Top 3’s of 2020 – Chatty post

2020 wasn’t a great year, including blogging. I barely did any. I’ve seen people doing a top 10 of posts, but instead I’m doing my top 3’s of 2020. Albums, bands, TV, movies.

Top 3’s of 2020 – TV Shows

Although I did watch a lot of TV this year not all of it was brand new. I decided to re-watch the whole 7 seasons of Buffy. I also re-watched a lot of Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl and Riverdale. But I did watch a few new(ish) shows.

1. The Boys season 2 – silly, over the top and very gruesome but I loved it. The Boys is set in a universe where superpowered individuals are recognized as heroes by the general public and work for the powerful corporation Vought International, which markets and monetizes them. Outside of their heroic personas, most are arrogant and corrupt. The series primarily focuses on two groups: the Seven, Vought’s premier superhero team, and the eponymous Boys, vigilantes looking to bring down Vought and its corrupt superheroes. Series 2 continues on from the first where The Boys are still trying to bring down Vought.
2. Cobra Kai season 1 and 2. This originally started out on YouTube as a series, but then recently moved to Netflix. Cobra Kai is the name of a karate school from the films The Karate Kid. The films originally came out in the 80’s and I grew up watching them. The episodes of the series are short, 20- 30 minutes so you can easily watch a couple in a row. Both of the series follow the rivalry between Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso. After Johnny decides to restart Cobra Kai, LaRusso decides to do the same. Both trying to attract students from the local highschool. Can Johnny prove he has changed? Can Daniel still do that leg kick that helped him back in 1984? Watch to find out. Series 3 comes to Netflix on New Years Day so I can’t wait.
3. The Fall series 1, 2 and 3. Again something that started out on another site and ended up on Netflix. This was originally on the BBC and I definitely remember when it was on but it wasn’t something I watched. If you are a fan of Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan this show is for you. I will say that there are definitely some trigger warnings for this show so if you are triggered by murder, violence, rape, suicide, child abuse then this isn’t the show for you. Gillian Anderson stars as a British detective sent to Belfast to solve a high-profile murder. She quickly recognizes the signs of a serial killer, but the culprit has already targeted his next victim. The series follows her as she tries to solve the case and catch the killer.

Other mentions have to go to Cheer and Tiger King. I’m fairly sure the entire country watched Tiger King when the first lockdown started. It was the perfect show to watch. Carole Baskin (who might/might not have killed her husband) has become a household name. She even popped up on the Big Fat Quiz of the Year. Cheer was an unexpected surprise. A documentary about a US cheerleading team from a college, it gave me a whole new appreciation for cheerleading.

Music – top 3 of 2020

Without music I couldn’t function. I have to listen to it at all times, when I’m cooking, blogging, cleaning. The first thing I do in the morning is turn on the radio. Festivals and gigs are something I really enjoy going to, and well not a lot of those happened in 2020. Instead live streams became the thing.

I actually bought tickets to a couple of livestreams including Trivium, Papa Roach and my friend gifted me one for Darren Criss as a birthday gift. Obviously you don’t get the same feeling as attending a live gig but it was nice to see how bands were adapting to the pandemic.

Bands were still releasing music, Taylor Swift dropped two new albums! The following 3 albums have probably been my favourites of 2020. Creeper were my most played of the year according to Spotify, and with good reason. The album is amazing, and after thinking they had broken up it was good to see them back!

A special mention for Salem, the side project of Creeper frontman, Will Gould. Salem appeared out of nowhere and I was immediately hooked. Reminding me of AFI, My Chemical Romance with Creeper thrown in.

1. Creeper – Sex, death and the infinite void
2. Deftones – Ohms
3. Salem EP – Salem

Other albums that I enjoyed during 2020 include Trivium – What the dead men say, Yungblud – Weird and Miley Cyrus – Plastic Hearts. Miley might be a surprise on there but I really like her. Her cover songs she has been doing recently are amazing, and I look forward to seeing her take a more rockier direction.

Films I watched in 2020

When I started writing this post I thought I might struggle to come up with a film list. I tend to watch more TV shows now than films. However it seems 2020 was the year for films. I’m not going to include all the ones I’ve watched with Clem, these are strictly grown up ones. Well almost, there is one aimed at kids.

1. Parasite. Amazon Prime. Winner of Best Film at the Oscars 2020, it took us until the end of the year to watch it. My previous knowledge of Korean cinema is films like Snowpiercer, Train to Busan, the vengeance trilogy, A Tale of Two sisters. So I kind of knew that the film probably was going to have a twist somewhere. It took an hour into the film but then it happened.
2. Tenet. Despite cinemas being closed for the majority of the year I did manage to catch this one. It was worth it. Although not as good as Nolans previous films, it still had clever moments.
3. Bad Boys for Life. We saw this on release in the cinemas in early 2020. The two original Bad Boys films are guilty pleasures, and well this one was just more of the same. Once you’ve seen a Bad Boys film you know what you are getting. They are older, but that doesn’t mean they are smarter or wiser.
4. Borat subsequent moviefilm. Amazon Prime. I never saw the first one, and usually cannot stand the character of Borat. However with everything that has happened in America over the past 4 years, I wanted to watch. Borat heads to America to deliver a present to VP Mike Pence. That present ends up being his daughter! It’s cringy, awkward, shocking and insightful. At times I felt nervous for the situations he got himself into and watched through my hands for most of the film.
5. The Trial of the Chicago 7. Netflix. This is definitely one to watch. The casting is amazing, and it tells a story that could happen today, not just the late 60’s.
6. Eurovision Song Contest – the tale of fire saga. Netflix. 2020 was the year of nothing happening, and that included the Eurovision Song Contest. Now I absolutely love it and was seriously sad when it was announced it wouldn’t be happening. But Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams managed to almost save it. If you didn’t have jaja ding dong stuck in your head for a week then you were very lucky.
7. Trolls world tour. Digital download. We decided to make an event out of this one, as it came out during the very first lockdown. Clem made cinema tickets and an invitation for Jess. He finished work early, and we turned the lounge into a cinema. We ate popcorn and treats.
8. The gentlemen. Amazon Prime. Another film that took me by surprise. I saw the posters for it, but I wasn’t excited about it. It just looked like another typical Guy Ritchie film. But after watching it I really enjoyed it. Hugh Grant was great, and whilst it is a typical Guy Ritchie film, it was good.
9. Uncut gems. Netflix. The movie that made me so anxious and stressed that I couldn’t sleep after watching it. Adam Sandler is not one of my favourite actors, in fact I usually avoid his films. But this wasn’t his typical funny film. Sandler plays a gem dealer who has got into a lot debt, and trouble. What follows is a stressful 2 hours of him trying to sort everything out.

Not all of those films came out in 2020 but I did watch them then. We actually watched more, but I thought those ones deserved a mention. I would love to know what you loved or hated in 2020.