The Long Road Out

They say it's the golden age of TV, and I have to agree--though that includes great series from other countries.   I also agree that TV has evolved--and we expect more--from our streaming experience.   So shows that we might remember as the "greats" from the past (Dallas?   Mission Impossible? Little House on the Prairie?) haven't stood the test of time in comparison. So this is my ranking of all-time favorites, given our contemporary Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/Apple- mediated perspective: Mad Men (7 seasons)--you just can't touch the time capsule within which Don Draper and crew try to survive as the world hurries onwards towards entropy.   Pete's still sitting in the office with his WWI rifle, protecting this all-time number 1 ranking.  It looks like Iwo Jima in here... The Wire (4 seasons)--for combining noir  sensibility with real political topics (freedom of the press, the street drug trade, labor activism, local politics), nothing comes close.  Oma...

I have a preference for complex characters who are not dressed up Hollywood style, in narratives that offer surprises or challenge genres.   If you agree, you'll love these movies as much as I do. Rolling ranking of top films of 2018, including two that start with "I am Not..." BlackkKlansmen-- there's so much to love about this film.   First, Spike Lee has once again done something wonderful after a period of what appeared to be intentionally amateurish efforts (OK, some would argue that he went off a cliff after the Original Kings of Comedy in 2000.  Anyway, it's been a long time.)   Then there's Denzel Washington's son, John David Washington, who acts as well as, and dances better than, his dad.  And there's the politics--in this happy story, the 1972 versions of the Charlottesville supremicists actually blow themselves up while trying to assassinate the black student leader at Colorado College.  And Adam Driver at his most wonderful--"I...