The 500 Things I’ve Watched This Year!

Monday is about movies and sometimes TV. Today, an update on the amount of screen time in my life this year. YUCK!

Don’t worry, there is no list. There will not be a test. There is only one question associated with today’s topic — and it is for me: Why?! (And/or What the actual fuck?)

I’m on Letterboxd, which I love. That’s where I list all the things I watch. I love it so much, I’ve gone pro:

In fact, this year I upped it to some “Premium” level where I can get my name in lights, or some shit. But actually, I just did it so that it is more of a donation back to the site and source and team for the good work they do. I don’t care about my name in lights. That’s why I have a Substack after all!

Anyway, my Letterboxd is a bit wild and chaotic — what a surprise! — because I’m also trying to remember every single film I’ve ever watched. It’s up around the 10,000 mark nearly, but obviously I can’t recall every single thing I’ve ever seen, even if I am doing a bloody good job trying. So, the stats are all thrown out of whack, because I’ll get on a jag and start listing every single Pink Floyd concert film or standalone episode of Black Mirror, and suddenly I’ll have “watched” 18 films in a day, or 40 in a week, or something. So it probably tells you I’ve watched 1200 films this year, or 800 or something utterly ridiculous.

When the truth is, I have watched 500 films and TV series’ this year.

I know this, because in January I started a list on my phone. I am not a Spreadsheet Guy. And I like to think that’s at least one redeeming feature. If I was, Jesus, fuck. There’d be colour codings, and data for (Out of) Africa, and whatever else…filmmakers, and years, and composers, and actors…and shit! Just thinking about the trick I’ve missed is a little stressful actually.

No. I started using an app this year, through MS Office, called ‘To Do’. It lets me create To Do Lists for each day, and it’s been a game-changer. BUT it also enabled me to make sideline lists. Which is something I bloody love, and therefore a little dangerous. Task completion is necessary. But the dopamine I’m harvesting from running the lists is on the verge of tipping the balance. I used to diary all the tapes I bought when I was a kid, and the movies I watched, and the books I read. So, you know, regression towards nostalgia being what it is…

I just counted up the list on my phone, thinking that I’d probably averaged a film a day. It was embarrassing but realistic to think that I had possibly clocked 365 films this year.

Well, it’s worse than that. I am at a number so close to 500 (it wasn’t a joke earlier) that I will most certainly make it with 29 days left in 2024.

How on earth did this happen?

Well, January was bumper. I had more time off than I usually do, and more time alone. I went at the streaming services like they owed me money (which in a way, you could argue, they do; certainly they owe me value). It was also a great time to go the movies a lot, all the Oscar noms on the screens. And I got hooked on Plex, where I was able to watch all manner of Arthouse, but predominately an absolute shitload of short films…

So yeah, once January was under my belt, I was in triple figures. Disgusting. Like going to an all you can eat Pizza night, and then still wanting more. And that is what I have observed about my watching habits this year: High brow, low brow, it bloody well becomes a monobrow if the box is running the whole fucking time.

I would say, that at least two months ago, I limped over the line with some form of TV-viewing fatigue. I haven’t committed to a TV series in absolutely months, and I can barely watch a movie these days, beyond the Stephen King adaptations I keep up with, or rewatch for our podcast about King.

And much as I am barely trying to keep up with what’s new in writing the Monday “Film/TV” newsletter, and it’s almost always more about what I’m into, and some anniversary/nostalgia view(ing), I can honestly say that I’ve gone from finding Monday the most fun (and easiest to write) to the hardest.

When I started this Substack caper, the chance to write about film more often was a burst of excitement. I still like doing the favourite films from a particular year. I still love it when a movie like The Substance comes along, or an anniversary screening of something like First Blood or The Thing; I love writing about horror, of course. And I will totally get down with the clickbait now and then and write about something like Baby Reindeer, right after bingeing it, because I know that’s when y’all (and me) are doing our “research” (aka Googling).

But just lately, I’ve found it far more of a grind all up. Which is interesting, because when I started on this platform, I found the music-writing a tiny bit of a grind, and now I’m more into that…

A man has to have choices. A man has to have a little bit of variety.

Just this weekend The Beatles were resurrected for the umpteenth time, on this occasion by the hand of Martin Scorsese, with his documentary about how it’s been 60 years since they touched down in America and, I dunno, changed everything. Now I love being a Beatle Bore as much as the next, well, Beatle Bore. But even this feels a bridge too far for me. I haven’t watched it. I let my Disney subscription run out and feel good about not renewing it, since it’s a giant scrapbook of arse, mostly. And I’ll worry about that statement only when the next season of The Bear is ready. And of course I’ll ‘eventually’ watch the latest Beatles doco, but I wonder if I’d have even bothered if I was still a Disney subscriber. What really is the point?

And that mood — What really is the point? — has been hanging over my TV watching and movie-going for a while now. A type of burnout has hit. And of course, after a break, I’ll probably grind on a few more films. But I am liking the fact that I’m calming myself back from some insatiable urge to ‘watch everything’.

I do look forward to seeing some good things at the cinema if not with what’s left of this year, then certainly next year. And I have so many things I think, at some point I’d like to rewatch, that I could go a whole year without watching anything new. Easily.

Last week I realised I’m still paying for Neon, so reinstalled it to see what I’d missed. Absolutelyfuckingnothing. I scrolled for so long and got so depressed I settled on watching Billy Friggin’ Joel. And I hate Billy Joel!

Anyway, there’s no real point to today’s downbeat/ish newsletter beyond publicly shaming myself for being the Augustus Gloop of cinema this year. A real life Mike Teevee.

Of course I watched some gems. Some atrocities. And some things that were somehow both. But when you can’t tell if you’re watching the Lifetime movie for a joke, or whether the Tubi film you put on to be ironic is actually a masterpiece it’s time for them to call your bumper boat in. When metaphors come out of the blue like that and arrive more tangled than the chords behind the television, you could also say that it’s time for a break too. Roll on Xmas, hey.