It feels like the year both just started and has been going on for an eternity. I have to say that I wasn’t planning on producing this much content in the first half of 2020, but ending up quarantined at home while working allowed me to essentially get a jump on reviewing. By mid-June, I’d gotten through everything I had planned to put out over the summer, so it was pretty exciting to see what I could do for the rest of the break. Here is my plan for July through December with the additional note that if I end up working from home again, there’s a good chance I’d be able to crank out more content than usual. My state has seen a frightening spike in COVID-19 cases, and our governor just extended the state of emergency to the end of August. The other educators in my state and I are now waiting to see what this means for schools, which are scheduled to open back up around August 6th. In the meantime, here’s what you can look forward to on my site from now through December.
It’s hard to say what big studio films will actually come out this year as everyone is playing chicken to put their movie in a theater and see what happens. My plans are to review movies if they are available for on-demand so I can stream them into my home. I honestly do not plan on going into a theater again for a long time, as it appears our society is incapable of being responsible during viral pandemics. With more of these incidents on the horizon due to climate change, it’s only going to get worse. So here’s what I would like to review, but who knows.
In July, I will be reviewing Palm Springs and The Climb.
In August, I plan on reviewing Tenent, Bill & Ted Face the Music, and New Mutants.
September’s outlook includes The Nest, Kajillionaire, and Candyman.
October sees me reviewing Wonder Woman 84 and The French Dispatch.
November’s only new entry, for now, is the latest James Bond picture.
December wraps up the year with Denis Villeneuve’s Dune.
Most of my film reviews will come from series of old films, and I have some line-ups I am incredibly excited about.
Starting tomorrow, I kick off July with KUBRICK, watching and reviewing every picture from Killer’s Kiss to Eyes Wide Shut. Most of these are rewatches for me; I’ve never reviewed them for the site, though. I figured that if the apocalypse is here, I better review these before the world blows up. When we wrap that series up, July will continue with Visions of the American South, pictures from the 1940s to modern-day that show an ever-evolving region of the country, the one I grew up in. Finishing out July appropriately is Worlds on the Edge of Chaos, movies about humanity falling into disorder with a wide variety of tones and voices represented.
In August, I continue by Flashback series by looking at films from 1980 celebrating their 40th anniversary. This will include classics like The Blues Brothers, Popeye, Ordinary People, and more. September will be The Worlds of Studio Ghibli, which naturally involves watching the best of this Japanese animation studio. October will be devoted to horror this year with Horror Masterworks, some of the most iconic films in the genre I’ve yet to review. That will be followed by City Horror, movies where the stories unfold in urban environments.
In November, we’ll Flashback one last time this year to 2000 to watch and review movies that kicked off the new millennium like Cast Away, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Billy Elliott, and some more surprises I’m looking forward to. The final film series of the year will be Brief Encounters with David Lean, where I look at some of the British directors’ finest works. Of course, we’ll also have my end-of-the-year wrap-up lists, which I am curious to see because there haven’t been many 2020 films I think qualify for my favorites.
When it comes to television, I will be continuing to do Best of series starting in July with The Twilight Zone. That’ll be followed up in August with the Best of The Simpsons. I’d like to do Cheers and the original Amazing Stories before the year is out, but we’ll see how my schedule looks.
When it comes to contemporary shows, I am currently working my way through season 3 of Dark, so expect a review of that in the next week. I’d like to do another Apple TV+ First Look with some shows that have come out since my last one. I’ll be reviewing Homecoming Season 2, Flowers Season 2, and have a bunch of shows I am waiting for so I can review them. These are Disney +’s The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and Wandavision, which are supposed to come out this year, but who knows. I don’t even want to get into how disappointing that service has been for quality original content rollouts. HBO has several interesting programs on the horizon like The Third Day and Lovecraft Country. I’d like to sit down and dig into Nicolas Winding Refn’s divisive Too Old To Die Young mini-series.
Comic Books are a beautifully full plate for the remainder of the year that has me continuing following some characters and creators. In July, I kick it off with The Flash by Geoff Johns Omnibus Volume 1. I just finished reading this collection and damn, I forgot how much I loved this era of The Flash. So excited to review this for you. That’ll be followed up by the latest Venom by Donny Cates trade, more Young Justice, and a new era in Wonder Woman.
Outside of July, look for reviews of the original Booster Gold series, the first volume reprinting Jerry Ordway’s classic Power of Shazam, the newest JSA by Geoff Johns entry, as well as two hulking omnibus reviews of the Legion of Super-Heroes Five Years Later as well as the Justice League International Omnibus Volume 2, picking up where I left off in 2019. I will be cracking into the Hill House Comics line as those trades roll out and digging into the second volume of Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men in December. I am anticipating Geoff Johns finally releasing his Three Jokers mini-series, which has been teased since 2015 and wondering if it can possibly live up to the hype.
When it comes to reading books, I always have a pile that never ends. I discovered Netgally.com and am amazed at the idea I can request an unpublished novel and very likely be sent a limited-time advance digital copy to read and review. This means I will be digging into Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians and reading through that before its release in mid-July. I may turn my bi-monthly book updates into monthly if I am still working from home when the new school year rolls around.
I have made sure to pack the rest of the year full of stuff and still manage to leave gaps to fill in as we go. With new movies being such a rare commodity these days, it will be interesting to see how the rest of 2020 pans out. Make sure you and your family are safe during these strange times, and I hope I can provide you with some suggestions to stay entertained while you are, hopefully, staying home.
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