Saying Goodbye to 2024

Well, I really don’t know what happened here. One minute it was the second week of January 2024 and the next minute we’re a scant 12 hours away from 2025 — a ludicrously futuristic date, a sci-fi date. And I didn’t do a media diet post all year! I have no excuse; it just…didn’t happen. Over and over and over and over again — it just kept not happening!

As penance, and for my last post of the year, here’s a giant media diet recap of (almost) everything I read, watched, listened to, and experienced in the year of our lord 2024. (I’ll try to break it up into smaller chunks next year… 🤞)

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. I am just totally in the tank for how Rooney writes about power dynamics & interpersonal interactions. I think maybe this is my second-favorite of hers after Normal People? (A)

Shōgun. My favorite show of the year by a mile — so good all around. (A+)

Developing AI Like Raising Kids. Engaging and wide-ranging podcast conversation between Alison Gopnik and Ted Chiang about what caregiving and designing AI systems might have in common. (A)

GNX. The latest album from Kendrick Lamar has been on heavy rotation in my car since it came out. (A)

Dune: Part Two. I loved this, particularly in IMAX. It’s a better film than the first part and very rewatchable (I’ve seen it ~5 times?). I hope Villeneuve does another one. (A+)

Dune. I went back and rewatched this after seeing Dune: Part Two and it all made so much more sense. I can’t remember ever seeing a sequel that improved the first film in retrospect. Empire Strikes Back maybe? (A)

Interstellar (10th anniversary IMAX re-release). An incredible experience, worth the 6-hour roundtrip drive from the boondocks of VT. The docking scene with the damaged ship is one my all-time favorite movie scenes and to see it on massive screen accompanied by the teeth-rattling sound of Han Zimmer’s soundtrack was a real treat. (A+)

XOXO 2024. It was so good to see so many old friends and meet some new ones. (A)

The 2024 total solar eclipse. Not quiiiite as mind-blowing as my first time, but it was great to bust out the telescope and share the experience with friends and eclipse newbies. (A+)

May December. Natalie Portman & Julianne Moore were both fantastic in this. (A-)

Girl, so confusing featuring lorde. The earnestness, the working it out on the remix — I’m so here for it. (A)

The Incredibles. A perfect movie. No flab. Hits all the right notes. (A+)

The Incredibles 2. When this came out, I preferred it to the first movie. Now having seen them back-to-back, the sequel is not quite the equal to the original. But still great. (A)

What Relationships Would You Want, if You Believed They Were Possible? Ezra Klein’s conversation with Rhaina Cohen (author of The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center) was probably my favorite single podcast episode of the year. It really helped me think through what sorts of relationships I want to have in my life in a way that I hadn’t before. (A+)

Anatomy of a Fall. A gripping legal & family drama from director Justine Triet. (A-)

The Big Dig. A nine-part, in-depth podcast on how the massive Boston highway project got done. Would recommend for governance and infrastructure nerds but also for anyone who is curious about how things get done (or not) in America. (A)

Princess Mononoke. My favorite Ghibli movie — so great to be able to see it at the theater. Just gorgeous. (A)

Mad Max: Fury Road. My umpteenth rewatch confirms: a perfect movie. (A+)

Godzilla Minus One. Not a Godzilla scholar, but this is certainly the best Godzilla movie I’ve ever seen. A real gem of a movie. (A)

Funspot. Billed as “the world’s largest arcade”, the real attraction of Funspot for me is the 250+ classic games and pinball machines (Star Wars, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Burgertime, Gorgar, Dig Dug, Mr Do!, etc.) I took my teenaged kids here last summer and they loved it. Plus, $20 in tokens kept the three of us entertained for almost two hours. (A)

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. I watched this twice — the first time I thought it was alright (was Anya Taylor-Joy the right choice for the lead?) but I loved it the second time around (Anya Taylor-Joy was the right choice for the lead). (A)

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham. The most complete account and investigation of how the Chernobyl nuclear disaster happened and its aftermath, from both the technological and political angles. Fantastic book. (A)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. It’s been awhile since I’ve fallen in love with a Star Trek series, but this one got me hooked right away. (The commenters in this thread were spot on with their recommendations.) I absolutely love the cast and the episodic format. I blazed through season one, am still stinge watching season two, and am delighted that the show has been renewed for two more seasons. (A)

All Fours by Miranda July. A truly weird book that I loved. Listen to the audiobook version if you can…July’s voice acting (I can’t really call it mere narration) really adds to the experience. (A)

Lawrence of Arabia. I’d never seen this before but I got a chance to see it on a big screen this summer and was blown away by it. A truly gorgeous film. (A)

The Zone of Interest. I’m not a particular fan of Jonathan Glazer, but this film was brutal and chilling and boring. The sound design was absolutely brilliant. (A-)

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. Brodesser-Akner is a hell of a writer. (A)

Capitalism. Another banger from Scene on Radio, which you may remember from their excellent podcast series on whiteness, American history, and the climate crisis. Their series on capitalism is typically thought-provoking and informative. (A)

The Great British Bake Off (2023 season). When each new season of Bake Off starts, I’m always like “who are these chuck-a-lucks?” and by about the fourth episode I’d run through a wall for any of the bakers. Such a great format & vibe to this show. (A)

Poor Things. Really enjoyed this. Emma Stone was fantastic. (A-)

Scriptnotes, Episode 622: The One with Christopher Nolan. Fascinating conversation with Christopher Nolan about how he approaches scriptwriting and then translating those scripts into action on the screen. (A-)

Ratatouille. The scene near the end, when Ego tastes the ratatouille that Remy cooks for him, always gives me chills — one of cinema’s great flashbacks. (A)

The Diplomat (season two). I can’t tell if this show is actually good or if I just really, really like it. But I’ll tell you who’s actually good though: Allison Janney — she swooped in for the final two episodes and upstaged the rest of the really talented cast. (A-)

Gladiator. Rewatched in anticipation of the sequel. A neeeearly perfect movie. I can’t really even put my finger on why it isn’t quite flawless — there’s like 3-5 minutes that could be reworked or cut or something. But still, a great film that I love to watch. (A)

Things Become Other Things. I regret to inform you that the irritatingly nice & talented Craig Mod is also good at writing memoirs. The bastard. (A)

Chernobyl. I rewatched this with my son this fall and I’d forgotten just how good it is. One of the best TV things of the past decade. The courtroom scene with Legasov and his blue & red cards is one of the best & simplest explanations of the reactor’s explosion you’ll find anywhere. (A)

James by Percival Everett. It’s a close call, but I think this retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was my favorite book of 2024. The audiobook version, narrated by Dominic Hoffman, is fantastic. (A)

Dookie Demastered. Green Day “demastered” their 1994 album Dookie into 15 “obscure, obsolete, and inconvenient” formats, like wax cylinder, Fisher Price record, Teddy Ruxpin, and player piano roll. Brilliant. (A)

Shōgun by James Clavell. I’m nearly halfway through this 1300-page behemoth, but I wanted to include it here because I’m blazing through it and enjoying it so much. (A-)

How Playwright Annie Baker Made the Movie of the Summer. This podcast conversation between Sam Fragoso and Annie Baker is fascinating because of Baker’s polite but insistent refusal to adhere to the social conventions of a media interview. (A)

Conclave. I can’t decide if this film is overwrought or just the right amount of wrought. Well-acted though and compelling. (B+)

Cléo from 5 to 7. I appreciated this film more than I enjoyed it. (B)

Fallout. A promising first season; I’m glad they’re doing another. (B+)

Past Lives. Greta Lee is great in this. And that last scene, ooof. (B+)

Moonbound by Robin Sloan. Was pretty charmed by this, in part because it was fun trying to connect the narrative & themes of the book to Sloan’s preoccupations on his mailing list over the past 2-3 years. (B+)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Solidly entertaining and the teens liked it. (B)

For All Mankind (season four). My pre-season musing about this show being “a prequel/origin story for The Expanse” hold up pretty well, I think. (B+)

The Holdovers. A mostly wholesome Christmas-time Breakfast Club. (A-)

The Great (season three). This didn’t have the zing of the first season, but it was better than the second. (B+)

Reservation Dogs. I am going to get yelled at for this but I enjoyed the first season more than the subsequent two. I appreciate what they did with the second and third seasons on an intellectual level (it’s brilliant, multi-generational storytelling) but I found my attention drifting as I tried to keep up with all of the connections. (A-)

Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier by Kevin Kelly. A compendium of life advice from one of the most interesting people I know. (B+)

Civil War. I’d like to see this again — I’m still not sure if I liked it or if it was any good. (B)

Constellation. Was disappointed with this show. Would have been an interesting three-episode series — instead we got eight ponderous episodes. (C)

3 Body Problem. Netflix did pretty well with this adaptation and the changes made sense. Looking forward to see where they go with the next season. (B+)

The Three-Body Problem trilogy by Cixin Liu. Well, after watching the TV series, I went back to read the three-book series for the third time. Was a little let down this time for whatever reason. (B)

Alien. Saw this in the theater over the summer and didn’t like it quite as much as I have in the past. (B+)

The Gilded Age. A gorgeously filmed and costumed guilty pleasure. Who is going to keep making this kind of series after Julian Fellowes retires? (A-)

Rebel Moon. Aka Zach Snyder’s Star Wars. Couldn’t finish this it was so bad. What a hack. (D)

Leave the World Behind. I watched this way back in January and had to paste the title into Google to see what it even was. I remember it being pretty uneven. But it also introduced me to Myha’la. (B-)

The Marvels. I honestly don’t remember much of this, just that it didn’t have the, uh, goodness of the first one. (B)

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Saw this on the big screen this summer, which was worth it for the pod race and the “duel of the fates” lightsaber battle at the end. (B-)

Petite Maman. A film of quiet impact by Céline Sciamma. I didn’t know anything about this going in and was delighted by where it went. (A-)

Frankenstein. Hot Frank Summer! I really tried to get into this but just couldn’t…I got bored and gave up a third of the way in. (C+)

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson. Not Larson’s best effort but it was illuminating to read about how the Civil War started. (B)

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (season two). I was somewhat in the minority in liking the first season of this show, and I liked this season even more. Patiently awaiting the next season. (A-)

Devs. Rewatched this with my son and didn’t like as much as I did the first time. I found it a little too self-serious. (B+)

Star Wars: The Acolyte. Uneven but with some good moments. Glad I watched it, even though the show got cancelled. (B)

Avatar: The Last Airbender. I thought they did a good job casting the characters for this live-action series. But there’s a magic to the animated series that they didn’t capture. (B)

Fall Guy. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt were charming and the rest of it was fine. I enjoyed the dragging of Tom Cruise. (B)

Deadpool & Wolverine. Rotten Tomatoes has this at 78% and that seems right…I liked it about 78%. (B+ (I grade on a scale apparently))

Ponyo. Another Ghibli movie I got to enjoy on the big screen. (B+)

North Woods by Daniel Mason. I would have liked this more without the magical realism. Some great parts though. (B+)

Rebel Ridge. I really enjoyed this one. This movie felt like a throwback of sorts: a solid thriller with no bells and whistles. Reminded me a bit of The Fugitive. (A-)

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon. I enjoy the Shaun shorts more than the films, but this one had an impressive number of sci-fi references in it…the kids got annoyed at me pointing them out. (B+)

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Clare North. An interesting twist on the Groundhog Day plot mechanic that…well, I won’t spoil it. (B)

The Wild Robot. Hilarious at times, but a bit too pat when it came to the main plot/emotional core. (B)

The Good Place. Third time through on this one…a comedy classic that stuck the landing. (A)

Gladiator II. I wanted this to be better. Denzel Washington was fantastic, as was his sleeve-work. Love that the co-emperors were basically crypto YouTube bros. (B)

Alien: Romulus. Very good Alien installment. I was on the edge of my seat for the last third of the movie as the heroes raced against the inevitability of gravity — one of the best action/thriller sequences of the year, I’d reckon. (B+)

Moana. Watched in preparation for Moana 2. You can see why this movie is the #1 streamed movie over the last 5 years. (A-)

Moana 2. Watched this with an audience filled with little kids and when Maui appeared on the screen for the first time, a little boy said “Maui” in a quietly awed voice, instantly charming the entire theater. (B)

Mr Salary by Sally Rooney. I had no idea this short story existed until a few months ago. It was written before she published her debut novel. (B+)

Elf. It was nice to see Bob Newhart — I’d forgotten he was in this. (B)

Inside Out 2. Pixar is still the best studio for making kids’ movies that appeal to all ages. My kids were like, yep, pretty much what it’s like being a teenager. And I identified both with Riley and her parents. (A)

Radical Optimism. Underwhelming compared to Future Nostalgia, but I do like Houdini a lot. (B)

Philip Glass Solo. Lovely and personal. (A-)

Cowboy Carter. This is not my cup of tea, but I love that it exists. (B-)

Brat. My favorite track (other than the aforementioned Girl, so confusing featuring lorde) is Von Dutch. (B+)

Dos Hermanos Bakery. The chopped sandwiches here are very messy but very delicious. (B+)

Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody. Loved seeing this retrospective of Haring’s work at the Walker. (A-)

Zoozve. A very entertaining episode of Radiolab. (B+)

Past installments of my media diet are available here. Butter shipping container photo by yours truly.

What were your favorite things that you watched, read, or listened to in 2024?

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