Here’s the final part of our now traditional Review of the Year, pointing out what we liked most.
This time, it’s Film & TV.
(Part 1 looked at Fantasy Books, Part 2 looked at Horror Books, Part 3 looked at SF Books)
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Rob Bedford:
Film
I didn’t get out to the theaters except to see Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and it was an absolute blast. The filmmakers clearly have respect for the property and managed to make the film approachable to both long-time fantasy geeks like myself as well as a wider audience. My wife, who is of the same age as me and watched the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon when she was a kid (like I did) appreciated the film, too. This has franchise written all over it and I just hope we see some more movies with these characters. By default, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was my top theater going experience of 2023, and it ranks pretty high overall.
All the other movies I saw, I caught via streaming, even if the film was originally released in theaters like the bloody, violent and thoroughly entertaining Evil Dead: Rise. This was in interesting direction to take the franchise with the primary connection to other films being the Necronomicon. There are little shout-outs to previous films, but I like the idea of the Necronomicon being the thread that connects potential future Evil Dead films together.
Around Hallowe’en a fun slasher film was released to Prime, Totally Killer which mixes time travel a la Back to the Future into a standard slasher plotline. The results, for me, were very entertaining. Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) carried the film with a nice performance from Julie Bowen (Modern Family) as her mother.
Hulu had maybe the best straight-to-streaming genre release in 2023 with No One Will Save You, with a dynamic performance from Kaitlyn Dever (Justified). The film is a home invasion horror with the great addition into the mix: the invaders are aliens. This is a tense, wonderful movie that reveals some really emotional weight as it leads up to a thought-provoking conclusion.
A few Marvel movies were released in 2023, but the only one I managed to see was the 3rd Guardians of the Galaxy movie, standard popcorn superhero/science fiction storytelling. I did appreciate some of the choices James Gunn made in his swan song to Marvel before taking over the reigns of the DC Comics filmed universe.
Of course, a couple of Stephen King adaptations were released, the only one I managed to see was The Boogeyman, which takes one of King’s most iconic and terrifying short stories in an interesting direction. I enjoyed it even if it diverged from the core of the story. This is probably to be expected when making a 10 page short story into a 90 minute film.
One of the most brutal films of the year was released only to Shudder, the Argentinian film, When Evil Lurks. It tells the story of a demon possession taking over a small town, with the demon going from person to person as easy as a bad cold. There are two scenes in the film (at least) that could easily be considered the most shocking moment in horror film in 2023.
Another impressive made-for-Shudder film was Brooklyn 45. At the end of World War II, a few military colleagues get together and decided to perform a séance to contact the to contact the wife of one of the men. She committed suicide because nobody believed her when she said her neighbor was a spy for Hitler. A great cast and a story with some real emotional punch from filmmaker Ted Geoghegan.
TV
The highlight, as has been the case for the past few years, is a new release from Mike Flanagan who always manages to give viewers some great Horror television. In 2023, it was The Fall of the House of Usher, which takes great inspiration from the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The series focuses on the Usher family, particularly patriarch Roderick who runs the largest and most controversial pharmaceutical company in the United States. Each episode focuses on one of his children, each which plays out as one of Poe’s most recognizable stories.
Marvel’s Loki returned for a second season, which played around with time-travel and parallel universes. The selling point here, of course, is the wonderful Tom Hiddleston. I won’t get into some of the behind the scenes issues with one of the actors, but I enjoyed the series.
Over on Shudder, a fourth season of Creepshow was released and continued the pulpy, humor-laden horror stories. 6 episodes were released, each episode is comprised of two stories, each roughly 30 minutes long. Although no stories in this season were based on Stephen King material, there are plenty of call outs and homages to his work throughout. The best of the bunch were probably “Twenty Minutes with Cassandra” about personal demons and dealing with trauma, “Meet the Belaskos,” a fun vampire story, and “Baby Teeth,” an extremely creepy story about parenthood.
HBO continued its run of incredible adaptations with The Last of Us, based on the enormously popular video game. Set in a post-apocalyptic United States, we follow Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the country. Some harrowing scenes with the monster attacks and human monsters as well. This show may have given us the finest hour of television, “Long, Long Time” about two men who find love and hope in a world of ruin. Nick Offerman’s performance was heartbreaking and beautiful.
Not quite genre, but sort of…Our Flag Means Death, the second season of the pirate series about Gentleman Pirate Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) and Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) was enormously fun.
As of this writing, I’m watching the second season of Invincible as it is released. Prime releases their shows one episode per week. This is the adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s popular comic book series. It essentially asks: What if Superman were sent to Earth as an emissary / spy in order to ultimately conquer the planet for the Kryptonians? And what if he had a son, but the son stayed true to his Earth heritage. Violent and just pure fun.
The one show that falls into our three beloved genres of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror my wife and I enjoy together is What We Do in the Shadows, which had another spectacular season. Few shows can make me laugh as consistently and repeatedly as this chronicle of dimwitted, self-important vampires who live in Staten Island.
Mark Chitty:
Film
Not many movies watched this year, and of those seen they were definitely hit-and-miss. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania should have been great, but it was decidedly average despite bringing in the big bad of this next phase of Marvel movies; Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 was by far my favourite superhero film of the year, giving a heartfelt finish to the Guardians in their current form; Extraction 2 delivered more of the same, with less believability; Transformers: Rise of the Beasts was certainly better than some of the previous films, but still somewhat lacking; The Flash was better than expected given all the issues around it, and I enjoyed it; and finally Evil Dead Rise was a definite middle-of-the-road offering that could have been so much more.
TV
I think TV shows managed to give me the entertainment I wanted this year, with none really disappointing. Kaleidoscope (season 1) was fun, and the format of mixing up the episodes worked well; Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (season 3) finished off the series nicely; The Night Agent (season 1) was probably one of the better shows of the year, and enjoyable throughout; Star Trek: Picard (season 3) finished things off nicely, with plenty of homage to long time fans; Good Omens (season 2) was as good as the first season, something I didn’t think would be possible; The Mandolorian (season 3) again continues to deliver without feeling to tired; Ahsoka (season 1) was better than expected with some great ideas and characters; and finally Loki (season 2) managed to deliver once again.
Mark Yon:
Film
I did manage to see a few good movies at the cinema this year. However, I was rather hoping to talk about Dune: Part Two at this stage, but sadly not – next year! (The trailer looks great though!)
Anyway, a lot of the films I went to see I liked, often more than many of the reviews. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Part 1) was nearly as convoluted as its title, but looked great on a big screen, as was Oppenheimer, though a difficult sell as a three hour long, very intense talky type of movie.
I thought that The Flash was very good and didn’t merit the poor reviews it seemed to gain – the return of Michael Keaton made me grin a lot. Same too with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny which was a much better conclusion to the Indiana Jones story than the previous film – the conclusion that Crystal Skull wasn’t.
Guardians of the Galaxy : Volume 3 was also an effective ending to a series, one of the better Marvel movies this year. And talking of ‘volumes’, John Wick Volume 4 was really very good, even if I felt that it was a little too long (unlike the rest of the family.) Despite the cliff-hanger ending, Spiderman: Across the Multiverse was a stunning upgrade from the first movie and truly deserved the positive credit it received. Really worth seeing on a big screen too.
Further down the scale, slightly disappointing was The Outcast – it was refreshing to see something that wasn’t part of a franchise and was a movie that looked great, but the story was distinctly underwhelming, sadly.
Unlike Rob, surprisingly, I was also a little underwhelmed by Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. It was OK to me, but felt a little forced, and clearly the first of a franchise. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I generally like my Fantasy & SF movies po-faced.
TV
For TV we seemed to have a wealth of genre material, even when it often disappointed. The Last of Us was great, though not perhaps quite as good as the rabid fans seemed to make it out to be in my opinion. In the Star Wars franchise Ahsoka was very good, and perhaps the best Star Wars spinoff for me to date, although last year’s Andor might give it a run for its money. The Mandalorian Season 3 disappointed a little, although far better than Season 2. From Marvel, I thought Loki was OK, though others in my household liked it much more than me. I was pleased to find that Good Omens Season 2 was better than I had hoped for, Picard Season 3 was OK and perhaps the best of the three seasons – even when it clearly pandered to old fans (like me!) it was a pleasing send-off.
Of the old series returning, though, my favourite of the Year was Season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, although the comedic element of the Below Decks and the musical episodes seemed to be more appreciated by most fans than me. Some of the other episodes have however restored my faith in the franchise.
My favourite series of the year is not one I was expecting to like quite so much – Blue Eye Samurai, on Netflix, is a decidedly adult and very violent anime series, set in a feudal Japan. The scripts are excellent, the animation showing considerable work. It is this year’s Arcane for me – an unexpected but very welcome surprise.
Of series not yet completed, Monarch started well, although I am concerned that it has dipped a little in the middle, as most streaming series seem to do at the moment. Time will tell if the ending is worth the watching. Also, after jumping the shark a little for me at the end of Season 3, Season 4 of For All Mankind has got off to a good start. I am also looking forward to starting Foundation Season 2 any day now, which I have waited for until the whole season was available.
And that’s it for this year (I could be wrong, but I think that’s our 16th!) We hope that we’ve highlighted some things to read and that you’ve found some of our comments useful. You may even have found some of our opinions you haven’t agreed with, to which we will politely guide you towards the discussion forum for further chat.
Whether you disagree with us or not, as ever, thank you for being with us this year, and all the best for 2024!
