My Best of 2024 Nominations

Greetings, reader!

It's once again awards season, and as is tradition, I'm rivaling the Globes and Oscars with my own, highly subjective and arbitrary nominations and awards for the best movies, TV and music of the previous year. Here are my Best of 2024 nominees; tune in next week for the winners!

Movies

Best costumes and makeup

Dune: Part Two

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter One

Joker: Folie à Deux

Longlegs

Wicked

Best production design

Dune: Part Two

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter One

Longlegs

Salem's Lot

Wicked

Best documentary feature

Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution

Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple

Will & Harper

Best visual effects

Dune: Part Two

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Longlegs

Salem's Lot

Wicked

Best sound

Challengers

Dune: Part Two

Longlegs

Salem's Lot

Wicked

Best editing

Challengers (Marco Costa)

Dune: Part Two (Joe Walker)

Myrskyluodon Maija (Joona Louhivuori)

Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple (Lara Fox & Jesse Spencer)

Wicked (Myron Kerstein)

Best cinematography

Challengers (Sayombhu Mukdeeprom)

Dune: Part Two (Greig Fraser)

Longlegs (Anders Arochi)

Myrskyluodon Maija (Rauno Ronkainen)

Wicked (Alice Brooks)

Best score

Challengers (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)

Dune: Part Two (Hans Zimmer)

Joker: Folie à Deux (Hildur Guonadottir)

Myrskyluodon Maija (Lauri Porra)

Wicked (John Powell & Stephen Schwartz)

Best original song

Dune: Part Two (Hans Zimmer, Steve Mazarro & Josh Brolin - Gurney Song)

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter One (Matt Combs & Teddy Morgan - Winds Forever Blow)

Joker: Folie à Deux (Lady Gaga - Folie à Deux)

Will & Harper (Kristen Wiig - Harper and Will go West)

Best supporting actor

Challengers (Mike Faist as Art Donaldson)

Dune: Part Two (Javier Bardem as Stilgar)

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter One (Owen Crow Shoe as Pionsenay)

The Beautiful Game (Bill Nighy as Mal)

Wicked (Peter Dinklage as Dr. Dillamond)

Best supporting actress

Dune: Part Two (Rebecca Ferguson as Jessica)

Longlegs (Alicia Witt as Ruth Harker)

Myrskyluodon Maija (Jonna Järnefelt as Sara Lisa)

Scoop (Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis)

Wicked (Ariana Grande as Galinda)

Best lead actor

Challengers (Josh O'Connor as Patrick Zweig)

Dune: Part Two (Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides)

Joker: Folie à Deux (Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck)

Longlegs (Nicolas Cage as Longlegs)

Myrskyluodon Maija (Linus Troedsson as Janne)

Best lead actress

Challengers (Zendaya as Tashi Donaldson)

Dune: Part Two (Zendaya as Chani)

Joker: Folie à Deux (Lady Gaga as Lee Quinzel)

Myrskyluodon Maija (Amanda Jansson as Maija)

Wicked (Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba)

Best screenplay

Challengers (Justin Kuritzkes)

Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve & Jon Spaihts)

Joker: Folie à Deux (Scott Silver & Todd Phillips)

Myrskyluodon Maija (Tiina Lymi)

Wicked (Winnie Holzman & Dana Fox)

Best director

Challengers (Luca Guadagnino)

Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve)

Longlegs (Osgood Perkins)

Myrskyluodon Maija (Tiina Lymi)

Wicked (Jon M. Chu)

Best picture

Challengers

Dune: Part Two

Longlegs

Myrskyluodon Maija

Wicked

Total nominations:

Dune: Part Two 15

Wicked 13

Challengers 10

Longlegs 9

Myrskyluodon Maija 9

Joker: Folie à Deux 6

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter One 4

Salem's Lot 3

Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple 2

Will & Harper 2

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire 1

Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution 1

Scoop 1

The Beautiful Game 1

NOTE: Two categories from previous years, Best Animated Feature and Best Acting (Nonbinary), were excluded this year because I simply hadn't watched enough eligible films for them to have more than one nominee. Both categories will be present in the TV section!

Television

Best costumes and makeup

House of the Dragon

Shogun

Star Trek: Discovery

The Acolyte

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Best set design

Dune: Prophecy

House of the Dragon

Shogun

Squid Game

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Best animation

Arcane

Exploding Kittens

Futurama

Star Trek: Prodigy

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire

Best visual effects

Dune: Prophecy

House of the Dragon

Star Trek: Discovery

The Acolyte

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Best sound

Arcane

Dune: Prophecy

House of the Dragon

Shogun

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Best editing

Arcane (Gilad Carmel, Roberto Fernandez & Nazim Meslem)

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV (Daphne Gomez-Mena, Jane Jo & Fanny Lee)

Shogun (Maria Gonzales & Aika Miyake)

Squid Game (Nam Na-young)

The Acolyte (Miikka Leskinen & Cheryl Potter)

Best cinematography

Dune: Prophecy (Pierre Gill & Richard Donnelly)

House of the Dragon (Catherine Goldschmidt & P.J. Dillon)

Shogun (Sam McCurdy)

Squid Game (Lee Hyeong-deok)

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Alex Disenhof & Laurie Rose)

Best score

Arcane (Alex Seaver & Alexander Temple)

Dune: Prophecy (Volker Bertelmann)

House of the Dragon (Ramin Djawadi)

Shogun (Nick Chuba, Atticus Ross & Leopold Ross)

Squid Game (Jung Jae-il)

Best season premiere

Arcane (Heavy Is the Crown, Season 2 Episode 1)

House of the Dragon (A Son for a Son, Season 2 Episode 1)

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV (Rising Stars, Rising Questions, Episode 1)

Saturday Night Live (Jean Smart/Jelly Roll, Season 50 Episode 1)

Shogun (Anjin, Season 1 Episode 1)

Best season finale

Arcane (The Dirt Under Your Nails, Season 2 Episode 9)

House of the Dragon (The Queen Who Ever Was, Season 2 Episode 8)

Shogun (A Dream of a Dream, Season 1 Episode 10)

Squid Game (Chinguwa Jeok, Season 2 Episode 7)

Star Trek: Prodigy (Ouroboros, Season 2 Episodes 19-20)

Best episode

Arcane (The Message Hidden Within the Pattern, Season 2 Episode 6)

House of the Dragon (The Red Dragon and the Gold, Season 2 Episode 4)

Saturday Night Live (John Mulaney/Chappell Roan, Season 50 Episode 5)

Shogun (Crimson Sky, Season 1 Episode 9)

Star Trek: Prodigy (Cracked Mirror, Season 2 Episode 14)

Best actor, guest performance

House of the Dragon (Paddy Considine as King Viserys I Targaryen)

Saturday Night Live (Ramy Youssef as Host/Various)

Shogun (Joaquim De Almeida as Father Domingo)

Squid Game (Gong Yoo as The Salesman)

Star Trek: Discovery (Ian Alexander as Gray Tal)

Best actress, guest performance

Dune: Prophecy (Polly Walker as Sonya Harkonnen)

House of the Dragon (Abigail Thorn as Sharako Lohar)

Saturday Night Live (Ariana Grande as Host/Various)

Shogun (Mana Nakamura as Young Mariko)

Star Trek: Prodigy (Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher)

Best supporting actor

Arcane (Harry Lloyd as Viktor)

House of the Dragon (Ewan Mitchell as Prince Aemond Targaryen)

Shogun (Hiroyuki Sanada as Yoshii Toranaga)

Squid Game (Lee Byung-hun as Front Man)

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Charlie Vickers as Sauron)

Best supporting actress

Arcane (Hailee Steinfeld as Vi)

Dune: Prophecy (Jessica Barden as Young Valya Harkonnen)

Saturday Night Live (Heidi Gardner as Various)

Shogun (Fumi Nikaidô as Ochiba No Kata)

Squid Game (Kang Ae-shim as Geum-ja)

Best acting, non-binary

House of the Dragon (Emma D'Arcy as Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen)

Saturday Night Live (Molly Kearney as Various)

Star Trek: Discovery (Blu del Barrio as Adira)

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire (Ry Chase as The Jedi)

The Acolyte (Amandla Stenberg as Mae/Osha)

Best lead actor

Dune: Prophecy (Travis Fimmel as Desmond Hart)

House of the Dragon (Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen)

Shogun (Cosmo Jarvis as John Blackthorne)

Squid Game (Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun)

The Acolyte (Lee Jung-jae as Master Sol)

Best lead actress

Arcane (Ella Purnell as Jinx)

Dune: Prophecy (Emily Watson as Valya Harkonnen)

House of the Dragon (Olivia Cooke as Queen Alicent Hightower)

Shogun (Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko)

Squid Game (Park Gyuyoung as No-eul)

Best writing

Arcane (Amanda Overton, Pretend Like It's the First Time)

House of the Dragon (Sara Hess, Rhaenyra the Cruel)

Shogun (Maegan Houang, Ladies of the Willow Wood)

Squid Game (Hwang Dong-hyuk, Han Pan Deo)

Star Trek: Prodigy (Erin McNamara, Cracked Mirror)

Best directing

House of the Dragon (Alan Taylor, The Red Dragon and the Gold)

Shogun (Hiromi Kamata, Ladies of the Willow Wood)

Squid Game (Hwang Dong-hyuk, Chinguwa Jeok)

Star Trek: Discovery (Jonathan Frakes, Lagrange Point)

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Charlotte Brändström, Shadow and Flame)

Best television series

Arcane

House of the Dragon

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV

Shogun

Star Trek: Prodigy

Total nominations:

House of the Dragon 18

Shogun 18

Arcane 12

Squid Game 12

Dune: Prophecy 9

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power 7

Saturday Night Live 6

Star Trek: Prodigy 6

Star Trek: Discovery 5

The Acolyte 5

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV 3

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire 2

Exploding Kittens 1

Futurama 1

Music

Best opening track

Amyl and the Sniffers - Cartoon Darkness (Jerkin')

Charli XCX - Brat (360)

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World (H3@RTS W3RE M3@NT T0 F7Y)

Jesse Welles - Hells Welles (War Isn't Murder)

The Airborne Toxic Event - Glory (Our Own Thunder Road)

Best closing track

Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT (BLUE)

Charli XCX - Brat (365)

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World (A Place Where Love Goes)

Jesse Welles - Hells Welles (Hell)

Lady Gaga - Harlequin (That's Life)

Best album artwork

Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT (William Drumm)

Charli XCX - Brat (Special Offer & Imogene Strauss)

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World (Muhozi Nintunze)

Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal (John Jay)

Jacob Collier - Djesse Vol. 4 (Dustin Yellin)

Best drum/percussion performance

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World (Childish Gambino)

Jacob Collier - Djesse Vol. 4 (Barak Schmool)

Lady Gaga - Harlequin (Donald Barrett)

Päivä - Tupajumi (Veikka Pälvimäki)

The Airborne Toxic Event - Glory (Daren Taylor)

Best piano/keyboard performance

Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT (Billie Eilish)

Bon Jovi - Forever (David Bryan)

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World (Ludwig Göransson)

Jacob Collier - Djesse Vol. 4 (Jacob Collier)

Lady Gaga - Harlequin (Alex Smith)

Best bass performance

Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT (Finneas O'Connell)

Green Day - Saviors (Mike Dirnt)

Jacob Collier - Djesse Vol. 4 (Arend Liefkes)

Lady Gaga - Harlequin (Daniel Foose)

Päivä - Tupajumi (Aaro Viitanen)

Best guitar performance

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World (Ludwig Göransson)

Jacob Collier - Djesse Vol. 4 (John Mayer)

Jesse Welles - Hells Welles (Jesse Welles)

Jesse Welles - Patchwork (Jesse Welles)

The Airborne Toxic Event - Glory (Steven Chen)

Best vocal performance

Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT (Billie Eilish)

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World (Childish Gambino)

Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal (Doechii)

Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism (Dua Lipa)

Lady Gaga - Harlequin (Lady Gaga)

Best performance, other instrument

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World (Kamasi Washington, Saxophone)

Jacob Collier - Djesse Vol. 4 (Anoushka Shankar, Sitar)

Jesse Welles - Hells Welles (Jesse Welles, Harmonica)

Jesse Welles - Patchwork (Jesse Welles, Harmonica)

The Airborne Toxic Event - Glory (Mimi Peschet, Violin)

Best mixing and production

Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT (Finneas O'Connell)

Charli XCX - Brat (A.G. Cook, Cirkut, Charli XCX, Easyfun & George Daniel)

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World (Dahi, Childish Gambino, Ludwig Göransson, Oscar Holter & Max Martin)

Jacob Collier - Djesse Vol. 4 (Jacob Collier)

Lady Gaga - Harlequin (Lady Gaga, BloodPop, David Campbell, Benjamin Rice & Jason Ruder)

Best composition

Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT (BLUE)

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World (No Excuses)

Jacob Collier - Djesse Vol. 4 (Box of Stars Pt. 2)

Jesse Welles - Hells Welles (The News)

The Airborne Toxic Event - Glory (Glory)

Best lyrics

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World (Cruisin')

Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal (Nissan Altima)

Jesse Welles - Hells Welles (War Isn't Murder)

Jesse Welles - Patchwork (See Arkansaw)

The Airborne Toxic Event - Glory (Our Own Thunder Road)

Best music video

Amyl and the Sniffers - Cartoon Darkness (Jerkin')

Charli XCX - Brat (Von dutch)

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World (Lithonia)

Green Day - Saviors (Bobby Sox)

Jacob Collier - Djesse Vol. 4 (Little Blue)

Best song

Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT (BIRDS OF A FEATHER)

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World (Lithonia)

Jesse Welles - Hells Welles (War Isn't Murder)

Päivä - Tupajumi (Miltä rakkaus tuntua voi)

The Airborne Toxic Event - Glory (Our Own Thunder Road)

Best album

Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT

Charli XCX - Brat

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World

Jesse Welles - Hells Welles

Lady Gaga - Harlequin

Total nominations:

Childish Gambino - Bando Stone & the New World 14

Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT 9

Jacob Collier - Djesse Vol. 4 9

Jesse Welles - Hells Welles 8

Lady Gaga - Harlequin 7

The Airborne Toxic Event - Glory 7

Charli XCX - Brat 6

Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal 3

Jesse Welles - Patchwork 3

Päivä - Tupajumi 3

Amyl and the Sniffers - Cartoon Darkness 2

Green Day - Saviors 2

Bon Jovi - Forever 1

Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism 1

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for the winners.

My tribute to David Lynch: Top 10 reasons why he's my favorite filmmaker of all time

Greetings, reader!

One week ago, the world of cinema said goodbye to a giant. I have considered David Lynch to be the greatest filmmaker of all time ever since I became obsessed with his work and watched through his filmography with my best friend Atte around 2017-2018. I've already released my ranking of his films on my blog, as well as a ranking of every Twin Peaks episode and a list of my top 10 theories/takeaways about Twin Peaks - so now, in order to pay tribute to an artist who I owe so very much to, I'm ranking the top 10 most significant reasons for why Mr. Lynch inspired me so much, and caused deeper admiration in me than any other filmmaker.

Here are my honorable mentions: His influence on countless filmmakers; Inspiring a cult-like devotion/obsession/culture in his fans that I'm proud to be a part of; The specific brand of bizarre and nuanced humor in his films; The way in which his directing brought out the very best in actors like Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern; Twin Peaks in general being the probably greatest television series of all time.

10. A signature style, yet an awe-inspiring range within it

It's no accident that the word 'Lynchian' has become such a cultural staple, whenever someone is describing something bizarre, surreal and otherworldly in a specific manner. Lynch's art really did have a feel to it that no one else can quite match, and it's great fun to notice certain tropes and patterns when watching through his works. Some of his signature tricks are harder to recognize, while others are insanely specific - about half of his films (as well as his big TV series) feature a sequence of a beautiful woman, singing in a shady nightclub or theater, in front of red curtains.

As much as Lynch liked to use elements of his trademark touch, none of his works were generic or typical, even by the standard of his own brand of baffling oddball cinema. The range in Lynch's filmography is amazing: in terms of arthouse weirdness, it ranges from critically acclaimed and popular movies with enough of a mainstream style and coherent plot to attract wide audiences, like The Elephant Man (1980) and The Straight Story (1999), through films that are run-of-the-mill weird and semi-challenging to follow and interpret, like Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001), all the way to films that are among the most out-there batshit bizarre experimental art ever made, like Eraserhead (1977) and Inland Empire (2006). Genre-wise, the dude dabbled in crime, mystery, drama, romantic comedy, fantasy, science fiction, horror, and whatever the f**k Lost Highway (1997) was. His career was the very embodiment of 'never let them know your next move'.

9. Not afraid to fail

I can only imagine the pitch meeting for Twin Peaks - 'How about financing this show that we've got cooking - it's like a murder mystery whodunit, but really it's an exploration of small town America and the underlying secrets in outward idyllic communities, but also it's a soap opera with everyone having an affair and a complicated relationship to everyone else, and sometimes it'll be the most disturbing psychological horror you've ever seen but the very next scene will be endearing and wholesome fun for the whole family, and it's definitely supernatural but that won't be obvious at first, and it'll all feel like a fever dream'. Thank God they took the chance. Because really, that pitch is what made Mr. Lynch so great - in a world full of over-careful artists, who turn their art more mediocre because of prioritizing profit or being afraid to take a risk, he showed us that the very best art comes from a visionary who trusts his vision, no matter how crazy it might be.

As a megafan of Lynch's work, I'll be the first to admit that whether you're talking about his Dune (1984) adaptation or certain episodes in Twin Peaks's second season, some of his works suck. But that's not only okay, it's necessary - all of his greatest works are possible because of his attitude of just throwing every idea out there, trusting that something will stick, as it did for a vast majority of the time. And honestly, the addition of Dune makes his filmography a lot richer, more interesting and more fun - I'll take a director whose films range from trainwreck to masterpiece over a director who only makes safe and decent films without big risks any day of the week.

8. His fusion of cinema and music

Music is one of the very few things that I'm even more passionate about than cinema, and the various ways in which films utilize music always factor into my cinematic opinions a lot. Very few filmmakers showed as deep of an understanding of music, and utilized it in such a multi-faceted way in their works, as David Lynch.

His collaboration with the late great Angelo Badalamenti has gone down in history as the arguably greatest director-composer partnership in cinema - Badalamenti scored over half of Lynch's feature films, as well as coming up with the legendary music for Twin Peaks, and his compositions were such a key component of Lynch's films, with the music always playing a big part in the atmosphere.

Lynch had an ear for the use of existing songs as well, and for hiring artists to write songs for his films, and these coupled with Badalamenti's compositions made for a rich infusion of music and cinema in his works. It's impossible to imagine Wild At Heart without the use of Wicked Game, Mulholland Drive without the heart-stopping Club Silencio singing sequence, or Dune without the lovably cheesy Toto soundtrack. I mean, the dude was so into music that he hired people like David Bowie and Sting to act in his movies, not to mention the fact that his greatest film Blue Velvet gets its name from Bobby Vinton's classic 1950 song that plays in the opening sequence!

7. Messed up in a glorious fashion

Lynch's films aren't for everyone, and one of the reasons for this is just how brutally violent, psychologically disturbing and visually f**ked up they could be at their darkest. Mind you, it's never gore for the sake of gore, but rather these aspects always had some artistic reasoning behind them, which is why viewers like me don't mind. When I got tickets to a David Lynch photography exhibit in Helsinki as a Christmas present from my brother a few years ago (the dude really knows me), I witnessed how Lynch's 'mad genius' and tendency to make disturbing art was perhaps even more evident in his photography than in his films.

Mind you, his works are also beautiful, magical and inspiring - and in some way, the depths of how bleak his art could be at its bleakest makes that side work even more (more on that later). But, yeah, no one made messed-up and disturbing art quite like David Lynch, and that most definitely is a part of his recipe for success.

6. His deeply personal and unique relationship to cinema

Lynch seems to have understood cinema as an art form, with all its potential on many layers, on an exceptionally deep level. This can be seen in how his more conventional films (like The Straight Story) are beautifully shot, Oscar-worthy pieces of visual beauty and sharp precision in a manner anyone could agree with, but also in how his unconventional films (like Lost Highway) have inspired endless debate and analysis of its themes and meanings, with the gloriously weird imagery sticking forever in the minds of viewers.

When listening to Lynch talk about his work, you get the idea that he was the very embodiment of the Walt Whitman quote "Be curious, not judgemental" - he never presumed to know it all or to be better than anyone, but rather his works were fuelled by an endless curiosity and desire to explore. Twin Peaks isn't as much a soap opera / murder mystery as it is a philosophical rumination of "What even is a soap opera / murder mystery" - the genres were clearly of great interest to Mr. Lynch, and he wanted to explore their conventions and tropes through his work instead of merely making a series belonging to said genres. The same goes for Dune and sci-fi blockbusters, Wild At Heart and romantic comedies, Eraserhead and whatever the f**k Eraserhead is, et cetera.

5. Cinema as a visual art, to the maximum

As mentioned, Lynch was a photographer and visual artist before he decided to go into filmmaking - and it shows. His unique eye for aesthetics can be seen in any and all of his films, with shots ranging from 'I could frame this and hang it on my wall' to 'Jesus Christ, what twisted mind would come up with this, I guess I'm not sleeping tonight' and everything in between.

I don't have the strongest eye for aesthetics, but Lynch was one of those filmmakers whose movies were so visually beautiful that even I could really find a strong appreciation for it. No other film has grabbed my attention in its opening seconds, on a visual level, quite as strongly as Blue Velvet - the shot of the red roses, in front of the white picket fence, to the backdrop of a blue sky, is just so perfect.

4. Very few artists have made me so obsessed with their work - or made me feel so much

Hyperfixations are nothing out of the ordinary for me - but some hyperfixations are stronger than the others. And the amount of thought that went into obsessing over David Lynch's works during the year or so when me and my best friend went through his filmography, well, that's a rare amount, rivaling the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien's books when I was 11 or the time I only read Stephen King throughout 2023. It takes a very special kind of genius to make me that hyperfixated about their work.

It's not just the endless theories and interpretations either - one of the reasons I was (and will probably always be, on some level) hooked on Lynch was how deeply his films made me feel. I cried my eyes out at the moving story of The Elephant Man, I laughed my ass off to the surreal hilarity of Wild At Heart, I was anxious as hell throughout Eraserhead (in a good way - I'm the f**ked-up kind of viewer who enjoys when a film does that), and I can't really name the emotion I felt when watching Mulholland Drive but it was specific, magical and special. Of course, Twin Peaks goes beyond all this, as it caused so many larger-than-life experiences throughout the spectrum of human emotion. Very few artists have moved me as much with their works as David Lynch.

3. The light within the dark

And here we have one of the director's core themes, one that has moved me immensely throughout the years. Appearing in some shape or form across pretty much all of Lynch's filmography, the contrast of light and dark, good and evil, happy endings and sad realities, beauty and brutality, is just a constant theme that he always knew how to deal with in a powerful manner.

If Blue Velvet was comprised only of its darkest parts, it would be one hell of a bleak and upsetting film. If it was narrowed down to only its lighter side, it would be cheesy and boring - it's the specific way of working the balance between the two so well that makes it work. The depressing moments in Lynch films hit so much harder because they're not just sad without context in a void, but because there's an underlying sense of magic, inspiration and beauty to be felt, which makes the losses feel like there really is something to lose. Similarly, the payoffs work so insanely well because the stakes feel dramatic and high due to the bleakest moments being so bleak. Once again, without taking anything away from Lynch's movies, Twin Peaks is the absolute GOAT at this - that one series can be so disturbing yet so uplifting is an achievement for the ages, and this balance is a big part of why it works so well.

2. He took us into other worlds

One of the very best things that art and/or fiction can do is expanding one's world, or even creating the feeling of entering something beyond it. That's a huge part of why I love the otherworldly art, from Mahler's symphonies to Rush's prog rock epics, from Tolkien's fantasy realms to King's Dark Tower mythos, from Kubrick's infinity-crossing 2001: A Space Odyssey to the mysterious island on Lost; especially in times like these, when the real world feels so incredibly bleak as our planet's resources are dwindling and hatred is given a chance to dictate our society, one of the most therapeutic things one can do is escaping once in a while into a different, more imaginative world, made possible by inspiring creative minds. And David Lynch sure was a master of that craft.

'Other worlds beyond our own' is a central theme to a lot of fiction, especially anything magical or supernatural, and Mr. Lynch would quite often take it literally - you can see already from his passionately crafted photography that he was obsessed with doorways, gates, mysterious entrances, anything that might make the person experiencing the art feel that they're being transported somewhere else. It's even more evident in his filmography - the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks takes characters someplace where the very laws of physics work differently and time moves in a strange way, the plot of Mulholland Drive features a sudden shift in the main character's reality when everything is suddenly different in a way you can't put your finger on, the line between a fictional film being made and the 'real world' outside of the film is blurred throughout Inland Empire, and various witch sequences interrupt the mundane in Wild At Heart.

Creating this sense of other worlds is a major part of Lynch's legacy, as his art and fiction is made infinitely richer by these profound ideas. It also made it easier to deal with his passing as a mega-fan; as someone with a slightly magical worldview and who got a lot out of Lynch's works, it honestly doesn't feel like he's dead and gone, like a mere mortal. I'd like to think that his soul has transcended to somewhere out there, whether it's the blue skies above Twin Peaks, Washington, the dreamlike reality of Lost Highway, or the room from Eraserhead where the Lady In The Radiator sings 'In heaven, everything is fine'. I know I'll still sense Lynch when looking for inspiration in my own art, walking by a mysterious-looking doorway on a strange night, or enjoying a cup of damn fine coffee.

1. David Lynch was, above all else, authentically f**king weird

My fiancée's dad is a music teacher (runs in the family), and he's fond of telling the bizarre story that Elvis Presley died on the day before his first-ever lesson as a music teacher ("I killed Elvis", he likes to joke). Now here's where the story gets weird - after graduating as a drama teacher via my minor studies a few years ago, I've read up on the theory of directing, worked as an assistant director on a youth play and practiced directing individual scenes, but I hadn't done any work as an actual #1 director on a project until I decided to write and direct a musical a while ago - and as fate would have it, the very first rehearsal for the musical, my first time actually directing, was last week's Friday. One day after my all-time favorite director passed away.

In addition to the bizarre coincidence with Martta's dad's story, the timing felt powerful - I was admittedly nervous about how the practice would go, but Lynch being on my mind made for one hell of a dose of inspiration and confidence. I was worried if my vision for the musical, which is admittedly strange on many levels, would feel too strange for the people involved, and if I'd have the conviction to defend my vision if anyone questioned it. But Lynch was on my mind, and that helped so much - the reason for his work hitting me harder than that of any other director is precisely because he had the courage to be his weird-ass self, to make his art just as interpretational and odd and insane as he wanted to, audience reactions be damned. He never apologized for Mulholland Drive being too hard to follow, or for Twin Peaks not sticking to the conventional whodunit-formula that mainstream America would've wanted. Keeping this in mind really helped me find my voice as a novice director: this is my vision, and it's a bit weird, but we're f**king doing it.

Lynch's films weren't for everyone, but they certainly were for me. I've never understood why some people use 'weird' as an inherently negative word, as I've always found endless fascination in all things different, exceptional, and bizarre. Lynch's films stuck out of the crowd - mind you, I have nothing against the mainstream, and I enjoy conventional action flicks and Oscar-bait dramas as much as the next movie buff, but what I enjoy even more is films like Lynch's, largely because of how delightfully fresh and different they were. They had the courage to defy norms, the capacity to make me feel more and think more than any archetypical film could, and the ability to eternally burn their key moments into my brain because how unique they were visually and thematically.

Thank you, David. I'm a better artist, creator and director because of the endless inspiration from your works and persona. You may be physically gone from this world, but me and millions of other creative minds will feel you with us whenever we imagine and create, and wherever you are, I hope you know that.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for my nominations of my annual 'awards', celebrating the best movies, TV and music of 2024. The winners will be announced in the following week.

Top 10 Anticipated Movies of 2025

Greetings, reader!

As is tradition, I'm sharing the movies of the coming year that I'm the most hyped up about here at the start of the year. 2025 looks like it has tremendous potential as a cinematic year, and these films are the ones I'm looking forward to the most!

Here are my honorable mentions: Good Fortune, Jurassic World Rebirth, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Sinners, Superman.

10. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

There's no reason to expect the third Knives Out film to be a life-changing masterpiece or the year's best film, but there's plenty of reason to expect that it will be a clever, fun and engaging film like the first two! Not much is known plot-wise, but Rian Johnson continuing as writer-director is a good sign, and Daniel Craig is naturally returning as Benoit Blanc.

The supporting cast is once again a glorious star-studded collection - I give them 1 or 2 movies more after this one, after which they'll run out of Hollywood faces so universally recognizable that the viewers will be going "Hey it's that dude! He was in that one Marvel movie, right?" every two minutes. Wake Up Dead Man will make sure of this with names like Josh O'Connor, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Renner and Glenn f**king Close (just to name a few) in the cast.

9. The Naked Gun

A new Naked Gun film isn't what I had on my bingo card for 2025, but as far as surprises go, I'd say it's a welcome one. Sure, with the absence of the late great Leslie Nielsen (and with Liam Neeson out of all people starring as the original protagonist's son, Frank Drebin Jr.), the film definitely has the potential to flop - but it also has the potential to rule. The fact that longtime Saturday Night Live writer and director Akiva Schaffer is writing and directing this reboot / pseudo-sequel is definitely one reason to believe that it might end up becoming one of the year's funnier films!

8. Freakier Friday

Twenty-two years after the original Freaky Friday, the body-swapping semi-classic is getting its very own legacy sequel. Both Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are reprising their roles, and that's really all the information I need beforehand - I anticipate a high amount of shenanigans, and that's one of the fastest ways into this film buff's heart!

7. Frankenstein

So, here's the deal - 2025 will see the release of not one, but two films based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein universe, and while 2 isn't generally a big number, it is certainly more big-budget Frankenstein adaptations that one might expect from the same year. While this coincidence is objectively weird, I'm not too worried of getting Frankenstein fatigue, as the source-material (the all-time greatest horror novel written by someone other than Stephen King) is so incredible that it has made for several intriguing adaptations over the years and will likely continue to do so for many more.

Out of these two, I'm ranking Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein slightly below the other, mainly because the films otherwise sound as fascinating as one another, but this one sounds more mainstream/traditional and I'm a sucker for subversion. Still, with such a skillful and authentically strange artist making the film, and Oscar Isaac playing Frankenstein (the doctor!) while Jacob Elordi plays the Monster (whose name isn't Frankenstein!), this is bound to be a good one.

6. The Bride!

And here we have the more subversive take on Frankenstein, one that I am even more excited about. Maggie Gyllenhaal is directing - it's just her second feature film, and while I missed her debut The Lost Daughter (2021), I heard it was great so I assume the actress-director is as good behind the camera as she is in front of it. Taking place in 1930's Chicago, the film draws inspiration both from Mary Shelley's books and the Bride of Frankenstein (1935) film. Christian Bale plays Frankenstein's Monster, Jessie Buckley plays the bride, and in a case of nepotism so cool that I can hardly complain, the director's brother Jake Gyllenhaal is in one of the starring roles as well. Oh, and apparently the film is a musical as well? Sign me up!

5. The Wedding Banquet

Saturday Night Live darling Bowen Yang stars in this remake of a 90's queer cult classic, playing a gay immigrant whose green card marriage leads to moments of hilarity and an endearing take on serious matters ranging from cultural attitudes towards sexual minorities to immigration and the Taiwan-Chinese conflict. For an answer to why I'm hyped up about this movie, I'll refer you to literally any part of that sentence.

4. The Conjuring: Last Rites

I'm a sucker for endings, and this should be a big one. Sure, it's anyone's guess if this will be the final film of the Conjuring universe or not - I know my horror cinema, and having seen Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, I can say that none of those ended up being the last in their franchise. But still, it sounds like Last Rites is at least being planned to work as a dramatic, series-ending instalment, and I'm guessing that this means high stakes, terrifying villains, and memorable moments that will hopefully make for an appropriate closing chapter for the 10-film-spanning cinematic universe that shaped the horror milieu of the 2010's.

3. Star Trek: Section 31

This is a hard one to rank - on one hand, it's Star Trek, a franchise that I have an undying passion for, but on the other, there are many red flags when looking at possible indicators of the film's quality. Much of its marketing has appeared to imply that A) they're going for a real 'Suicide Squad (2016) but for Star Trek' vibe, and B) they've more or less missed the point of the Section 31 storyline from the Star Trek TV shows. Because of these two, I'm worried.

But then again - even if it's bad, I'm such a nerd that I'll have fun adding it to my ranking of the Star Trek films and comparing it to the others. I'm guessing that it can't be completely terrible, as Michelle Yeoh is reprising her kick-ass role as Philippa Georgiou from Star Trek: Discovery!

2. The Monkey

Last year's horror darling Longlegs was one of my favorite movies of 2024, and I consider it the arguably best horror flick of the decade so far. It was directed by horror royalty Osgood Perkins, the son of the legendary Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates in Psycho (1960)). The younger Perkins is back at it again this year, with his new project being the terrifying-sounding The Monkey. I'd be hyped enough as it is, but on top of all else, it's based on a short story by none other than Mr. Horror himself, the man fighting Tolkien for the spot of my all-time favorite author, Stephen f**king King.

1. Wicked: For Good

Well, this one is a no-brainer. Wicked was a mind-blowing masterpiece, and one of 2024's cinematic highlights - and to think that it's just based on the first half of the Broadway musical, well, that sets expectations sky-high for the follow-up. If elements such as acting, set design, visuals, choreography, powerful themes, songs and arrangements are as good as they were in 2024's Wicked, that'll mean we're in for a piece of cinematic magic.

(For anyone interested: I didn't have the time to see Wicked before releasing my 'Top 10 movies of 2024' post at the end of the year, but if I would've, it would be battling Dune: Part Two for very first place. So yes, the hype is worth it).

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for another start-of-the-year classic: my nominations for the best movies, television & music 'awards' of 2024! The winners will be revealed in the following week's post.

Top 10 TV Shows of 2024

Greetings, reader!

As is tradition, my final post of the year was my top 10 list of the year's greatest movies, and my first post of the following year is my top 10 list of the previous year's television shows. A series doesn't have to have started in 2024 in order for it to qualify, but all of the shows will be judged solely based on the season/episodes that they released in 2024. Out of the many instances of quality TV that the year provided, these are my favorites!

Here are my honorable mentions: Dune: Prophecy (Season 1), Exploding Kittens (Season 1), That 90's Show (Seasons 2&3), The Acolyte (Season 1), The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season 2).

10. Star Wars: Tales of the Empire

Yep - against odds, the better of the Star Wars spin-off shows from this year that I got around to watching was this funky little show. A sort of dark-side spin on the Tales of the Jedi series from two years ago, Tales of the Empire is a show that would not work for many viewers, as I can easily see how many fans might see it as extra or pointless, which is probably why it flew under the radar. For the specific kind of nerd viewer that I am, however, the show works wonders with its fascinating worldbuilding and lore connections.

Tales of the Empire builds bridges between various eras in the Star Wars timeline, in its stories told via the lens of two delightfully obscure characters from the franchise's mythos. The episodes focusing on Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) shine a light on the in-universe changes from the Clone Wars, through the reign of Empire and all the way to the post-Return of the Jedi era, all through the lens of one character, while the episodes focusing on Barriss Offee (Meredith Salenger) offer an in-depth look on the mysterious Inquisitors, the moral dilemmas between the Jedi order and the Empire, and a perspective on the fallout from Order 66. Like I said, a real treat for my kind of fan!

9. Futurama (Season 12)

During the previous year, Futurama returned to our screens after being off the air for years, and the new season ranked second in my post of 2023's best TV shows. Now that the dust had settled, I'm forced to consider that I maybe overrated it just a little, due to being so generally excited about such a nostalgic show being back. You see, the second post-reboot season aired this year, and while it was definitely good, it's not top-3-of-the-year (or even top-5-of-the-year) worthy.

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty to enjoy in the 12th season of the beloved animated sci-fi sitcom, but it's also not Groening comedy at its best. Some episodes, like Quids Game and Beauty and the Bug, are quite lazy and even generic, but others, like The Temp or Otherwise, are engaging, cleverly written and hilarious (most episodes fall somewhere between these extremes, in the category of 'enjoyable if not mind-blowing'). My personal favorite of the season was, to the surprise of absolutely no one, the coffee-driven Planet Espresso, which was just a blast.

8. Star Trek: Discovery (Season 5)

This Star Trek spin-off aired its fifth and final season this year, and like most of the show's run, it showed tons of potential but didn't fully live up to it. The final season started off solid, gave us some awesome episodes like the time-traveling nostalgia blast Face the Strange amidst some weaker ones, got fairly intense towards the end - and never entirely took off. The series finale Life, Itself embodies the show's run quite well: there's a lot to like, but you can't help but feel that it could've been better.

I'm still ranking Discovery this high, because when all is said and done, I'm a sucker for Star Trek and while this season certainly isn't the franchise at its best, it's also far from its worst, and there's plenty to enjoy. Yes, the season could've been masterful if the writers had gone for more dramatic bold strokes and more creativity in their writing, but still - the cast is awesome, the core themes of the franchise hit hard, the villains were interesting, and plenty more.

7. Saturday Night Live (Season 49B-50A)

SNL ranking higher than usual is, more than anything else, indicative of 2024 being a slightly lesser TV year than the exceptionally good couple of ones before it (it's okay, it was a slightly above-par movie year and the best music year in a long, long time (I also got engaged, so really 2024 would be the best year of all time even if all the TV was Big Brother reruns)).

You see, SNL is largely consistent in its inconsistency from year to year - with each new season, there are some great hosts and some who bomb, some amazing musical guests and some worth skipping, many hilarious skits and many forgettable ones, and the world's most original people commenting that "SNL isn't funny anymore like it used to be" (it's funny because they said that 10 years ago and 20 years ago and 30 years ago, and I guarantee that they will look back on 2024 as the golden era in a decade or two while getting pissed at the new cast).

This year was a typical, if slightly above-average (I thank the 50th season hype and the endless free setups for satire provided by the Presidential election) SNL year. At its worst, the political satire was a bit too status-quo for my taste, but at its best, they broke some serious ground (guest host Ramy Youssef calling for a free Palestine in his opening monologue was one of the year's quintessential TV moments, as was new castmember Emil Wakim's Weekend Update segment on the Middle East). Humor-wise, we got future-classic skits like Domingo, as well as the pre-election cold opens with Dana Carvey returning to play Joe Biden while Andy Samberg hilariously guest-starred as Doug Emhoff and Bowen Yang somehow pulled off J.D. Vance.

As mentioned above, it was an exceptional music year, and the star-studded selection of SNL musical guests made the most of it: from Dua Lipa to Billie Eilish, from Sabrina Carpenter to Charli XCX, all of the year-defining pop divas had their moment in the spotlight, with my personal favorite being Chappell Roan. Her performance of Pink Pony Club might honestly be my all-time favorite SNL musical performance - it's hard to describe why, but I got the strongest sense that if I had still been in the closet when I watched it, seeing it would've made me realize my bisexuality (it's ironic that watching a beautiful woman perform a song would cause an "oh right, I also like men" reaction, but something in the combination of the beautiful costumes, set design and choreogaphies as well as Chappell's stage presence and the song's substance and arrangement just really spoke to my queer heart). It was especially great to see an artist I respect so much performing so confidently after the year she had had with all its setbacks - totally unrelated, Bill Maher can go fuck himself.

6. Squid Game (Season 2)

After three long years, South Korean megahit Squid Game got its second season, and it was worth the wait. With different strengths and weaknesses than the first season, Squid Game 2 took the plot into many unexpected directions, the large majority of which really stuck the landing. Fascinating new characters were introduced, while a few key ones from the first season reprised their roles.

The games themselves took up less screentime than in season 1, but honestly, it didn't matter - the dialogue and build-up in between, really building the drama and tensions between the characters while zeroing in on the show's social criticism and political metaphors, was a smart choice. Really fleshing out multiple interesting villains, all of which came to life thanks to some killer acting performances, also made the season's events all the more drastic. In addition to the praiseworthy storytelling choices, Squid Game 2 also gained a lot from its production values, with elements like cinematography and set design being every bit as sublime as they famously were in the first season.

5. Star Trek: Prodigy (Season 2)

Hell yeah! The better out of the two new Star Trek seasons to air this year, the sophomore season of animated spin-off Prodigy was fun as hell. The delicate balance between zany episode-of-the-week adventures and subtly built larger plotlines was just right, the main characters continued to captivate viewers' hearts with their growth, and the connections to larger Star Trek lore ranged from neat to insanely cool.

The twenty-episode season had no totally bad instalments, with even the lesser episodes feeling like a worthwhile viewing experience, while the best ones (like the universe-jumping Cracked Mirror or the epic finale Ouroboros) were much better than many fans (me included) could've imagined a show like Prodigy to ever get.

4. Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV

Well, here we have the darkest, bleakest, most hard-to-watch TV product of the year. Shining a crucially important light on an issue that was horrible but necessary to learn about, Quiet on Set is a documentary series about the various controversies surrounding childrens' television, and specifically Nickelodeon, in its heyday. Leave it to humanity (toxic men, specifically) to ruin something as pure as kids' television, because as you'll find out from watching this series, what went on behind the scenes was severely messed up.

Through various interviews, testimonies and other evidence, we find out about a generally toxic culture, and about a few specific monsters who worked with kids for all the wrong reasons and left countless child stars traumatized. We see how the perversions of acclaimed producer Dan Schneider found their way onto countless shows, where the child actors were being sexualized in ways that many didn't even realize for years but definitely did the job for the pedophile community. In addition to Schneider, the truth about dialogue coach and child rapist Brian Peck was as hard to watch as it was important to learn - the fact that these men went on with their jobs without any fallout for decades, because of how skillfully they wielded their power, is a grave testament to how much work needs to be done in our society to put an end to such horrors.

As depressing and painful of a viewing experience Quiet on Set was, it was also a moving one - victims like Drake Bell, Bryan Hearne and countless others finally got their story told, after being living alone with their pain for so long. The interview where Bell talks about the trial, where countless big-name Hollywood people showed up to support the child rapist and no one showed up to support the underage victim, made me so incredibly furious at the world and really underlined how important it is for these stories to be told. Maybe one day we'll learn, and I hope the victims find some degree of peace after all they went through.

3. House of the Dragon (Season 2)

It's tradition for me to have one generally disliked item, one that I'm deeply defensive about, on any given 'Best of the year' list. In last week's post about 2024's best movies, it was Joker: Folié a Deux, and today, it's the second season of Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon.

It's hard to make this point without sounding like a boomer ranting about today's youth with their TikTok brains, but really - if you crave eventful twists at every turn and don't have the patience for slow-paced build-up, that's obviously completely fine, but maybe you just aren't the target audience for this series then. I get how this season would've been frustrating for that kind of viewer, but I think people turning such a subjective complaint into an objective criticism of the series / saying the writing is terrible because the pacing isn't ideal for what they would like is a bit unfair.

Remember, when Game of Thrones first aired, the pace (especially around season 2 and 3) was very slow, and for a viewer like me, it was slow in the exactly right way. It took the time to adapt the key points from the source material instead of rushing them, and the multiple episodes worth of dialogue-heavy build-up always made the eventual payoffs feel more epic. Somehow, that series got a pass for it a decade ago, but this one doesn't. Back then, people who felt Game of Thrones to be too slow for them simply said "Oh, this isn't really for me" and didn't watch it and didn't call the show terrible, but now, viewers feel entitled to call the writing of a brilliant TV series terrible just because they chose to watch the type of series that was never made to satisfy a craving for constant rapid-movement game-changing events.

I loved this season of House of the Dragon - the production values were off the charts, the cast was pure fire, the dialogue was clever and engaging, and having read the Fire and Blood book it's adapted from, I'm 100% confident that the payoffs in season 3 will be worth the necessary build-up in season 2. To me, demanding big events from every episode just seems ridiculous, because I've seen shows like that - and not only are they less good than House of the Dragon, they fall flat precisely because the 'big events every episode' formula leads to none of the events feeling like anything.

2. Arcane (Season 2)

Arcane's second season was also its final one, which I have mixed feelings about - on one hand, the show's multi-faceted characters, intricate worldbuilding and complex lore had the potential for more exploration and storytelling, but on the other, I respect the hell out of writers who don't milk their shows for all their money but rather set out to do a certain amount with nothing extra. Of course, if I ever want more of this world, I could always start playing the video game it's based on - although I've heard that starting League of Legends because you liked Arcane is akin to starting to use crystal meth because you liked Breaking Bad.

In any case, the second season of Arcane ruled just as much as the first one. It begins with a dramatic and emotional aftermath to the bombastic events of the season 1 finale, proceeds to take us on a journey filled with psychologically fascinating character building, gripping moral dilemmas, and deeply emotional payoffs. The final moments of the season's sixth episode The Message Hidden Within the Pattern had me crying my eyes out, and was easily the greatest individual TV moment of the year (on par with the Worm Ride sequence from Dune: Part Two and the outro to Childish Gambino's Cruisin' as contenders for the year's greatest moment in all art and media).

1. Shogun

Based on James Clavell's book from 1975, Shogun is the kind of series that if you've seen it, I'm nearly positive that you won't need an explanation for my ranking of it at first place. This historical drama does everything so incredibly right, from engaging plotlines and layered characters to sharply directed action sequences and beautiful scenery captured by expert cinematography, that it would feel wrong to call anything else the year's best TV series.

Taking place in the early 1600's, Shogun follows an already complex power struggle between various regents in feudal Japan, which is made even more complicated due to the Portuguese (who, at the time, were the only European nation to have found Japan, and were keeping its location secret from their rivals in order to monopolize the trade route) - and then becomes even more complicated when an English ship happens to wash up on the Japanese coast, finding themselves in a strange new land. The culture clashes, from their religious dimension to the fascinating look at language barriers, make for some of the most intriguing television in a long time, with the brilliantly multi-faceted plot keeping the viewer hooked. Schemes upon schemes are unraveled, with everyone playing their own agenda, and the show truly feels like a gift that keeps on giving.

Shogun is cynical and brutal at times, but beautiful and romantic at others, encompassing many types of great TV in one, ultimately consistent work of art.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for my top 10 most anticipated movies of 2025.

Top 10 Insights Into Our 24 Marathon: Part III

Greetings, reader!

I’m writing this during one of many ’commercial breaks’, a.k.a. 3-minute pauses during the episodes, where (when watching from a streaming service) the clock jumps a few minutes ahead in a place where the original TV broadcast would’ve had a commercial break. For those who don’t know, it’s the third instalment of a larger-than-life television marathon me and my best friend have been doing for a while now.

You see, the series 24 has the most awesome premise: events occur in real time, so that each 24-episode season follows a 24-hour time period with every episode following one hour. Years ago, Atte and I had the idea: how cool would it be to binge-watch a season of 24 while keeping in that real timeline? We did this with the first season in July of 2020, in an epic 24-hour marathon. Then, we decided not to stop there, but to rather continue watching the entire series while keeping in real time. In the show’s timeline, there’s an 18-hour time jump between seasons 1 and 2, so we marathoned the second season in January of 2022. Between the second and third seasons, there’s a three-year time jump, which means that our marathon of the third season started at 13:00 P.M. yesterday, and will finish at 13:00 P.M. today. As is tradition, I’m using some of our 3-minute mid-episode pauses to write down some tired thoughts about this specific marathon and the project in general!

10. The third season was fun to re-watch from a post-Covid perspective

As fans of the show may recall, the main threat in the third season is a deadly virus. While there are countless differences between this fictional pandemic threat and the real-life Covid era, there are enough parallels to catch the viewer’s curiosity.

The quarantine tactics, preventative measures and levels of general alarm when not too much is known about the virus’ spread and contagiousness seen in season 3 of 24 are, at times, an ahead-of-it’s-time look at dangers similar to what we ended up seeing years after the show’s run.

9. The election cycle

As I’ve discussed in my previous posts about our 24 marathon (I say ’marathon’ and not ’marathons’, because technically this is one massive 22-year marathon and the two-or-three-year breaks between seasons are just long pauses amidst the ongoing project), there are countless little ways in which the real-time gimmick makes the viewing experience more real - the light of day in the show roughly matching that outside, getting tired at pretty much the same point of the night when the characters start to show signs of fatigue, et cetera. This time around, one neat addition was the realization of how the show’s political subplots play out.

We watched season 1 four and a half years ago, and as fans may remember, the first season takes place on the day of the Californian Presidential Primary. The show’s writers paid attention to canon when it comes to the United States’ four-year election cycles, because now that we’re watching a season that happens exactly four and a half years after the first one, we’re once again in the midst of a Presidential campaign (but half a year further into it - instead of primary season, this season kicks off with the Democratic Nominee getting ready to debate the Republican Nominee on live TV). The current fictional U.S. President plays a big part in every season of the series, so this real-time project will play out in a very satisfying manner in terms of realizing the four-year terms throughout the show’s timeline!

8. Thank you, Leirikesä

Now, I was no stranger to all-nighters when we marathoned the first season in 2020 - but I was no veteran either. Since then, I have spent two summers (as well as a few individual winter weeks) working as a night guard at a children’s camp, for which I’ve become an expert at changing my sleeping rhythm (for a month-long stretch at best). This has naturally made my rhythm more adaptable in general, giving me experience that is very helpful with this 24 marathon.

Sure, my years working for Leirikesä have also helped me in more meaningful ways, from improving my skills with children more than my teacher studies at the university have to filling in tons of gaps on my general knowledge and common sense, as well as really improving my thinking-on-one’s-feet factor and making me a lot more responsible in general. But, in addition to all of this actually important stuff, my summer job has most definitely made me better at staying up all night with full energy, which really comes into handy with this particular set of shenanigans.

7. A certain plot twist makes the re-watch more fun!

I’ll write this in spoiler-free language, so that no damage is done if this post were to inspire anyone to watch the show and/or its third season specifically. In the seventh episode of 24’s third season, there’s a massive plot twist in the end - one that puts the whole beginning act of the season, along with several storylines and character motivations, into a different context.

I remember being floored by the twist when watching for the first time, and now that I remembered it and saw it coming, the first seven episodes were an entirely different viewing experience, as the additional context puts everything into a different light. Fun!

6. Commitment to the bit

There’s a lot of little stuff that makes the real-time viewing experience even more immersive and real-feeling. For example: initially, I had figured I would really sleep in before the marathon, only waking up around noon or so, so I’d be as well-rested and ready as possible. But then I remembered: in the story, Jack Bauer and company don’t know what’s ahead of them, and that they’ll have to be up all night due to an unforeseen chain of action-packed events. Therefore, having just a normal night’s sleep before the marathon made it feel all the more authentic.

Of course, season 3 is the one where Jack is struggling to kick a heroin addiction that he acquired between the second and third seasons, so if we really would’ve wanted to emulate what the protagonist is going through, developing a drug habit would’ve been a part of that - but that would’ve just been silly.

5. 13 to 13 - easier or harder?

It's fascinating how the different seasons of 24 feature different starting (and thus ending) times for the 24-hour period they follow, and how they make for wildly different experiences when watching them in the form of a real-time marathon. Season 1, from midnight to midnight, was the hardest one to stay up through (you have to go through the day leading up to it, the entire night, and the entire following day until midnight), but then again, it was the easiest to bounce back from (you go right to sleep after it's over and wake up in the morning feeling relatively normal). Season 2 was from 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 A.M., so it was much easier to get through (you watch throughout the day, continuing to the night, and then in the morning it's over), but for the price of it screwing up one's rhythm for the next few days (you'll naturally fall asleep once it's over in the morning, and then that's a whole thing).

With those opposite pluses and minuses in mind, I'm guessing that season 3's runtime from 1:00 P.M. to 1:00 P.M. will be the best (and worst) of both worlds, or from another point of view, somewhere in between. It has already felt easier to stay up than it did in the first marathon, but harder than the second, so I assume the recovery will also fall between the two previous experiences.

4. The drinking game dimension was a nice addition

Fans of the series will remember the existence of Sherry Palmer, a brilliantly written love-to-hate-her antagonist brought to life by Penny Johnson Jerald’s fantastically despicable performance. Having watched the series years and years ago, both Atte and I had a faint recollection that the character returns dramatically somewhere in the third season, but neither could quite remember when and how.

As fate would have it, we had a bottle of sherry lying around in our apartment (the purchase of which may or may not have been a romanticized attempt to conduct one’s life in the manner of Frasier and Niles Crane). Naturally, Atte and I readied the bottle and two glasses, in agreement that at the very moment the legendary character appears, we pour ourselves some of her namesake. There were many moments that seemed to lead up to a possible Sherry Palmer entrance, the two of us paying intense attention with the bottle at the ready, only for it to be a red (s)herring. When she finally did appear, the payoff felt insane. This inspired us to plan a more thorough drinking game elements to future instalments of the marathon - maybe some Jack Daniels for every time Jack says his signature ”Dammit”, et cetera.

3. Chloe O’Brian is the heart and soul of the series

This is a big one. When watching the show for a second time via these marathons, the first two seasons felt remarkably empty to a degree, because the show I knew and loved from my first viewing experience was missing a key component - the character Chloe O’Brian, played by the brilliant Mary Lynn Rajskub. From season 3 onwards, Chloe is the show’s most important and interesting character right after protagonist Jack Bauer, or arguably even above him. With her unique role performance, Rajskub creates a lovable and outstanding character who is the backbone of the show for the rest of its run.

When watching for the first time, it took me a while to warm up to such an initially oddball character, before realizing how her work ethic, morality and friendship with Jack make the protagonist and everything in the series better. Now, when seeing her introduction for a second time and knowing what adventures the character would go on, it felt like a warm hug and like the series was finally kicking off at full speed.

2. Second-by-second accuracy

At one point, my fiancée walked into the room (to study us as an anthropological experiment, I assume), looked at the paused timer on the screen, and asked: ”So, are you actually going for accuracy by the seconds?”. My initial reaction was to just say 'no' because we’ve always just gone with minute-accuracy, but that quickly turned into ”WE ARE NOW!”.

So, due to the brilliant (if totally unintentional) inspiration from Martta, we continued the marathon with the razor-sharp precision of looking at not just the minutes, but the seconds to determine when to pause and play. A whole new level of precision right there!

1. A look to what the future holds

Well, as I'm writing this, we're almost done. The next intensive period of the marathon will be our viewing of season 4, scheduled for July of 2026 as per the one-and-a-half-year time jump. However, it's not quite simple - when we decided to do the whole series like this, I took the assignment seriously and did my research. Wanting to watch everything that is canon in the 24 universe, we didn't stop at including the eight seasons, but rather added the TV movie 24: Redemption, the reboot season 24: Live Another Day, the spin-off season 24: Legacy - as well as a few individual scenes, done as extras for DVDs to hype up an upcoming season, as they too take place in a certain part of the timeline.

The first of these non-season pieces of media in 24 canon is the season 4 prequel, released on the season 3 DVD to build a bridge to the fourth season's events. It's comprised of three scenes, and thankfully there are title cards describing the exact time jumps between each one, so that they could be placed into our marathon schedule with accuracy. The first scene takes place three months after season 3, so we've scheduled two minutes of our busy lives to watch that in April this year. The second scene takes place a year after the first, so that's what we'll be watching in April 2026. The third one takes place just six hours before the beginning of season 4 - so, when the time comes in July 2026, we'll wake up in the middle of the night to watch those two minutes, before going back to sleep for six hours before the season 4 marathon begins.

After that, it'll go by like a breeze - the season 5 prequel in July of 2027, season 5 in January 2028, the season 6 prequel in August 2028, season 6 in September 2029, whatever the f**k "Day 6 Debrief" is divided into five parts in the few hours after the season 6 marathon has ended, then the 24: Redemption movie in May 2033, season 7 in July 2033, season 8 in January 2035, something called "Chloe's Arrest" on the morning after the season 8 marathon, 24: Live Another Day in January 2039, the short videos 24: Solitary and 24: The Raid in July 2041, and finally, 24: Legacy in January 2042. I swear to God if they end up making a new spin-off that takes place between earlier-made seasons so that we'll have to start this whole thing over...

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for my ranking of 2024's greatest television shows.