing if you haven’t watched it. They did a Christmas episode in 2014 and it was finally available on Netflix on Christmas day. It does NOT disappoint, and it stars everyone’s favorite (except for my sister in law I guess…) Jon Hamm! A very creepy story that takes place over the holiday season, I loved it!
Listening
The greatest gift that a podcast lover could get for the holidays was Serial Season 2! I’m loving the season so far, what a great story that we know (Bowe Bergdahl) but really don’t know. I’m ticked we don’t get a new episode the week of New Years and have to wait 2 weeks between episodes, but I know it’ll be worth it.
The Nerdist had a few great interviews lately – Kathleen Kennedy was fantastic to listen to, her history in Hollywood is amazing! Fred Savage was everything I wanted him to be – I love him. Allison Tolman (from S1 of Fargo) was also a blast to listen to! As always I’m hoping for most hostful goodness in 2016 from this podcast…
Andy Greenwald interviewed Damon Lindelof about a bunch of stuff, but mostly LOST and The Leftovers and it was a great interview on a long drive home from the holidays.
Reading
As per the usual I’m reading a lot of year end lists and articles. Since I’ve been watching a lot of TV as well, it’s a bunch of interviews with directors too. But, I had time to read a book!
Undermajordojo Minor – a couple years ago I read The Sisters Brothers by the same author and loved it. It’s a unique writing style which makes it a very quick read. The world of the story is weird and twisted and funny and creepy and I really enjoyed it!
So, what have your pop culture obsessions been in December and over the past year?
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