Andrew Haglund

The beginning of the year is a great time to hunker down, stay warm, and hibernate. With a little one arriving in May, my wife and I have been watching a lot of TV and movies together. Check out the footnotes for general life updates like home renovations¹ and car stuff².

Music

• Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé is phenomenal. I’ll be flabbergasted if it doesn’t win Album of the Year.
• Tigers Blood by Waxahatchee is an instant classic.
• Ultimatum (Expanded Edition) by The Long Winters reminds me why I love music.

Anticipating new music from The Decemberists, Vampire Weekend, and Iron & Wine later this year.

TV

March

• Fargo (season 1 and 2) is in the pantheon of “greatest shows of all-time” for sure.

February

• Scavengers Reign is beautiful (and also grotesque). Incredible.
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith was a fun ride. First episode felt a bit slow, maybe? Donald Glover and Maya Erskine were awesome together.
• The Afterparty (season 1) was a fun whodunnit with a great cast. Gotta love Richard Splett Sam Richardson.

January

• All Creatures Great & Small (season 4) never disappoints and is a routine post-holiday “feel good” show for the wife and I.
• Queer Eye is always fun to watch, it’s one of the only reality shows I will stick around for. (I know it’s a common joke but please give Bobby more airtime.)
• BEEF (season 1) holy shit we loved this.
• For All Mankind (season 4) does not disappoint. Can’t wait for next season.
• Yellowjackets (season 2) was fine. Season 1 was engrossing but it feels like there’s not a ton of mystery left?
• The Curse was outstanding. I know it’s divisive but I think it’s absolutely brilliant. If you want more Nathan for You, this is not for you.
• Star Wars: Visions (season 2) continues to inspire me with its diverse art styles from around the world. It is phenomenal. It single-handedly gives me hope that Disney will someday make a good Star Wars movie — they just need to let creators do what they want (instead of trying to redo the Marvel playbook).
• Slow Horses (season 3) is a gem and a must-see. I am usually anti-binge but I watched this in a single sitting.
• Fisk is a fun lil Australian Office-like.

Movies

We watched most Best Picture nominations this year and were deliberately trying to watch more film. TV can be a bit of a drag sometimes. Each episode tends to feel like an appetizer where a movie is a meal.

March

• Midsommar I should not have watched this. I was home alone for the weekend and it freaked me out. This is a disturbing (yet somehow beautiful) movie that left me thinking for days.
• Napoleon had exciting war scenes, sets, costumes, etc. I’m glad I watched it. Not a “must see” but it was entertaining.
• Dune: Part Two was a masterclass of cinema. We saw this in IMAX and were blown away.
• Poor Things was odd, delightful, and excellently done. I loved the style and world they created for this film and glad Emma won another Oscar.
• Wonka (2024) was bad. I expected to learn how Wonka went from a fun-loving chocolate maker to a maniacal recluse. Instead Timothée Chalamet tries being silly as an indentured servant. If 80% of your runtime is about laundry, you know you’ve screwed up. A few nice moments but overall a huge miss. (Also a main character’s name is Noodle. Noodle!)

February

• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was fine. Good ending to the series I guess. Thor Ragnorok and Guardians 1 were lightning-in-a-bottle and their sequels have all been a letdown.
• Jenny Slate: Seasoned Professional was incredibly funny. This was the first time we had watched her standup. I only knew her from Parks & Rec.
• Paterson (2016): very random but I was in a hotel room so I had nothing else going on. Dan Benjamin mentioned it in Back to Work 638 so I gave it a shot. Slow and sleepy but a nice slice of life.
• Oppenheimer (rewatch). I watched this with my parents (it was their first viewing) and as soon as credits rolled both of them went “woah” and that’s when I knew it’d win Best Picture.
• American Fiction was excellent. Jeffrey Wright and the whole cast were outstanding.
• Princess Mononoke: I’m slowly watching all the Ghibli/Miyazaki movies. This one’s surprisingly violent! Beautiful animation.
• Asteroid City: I am a longtime fan of Wes Anderson but this movie just made me angry. Everything about this production is world-class: cast, costume, and designs; but the story had no heart. I felt nothing.

January

• Anatomy of a Fall was a great mystery. It played with the timeline of events really well. The courtroom scenes, while probably not realistic, were exceptional.
• May December had terrific performances by Portman and Moore. The ending felt a bit anticlimactic. The ending made us think, “wait, that’s it?”
• Maestro is world-class. Bradley did good. The scene where he’s conducting in the cathedral was incredible. Classical music FTW.
• Killers of the Flower Moon was outstanding. I read the book a few years ago and thought Marty did a great job adapting it into a riveting story. Like Oppenheimer you’d have no idea this was 3 hours long, it flew by.

Books

• Shift (book 2 of Silo series)

Theater

• We saw Hamilton in Chicago. I listened to the soundtrack a bunch in 2020 and saw the Disney Plus version. My parents and brother went in cold turkey and we all had a blast. Angelica (Lencia Kebede) and King George III (Paul Louis Lessard) were fantastic. It’s tough comparing to the original cast but those two were standouts.
• The Witch (Krannert Center for the Performing Arts) was a modern and fun retelling of The Witch from the 1600s.