Best of: TV & Film (Patreon)

Just as a break from politics, I thought I'd give you some television and film recommendations so you can watch these over the Christmas break when your family is too annoying to deal with:

Film

Having a 2 year old, I actually got to watch very few films this year, but there was one outstanding film I watched: One Cut of the Dead. 

I cannot emphasise enough how important it is that you go into this film only knowing the 2 sentence blurb:

Things go badly for a hack director and film crew shooting a low budget zombie movie in an abandoned WWII Japanese facility, when they are attacked by real zombies.

Don't look anything else up. And the other advice is stick with it. You need to get quite far through it before you exhale and go "oh David didn't just recommend the shittiest film he could find", but the payoff is wonderful. Such an unknown gem. 

TV

Despite everything being Covid-y, there was still some great TV to watch and these were some of my favourites.

The Great

This was a loose retelling of Catherine the Great's early experience in Russia as the Tsar's wife. It's genuinely funny. It's bawdy and raunchy. It's the best use of Nicholas Hoult I've seen since About a Boy, but it's Elle Fanning who steals it as Catherine. I'm pretty sure that it's not wholly historically accurate, but it's bloody entertaining.

The Good Lord Bird

We're only a few episodes in but this retelling of US abolitionist and preacher-man John Brown is phenomenal. Ethan Hawke plays Brown and it's his story but told through the eyes of a fictional former slave that joins his gang, mistakenly as a girl. It's unhinged, it's violent and it's funny. Ethan Hawke in particular is masterful. There's sort of an Angry Eight vibe to it, but without Tarantino's racism.

The Great British Bake Off

In a year in which everything was a bit shit and nothing seemed nice, the GBBO was the perfect antidote. Yes it was a shame losing Sandi Toksvig, and at the beginning I thought it was an even bigger shame that Matt Lucas was her replacement, but he and Noel Fielding actually developed some lovely chemistry. And the show retained its usual kindness despite being filmed in a time of Covid. The calibre of the bakers wasn't quite up there, but that made it even more relatable.

Years and Years

We came to this a year later than everyone else, but it's pretty good, and super tense. And also a bit comical now that we know what people are prepared to vote for. It's ostensibly a British family drama, played out as society rips itself apart in the background. It's super dark but with that delightful dark British comedy woven in. And in a year without Black Mirror it's probably the closest we got to it.

Succession

Probably my favourite show of the year. Again we were a year late to it, but if you haven't started it it's definitely worth a watch. It's the story of the mega-rich, and a satire of how we proles think they behave. It's magnificent. It's pretty much a satire of the Murdochs, with Bryan Cox playing the monstrous head of the family deciding which of his offspring he's going to make his successor. Only problem is, everyone is awful. Season 1 is brilliant, but season 2 is next level. 

This video gives you a flavour of the show. 

Devs

This is pretty dense. I've never before seen a show that so closely matches my own philosophical beliefs around free will. It's also great to see Nick Offerman play not-Ron Swanson. It's heavy going and requires you to not look at your phone as your watching TV, so maybe not ideal, but it's still pretty awesome.

Watchmen

This one is on everyone's best of lists, so there's not much to say about it, other than you don't have to be familiar with the comics to enjoy it - my wife isn't - however it does help.

Russian Doll

I don't even know if this show came out this year. But it was so inventive and fun and enjoyable that you should watch it. I'd watch Natasha Lyonne in pretty much anything.

Honourable mentions for still being awesome:

• The Umbrella Academy
• Boys
• Schitts Creek
• Taskmaster
• The Good Fight
• Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
• Bojack Horseman
• Sex Education
• The Good Place
• Love, Death & Robots

Shows that disappointed me:

• The Undoing - so much prestige, so much pretension, so little payoff.
• The 100 - dumb ending to a show that I'd invested so much time in. All the character development was for nothing.
• The Politician - I don't know why I keep falling for Ryan Murphy. 
• Avenue 5 - what a pedigree, what a letdown.
• Orange is the New Black - this was a serious hate-watch for me. I only saw it through because I'd been there from the very beginning.

If you have any recommendations, leave them in the comments.