jonathan gray

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Reviews & Reflections

Thoughts on Things.

Reviews & Reflections

Top Television of 2021

This year, my Best Of 2021 list takes the form of a few pairs or trios: Weird Fun: WandaVision, Loki (both Disney+), and Doom Patrol (HBO Max) WandaVision was a superb televisual turn for the MCU. Admittedly a gift for television scholars, given its aping of various decades’ worth of Read more…

By Jonathan Gray, 1 year ago January 1, 2022
Reviews & Reflections

The 2021 Wisconsin Film Festival

Some thoughts on the feature-length films I’ve seen this year so far at the Wisconsin Film Fest. I’ll update as I see more. Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary is an animated tale of Calamity Jane’s childhood. A painterly animation style renders the Oregon Trail beautiful and evocative. The Read more…

By Jonathan Gray, 2 years ago May 17, 2021
Reviews & Reflections

Best 20 TV Shows of 2020

As the year wraps up, here’s my own list of things I liked the most on television this year.

By Jonathan Gray, 2 years ago December 31, 2020
Reviews & Reflections

Media About Black Lives

As I sit here on June 3 on my lovely porch and hear little more than birdsong, and yet every voyage onto the Internet brings images and sounds of an America on fire with protests over yet more murders of African Americans for the “crime” of simply existing, and of Read more…

By Jonathan Gray, 3 years ago June 4, 2020
Reviews & Reflections

My Favorite 50 TV Shows of the 2010s

Before we start, some caveats: (1) these are my favorites, not “the best” necessarily – I didn’t see everything, not everything is my cup of tea, and these are just what I really liked and responded to; (2) I took “TV show” to require more than one episode, so no Read more…

By Jonathan Gray, 3 years ago January 6, 2020
Reviews & Reflections

My Favorite 25 TV Shows of 2019

I can’t resist the opportunity to create a list, so here are my top shows of the year. Note, though, that it’s a record of my own personal favorites and preferences, not a declaration of Ultimate Value. If I listed “best” or “most important,” I’d be more inclined to think Read more…

By Jonathan Gray, 3 years ago January 2, 2020
Reviews & Reflections

The Movies That Made Me

Continuing with my lists of media that “made me” (follow links for videogames and television) I now turn to movies. 1. The Star Wars trilogy There is nowhere else this list or story could begin than in a galaxy far, far away with a Corellian blockade runner being pursued by Read more…

By Jonathan Gray, 4 years ago September 2, 2018
Reviews & Reflections

The Video Games That Made Me

I’ve posted my list of television that made me, but as I reflected upon there, after Sesame Street, not much else had a huge impact on me till the mid-90s. By contrast, I grew up with video games, the medium developing as did I, conveniently about as complex (or not) Read more…

By Jonathan Gray, 5 years ago July 31, 2018
Reviews & Reflections

The Television That Made Me

What are the television shows that “made” you? Not those that are necessarily the best, nor even the ones you like the most, but the ones that played key roles in your development, that were there at important times for you, or perhaps that you regularly look back to? A Read more…

By Jonathan Gray, 5 years ago July 29, 2018
Reviews & Reflections

Best Television of 2017 … so far

As 2017 draws to a close, here’s my list of the best television I’ve seen so far from 2017. Operative is that this is the best “so far” … not because I believe the next few hours will show me anything new and brilliant, but because I obviously haven’t seen Read more…

By Jonathan Gray, 5 years ago December 31, 2017

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Recent Posts
  • Top Television of 2021
  • The 2021 Wisconsin Film Festival
  • Best 20 TV Shows of 2020
  • Media About Black Lives
  • My Favorite 50 TV Shows of the 2010s
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