all the movies and tv shows that i watched in 2023 (Movie & TV Show Talk)

 Hello, everyone! Welcome back to another blog post of mine, which is the penultimate post of the year (the annual year review is still gonna come later, it wouldn't be a Dhiradorable end of the year without the year review post). So during 2023, I watched some movies and tv shows that I'd like to talk about here. But some of them are a rewatch, or a dnf, so for this post, the qualification of the movie and tv show that I'm going to talk about here such as, for movies, I'm gonna talk about the movies that I watch in the cinemas for the first time this year, and for tv shows, I'm only gonna talk about the ones that I watched for the first time that I finished this year, and also some honorable mentions for the ones that are still ongoing. Without further ado, let's get into the list.

Disclaimer: Other than your usual spoiler warning, I'm also going to add that, some of the creators, distribution/parent company, and/or casts of the movies and TV shows that'll be mentioned here, have shown their support for the genocide done by Israel to Palestinians in Gaza or taken a "neutral" stance on the matter. I'm only gonna mention those movies and TV shows and what I like about them just in general and not going into detail as I usually do. Fangirling and obsessing over pop culture is VERY OKAY and I will always encourage you to do so as long as you don't lose your humanity and principles to them.

Movies

I watched 4 movies in the cinemas this year, which is not that much, but these are the movies that I was excited to watch. I almost forgot to include one movie in the list, but thanks to Google Timeline, I now remember that I watched that one movie that I absolutely loved. The movies that are listed here, are listed by the time it was released to make it easier for me. Anyway, let's go to the first movie.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

To be honest, I don't remember much about this movie, because I watched it in May, quite early this year, and I've only watched it once ever since it was released, All I can say about the movie is that, it captured the essence of MCU movies that came out before Avengers: Endgame, how fun they are, and the themes mentioned in the movie were pretty universal. The grieving undertone, which has become the universal theme in phase 4 of MCU, was there but it wasn't so suffocating. Overall, this movie was fun and the faux nostalgic feeling over older MCU movies made it worth watching.

2. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1

I don't know whether I have mentioned this in any posts in this blog, but I'm actually a fan of Mission: Impossible movie franchise for quite a long time. I've watched all the movies and always left at least impressed with each of them. But lately, with Rogue Nation and Fallout, I didn't really crazy love them like the previous movies. They were forgettable to me, and kind of morphed into one. With that being said, I actually LOVE Dead Reckoning Part 1. The action sequences were amazing. And if you've been following the movies, there's an iconic stunt with each movie, like the iconic wire scene in the first movie, swinging between skyscrapers in Shanghai in the third movie, and climbing Burj Khalifa in Ghost Protocol. This one definitely had it in the bag as one of the most thrilling stunts in the franchise, which was the, I don't know how to describe it, riding a motor trail off of a very high cliff and then jumping off the heights to get to the other side, had me at the edge of my seat and made me almost piss myself. Not only because of how much older Tom Cruise is now, but it was also because it basically can only be done in a small number of takes according to the behind-the-scenes, so my heart was beating so fast when I watched that stunt, just like how Ethan's glove in Ghost Protocol ran out of batteries(?) when he climbed Burj Khalifa. The combat scene between Ethan and Pom Klementieff''s character (I forgot her name, I believe it was French, because most of her lines were French) was hinted all throughout the movie, and when we came to the showdown, when she locked the gate in the small alley, oh my freaking gosh, I was so excited because there were no guns involved, only actual hand-to-hand combat skills, and we could see it quite up close, even though it was pretty dark. Her character was a nice addition to the franchise, and I can't wait for her being an IMF agent in Part 2. 

Talking about recruiting new IMF agents, which was part of Ethan's arc in the movie, I think it's safe to say, that we're at the final leg of Ethan's era in the franchise. Him following Grace (Hayley Atwell's character) and telling her to join IMF as a last resort at the end of the movie because of her crime record as a professional con-man, was a nice hint that Grace was gonna be in the next era of the franchise, and also a nice mirroring of Ethan's past and why he joined the IMF. I don't think we've had his past mentioned in the franchise, we first met him when he was already an agent. So the flashback scenes of him that became the main reason why he chose to join the IMF was interesting. It kept me curious at least to know about Ethan's past more. The antagonist was impeccable, chef's kiss. I'm tired of actual criminals, weapon sellers, basically actual human being villains in the movies. Choosing AI or metaverse being as the main antagonist of the movie was a smart and up-to-date move. It was pretty frustrating, in a good way, to see Ethan and his team almost out of ideas in taking down the main antagonist. It was also quite scary because of how close it is to reality in this day and age with AI taking over our daily life and if it's gone to the wrong hands, we can actually be in a Mission: Impossible movie. Anyway, I've rambled too much now, I love the movie, it brought back my love and excitement for the franchise. I can't wait for Part 2. 

3. The Eras Tour Concert Movie

2023 is her year so it would've been a shame if I didn't watch this in the cinemas especially since she isn't going here for the tour. The day when I watched this was one of the weirdest days of the year, I'll do a story time post if I have the time to do so. But after heavy rains and a motorcycle ride all over the city, I finally watched the movie in the cinema. I don't know how to review a concert movie, as I never done one, and I didn't watch it until finished because I went out of the city the next day, and I live with Asian parents and their curfew, but I'll try. The movie was amazing, I almost cried watching the intro before Taylor came out to the stage. I sang along to all the songs played (there are some songs cut off of the movie, which we're gonna talk about) because they have the lyrics on screen and I didn't know if this was done in the concert or in the post-production of the movie, but I feel like they turned the pitch down a little bit, because I can sing along to the songs easily. Now let's talk about my favorite era of the concert, and that is the Reputation era. I was dead and brought back to life, all during this era. Ready For It is and will always be that bitch as an opener. But what essentially killed me and brought me back to life was the transition from Don't Blame Me to Look What You Made Me Do. The moment she broke down in the platform after the last "do" in the transition, I was in awe, the lighting was spectacular, it was crazy. And then the platform went down and she did her iconic snake/bow pose, my jaw dropped. It was, wow, that's all I can say. Now, we're gonna talk about the stuffs that I don't really like, which was cutting The Archer off the setlist. It was my song, my screaming and crying song in the whole setlist and I'm so pissed that they cut it in the theatrical release. Also cardigan??? Taylor, Blondie, do you want to silence Miss Betty or what? The second thing that I don't like, which was not Taylor's fault whatsoever, is the fact that I got to go home during the 1989 era and missed the surprise songs. But I guessed it was a good thing to do, because I believe I would've been ugly crying to You're On Your Own, Kid, so it was better for me to go home before that.

4. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

 

We have reached the final movie of the year, but it's definitely not the least, because it's my movie of the year. This year we had a lot of renaissance of franchises from the 2010s, and The Hunger Games was one of them. The release of The Ballads was the ultimate reason of the second life being given to the franchise. I knew the overall story of the 10th Hunger Games (which is when the movie set in the whole Hunger Games timeline, so it's a prequel of the original trilogy) and how Lucy Gray Baird, the female lead, disappearance after the games. The reason why I called Lucy Gray the "female lead" and not the "main character" is because she's not the main character, but Coriolanus Snow aka President Snow was. The story told the story of  how young Coriolanus became a mentor in the games with Lucy Gray as his tribute from District 12 and how he went from a "good" top student of The Capitol Academy into the vile and vengeful Snow that we all know, with some romance between him and Lucy Gray that happened along the way. We can see how "classic" and "vintage" the technology in this movie, compared to the original trilogy. I didn't really think that the old broken down arena is gonna be like that in the movie, I was thinking more of a Roman Empire arena, but the one in the movie made more sense now. The differences between the 10th game and the games in the original trilogy were so apparent. We can see how the aspects of the later games were made and born in the 10th game because of Snow's insight. Like sponsors, the "humanization" of the tributes with the mentors sending food and water, the distinct special animals in each game, started with the poisonous snakes, etc. Also the way that Snow ended up being an apprentice to the game maker, Dr. Gaul, and then how different the 11th game was compared to the previous ones, yet very similar to the later games, showed how evil Snow was and how he thought the whole world is the arena and the game is essentially a "show" to him and the Capitol. 

Lucy Gray's character was an interesting one. I love how they set up to be this "manic pixie dream girl"/mysterious girl that you don't know where she came from and where she has gone to. It's almost like Lucy Gray was only in Snow's imagination because the records to the 10th game, in which she was the victor, were scrapped by the Capitol and no one really watched the game back then, so she was almost gone with Snow when he died. If not because of her songs being sung by Katniss in the original trilogy. Yes, The Hanging Tree made a comeback in this movie, along with some original songs that Lucy Gray performed. Casting Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray was the best decision not only because she's an amazing singer, but she was truly what Lucy Gray was to the core, a performer. Every time she showed up on screen it was a performance, even in the arena, she made it a performance in the end. She wasn't only Lucy Gray's actor, in my opinion, she was Lucy Gray. 

Now, let's go to my favorite part of the movie, Tom Blyth, white boy of the year. He played young Snow, and boy did he play him to a t. I was actually quite pessimistic about the casting at first (read: I thought he was ugly with the buzz cut, which was so dumb of me). He was somewhat of a newcomer, never really heard him, But, oh my gosh, he was so good, he was amazing, incredible, and he stole the scene (and the viewers' heart). Some people said that he has a similar acting style as Donald Sutherland, which is why they probably casted him, but I can't attest to that because I haven't seen Donald Sutherland in many movies. What I can say is that he's really good at doing micro-expressions, which if you know me, you know I like it when actors are good with micro-expressions and no dialogue acting (Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker in the prequel Star Wars, you'll always be loved by me) , and since we didn't really know how Snow's mind worked, word for word, like in the book, we can see it through Snow's expressions, because I guess we couldn't really believe Snow's words. For example, when he saw Lucy Gray being interviewed for the first time in the zoo, we didn't really know what he was thinking about in that scene, but if you look closely at Snow's expressions, we know he was thinking something, at least bad, but when you found out what he was actually thinking about Lucy Gray, oh it was horrible. Both Tom and Rachel really dominated the movie. I felt like I was in a psychological thriller movie in the last scene Snow and Lucy Gray together. He acted like a psychopath then. I was so scared for Lucy Gray, but she was definitely smarter and braver than I am. 

It's a good ass movie. It catered to the fans of the franchise. I would put it a close second behind Catching Fire in the ranking of Hunger Games movies. 

TV Shows

We're now at the second part of the post. Yes, it is a long post, I forgot to mention that in the beginning of the post, but I always talk a lot about these stuffs. I'm gonna go with my honorable mentions first, aka shows that are still on going right now but I absolutely love. 

Honorable Mentions

1. Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Same as GOTG3, I'm not gonna talk that much about this one because, they have the same parent company. All I'm gonna say about this show so far, it's miles better than the movies. It's more book accurate, with the characters' ages, the characterizations of each character, like I'm so glad they got Annabeth right and not just a cheap copy of Clarisse like the movies. I like how they already show Percy's impertinence towards the gods. That's all I will say, and I hope this show will be even better.

2. Last Twilight

TW: mentions of suicide

Yes, it is a Thai BL, a GMMTV-produced series too at that. But I can say, I enjoy the story so far. The storyline has the depth that GMMTV series missing sometimes, and I love that it's not the typical school life BL series, which seems to be GMMTV comfort trope in the past, but I'm glad that they branched out to other tropes and genres with their BL series these days. Last Twilight tells the story of Day, a former national badminton player, who got a visual impairment after untreated damage in his eyes because of a car crash, and Mhok, an ex-con who's trying to do better in life after he got out of prison for affray and saving his sister's old car by working as Day's caretaker and the romance that evolving between them. When I found out about the storyline, I was like, "what a heavy and sad story for a GMMTV series,"  but after I watched more episodes, I was like, "damn, it's even deeper," because the supporting characters also got their own conflicts as well, like Night, Day's brother who's not on good terms with Day but he tried to be a good brother even though Day always dismisses him, and Porjai, Mhok's ex turned best friend, who's impregnated by her cheating abusive ex (not Mhok, other ex) and decided to keep the baby, which is also a topic touched on in the series, single mothers, because Day and Night's mother is also a working single mother. There were also some conversations about suicide because Mhok's sister died because of suicide and how he still has some regrets in him because he didn't know his sister was struggling and he didn't get to see his sister in her final moments because he was in prison. I like how gently they treated that part of the story, because they didn't outright say it in the beginning, but it was a gradual process along the show.

I have some theories on how the story's gonna end, or who's gonna be Day's cornea donor because so far, because Day still shows his wish of being able to see again. I also want to know how and why Day and Night's relationship went sour, did it happen after Day went blind or was it always a normal in their life. One thing for sure, the casts have said that it's gonna be a pretty sad story and I'm biting my nails here because it's not like P'Aof (the writer and director of the series) to give his series a sad ending. I've watched a couple of his works, and all of them have happy endings. Sure, both of them have heavy topics and third act conflicts, but they both have happy endings. So, I'm not sure if he's willing to do that with Last Twilight, but with the storyline that we have, I feel like it's at least gonna be a bittersweet ending with a major character death. 

Now let's get to the list of TV Shows that I watched and finished this year, it won't be long, I promise.

1. Lockwood & Co

Of course I gotta include this show even though I have made a TV Show Talk post about it, which you can read in the post right before this one, I believe. Lockwood & Co is probably my favorite TV show that was released this year and also my biggest lost because Netflix canceled it after one season. It's a perfect nostalgic TV show, and I know I'm not the only one who thinks that way because a lot of people who found out about the show after it was canceled, they love the show and were so pissed at Netflix because they canceled it before it had the chance to grow. Also, Netflix has been teasing the fandom because lately Lockwood & Co was mentioned a couple of times after the cancellation. Admit it, Netflix, you didn't think it through when you decided to cancel the show, did you? Anyway, watch Lockwood & Co on Netflix for a hope of it being picked up by another streaming platform.

2. The Sandman

The Sandman is a show of a retelling of the West Germanic folklore based on a comic by DC Comics created by Neil Gaiman, which, if you know his stance on the matter of the genocide of Palestinians, you'll know this is gonna be a short one. I always been a fan of a modern twist of folklores and The Sandman is one of them. Every episode was well-written with amazing characters and world-building, and I couldn't wait for the next season to come out which is currently in production. 

3. Good Omens

Another TV show created by Neil Gaiman, based on a novel written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The story is basically a fanfiction of bible, with a slow-burn love story between an angel and a demon. I watched both seasons in a few days after season 2 just released because people were talking about it and I actually like it because it's up my alley. Season 3 which is also the final season of the show just announced a few weeks ago, and again, I can't wait to see how the story will end.

Well, that is all for this post. It was fun to write and I probably gonna do it again next year, so let's wait and see on the movies and TV shows that I'm gonna watch in the year of 2024. See you on another post!