#best tv 2023

[tymstevens]

▣ ⭐ BEST TV : 2023

● 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗮! 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗱𝘆! 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗶! 𝗛𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿! 𝗠𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆! 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗲𝘀! 𝗔𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻! ● ➜ http://tymstevens.blogspot.com/2024/01/best-movies-tv-2023.html

➜ http://tymstevens.blogspot.com/2024/01/best-movies-tv-2023.html

[elinbean]

a win for tortured writers and haunted artists everywhere

[kurakuradon]

simon petrikov 🧊👓

[letterboxdmovies]

[ericdeggans]

My List of the Best TV in 2023: An Abundance of Quality Even in Adversity

What’s the surest proof that there truly is too much television available these days?

The fact that, even though 2023 featured historic performers and writers strikes in Hollywood which crippled film and TV production for months, there was still enough great series and projects to fill an entire notebook page.

Way too many, in fact, for me to cover in my small part of NPR’s awesome annual listing of the best TV and film of the year, compiled among six different critics. It’s one reason the strikes went on so long in the first place – for fans of great TV, it didn’t really seem like much changed, as streaming services kept dropping cool stuff, thanks to their long production lead times.

Ironically, viewers may notice the strikes’ impact more next year – in part, because a lot of cool TV shows left us in 2023 (pour one out for Barry, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Crown, Reservation Dogs, Succession, and, possibly, Ted Lasso) and also because the streamers will spend some time rebuilding lineups which got depleted.

Here, where I have a lot more room is my highly subjective and surprisingly long list of the Best TV of 2024:

TOP PICK - Succession – A show which perfectly captured how the dysfunctions of wealthy families can impact the world delivered a note-perfect finale that surprised – though I did predict Tom would win out – and yet felt completely inevitable. All while the world was second-guessing and writing their own endings. Masterful.

The Last of Us – Who knew reinventing the zombie apocalypse story was simple as coming up with a new cause – fungus, eww! – and the willingness to hand big chunks of the story over to compelling, fully drawn supporting characters. Doesn’t hurt to have ultimate zaddy Pedro Pascal and precocious acting genius Bella Ramsey on the case, either.

The Bear - Speaking of compelling supporting characters…this show’s second season sparkled by giving the other employees in Carmy’s greasy spoon-becoming-a-great-restaurant lots of narrative room. But it took flight with unexpected, brilliant cameos from Jon Bernthal, Olivia Colman, Oliver Platt, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, and the legendary Jamie Lee Curtis.

Reservation Dogs – Proof of the amazing, authentic, original stories which come from letting indigenous people tells their own stories, smashing together a crushing realism with the sense that a jarring visit from the spirit world is always around the next corner.

Fargo – Not sure I love the ultimate message on the healing power of suburban, white, upper middle class Midwestern family life (or what happens to the one major Black character). But crackling performances from Juno Temple, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Jason leigh and Dave Foley make this year’s installment the best version in many years.

Shrinking – An emotional and truly funny comedy that reminds us how hilarious Harrison Ford and Jessica Williams can be while not making us spend too much time on Jason Segel’s angsty privileged white guy shtick.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The TV series which scored the most by taking the boldest swings, leaning into Trek’s original heritage as an adventure-of-the-week which told the most ambitious stories on the small screen.

(The dancing, dubstepping, boy band-style Klingons on Strange New Worlds powered my favorite TV scene of the year.)

Star Trek: Picard – Yeah, I put TWO Trek series here, because everyone else in critic-land seems to be sleeping on the fact that they made more than one excellent season of a new Trek series filled with nods to what came before, including this show, which reunited the Next Generation cast in a storyline basically about old people saving the universe from young, clueless, mind-controlled pawns.

Barry – Wasn’t thrilled about how grim this series’ finale eventually became. But respected the fact that co-creator/star Bill Hader never shied away from the fact that the show was going to be his laboratory for all the directing and storytelling tricks he ever wanted to try, and a dark comedy about a hitman-turned-actor has to be seriously dark to mean something.

Beef – A road rage incident becomes a crackling, entertaining look at everything from Asian family culture to Elon Musk-level mogul dysfunction while also proving my girl Ali Wong can act her ass off.

Still: A Michael J. Fox Story – While other celebrities are executive producing documentaries to show how legendarily cool they are, Fox helped create an up close look at his struggle with Parkinson’s disease which show how hard it is to put on socks and take a walk on a new York street without crashing to the ground right in front of a concerned fan.

Only Murders in the Building – A comedy about over-privileged crime podcasters in an Upper West side apartment building should not stay entertaining over three seasons. But this show pulls it off, tossing in against-the-grain cameos by Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep that provide the best icing on a very fine cake.

Slow Horses – This show about a department filled with failed British intelligence agents not only subverts the spy genre, it subverts the satires which originally subverted classic spy dramas, like Get Smart. Topped by mesmerizing performances from Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas, I would have subtitled this one, Get Smarter.

Happy Valley - This series about an experienced, ball-busting divorced single mom of a police sergeant in a mid-size town in Britain notched an underappreciated series finale featuring the amazing Sarah Lancashire as Catharine Cawood, finally confronting the man she blamed for her daughter’s suicide and her grandson’s emotional turmoil.

BS High – A great documentary often tells a story which keeps going deeper and better, like a descent into a spellbinding madness. This film achieved that by giving center stage to master manipulator/football coach Roy Johnson, who got ESPN to air a game featuring his Bishop Sycamore High School team; the film contends their crushing loss eventually exposed that the school didn’t really exist.

I’m a Virgo – Creator and activist Boots Riley made an urban parable where Black excellence became superpowers and the world’s exploitive class came for a 13-foot-tall Black teen played by the always compelling Jharrel Jerome. Always inspiring to see how Boots turns mainstream media’s tropes and expectations against itself.

[aconstantache]

You're precious to me, Henry

[fleouriarts]

mid-october - end of 2023 sketchbook highlights

descriptions and such below

1: front page of the sketchbook cus i like to do something a little more elaborate for that. however i didnt have any ideas so i just drew me with the three groups of characters/people that i like to draw (my sumakha ocs, hivemind, and my comatelma ocs)

2: doodles from after kenny beecham's hivemind appearance adding him to the hmfcu (hivemind furry cinematic universe). usually i avoid giving people domestic cat/dog sonas but i associate dogs with sports so much and ALL i know about kenny is that he likes basketball. so hes a dog

3: notes about furry shit. one thing about me is i love to draw comparative furry anatomy diagrams

4: bunch of quad doodles after the release of scrapyard III (mostly based on the easier mv but guess who quad is also there). i changed his fursona to a sheep literally RIGHT after my hiatus started LOL

5: random hivemind stuff from the same day as the scrapyard III doodles

6: i have catboy toxoplasmosis (also ft. my friends and i at the bottom)

7: redraw of one of hiveminds instagram pics :-) so cute creachers

8-9: redraws of older art (first one is here and second is... something i never posted LOL) but in my Silly Mode artstyle that i developed so i can have a little fun whenever im feeling frustrated with my Normal Style. it's somewhat inspired by @crosssssky's hivemind art, please go follow them!

10-11: oc stuff (and graydon and dignan at the bottom of 11). love hivemind but im hoping my brain will cool down on them in 2024 cus im planning to actually Do Something with my ocs this year. idk when ill actually post about that tho

12: bidding farewell to 2023... im so good at drawing exactly four different furry species now

[imissmymonster]

Best tv shows of 2023.

My opinion, of course :)

[moobrvoobl-moobmoob-oobmpoobroom]

no because Ariana Greenblatt shows the emotion on Ahsoka’s face so perfectly in every single scene: the confusion when she first looks around and sees the war, the frustration and anger when she’s arguing with Anakin, the pain when she holds the wounded clone’s hand. I don’t know, there’s just something so perfectly Ahsoka about it, she’s just a magnificent actress

[tymstevens]

🎥 ⭐ BEST MOVIES: 2023

● 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗮! 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗱𝘆! 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗶! 𝗛𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿! 𝗠𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆! 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗲𝘀! 𝗔𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻! ● ➜ http://tymstevens.blogspot.com/2024/01/best-movies-tv-2023.html

➜ http://tymstevens.blogspot.com/2024/01/best-movies-tv-2023.html

[folkwhoreberry]

rip summer-autumn 2023 you will be missed

[mceproductions]

Best of 2023 TV Shows #23: RWBY (CRUNCHYROLL)

SUM 22: A shorter season in a different realm allows for the dive in question of Who Am I for Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang.

[ghostsmp3]

Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa at the 81st Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024.

[letterboxdmovies]

2023 | min | Drama, Romance

Título original : Fellow Travelers

Criado por Ron Nyswaner

Elenco: Matt Bomer, Jonathan Bailey, Jelani Alladin

Nacionalidade EUA

[brian-in-finance]

The 10 Best Caitriona Balfe Movies and TV Shows, Ranked

With her starring role as Claire on the hit fantasy romance series Outlander, Irish actress Caitríona Balfe has become one of the biggest leading ladies in television. Despite her stardom though, Balfe has been careful with her roles, with IMDb listing just 17 acting credits to her name across a career though, to be fair, it doesn't count some of her earliest short film roles nor her blink-and-you-miss-it appearance in the hit fashion comedy The Devil Wears Prada.

The approach has undeniably been one of quality over quantity though, with Balfe's filmography including two Oscar-winning pictures, underrated animated gems, and supporting parts in major blockbusters alongside some of Hollywood's biggest names. These 10 films and television series present as the best projects the actress has been involved with over her career thus far.

🔟 Angela's Christmas Wish (2020)

Image: Netflix

Throughout her career, Caitríona Balfe has always offered her voice acting to underrated gems of animated cinema. One such example of that is her work on the festive Irish animated film Angela’s Christmas Wish, a sequel to the Emmy-nominated animated short Angela’s Christmas which follows a young girl’s hopes to reunite her family, especially her father working in Australia.

The quaint picture boasted a war-hearted charm which made it an adorable family Christmas picture which, at just 47 minutes long, was easy for young viewers to embrace. Balfe’s role was a minor one as the mother of one of the protagonist’s friends, but she was able to use her natural Irish accent.

9️⃣ Now You See Me (2013)

Photo: Lionsgate

A magician heist movie with a modern spin on the steal from the rich and give to the poor narrative, Now You See Me became a fan favorite film of 2013. It follows the performative magician troupe ‘The Four Horseman’ and the FBI and Interpol agents trying to uncover how they are able to steal money from major banks to give to the audience as part of the show.

Michael Caine plays the Four Horseman’s wealthy sponsor with Caitriona Balfe playing his young wife. Sadly, the role didn’t give Balfe a huge chance to make much of an impact, but it did get the actress on screen alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest names before her career took off with Outlander.

8️⃣ Lost Angeles (2012)

Photo: Burgandy Films

An indie comedy-drama focusing on the whirlwind that life can be in the city of Los Angeles, Lost Angeles was the first feature length film to give Balfe a real chance to showcase her acting talents. The film follows homeless ex-con as he is released from prison and moves to L.A. where he claims to be a legitimate photographer to get work.

As Jared (Kelly Blatz) becomes embroiled in the sleazy underbelly of celebrity stardom, the film takes on a grittier tone, one that Balfe was well suited to with her minor role as Veronique. The film was directed by acclaimed cinematographer Phedon Papamichael.

7️⃣ Super 8 (2011)

Image: Paramount Pictures

Released in 2011, J.J. Abrams’ sci-fi thriller is something of an overlooked gem in his blockbuster filmography. Set in 1979, it follows a group of kids using a super 8 camera to film a zombie film when they accidentally capture a terrible train crash on film only to discover it may not have been an accident as strange things start happening around town.

With the aura of the summer blockbuster hits from Steven Spielberg’s early days, Super 8 excelled as an effects-driven action spectacle, but it found its true brilliance in its quieter, more dramatic notes. Despite only appearing in flashbacks and photos, Caitríona Balfe had a huge emotional impact on the film as the recently deceased mother of one of the kid's, and the late wife of the town's Deputy Sheriff.

6️⃣ Escape Plan (2013)

Photo: Lionsgate

Yet another minor role before her career erupted, Escape Plan featured Balfe in the small but important part of Jessica Miller, the CIA operative who hires renowned jail breaker Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) to escape from a top-secret maximum-security prison. The majority of the film follows Breslin as he befriends fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and plots his escape.

Eventually it is revealed that Rottmayer is Jessica Miller’s father, and she hired Breslin to mastermind his escape. The film has achieved a certain cult classic status and gave Balfe a meaningful supporting role alongside two of the biggest names in Hollywood history.

5️⃣ Money Monster (2016)

Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing

Directed by Jodie Foster, Money Monster was a compact thriller which followed the host of a financial television show as he and the crew are held hostage by an outraged investor. The true villain of the film turns out to be Walt Camby (Dominic West), a CEO whose manipulation of a trading algorithm for self-gain was what resulted in the financial crisis of the young gunman and many others around the world.

Catriona Balfe portrays Camby’s chief communications officer who proves to be the underlying hero of the film, using her inside information on Camby to investigate his wrongdoing and reveal the truth. The socioeconomic themes gave the film a distinct modern punch, one which thrived off the back of its impressive cast.

4️⃣ The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019)

Photo: Netflix

One of the most eclectic and underrated projects Balfe has bene involved with is Netflix's The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, a miniseries which served as a prequel to the 1982 cult classic film The Dark Crystal. Like the 82 movie, Age of Resistance used puppetry to tell the story, focusing on a band of Gelflings who seek to unite the clans of their people to stand against the Skeksis and save their home world.

Balfe voiced Tavra, a Paladin warrior and Princess of the Vapra Clan who often has to serve as the peacekeeper between her two stubborn sisters. Balfe played the part of the tritagonist well, giving her a composed presence which stood out amid an A-list cast of voice talent.

3️⃣ Ford v Ferrari (2019)

Photo: Twentieth Century Fox

A racing drama focusing on Ford’s efforts to beat Ferrari at the 24 hours of Le Mans race, Ford v Ferrari became a major hit on its way to winning two Academy Awards. It predominantly follows the relationship between Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), an American car designer, and Ken Miles (Christian Bale), a temperamental British driver.

Balfe’s supporting role sees her portray Mollie Miles, Ken’s no-nonsense yet devoted wife ever supportive of her husband. Admittedly, it would have been great to see Balfe get more of a chance to display the agonizing angst that goes into loving someone involved in such a dangerous sport, but she plays the supporting part to a tee, becoming a major reason why the hot-headed Ken was so accessible to audiences.

2️⃣ Outlander (2014-)

Photo: Starz

A centuries-spanning romantic epic loaded with fantasy wonder and historical grandiosity, Outlander has become one of the biggest television series of the 2010s and early 2020s. Based on Diana Gabaldon's best-selling novels, it follows a military nurse in WWII who is swept back in time to 1743 where she meets and falls in love with a Scottish Highland warrior, documenting their adventures across the world and through time.

Starring alongside Sam Heughan, the role of Claire Randall shot Balfe to international stardom, making her a household name for fantasy fans while seeing her win numerous British television awards. The penultimate seventh season of Outlander is currently airing on Starz.

1️⃣ Belfast (2021)

Photo: Focus Features

Irish cinema has been thriving lately, with 2021’s Oscar-winning hit Belfast one of the best dramas in recent years. The semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film from Kenneth Branagh takes place amid the tumult of 1960s Belfast, following a nine-year-old boy’s childhood experiences and reactions to the rising tensions around him.

Balfe portrays the boy’s mother, a hard-working and steadfast woman who, with help from her in-laws, looks after her two sons while her husband has to work long stints in England. Balfe was exceptional throughout the film, playing the role with a grounded, weighted power with her scene on the bus particularly unforgettable, highlighting Balfe's raw and heartbreaking performance.

Collider

Remember… a tritagonist* is “the person who is third in importance, after the protagonist and deuteragonist, in an ancient Greek drama.” Oxford Dictionary of English

*Tavra, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

[ridiculously-over-obsessed]

I swear, this is the last ever New Year that I ring in with people who don't value me or my time and efforts. This is the last year that I spend the holidays etc feeling utterly despondant and miserable. This is the last time I spend the 2 weeks that encompass Christmas, New Years, and my birthday with my cunt of a mother and sister. They have had almost 25 of them in some way or another, and this is their last. I'm done.