It’s that time again — the time when I go back and look at all the movies, television shows, and books I consumed throughout the year.
MOVIES
Over the past year I watched a total of 101 movies. I’ve been tracking what movies I’ve watched for four years now. In 2018 I watched 111, in 2017 I watched 127, and in 2016 I only watched 82. I always set a loose goal of watching 121 movies (approximately one every three days) and did not reach that goal. My true goal is 100 movies a year, and I just barely made it. This year I watched a few more television shows and read a few more books than in years past, so maybe that’s why I watched a few less movies.
The first movie I watched in 2019 was Bird Box. Remember when people were putting on blindfolds and attempting the Bird Box Challenge? It seems so long ago! The last movie I watched in 2019 was Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, in a theater on opening night with Mason. That seems like a good movie to end this year’s list, so if I catch any other movies on late night cable, I’ll add them to next year’s list.
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker is the newest movie on the list, but not the only movie from 2019. Some of the other movies I watched that were released this year included Toy Story 4, Booksmart, Always Be My Maybe, John Wick 3, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Shazam!, Yesterday, 3 From Hell, Child’s Play, Joker, It: Chapter 2, and Peanut Butter Falcon.
On the other end of the spectrum, I watched four movies made in the 1930s (The Adventures of Robin Hood, The 39 Steps, Bringing up Baby, A Bill of Divorcement) and four from the 1940s (To Have and Have Not, Detour, The Window, Citizen Kane). Of those eight, Citizen Kane and The Adventures of Robin Hood were the only ones I had previously seen. I really enjoy seeing actors we think of as “old people” in their prime. Those eight movies featured (among others) John Barrymore, Katharine Hepburn, Billie Burke, Orson Welles, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Maureen O’Hara, Cary Grant, and Errol Flynn. I’d like to watch even more classic films next year, and may come up with a system to help me select movies from different decades.
I watched way more documentaries than usual this year, counting for almost a fifth of all the films I watched. Some of the ones I saw include A Galaxy Far, Far Away; Anatomy of a Bigfoot Hoax; Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes; The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story; Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers; 30 Years of Garbage: The Story of the Garbage Pail Kids; Life after Flash; Colossus of Destiny; Gilbert; Love, Gilda; Back in Time; Meet the Hitlers; Twinsters; Pay2play; Hail Satan?; Bound by Flesh; and Silicon Cowboys. I also watched two documentaries on Weird Paul (Weird Paul: A Lo-Fi Documentary and Weird Paul: Will Work for Views) and two about the Amazing Johnathan (Always Amazing: The True Story of the Life, Dead, and Return of Amazing Johnathan and The Amazing Johnathan Documentary). As much as I enjoy documentaries, I may start tracking them separately from regular movies as I want to watch 100 actual films next year. For those of you who also enjoy documentaries, I recently made a list of my favorite documentaries from the past decade.
Scanning the list, it appears I watched more horror films than usual this year. Some of the ones I watched include Bird Box; Silent Night, Deadly Night; Parents; Krampus; Secret Santa; Leprechaun Returns; Salem’s Lot; Summer of ’84; The Banana Splits Movie; Friday the 13th Part IV; 3 From Hell; Child’s Play; It: Chapter 2; Zombieland: Double Tap; and Black Christmas. Oh, and I can’t forget Sharkenstein and Velocipastor. Literally, try as I might, I can’t forget I watched them.
TELEVISION
In 2019 I continued working my way through television shows by watching an episode each night before bed. I also discovered a couple of new shows this year, which I binge watched. All in all, I watched a lot of television this year.
For starters, I watched all 190 Three Stooges shorts. Technically they’re not television shows, but each one is around 20 minutes in length, and I grew up watching them on television so that’s kind of how I classify them. For roughly four months, I watched two episodes a night. Although I have long considered myself to be a Curly fan, this time around I really grew to appreciate Shemp. I think he might even be my favorite stooge now!
In 2018 I watched the first two seasons of CHiPs and in 2019 I watched seasons 3-5. I tried watching the sixth and final season, but that was the year Larry Wilcox left the show, and it just wasn’t the same without Officer Jon Baker riding next to Ponch. After finishing CHiPs I moved on to American Gladiator. Seven seasons of the show appeared on Amazon Prime this year, and I watched all of them… I think. After a while, the episodes began to run together. Once I finished it, I moved on to old episodes of Cutthroat Kitchen I really enjoyed that show when it was on, and have been working my way through various episodes before bed.
This year I watched the first season of Russian Doll, the first season of The Mandalorian, and the third season of Stranger Things. All of these shows have been renewed and I plan to continue watching them next year.
Earlier this year I discovered Mr. Robot. I binge watched the first three seasons, and watched the show play out in real time during its fourth and final season. The show was exciting and challenging to watch and people are still arguing about the finale. It wasn’t a perfect show, but it was a fun ride.
As always, I watched too much basketball and football this year. I enjoy sports, but they take a lot of time to follow.
BOOKS
Once again, I am embarrassed of how few books I read in 2019. According to my list, I only read eleven books. I planned to read more classics, and only managed to read two (The Catcher in the Rye and Of Mice and Men). I’m going to read more classics next year, I promise! I read several nonfiction books (as usual) this year including We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec and Anonymous; The Princess Diarist (by Carrie Fisher); I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution; The Rap Year Book; and Cult of the Dead Cow – How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World. I also read at least two short story compilations (Tales from The Mos Eisley Cantina and Jim Butcher’s Working for Bigfoot) and one other novel (The Store by Bentley Little). Excluding the year I read several novels for school I read the most books I’ve read since I began tracking what I’ve read, but it simply isn’t enough.
SUMMARY
I watched fewer movies than I did in 2017 and 2018, but read more books and watched a lot more television. In 2020 I would like to hit 121 movies (or maybe 100 movies not including documentaries) and read at least one fiction novel a month.
If you’re interested, here’s a link to the entire list.