I understand you @clovis8. We are Canadian souls in harmony
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Ok thank you. I still think itās wrong, but less so.
Personally I find top X lists useful just in case I miss something. Usually on those best of year lists at Xmas there will be something like an album I didnāt hear about when it was released and Iāll catch up at that point. Thatās the main value to me, I couldnāt care less if my favorite show is ranked 3rd or 8th on someone elseās list.
I was a big Frasier fan when it came out. I started re-watching it all from Series 1 last year and it was at most about 20% as funny as the first time round.
I like them just as a glimpse into someone elseās preferences.
If itās a critic like Roger Ebert or even Armond White, Iām going to read it in a different way. A casual moviegoerās opinion is different than a critic who places their opinion in the historical and cultural context of all of cinema. In as much as we can gain objectivity on something so subjective, being able to place an opinion within facts certainly helps us get a bit closer.
But so much of that depends on the prestige of the critic. You canāt just jump on a soap box and expect people to care about what you have to say about a movie from the mere fact that youāre saying something. So some places have gotten around this by referring to things like Top 10 Listsā¦According to IMDB in order to provide an element of objectivity and credibility regardless of the author.
The curation comes from selecting a topic. Choosing āTop 10 Movies Featuring Nicolas Cageā¦According to IMDBā is as much a content decision as whether to kill the bad guy in the climax. Top X lists may as well be a global version of a draft. Theyāre fun!
In other words, go Cavaliers 
I tried that a year or so ago, and I had the same experience and bailed. I could still admire the clever writing but it no longer hit like it did previously.
On the other hand I have gone back and rewatched all of Cheers and enjoyed it a lot.
Yeah, one problem with best-of lists for a lot of publications is that theyāre usually a staff consensus, which can end up creating something pretty generic, or favoring works a lot of the voters like but no one really loves. Individual lists I think can tell you more about what someone is actually passionate about, and theyāre very useful if you know and understand the criticās preferences and can adjust accordingly to your own.
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To be clear, I have no issue with top 10 lists. I make them myself and refer to them all the time.
My issue is with the silly fights about how this list is wrong or that film is obviously ranked too high when the list contains all similar quality films.
I think Frasier was good for its time but has been surpassed by so many great comedies since 2000.
Has anyone watched Devs? It is on Hulu although a FX show. That is one freaky show to watch after smoking. Scared me and made me think more than I wanted to at the time.
Does anything happen without a reason?
Posts like this will get you banned
I need to find something to binge. Having a hard time. Like I did Upload and that was nice and easy. I have a long list of shows I have wanted to watch at some point but I have always found it very difficult to get into shows. Sometimes I really have to force myself, but when I get going I get going.
I was a day 1 viewer of Breaking Bad but I had to rewatch all or parts of the first episode before I could move on. Did the same with Dexter. I just find myself often losing total focus in pilot episodes. I even felt the same way in the Upload pilot. I was almost totally tuned out before a critical moment but after that I got locked in.
So I am looking for something relatively easy to consume that I can also watch while doing other things. Just not in a current place where I can get myself to focus 100% on watching a tv show.
Things I watched recently, Upload, Ozark s3 and McMillions. Been trying to go through the latest Fargo season but I have rewatched the first couple episodes a bunch of times and canāt get past it. M6 brother recommended the PopTv comedy that just ended its run (forget the name but with Eugene Levy etc), but I am not in a comedy consumption mode right now unless it was to rewatch something.
I am tempted to go rewatch The Wire or The Shield but I am trying to try something new first.
I am just struggling to get into any movie or tv series I start right now.
Edit: oh yeah I binged Dave on FXX too.
The Boys was a fun binge if you havenāt watched it yet. I was hooked after the first two scenes.
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Itās because GBBO didnāt air chronologically in the US. They first showed series 5, then 4, 6, 7, and 3.
Thereās some weirdness involving public vs commercial broadcasting in the UK (Iāve never quite gotten the hang of understanding exactly how the British television industry works), plus the show getting a name change in the US from Bake Off to Baking Show due to a Pillsbury trademark.
This is a great show. Good on rewatch too. Canāt wait for s2.
I hear you. Kind of lacking in a lot of resources to invest in something new that demands high engagement.
For me, even a lot of things that normally would be very satisfying feel like too much. Or pointless. I invest time and love it but then just give up. Itās forced me to really sit with what brings me enough joy that it can break through the infinite melancholy.
But also to accept that the bottleneck on satisfaction may be a lot tighter for a while. I can normally manifest a 7/10 easy for movies and TV selections. Now itās like okay, just accept that it will be at most 4/10 for the foreseeable future.
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āAt the moment, I donāt know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so Iām not working away on any of those [āBlack Mirrorā episodes].
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Mark, just taking a shot in the dark here, but I went to Netflix to find something to recommend for you.
Limitless the movie never fails to entertain me. Excellent aspirational sci-fi. Itās just absurd enough and the ending come on lol enough for me to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride every time :)
How about a season of Black Mirror where half the stories are apocalyptic fiction and half is apocalyptic reality. Have fun guessing with your friends if the horror is real or imaginary!
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Itās already surreal watching movie/tv where characters are walking around freely vs ādystopianā stories where casual strangers pass by wearing face masks
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