Nick's List of Pop Cultural Stuff 2020

You’ll find my Bandcamp ID (with reviews of some of the above) here. My Instagram is here, where you’ll find regular updates on what I’m listening to (new music and old) plus of course news, images, comics and other goodies. I’m also on Twitter.

Fave TV Shows - Drama and Comedy

I love TV and film and it all informs one’s own storytelling tastes and appetites. While I’m not a TV critic, I should probably have kept a proper list of what me and Mrs A also hatewatched during 2020 CC (Covid Crazytimes), because there’s some truly terrible shows that really didn’t deserve the limelight and serious critical consideration they were given.

A ghost list then (aside from this post - scroll to bottom), but I must make an honourable mention of HBO’s The Undoing, which was the biggest load of laughable and credibility-defying bullshit broadcast by an otherwise reputable streaming service this year. I’ll watch Donald Sutherland or Hugh Grant in anything, but even they couldn’t save this gigantic waste of time.

Everything mentioned below was all the stuff that genuinely made an impression. Some are genre shows; if you can see that your tastes in drama or comedy have something in common with mine and you haven’t watched anything mentioned here yet, all those listed are worth your time.

Dark - S3 (Netflix)

Babylon Berlin S3 (Netflix US)

Caliphate / Kalifat (Netflix)

I May Destroy You (Channel 4 / HBO)

I Hate Suzie. (Sky / HBO)

Twin (MHz Choice / NRK)

A Teacher (FX / Hulu)

The Mandalorian S2 (Disney+)

Giri/Haji (Netflix)

Stateless (Netflix)

Euphoria (HBO)

Devs (Hulu)

Mandy (BBC)

We Are Who We Are (HBO)

Star Trek: Picard (CBSAA / Netflix UK)

The Salisbury Poisonings (BBC)

The Clone Wars S7 (Disney+)

Tales from the Loop (Prime)

Criminal - UK, Germany, France and Spain (Netflix)

Quicksand / Störst av allt (Netflix)

High Fidelity (Hulu)

What We Do In The Shadows (FX)

Death to 2020 (Netflix)

Ted Lasso (Apple TV)

The Plot Against America (HBO)

Disclaimers. Haven’t got around to watching S5 of The Expanse yet, but looking forward to that. I never mention Doctor Who in these lists because everyone knows my investment in that show so it’s pointless.

TV - Documentaries

Everything listed here feels like absolutely essential viewing to me. If nothing else, they’ll tell you something about the greed, corruption, suggestibility (and cruelty) of humankind.

Oh, and anyone who complains about the BBC and defunding it - you’re idiotic philistines and you know nothing about TV in the rest of the world and how improbably awful and expensive its methods of delivery are.

Whatever problems the BBC may have, it remains one of the finest, most literate, inquisitive and polished broadcasters in the world. That goes for British TV as a whole really. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever come across as good and comprehensive current affairs and news shows as Channel 4 News, Panorama or Newsnight etc.

British people should guard the BBC, Channel 4 and all other terrestrial broadcasters with our lives. Now that they’ve got Brexit done and that’s all working out so well, in order to make further fast bucks at our expense, the boorish vandals and fascist vulgarians “in charge” will soon also try to destroy other landmark institutions that are our rightful cultural heritage. We must not let them.

Once Upon a Time in Iraq (BBC / PBS / iTunes)

The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty (BBC)

Immigration Nation (Netflix)

Feels Good Man (BBC/PBS)

Welcome to Chechnya (HBO)

Baby God (HBO)

The Great Hack (Netflix)

The Vow (HBO)

Seduced (Starz)

Both The Vow and Seduced are documentary series about the NIXIVM cult led by a man called Keith Raniere. With hindsight, Seduced is a much more personal but insightful take on the events of that cult’s breakdown, while The Vow goes into greater detail but feels (perhaps necessarily) far more inconclusive. If you can only stand to watch one, choose Seduced.

Film

Most of the movies we watched this year were old films, but here are the 2020 releases that stayed in the memory:

The Life Ahead (Directed by Edoardo Ponti)

Sound of Metal (Directed by Darius Marder)

Queen & Slim (Directed by Melina Matsoukas)

Druk AKA Another Round (Directed by Thomas Vinterberg)

The Devil All the Time (Directed by Antonio Campos)

The Chambermaid / La Camarista (Directed by Lila Aviles) (Actually 2018, but released in USA in 2020)

Bad Education (Directed by Cory Finley)

Misbehaviour (Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe)

Swallow (Directed by Carlo Mirabella-Davis)

I’m Your Woman (Directed by Julia Hart)

Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me (Directed by Olivia Lichtenstein)

Let Them All Talk (Directed by Steven Soderbergh)

Lucky Grandma (Directed by Sasie Sealy)

Uncle Frank (Directed by Alan Ball)

Come As You Are (Directed by Richard Wong)

The Nest (Directed by Sean Durkin)

Books

As usual, most of the books (and comics) I read in 2020 were published in previous years - but here’s a few that weren’t.

Young Heroes of the Soviet Union by Alex HalberstadtIf you don’t believe me, read The Guardian’s review here. — Young Heroes of the Soviet Union by **Alex Halberstadt**
If you don’t believe me, read The Guardian’s review here.

Bleak - The Mundane Comedy by R.M. Murray — Bleak - The Mundane Comedy by **R.M. Murray**

The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey by Piers Bizony. Yes, it’s Monolith-shaped. — The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey by **Piers Bizony**. Yes, it’s Monolith-shaped.

A lot of books have been written about Kraftwerk and their influence on music, and this is one of the best I’ve read. By Uwe Schütte — A lot of books have been written about Kraftwerk and their influence on music, and this is one of the best I’ve read. By **Uwe** **Schütte**

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Nick's List of Pop Cultural Stuff 2020