2022 :: Year In Review
Welcome to the 2022 Holiday at the Sea year in review. These are a few of my favorite things (from this year at least).
2022 :: Favorite Television
As I mentioned in my movie post, with 8 kids, a lot of my “watching time” is spent with my family including 8 kids. So most of what I watch is either repeats, kids/family things that aren’t that great, or both. But my wife and I were able to catch a few shows that really stood out.
The Bear:
Only Murders In The Building Season Two:
Loot:
Severance:
2021 Year In Review :: Favorite Television
As I mentioned in my movie roundup, I have a lot of kids, so a lot of my time is spent with kids. That doesn’t always leave a lot of time for other watchings, but here are three televisionings that really stuck out to me this year.
Like last year, my “favorite television” list includes Ted Lasso and Joe Pera. As I wrote last year, both shows were (for me), a shot of much-needed positivity.
But, to be honest, the show that stood out the most for me this year was a bit darker. Midnight Mass on Netflix captivated me on so levels. Regardless of what you think of vampire stories (SPOILER), this is a powerful allegory about spiritual abuse which is unfortunately quite timely.
Ted Lasso:
Midnight Mass:
Joe Pera Talks With You:
Browse my favorite albums of the year
Browse my “2021 Yearly Wrap-it-Up” which is really a ramble about seeing Phish
Browse my favorite books of 2021
Browse my favorite movies of 2021
Browse my favorite television of 2021
Listen to a nearly 5-hour very low quality mix of one song from each of my favorite albums of 2021 called “Soundtrack to the Collective Meltdown”
Wanda's Vision of Grief
Disney/Marvel’s WandaVision has cast the cultural spotlight on something we all experience but don’t want to talk about. The series takes place in the Marvel universe after the events of Endgame.
Wanda Maximoff’s brother has been killed in battle. Her Love, Vision (a synthezoid made from vibranium) is also gone. Through flashbacks we learn about the bombing-death of her parents as well as the traumatic experiences of her youth.
Without giving too much away, Wanda, like most of us, never has quite the time to process her trauma and go through her grief, you know, with saving the world and all. Each unresolved loss builds on the next until the heaviness feels suffocating. And in the last episode, we learn that Wanda’s grief exploded (literally) in an unconscious attempt to protect herself. As the episode unfolds, we are privileged to a conversation between Wanda and Vision. And everyone’s been talking about “that quote” from Vision. But before we get to that, let’s set some context.
Grief is our natural reaction to any significant loss or change. Grief is an emotional process; our emotional response to that loss or change. Since it is an emotional process, not an intellectual process, we can’t talk our way out of it and there are not “logical steps” to be done. Instead, we must go through it; we must allow those emotions to run their course. And we must remember that emotions are energy.
And, when we lose someone we love, we can narrow our definition of grief even further because grief is inextricably tied to love. Grief is evidence of love. Grief is that feeling we get when we reach out for a special person when we need them the most, only to find that they’re no longer there. Grief is that love for someone special with nowhere left to go.
Or, as Vision so eloquently puts it: “what is grief, if not love persevering?”
Our relationship with our loved one doesn’t end. It just changes. Our relationship doesn’t end because our love doesn’t end. And grief is the outworking of that love with nowhere left to go; it is our emotions trying to work themselves out. Grief is us trying to make sense of what do with that love since its object is gone, and how to work through the resulting emotions.
I am thankful that a show with such a large platform is willing to openly wrestle with grief. It is something we will all go through, but it is something our culture doesn’t talk about. We don’t know what to say to someone grieving, and their outpour of emotion, so we either try to avoid them, offer empty platitudes, offer them a “fix,” or decide that it’s a good time to talk about ourselves. But if grief is the outworking of love, then certainly we can love each other enough to create safe spaces for one another to work through our grief.
WandaVision reminds us that we are not alone in our grief; and forces us each to ask what lengths we would go to had we the powers. Thankfully, WandaVision has helped bring this discussion to the light. Now it’s up to us to continue the conversation.
The Year of Positivity? Joe Pera and Ted Lasso Were The Television We Needed In 2020
As I mentioned in my 2020 year-end wrap-up, my year in television was marked by two shows in particular: Joe Pera Talks With You, and Ted Lasso. The two shows are quite different; Pera is quiet, even somewhat subdued; quirky and endearing.
The awkward but sincere Pera makes his way through life and relationships as a Junior High School choir instructor. Pera’s sense of wonder and sincere niceness brought and endearing positivity to an otherwise oppressive year. I want that joy Joe finds at “discovering” The Who’s “Baba O'riley.” I want to think the best of people, which is the thread tying these two shows together.
Ted Lasso tells the tale of an American “football” coach who is brought to England to coach European football (soccer). An edgier, more foul-mouthed show, Lasso’s namesake character is definitely more animated that the subdued Pera, but Lasso shares Pera’s seemingly endless ability to not only think the best of people but to practice forgiveness.
It is striking to me that in a year as heavy as 2020 was, two of the best television shows trafficked in positivity, niceness and forgiveness. Both shows are not only genuinely funny and wore their positive outlooks without flinching from the sadness of life or becoming preachy.
Watch the Joe Pera Talks With You Season 2 trailer:
Watch the Ted Lasso series trailer:
2020 Year In Review Wrap-Up
Thank you so much for reading this year. So much has happened this year and it’s crazy looking back on this rollercoaster of a year.
Scroll down and browse my year-end roundup.
2020 Year-End Television
With 8 kids, I don’t really get the chances to keep up with television the way that some of you do. That’s not a complaint, just an observation. Because, after all, I am a grown-ass adult and I will make time to watch what is important to me.
With that having been said, there were two television shows that really stood out to me this year. In a year as bleak as 2020, it does not go unnoticed on me that my two favorite television shows of the year both carried themes of positivity with them.
Joe Pera Talks With You, Season 02:
Joe’s awkward but calming presence was just what we needed going in to the final year of the white power president’s administration. And his child-like joy at “discovering” ‘Baba O'Riley’ by the Who is television at its best. No, really, the whole season is worth purchasing and that episode is a hightlight.
Visit Joe Pera’s page at Cartoon Network
Ted Lasso (Season 01):
Apple TV finds their breakout show with the disarmingly positive Ted Lasso. An American “football” coach is brought to England to coach European “football” and surprisingly heartwarming hilarity ensues.
Visit Ted Lasso’s page at Apple TV
Nick Offerman's 'Yule Log'
“Enjoy 45 minutes of uninterrupted Lagavulin™ Single Malt Scotch Whisky-drinking bliss with Nick Offerman by the Yule Log Fireplace… and you don’t even need to exchange words.”