The Top 10 Best Television Episodes of 2018

10) "Prague" Succession (HBO)
Season 1 / Episode 8
Premiere Date: July 22, 2018
Directed By: S.J. Clarkson

Brief Description: I know Succession is going to end up on a lot of Best Of lists this year, but this is going to be the only spot on my lists. Not a big fan overall. Yet I did enjoy this episode because it's probably the show's funniest. In a world of super rich people, instead of actually flying to Prague for a bachelor's party, the gang goes to an Everything Goes club in New York where Tom "closes the loop".

9) "Something Stupid" Better Call Saul (AMC)
Season 4 / Episode 7
Premiere Date: September 17, 2018
Directed By: Deborah Chow

Brief Description: After a slow start to the season, Better Call Saul picked up steam in the second half, solidified by an incredible montage to start the episode where we see Kim and Jimmy drift apart in a split screen. This show is able to say so much without saying anything at all.

8) "Janet(s)" The Good Place (NBC)
Season 3 / Episode 9
Premiere Date: December 6, 2018
Directed By: Morgan Sackett

Brief Description: The very concept of The Good Place, a demon torturing four mortals in the afterlife, by its very nature can lead to limitless possibilities. Add to the fact that you have the genius behind Parks and Recreation and the serialized nature of the nature inspired by the creator of Lost and The Leftovers, and you're left with the possibility if creating some incredibly creative television episodes. The mid-season finale of season 3 of this show was no exception and was a phenomenal showcase for breakout star D'Arcy Carden. As the gang of mortals are struck in Janet's void (Carden), Michael (Ted Dansen) and Janet meet the afterlife's accountants led by the great Stephen Merchant.

The Top 17 Best Television Shows of 2017

17) Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX)
Season(s): 4 and 5
Created By: Dan Goor & Michael Schur
Starring: Andy Samberg & Andre Braugher

Brief Description: It is difficult for a network comedy to be funny. It's harder for it to be both funny and good. It's even tougher to be both funny and good for five straight seasons. Yet Brooklyn Nine-Nine has managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible. There's a reason the show was saved almost immediately by NBC after FOX cancelled it.

16) Black-ish (ABC)
Season(s): 3 and 4
Created By: Kenya Barris
Starring: Anthony Anderson & Tracee Ellis Ross

Brief Description: Blackish is another consistently funny and great network comedy that helps anchor a fresh a new comedy line up that includes Fresh Off The Boat and Speechless. The structure of the comedies is basically the exact same as when television started, but what makes them great is their perspective. By changing that slightly and seeing characters through a different worldview than your own, you get the rebirth of sitcoms.

15) Dear White People (Netflix)
Season 1
Created By: Justin Simien
Starring: Logan Browning, Brandon P. Bell & DeRon Horton

Brief Description: My son was adopted in April, and I remember waking up in the middle of the night feeding him and rocking him to sleep as a watch an episode of Dear White People. It feels apropos considering this exactly the type of show I want him to watch before he goes to college. Based upon his hit Indie film, Justin Simien tells the story of different Black perspectives as they navigate college.

The Top 10 Best Television Episodes of 2017

10) "Who Rules The Land of Denial" 
Fargo (FX)
Season 3 / Episode 8
Premiere Date: June 7, 2017
Directed By: Mike Barker

Brief Description: I know the general consensus was the season 3 of Fargo is the show's worst season, but considering I wasn't the biggest fan on the sophomore attempt, I quite liked the latest from Noah Hawley and crew starring twins played by Ewan McGregor. What makes the show work so well is Hawley's masterful interpretation of films by the Coen Brothers- filmmakers who can make a straightforward kidnapping-gone-wrong film like Fargo and also an absolutely delightfully bonkers film like The Big Lebowski. What makes "Who Rules The Land of Denial" so great is the show's ability to play off of the Coen Brothers tropes and create a delightfully masterfully opening where Mary Elizabeth Winstead's character can be chased by goons one minute, and then sitting in a bowling alley of purgatory with The Wandering Jew (played by Ray Wise) the next.

9) "Time's Arrow" BoJack Horseman (Netflix)
Season 4 / Episode 11
Premiere Date: September 8, 2017
Directed By: Aaron Long

Brief Description: Season 4 of BoJack Horseman dealt a lot with the titular character coming to grips with his past and his relationship with his negligent mother. The series culminates in a trippy penultimate episode where the Bojack's mother (voiced by Wendie Malick) and her dementia flip between the past and present and your left with a David Lynch-ian experience unlike anything you've seen before. A remarkable episode from one of the best and smartest shows on television.

The Top 17 Best Films of 2017

17) Molly's Game
Starring: Jessica Chastain
Written and Directed By:  Aaron Sorkin
STARS:  3 out of 4

Brief Description: Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut is neither perfect, nor earth-shattering, but his own words and dialogue make for an automatically compelling story. Based on the interesting book and real life of Molly Bloom, a former Olympic skier turned underground Poker game runner, Molly's Game is a solid movie that is worth a rental. The floor of any Aaron Sorkin project is so high that he's turning everything he touches into Must-See entertainment.

16) The Greatest Showman
Starring: Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron
Directed By: Michael Gracey
STARS: 3 out of 4

Brief Description: My enjoyment of this film comes down to two things: 1) I'm familiar enough with the real P.T. Barnum to know what a terrible person he was to the point where Hugh Jackson's portrayal of the man was an outright lie more than viewing him through rose-colored glasses and 2) I'm a sucker for catchy music. I really enjoyed La La Land, and the same people behind that film come back with a vengeance with The Greatest Showman. The songs are so catchy I had to pause in the middle of this description to go watch some scenes on YouTube.

15) Spielberg
Starring: Steven Spielberg
Directed By: Susan Lacy
STARS: 3 out of 4

Brief Description: You can't be as big of a movie fan as I am and not enjoy one or ten Steven Spielberg films. Heck, you can't even be a casual movie goer and not enjoy a handful of his films. Despite the obviously slant towards this being a puff piece, I really enjoyed the look back on Steven Spielberg's life and career and just how much he's influenced everything. It's also weird because the film made me respect the director a lot less. He was widely (and rightfully IMHO) criticized early in his career for not being able to make a good, serious, prestigious film. Spielberg tried to prove everyone wrong (mainly with Schindler's List), but after revisiting many of those films, like List, I've to believe that argument more and more.

The Top 16 Best Shows of 2016

16) You're The Worst (FX)
Season 3
Created By: Stephan Falk
Starring: Chris Geere & Aya Cash

Click here to read why Episode 11's "The Inherent, Unsullied Qualified Value of Anything" was one of the best episodes of 2016






15) The Carmichael Show (NBC)
Season 2
Created By: Jerrod Carmichael
Starring: Jerrod Carmichael, Lorett Devine, & David Allen Grier


Click here to read about my thoughts on The Carmichael Show

14) Speechless (ABC)
Season 1
Created By: Scott Silveri
Starring: Minnie Driver & Micah Fowler

The Top 10 Best Films of 2016

10) Allied
Starring: Brad Pitt & Marion Cotillard
Directed By: Robert Zemeckis
STARS: 3 out of 4

Check out my original review of the film here

9) Moana
Voices Of: Auli'i Cravalho & Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Directed By: Rob Clements, John Musker, Don Hall, & Chris Williams
STARS: 3 out of 4

Brief Description: Moana was not a film I had on my original list in 2016, but time has been incredibly kind to it thanks to the fabulously catchy songs, mainly written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the fact that I've had a kid between when the films first aired and it's current principal residency atop of my Netfliz queue. I don't know that the film is an effective critique of previous Disney tropes that it wants to be (especially not compared to a later film on this lost), but it's still a fun movies nonetheless with songs that'll gleefully get stuck on your head for days. And in the era of the #MeToo movement and the fact that we're now being honest about how terrible the former Disney princess movies really are, Moana is a great film that I think will stand the test of time.

Oscar Movie Review: Dunkirk

Dunkirk
Written & Directed By: Christoper Nolan
Starring: Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, & Kenneth Branagh
STARS: 3.5 out of 4

SHOULD I WATCH IT: Rent it immediately and watch it on the biggest screen with the best speakers you can find.

Brief Description: Dunkirk begins with a group of young soldiers scavenging their way through an abandoned village next to the shore of Dunkirk, France during WWII. Flyers drop upon stating that the enemy has them surrounded. The young men suddenly come under attack leading two of them to the shore of the shore of the beach where they encounter an entire British battalion as they attempt to escape from Hell.

Dunkirk follows three main story lines as the United Kingdom tries to rescue these men and get them off of this beach. The first story line follows Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) and George (Barry Keoghan), two of the soldiers we met in the first scene, as they meet up with Alex (Harry Styles- who's surprisingly excellent in the film and who's fame works to the film's advantage to help distinguish between the random white kids we're following) as they spend a week trying to get off of the beach. Next, we follow Mr. Dawson (Rylance) and a group of rag tag civilians who spend the day boating across the English Channel in a last ditch effort to save the stranded, beached soldiers. The final storyline follows Farrier (Hardy) and Collins (Jack Lowden), two English fighter pilots spending an hour in the air to assist in the rescue mission any way they can.