2020 Review 4/4: Television

I don't often have much to say about television on this blog. I think in the last decade or more I haven't taken much interest in television series. It's especially hard to sustain interest in programs when, as is often the case now, entire seasons drop on a single day, leaving no room for anticipation or speculation about the future. With that in mind, here are a few shows I genuinely enjoyed:

The Mandalorian seems to be most people's reason for subscribing to Disney+ and, indeed, it's a fine program. I do find it could use a lot more variety in the sort of stories it tells, but it sustains my interest. The casting on the show is neat, as they keep casting actors who haven't been big names for years but are very welcome to see again. It's the only thing Star Wars seems to be doing well.

I had heard Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was about the worst super-hero television program on the air, so it was a surprise to discover it was actually very good - easily the best live action Marvel series I've seen. It was uneven, especially at the start and during its 6th year, but overall I'm glad I finally watched it - it's nowhere near as numbing as trying to watch the latter-day Netflix shows.

At the same time I tried Agent Carter which was good; I found the second season instantly forgettable but the first year was pretty strong.

Finally, I dug into all the Ken Burns documentaries I hadn't seen, the biggest of which was Jazz. Being mostly unaware of the history of jazz music I really learned a lot from the film and came away with a number of songs and short films I looked up on my own.

In all, I found plenty of entertainment in 2020 despite circumstances and I'm sure I'll find a lot to enjoy in 2021.