He Scores!

Ask any movie lover who's into film scores, and they'll surely name John Williams as one of their favorite composers of movie music. He's been nominated for a staggering 54 Oscars, and countless other awards besides, yet it still feels like he can't be praised highly enough. A new documentary streaming on Disney+ delves into exactly why that is: the cheekily titled Music by John Williams.

I will readily confess that this is far from the most insightful documentary you could watch. It isn't here to expose a version of the man you don't know, and isn't here to tell you much new information. It's here to celebrate the man's accomplishments -- his music. And in this endeavor, it excels.

Even a fan of John Williams could be hard-pressed to name just how many amazing scores he's created. He's done what for any other composer could be called "career best" work perhaps a dozen times, and this documentary helps you appreciate the breadth of that as it presents one achievement after another in dizzying procession from Williams' long career.

I have always responded most enthusiastically to movies that make me feel the most emotions, and this documentary shows -- again and again -- how no one is better at doing that than John Williams. Not even, I would say, director Steven Spielberg, who (as Williams' long-time collaborator) is featured heavily in this documentary; Spielberg is enthusiastic to celebrate just how much of the success of his own career can be credited directly to the work of John Williams.

What I found truly remarkable about watching Music by John Williams is just how much I was caught up in the emotions of these great films all over again. Pieces are played that I've heard, probably literally, a hundred times. They're not even played in their entirely. Sometimes they're accompanied by clips of the movies they were created for, and sometimes not. But as Jaws crashes into Star Wars, and into Close Encounters of the Third Kind, into Superman, into Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., Jurassic Park, Schindler's List (and many, many, many more), I felt myself swept up in sheer awe of the genius who created it all.

Is this documentary kind of just a "puff piece?" Sure, probably. But few subjects would be as worthy, I think. Though the documentary doesn't seem to aspire to be any more than a fan-style gushing about John Williams, in the pursuit of that simple goal, it does illuminate just why movies can evoke these kinds of feelings, and what it is about Williams in particular that does it.

So no, maybe this isn't profound, but it made me feel all of the things in the way the movies I enjoy most always do. So I find myself giving Music by John Williams an A-. Put simply, I enjoyed it more than nearly every other movie I watched in 2024, and thus I think it earned that high mark. And I think any fan of film music (even casually), would enjoy it too.

2024 in Review -- Television

While I've been posting a "year in games" review and "year in movies" review for a long while now, this is only the second time I've done a "year in TV" review.

Comparing my "Top 10 Lists" from 2024 and 2023, I'd say that the 2023 is a slightly stronger and more even list all the way through #10. But if it were just a "Top 5" list, 2024 comes out ahead -- the "best of the best" was better in 2024 than the year before.

What 5 or 10 shows am I talking about?

10) The Big Door Prize. (Season 2) Season 2 of the now-cancelled series was a notable step up from season 1. The story of a town-wide journey of self-exploration (or, as some in the show call it, "selfploration") had plenty of moving moments, sweet sentiments, and helpful observations on life -- and plenty of compelling characters just struggling to find their authentic selves. I'm sorry the series won't ever reach its natural conclusion... but then, self-actualization is a life-long process that never truly ends, isn't it?

9) What We Do in the Shadows. (Season 6) This show arguably went one season too long (a notion hilariously commented upon in the series finale). And there was certainly never any "learning or growing" among the characters (also commented upon). But the show keep squeezing funny juice out of its highly specific (and you would think limited) premise. Without this season, we wouldn't have the hilarity of Cravensworth's Monster, Guillermo's corporate job, or Nandor's moody crisis of self-worth. Even if the show did last one season too long, it ended while it was still really great.

8) Ghosts. (Season 3... and part of season 4) This sitcom remains the best thing happening on old-fashioned, non-streaming, over-the-air television. The abbreviated season 3 (shortened by Hollywood strikes and multiple pregnancies in the cast) wasn't quite up to the level of the first two seasons -- yet still very good. And so far, season 4 is fully back to its reliably hilarious hijinks. The series continues to flesh out its sprawling cast of characters in surprising ways that make you actually care about everyone beyond just the jokes -- which make me laugh out loud multiple times every episode.

7) Silo. (Season 2) The new season of Silo is still running, split across 2024 and 2025, but it should certainly count on at least one of those lists. It's working in an area of the source novels that's been far more challenging to adapt than season one, yet it has continued to excel. It manages to make me feel a real sense of jeopardy, even though I've read the story. It's kept the narrative alive outside of Juliette's immediate field of view, and Steve Zahn has given a strong performance as the challenging-on-the-page new character of Solo. For all these reasons, and the continued great performances of Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins, and more, this series gets a spot on my list.

6) Masters of the Air. I didn't have much faith that a follow-up to the tremendous Band of Brothers (and "pretty good" The Pacific), coming years and years later, could be great. But it absolutely was. Perhaps this long was needed for visual effects on television to reach a point to tell this story. In any case, these tales of another theater of World War II were impactful, at times harrowing, and moving.

5) Dead Boy Detectives. We got only one season of this delightful show... which arrived just before disappointing (but credible) accusations against creator Neil Gaiman made the rounds. Despite those two dark clouds over the show, there was still so much good. A tight core of delightful characters, each compelling portrayed. "One-off" stories skillfully juggled with an ongoing storyline. To me, these few episodes were light years better than the show that loosely spawned it (The Sandman).

4) Star Trek: Lower Decks. (Season 5) I can understand ending Star Trek: Discovery. Star Trek: Picard always felt like a limited thing anyway. But it is mind-boggling to me that Lower Decks isn't going to continue for years and years to come. At least if it had to end, it went out on top in every conceivable way -- with the best season of the series, the best final season of any Star Trek since Deep Space Nine, and a jam-packed, celebratory finale episode that concluded everything well, while still leaving room for the Powers That Be to come to their senses some day. We're fortunate that there was so much Star Trek in this new age of Star Trek that there was room enough for something like this -- seemingly irreverent, while subtly laying claim to being one of the most authentically Star Trek series of all.

3) Slow Horses. (Season 4) Every season of Slow Horses has been superb, but this season made a strong case for being the best so far, with a plot-twisty story about an agent on the lam, a deadly terrorist attack, a secret past coming back to haunt one of the heroes, and more I'd rather not even hint at. The cast remains uniformly fantastic, with Gary Oldman in particular doing quite possibly career-best work (in a truly exceptional career) -- Jackson Lamb is one of television's all-time great characters.

2) Shrinking. (Season 2) There's always some sitcom somewhere on television doing a masterful job of blending laughs with serious drama; Shrinking is the best there is right now, and I dare say very few shows have ever done it so well. The second season was even stronger than the excellent first. The cast is amazing, top to bottom. Especially amazing things happen when Harrison Ford actually appears vulnerable on camera. And actors who have really only been known for comedy (Jason Segel and recurring season two guest star Brett Goldstein) show some surprising dramatic chops in this run too.

1) Heartstopper. (Season 3) This British teen romance drama centered on LGBT+ relationships was stronger than ever in its newest season. It dealt most effectively and emotionally with mental health struggles, highlighted trans issues at a very important time for that in the real world, and featured best-yet performances from its young cast. The show was devastating and hopeful in turns, and my favorite television of 2024.

A couple of honorable mentions:

• Shōgun would have been #11 on my list. I thought it was solid overall, but it lost me a bit in the finale -- hence it just missing my list.

• I'm five years behind on this, but I began watching The Morning Show in 2024, and season 1 was excellent. If this were a list of "top 10 shows I watched this year" and not specifically "shows from 2024," it would actually take the number 3 slot. (When I catch up on the whole series to date, I'm sure I'll dedicate a blog post to it.)

There's already a lot of 2025 television to look forward to: season 2 of Severance arrives in just a couple of weeks, season 2 of Star Wars: Andor will be amazing even if it's only half as good as the first, ditto for season 2 of The Last of Us... plus an Alien series from TV genius Noah Hawley is set to debut, a new Star Trek series should arrive at some point, and perhaps some new favorite I haven't even heard of yet.

2024 in Review -- Movies

As always, I kick off a new year here on the blog with a look back at the fun I had in the previous year. Yesterday was board games. Today: movies.

I watched 58 movies throughout the year. I caught 20 of those at the theater (including a special private theater for one), 1 on an airplane flight (coming back from Banff; I'll probably get around to writing about that movie at some point), and the rest at home.

28 of the movies I saw were actually new 2024 releases... though I have not posted reviews of all 28. I've shifted my "posting strategy" over the last year or two, and now I usually skip writing about movies If I don't at least partly enjoy them. (I might even skip a movie I find moderately entertaining, if I feel like I simply have too many other things to post about at the time).

For those reasons and others, I haven't even written yet about a couple of the movies that are at least provisionally on my "Top 10 of 2024" list. But rather than waiting to post my list until after I post those reviews, I'm just going to forge ahead now, and fill in the missing reviews as I get to them. Maybe I'll even generate a tiny bit of suspense this way. ("You liked that movie? That much? Can't wait for you to explain how that's possible.")

My Top 10 (as of right now) for 2024 are:

1. Dune: Part Two
   
2. Music by John Williams
3. Inside Out 2
   
4. Challengers
   
5. Fly Me to the Moon
6. Wolfs
7. Deadpool & Wolverine
8. The Fall Guy
9. ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!
10. Civil War

There's a lot of "Oscar bait" I still haven't seen, and I do usually end up liking at least one or two of those -- so, as always, I expect to revise this list a bit in the coming months. Stay tuned!

2024 in Review -- Games

2024 was a minor milestone of a year for me in playing board games. But before I get to why, let me start with an overview of the numbers.

Over the course of 12 months, I played 277 games. This was a very slight increase from the 273 plays I had in 2023, achieved thanks to a marathon evening of mostly short games on New Year's Eve. I played 75 different titles -- a slight drop from 2023, though this was very much the point.

See, 2024 was the first year I specifically set out to complete a "10 x 10" -- playing at least 10 different board games at least 10 times each. And while I was successful in that, I must say it's probably also the last time I'll ever set out to do that. The original intention was to bring to the spotlight some beloved games that my group and I don't always make time for amid trying out new things.

It did do that, to some extent. However, it also led to a couple of games that seemed beloved to us early on, but overstayed their welcome a bit as we sometimes played them over other options we'd rather play, just for the sake of the 10 x 10 completion. So this year's "challenge": just play more of the things we enjoy, whatever they are and however many times that may be. Duh.

Before the list, my usual caveats:

• I don't count the games made by my work if I played them for work (in unfinished forms).

• I count a few games by the "session," like The Crew and the Exit: The Game Advent Calendar. (But I don't need either of those to still have a completed 10 x 10, so don't "lawyer" me.)

Here's my 2024 List:

20    Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West
13    The Gang
11    Exit: The Game – Advent Calendar: The Silent Storm
11    Forest Shuffle
11    The Quacks of Quedlinburg
11    Sagrada Artisans
10    The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
10    Distilled
10    Kokopelli
10    Patchwork
10    Secret Hitler
10    Things in Rings
8    Nokosu Dice
8    Viticulture World: Cooperative Expansion
6    Landmarks
6    Ultimatch
6    Wyrmspan
5    Concordia Venus
4    Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig
4    Clever Cubed
4    Link City
4    Phantom Ink
4    Sky Team
3    Coloma
3    Fiction
3    Foundations of Metropolis
3    The Great Split
3    Star Trek: Cryptic – A Puzzles and Pathways Adventure
3    That's Pretty Clever!
2    Art Society
2    Big Boss
2    Cascadia: Rolling Rivers
2    Cities
2    Clever 4Ever
2    The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
2    Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
2    Just One
2    A Message From The Stars
2    Old London Bridge
2    Ready Set Bet
2    Secret Identity
2    Splito
2    The Taverns of Tiefenthal
2    Telestrations After Dark
2    Wandering Towers
2    Wits & Wagers
1    Azul: Master Chocolatier
1    Azul: Queen's Garden
1    Azul: Summer Pavilion
1    Cascadia
1    Clank!: Catacombs
1    Dune: Imperium – Uprising
1    Farkle
1    First Rat
1    Fromage
1    FTW?!
1    Great Western Trail: New Zealand
1    Hallertau
1    In the Year of the Dragon
1    Joan of Arc: Orléans Draw & Write
1    Knarr
1    Merlin
1    Mistwind
1    Point City
1    Rear Window
1    Rebel Princess Deluxe Edition
1    Roll for the Galaxy
1    The Search for Planet X
1    Shadows over Camelot
1    Skull
1    Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: A Gemstone Mining Game
1    Stone Age
1    Time's Up! Title Recall!
1    Twice as Clever!
1    Windmill Valley

And some random thoughts:

• This was a year for legacy games. I completed one campaign of Ticket to Ride Legacy with one group, and then jumped into a second campaign with a different group that will finish sometime in 2025. I also completed a campaign of Sagrada Artisans. I don't have any new Legacy game lined up yet for the new year, but I'm fine with that. Consider it an embrace of that "no obligations except what's fun" idea. I'm open if the right Legacy game should come around, but also happy to avoid such a commitment.
  

• The Quacks of Quedlinburg remains a favorite in my group, and now that my friends have blinged out their copy with screen-printed plastic tokens for the ingredients and wood-carved chests to hold them, I'd say it's not about to become a less popular choice.

• I continue to enjoy Distilled; despite it having no single truly revolutionary game mechanic, I find it mixes familiar gameplay in its own enjoyable way. The makers of that game have a new one coming this year, Luthier, that might make a big splash in my group when it arrives.
  

• For the second year in a row, I played multiple versions of Azul, but missed out on Stained Glass of Sintra. Clearly, it's my least liked of the series.

• While I'm not explicitly going for a 10-by-anything this year, a couple of games I'd like to play more include Viticulture World (though I feel I only want to play it with 4 players now, having tried it at a few other counts) and Concordia Venus (still a personal favorite).

• I'm also very much aware of several games I've so far played only once, that I'd like to keep at to see if I like them as much as I think I might: Fromage, Hallertau, Mistwind, and Windmill Valley. 

Here's to another fun year of gaming in 2025!