My Brother and I Review our Top 10 Watches of 2023!

[SHAN] I'm going to list in the description  anything that's notably spoilery. Just as a disclaimer, this year we're doing only first-time  watches. Last year, we did anything that we happened to watch in the year. It doesn't  mean it had to have been produced in 2023; we just happened to watch it for the first time  in 2023. [BRIAN] For the first time in 2023, and possibly the second, third, and fourth time  in 2023. [SHAN] I'm so excited to see what that's in reference to. [BRIAN] You won't ha

ve to wait  long. [SHAN] So, Brian, please start us off with your short list of honorable mentions. [BRIAN]  All right, and as promised, we're coming around to it right away. My first honorable mention  pick is M-three-gan and/or M3GAN (Megan), probably as it's supposed to be called, which is  a horror movie, for those who don't know, about an uncanny valley-type doll. It's supposed to be  really futuristic, gain sentience, comes to life, starts doing horror nonsense, real slashery, real  campy.

The reason it's so appropriately placed first on my list is because it was the first  movie I saw this year. So once it went into the honorable mentions, I kind of drew that line and  thought it would be a lot of fun. I also saw it, like I mentioned, three or four times, at least  three times in theaters. One of those was with you, Shannon, actually, I believe as well; is  that right? [SHAN] Yes, and M-three-gan was awesome. [BRIAN] It was a PG-13 movie, which makes  it really accessible to you

nger audiences. It kind of makes me think back to Insidious, which was the  series that got me and my friends into horror back when we were in high school, and still means  a lot to me despite what later movies might do or different things become. It's still a really  neat premise, and I enjoy the thought that younger people and possibly younger women are maybe  getting into horror more with this type of movie, and it’s possibly going to generate more horror  creators and artists and stuff like

that. Second is Evil Dead Rise. We're going to go with a horror  theme trend again this year because I am who I am as a person. The Evil Dead franchise is very  old and has a couple of iterations. The original is one of my favorites. Our friend Dante and I  watched it in a basement on Comcast On Demand when we were really young, and it really stands out to  me. The series as a whole is real campy, real fun, a lot of blood…sometimes in excess. This new one  was less fun and a lot more just violen

t and mean. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great watch.  The practical effects were phenomenal. It's a really cruel movie. It kind of convinces you that  none of the characters are safe, even the ones who you normally would expect to be. And lastly,  my third honorable mention is Yellowjackets, which is a series with two seasons out right  now, I believe—five in total planned—about a group of girls, high school soccer players, who  crash in the mountains while they're on a trip for a game alon

g with some of the coaches and  supplementary characters. I’d call it a twist on that classic survival style of storytelling.  People get lost in the woods or somewhere. I don't think it really does a lot different in that  way. What I will say is that it splits a lot of the storytelling between the adult versions of  the girls who lived and the actual occurrences in the woods. And I think that's really neat. A lot  of people I've heard complain about that, saying that the stuff in the wild is o

bviously a lot more  thrilling, a lot more engaging. I think it's just a really cool balance. I think the show does a  great job of knowing when to bounce back and forth between one and the next. [SHAN] I can't wait  for the rest of your top 10 to have absolutely no horror in it. [BRIAN] Of course, yeah. At  no point in time or another was I trying to cut out like seven horror movies from consideration  because there were too many. [SHAN] All right, so for my honorable mentions, I wombo-comboed

a  little bit because last year you wombo-comboed, and I'm cashing in my wombo and my combo. So I  think I felt the same amount of appreciation, weirdly enough, for Wendell and Wild and  Pleasantville. Wendell and Wild is stop motion, produced by Key and Peele, and a bit of an  analysis on the grieving process, how we grieve, as well as the prison industrial complex, so very  interesting. Pleasantville was something I didn't expect to be as deep, but still had some pretty  profound moments. That

is Reese Witherspoon and Tobey Maguire as teens getting transported into  a 1950s sitcom and maybe learning that it's not as pleasant as it may seem. [BRIAN] Boo. [SHAN]  Anyway, next I have the Barbie movie. In terms of movie magic, it had a lot to provide. It was  very bright, colorful, and a break away from all the CGI. And then, last but not least in  my honorable mentions, I have GLOW, Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, headed by Alison Brie. I  feel like all of the plot points in that were rea

lly interesting, but specifically, the main  two characters—Debbie and Ruth—their friendship was really interesting. It had a lot of points of  contention, but they ended up exploring that in a very fun way as the main hero wrestler and the  heel. So now that we have our honorable mentions out of the way, Brian, would you like to start  us off with your number ten? [BRIAN] I get to go first? [SHAN] Do you want me to go first? I don't  care. [BRIAN] No, I'd love to go first. [SHAN] Oh, please go

first. [BRIAN] I love talking,  obviously. So, I think I mentioned before we started that I was excited about two locations of  certain movies in the list. One was M3GAN, because I thought it was thematic to show up first. The  other one in the tenth slot of my actual list is Saw X (Saw 10), spelt with the Roman numeral X.  So, I don't know. I've heard people call it Saw X, but I think it's supposed to be Saw X (Saw 10).  Anyway, Shannon knows very well that of all the horror movies I'm going to

be rattling off today,  the Saw franchise is one of my absolute favorites. The original standalone is iconic, maybe top  five horror movies of all time for me. The series itself is also known for being a franchise and a  bit of an event film. Every year it would come out and it would be this big hullabaloo. The movies  tend to get a little more silly as time goes on, but still maintain value in being real goofy  and kind of complicated. There's a lot to love about them. I think this was the fir

st time in a  while we've seen a bit of a return to form. Now, I have no complaints about some of the more recent  movies that have come out in the Saw franchise that I think have gotten a little more controversy  around them. In this particular case though, Saw X was definitely one where I think I'm going  to probably throw it up towards like the top half, maybe even top third, of my list of the entire  franchise. Tobin Bell as Jigsaw and Shawnee Smith as Amanda both make a return to characters

  that we haven't seen be central figures in the movies for a very long time. It's a bit of a  prequel. I think that was part of the marketing, so hopefully it's not like a big spoiler, but it  takes place very early in the Saw timeline. The acting is really fun. You can tell that people  are loving the characters they're playing and really leaning into it. The traps are really gross  and kind of, again, fun to watch. I think overall it's not going to be higher in my list because I  thought, aga

in, overall it was kind of probably towards the middle, maybe top half, of the series  as a whole. But it definitely was really joyful to go and see an old favorite again in theaters for  the first time, for me, a Saw movie and that's why it's definitely on the list. [SHAN] Also,  when you said that there was an X in the title, I thought you meant they were trying to be cheeky  like with M3GAN, and that they used that as one of the letters. And I was like, "SXW, SAX?" like  what? [BRIAN] It’s Sa

x. Tobin Bell busts out with a sick horn band. [SHAN] I would have watched  that. [BRIAN] So, what's your number ten? [SHAN] I chose the live-action One Piece on Netflix. I've  tried watching One Piece a few times. I'm going to be completely transparent. I struggle when  tits are, like, at the forefront of an anime. So, imagine you take that and remove the excess titty,  but you keep the heart. And that's what happened with the live-action. And I just feel like the  casting was really good. It d

id a really good job of paying homage to all of the good parts of  Shonen. It didn't seem like they were embarrassed that their source material was something so  long-running and goofy. And because the part that they're focusing on is obviously the beginning of  the anime, they could have very easily acted like they were better than the goofy aspects of the  first few arcs. But I think they did a good job of paying homage and then both creating their own  kind of vibe. So, very much fan and I'm

excited for the next season. [BRIAN] So, for my number  nine, All Quiet on the Western Front, which is an adaptation of obviously the book, taught in  probably most literature high school reads that someone has to do. I find that with a lot of war  movies, they completely miss the point and kind of become just pseudo-propaganda films for whatever  country is making them. In this particular case, they understood the very, very, very important  assignment, which is that war is not great, even if m

aybe certain revolutions or acts are  done for good reason. The existence of war itself is not great. It should not be glamorized  or glorified. And this movie's sole thesis, I'm pretty sure, is to show that. You watch these  young guys go from being really hyped about going to fight for their country to suffering what is  just horrors beyond human comprehension. Violence, disease, like this dirty experience of utter  misery. And so, I guess in a lot of ways, maybe it falls a little bit into tha

t kind of  misery p*rn category, but I don't necessarily think that was the intent. I think the movie  was really doing a good job of adapting source material and acting as a bit of a warning of  people who maybe want to kind of glamorize that, especially older wars like quote-unquote the  Great War, World War II, stuff like that. Overall, I think it was just nominated for tons of awards  and stuff like it's definitely a well-recognized film. [SHAN] Going on from your very serious  movie, I'm go

ing to bring us to Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. I had no plans of seeing this in  theaters. I never really saw, I think, the first Puss in Boots movie which has the crazy-*ss egg,  but I remember seeing a lot of clips online and the animation was stunning, especially when you  think this is a sequel for a supporting character in the Shrek franchise. The villain was great; he  had great voice acting, very ominous. The whistle was creepy. The lesson, I feel, was pretty good  without being too ham

-fisted. It was essentially about Puss in Boots having his nine lives, kind  of learning to recognize his own mortality despite that. Then there's the whole Goldilocks story  about how the real family are the friends we make along the way. And then, John Mulaney. I've  actually never seen any of John Mulaney's comedy; I've only known him as a voice actor, but he  killed Jack Horner. This was done really well, but again, similar to like what I said about One  Piece, it doesn't seem like they were

trying to be better than their audience or be deeper than  a kids' movie. It was still perfectly fine being a kids' movie, and I think that's important.  [BRIAN] It was a little romp. [SHAN] What? You've said romp, like, three times. What does  that mean? [BRIAN] Like a romp, like a frolic, uh, a fun little adventure through the...You  know what? Hold on. I'll tell you what I'll do. I will search romp on the internet and just tell  you what it says. "To run or play in a lively, carefree, or boi

sterous manner." [SHAN] I  guess Puss in Boots was a romp. All right, Brian, can you please take us away to number  eight? [BRIAN] Number eight is Midsommar, which is a fun little romp. No, I'm just kidding. It's  terrifying. It is a movie that I watched kind of in tandem with Hereditary this year. I know that  a lot of people love Hereditary. I also thought it was very good. I'm not including it in my list.  I think Midsommar definitely resonated with me a lot more just because of how unsettlin

g it was.  You'll probably see from both my past selections and future selections that horror movies that are  a little bit more on the physical side are ones I've gravitated towards over time. Slashers, what  people like to call torture p*rn, or things like that. In this particular case, it's very much more  of a movie that's based around just making you feel uncomfortable. A group of college students, I  believe, go to their one exchange student/friend's to his hometown where they are riding t

his fine  line between being respectful of the culture and being like, "Oh, some of this seems a little bit  cult-like," and how much of that is real and how much of it is it them being just unfamiliar with  that type of thing. And the more and more the story goes on, the more and more everything starts  to unravel. I think that what really also sold me on this movie was the character writing because  obviously the acting is really good, and I don't want to discredit anyone in that sense, but...

You  have to cut this out if I'm wrong, but keep it in if I'm right. I think the main actress is Florence  Pugh. Does that sound right? [SHAN] It is Florence Pugh. [BRIAN] Yes! I nailed it. She does such  a good job of playing a character who's just grieving as f*ck. Like she is...not like a broken  person, but she is very much just going through it in this movie and not in the way where you're  like, "Oh, it's like this really beautiful, nice little..." Like, no, she's going through it, and  he

r piece of sh*t boyfriend plays such a punchable bastard. It's amazing. Like I've always said  that characters who can play people who you want to hate are really special. I'm getting lost in  kind of a ramble just because of how exciting I'm remembering this movie was. Possibly even higher  on my list if I had watched it more recently, but Midsommar was really good. Still a horror movie,  but at least it's one that's a little bit outside of my comfort zone. [SHAN] So, my number eight is  The Cu

phead Show. That is a Netflix original. It came out…I think in the 2020s is when it started.  I believe it's three seasons. Stylistically, it's one of my favorite recent releases. They  based it on the golden age of Disney cartoons, but the humor is modern. And it's also, I believe,  based on a video game that came out in the late 2010s. That was done, I believe, in also a  traditional animation style. They obviously couldn't carry that over for a longer series like  that, but they still kept th

e look in. They still have flickers come over the screen to make it  look like it was done with animation cells. So, artistically, it's stunning. It's about two  brothers, Cuphead and Mugman. They're both cups, and they have beef with the devil. So, it's them  doing like really goofy old style…You know that trope where everyone's fighting and they're  in a ball of dust and like limbs are coming out? [BRIAN] Oh yeah. [SHAN] That would be The  Cuphead Show. And I believe when I was looking up info

rmation about it, I found out that brothers  were the people who developed it, so two brothers made a story about two brothers. When are we  making our video game, Brian? [BRIAN] I'm actually still right now coming to terms with the fact  that you watched The Cuphead Show. I did not know this. [SHAN] Wait, do you know about The Cuphead  Show? [BRIAN] Oh, I know about The Cuphead Show. I knew about the Cuphead game. [SHAN] Why are  you surprised that I've seen this? [BRIAN] Well, I should know at

this point that if it's animated,  you've already seen it. That should be something I assume. [SHAN] To quoth Mugman or Cuphead  probably: “Why I oughta!” I'm going to take that out. That was awful. God. [BRIAN] No, no. You have  to keep that in. Very important. [SHAN] Sorry. Um, please take us away to number seven. [BRIAN]  Seven for me, Train to Busan. I mentioned how with Yellowjackets, I find the medium of like survival  horror, whatever you want to call that...lost in the woods. It's been

done a lot. I don't always  find it to be super interesting by its own, and I feel like zombie movies are that on steroids.  The genre itself is just so, so, so bloated, and there's just so much going on that I was  very hesitant to give this a go. Entirely worth it. It's not a zombie movie that's great. It is  a great movie that just also happens to, I guess, have zombies in it. The character writing, the  acting, the different story threads that kind of tie together, all just literally on a tr

ain for  the most part, you know, and the few stations is stops at. It really is wonderful. It's also along  with RRR from last year making me think that I need to do a much better effort to kind of expand  and start watching more foreign movies as well, because it was just amazing. It's also a  movie that doesn't really pull its punches. I mentioned that with Evil Dead Rise. I think  by the time I got to the end of this, I was actually surprised at really how down it made me  feel even though t

here's really a lot of kind of beautiful character interactions and redemption  stories and things like that. But, all in all, I would say that if you are maybe dissuaded  from the kind of action zombie-type movie, this is totally worth watching. I cried a whole  lot right at the end and also a couple of times throughout the middle. You're on seven. You have  to tell us about your number seven. [SHAN] Brian, I'm going to paint a little picture for you.  [BRIAN] You have your brushes? [SHAN] I fe

el like we need to be funnier. This is...what happened to  us? [BRIAN] Wait, wait. Shannon, Shannon. Do you have your brushes? [SHAN] I have my brushes,  Brian. [BRIAN] You have your canvas? [SHAN] I have my canvas, Brian. [BRIAN] Alright, do you have  your easel? [SHAN] I have my easel. [BRIAN] Okay, now, is your easel like angling perhaps natural  light like a window or porch or are you using like the fluorescents above? I just want to make  sure we have everything covered here before you get

into this picture that you're painting  for us. [SHAN] All right, to paint a picture: You walk into the movie theater, you go up and you  spend an exorbitant amount of money on popcorn, maybe some peanut M&M's—I know those are your  favorite—a nice Cherry Coke. You go into the theater, you sit down, you get a nice cushiony  seat. You picked a nice seat ahead of time; it's in the middle of the road towards the back. You're  watching the screen, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem comes on

, and you're thinking,  "This is a cute movie, but there's no way the 'Heyayayaya’ song by SlackCircus on YouTube could  possibly be part of the official soundtrack." You'd be wrong. [BRIAN] Wait, so you had me up  until the point of the 'Heyaya' song because you have just described my every movie experience.  [SHAN] The one where He-Man's like, “And I try!” [BRIAN] No, wait, no it's not. [SHAN] I remember  hearing it and I was thinking, "Oh, like this is so nice," but unfortunately, I much pref

er the  SlackCircus version on YouTube as opposed to the actual song. Then I heard Skeletor's voice  and I was like, "There's no way they're actually playing this." They did! That was part of the  soundtrack. [BRIAN] That's phenomenal! I only heard like the last little bit of what you were  saying because it was blasting in my ears in full volume. [SHAN] When I tell you that is my most  repeated workout song when I'm at the gym. I can't get pumped unless I'm listening to that. There is  this oth

er joke where some bad guy or something was going around them in circles and one of them  just goes, "Oh my God, he's Tokyo drifting around us." [BRIAN] I'm just spitballing, but it sounds  like this is like the first time somebody who was roughly in that era of humor was like, "Oh, now  I'm taking that as like the primary source of what I'm going to throw into this movie." [SHAN] It  really did. Humor was definitely the heart of it, and the way they went about it was really  interesting because

the style of speaking was very natural. There were parts they talked over  each other, there were some awkward silences or phrasings, and the way they did it, it just made  the jokes hit harder because they felt a lot more natural and not as staged or sitcom adjacent. They  were also, you know, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This was the first time they actually sounded and  looked like teenagers, so that impressed me. The animation, unfortunately, this came out the same  year as Across the Spid

er-Verse, so obviously the animation's going to take a backseat in  terms of how much appreciation it's getting, but the way it was styled was so sketch-like. But  overall, animation: top tier, humor: top tier, star-studded voice cast, and just a solid movie.  I feel like the lesson could have been like...I don't know, I guess I don't need a lesson. I'm  25. But excellent film. [BRIAN] My buddy Matt, who I live with, showed me recently his VHS tape  that he had of the Teenage Mutant Turtles. I f

eel like I'd seen it before, so I'm going to say it  to you, Shannon, someone who also lived in the same household as me with the same VHS tapes,  and I want to see if you remember this episode. Raphael is going to a party on a boat and then  like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle girl with like a tail shows up. [SHAN] Oh my God. [BRIAN] And  starts fighting alongside him and then that's the episode. There's a guy with like another ship who  takes it hostage. Do you do you remember this or no? [SHAN

] I don't remember the story at all, like  when you're talking about them on a boat, I don't, but I remember there being a female turtle who  was like one of them but bimbofied. [BRIAN] Yeah, it was like a lizard person? Matt threw it on and  he didn't believe me because I have notoriously bad memory, so I was watching it like, “Oh  my God, I remember this,” and he's like, “No you don't, you're making that up.” I'm like,  “No, I do." We definitely had that VHS tape somewhere. [SHAN] *Googling* W

ait, Teenage Mutant  Ninja Turtle Raphael girl…oh, oh, oh, I shouldn't have typed that in. Never mind! [BRIAN] Safe  search on! Safe search on! [SHAN] You know what, let's just keep moving. I don't want to think  about what I just saw. [BRIAN] That's amazing. Six for me, my second entry that is not a horror  film, I guess, is About Time. [SHAN] Oh my God. [BRIAN] I'm not going to apologize for it. I'm  not going to feel bad about it. It is just like a Hallmark movie with extra steps, I think. It

also  raises a lot of questions about how moralistically this guy uses his ability to teleport through  time because that's what the movie is about, folks. I'm setting that aside for the narrative.  The movie doesn't want to engage in that deeper thought line, so I'm not going to. But yeah, About  Time is literally just a movie where this guy and all of the dudes in his family lineage have the  ability to go into a dark space, close their eyes, and travel to different instances in time. I  gues

s the explanation is then they live through those moments and then go back to the present day.  Like they don't relive all that time up until the present day again; they just jump back, I guess,  afterwards. But the timeline does change. It's a lot to work with, and I think the movie does a  pretty good job of staying cutesy and wholesome, but then it kind of starts to layer in a little  bit and take some heavier punches. And I don't know if I wasn't just paying attention and it  like wormed its

way into my heart or if I was sitting there the whole time actively just being  like, you know what, this actually really cute and funny and I like the characters. But then  you get to the end and they hit you with some of the heavier punches and I remember like I was  on a Discord call when the movie finished and I had the mic moved away from my face because I was  literally sobbing. I was like crying at the end of this movie in some of the last scenes. And  it's what I imagine people probably

experience when they watch romcoms normally and I think maybe  I should start trying to do that because I had a really good time with this one. [SHAN] If there's  anyone still listening at this point in the video, please drop some romcom recommendations for  my brother down below. [BRIAN] Hit me with it. [SHAN] All right, my number six, piggybacking  off of last year's number one, is Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake. This is good because I feel  like you have a working knowledge of Adventure tim

e just because of proximity to me and Mikaila.  Oh my God, that's so funny. I put in my notes "to paint a picture," but I am absolutely not  doing that again. [BRIAN] The only picture that's painted in my mind right now is Fionna and  Cake from Shrek, if you know what I'm saying…If you know what I'm saying. [SHAN] I can't right  now, Brian. Do you already know what I've seen about Raphael? I can't keep doing this. [BRIAN]  Just real quick, Google… [SHAN] Fionna's cake Shrek. [BRIAN] Fionna’s cak

e Shrek and I'm  sure it'll be normal, probably. [SHAN] You can't trust the internet. So obviously Fionna and  Cake are the genderbent versions of Finn and Jake, but the whole thing…this is a 10 episode spin-off,  and the whole time it's following Fionna, Cake, and Simon through all these different universes  where they can pay little homages to certain parts of the original series while Simon's grappling  with some internal stuff. And the thing that really impressed me about this show, because

Simon  is one of my favorite characters from the original series, is that they touched on his one fault that  they never really mentioned directly in the show: his fiancée, girlfriend, lady, I don't remember  what they were, she gave up her entire career for him and they never touched on it, but that's kind  of... they show the ramifications of this and him dealing with his guilt and grief. It gutted  me. It was beautiful. And the whole thing is him finding out how to cope with his sadness and 

Fionna learning how to romanticize the unromantic and understanding that there are things in every  single person's life that are more beautiful than they seem. And also, Brian David Gilbert voiced  a character. [BRIAN] He's getting into voice acting. [SHAN] He has a phenomenal voice. [BRIAN]  I hope he does more. He's definitely not anywhere on my list at all. Don't worry about it. [SHAN] If  you are implying what I think you are implying and that is in your top five… [BRIAN] You'll see. And  I

think it might be. What I will say is, whenever you talk about Adventure Time stuff or Fionna and  Cake stuff, it kind of sounds like when people would talk about really early mythos and mythology  from different cultures and it's just like this off-the-wall sh*t. [SHAN] Wow. All right. Can  you usher us into what I believe is number five, the top five? [BRIAN] Yeah, so my number five that  I picked is The Exorcist, the original Exorcist, from way back. I have a fun theme or trend in  my life w

here someone will bother me for a very long time to watch the original of a horror  franchise or an old classic, then I put it off. Then I watch it and I'm like, "Wow, that's  one of the best things I've ever seen. Why have I waited so long to watch it?" It's happened with  so many movies. Very much the case with this. To show how tough this entire list was, I believe  at one point I was considering not including it, and at a different point I was considering  including it as my number one pick.

So it's kind of right there in the middle. I feel like it ended  up in a good spot. It's hard to explain it without the context of the time period. When The Exorcist  came out, it was like unheard of to put what they put in that movie, you know, into film or at the  very least in such a mainstream film. Like, I'm sure there's always the case of other artists and  people who maybe didn't get as much credit trying it out beforehand, but be that as it may, The  Exorcist itself still holds up today

. It spends a lot of time building. It is a slow burn throughout  most of the film, and it leads up to maybe a 15-20 minute scene right at the end where everything  pays out during the exorcism itself. And the entire time you're watching and just really  being unsure of what's coming next. This girl is becoming more and more of a demon, priests and  religious workers they bring in to kind of tackle the issue are seeming less and less in control of  the situation, and by the time you reach the en

d of the movie, you've grown to really appreciate  everything it's been working with and toward. And I think it's tough because over the course of time  it loses that context of when it came out and what it did for horror, but I still think it holds up,  even in a vacuum. I know its recent sequel/remake came out and was met with a lot of controversy.  I've not yet seen it. I've been told it's kind of mid. Not sure. I have to wait to form my own  opinion on that. But if someone was let down or ga

ve that a shot and wasn't a big fan and you've  yet to see the original, I would really, really recommend going and giving it a shot because it's  a good time. [SHAN] Starting with my top five, Three Busy Debras. Live-action. Essentially, it's  about three rich, Karen-coded housewives named Debra. They are not good people. None of this  is supposed to be teaching us any lessons; it's just them being very awful, doing awful things in  this weird surrealist place where nothing makes sense. And wha

t I loved was that they would do all  these horrible things, they would be very campy, and then randomly they'd drop something super  heavy in there. And I think if there's one episode I have to point to, I would say Debspringa,  which is when the Debras are going Rumspringa, essentially. And it just kind of shows how they  could be happier, they don't like their current situation, they don't like being housewives. And  I don't think this is supposed to...because I know we get in that dangerous

territory of not valuing  the work of people who are stay-at-home spouses or parents, but I don't think it's criticizing that.  I think it's criticizing affluent suburbia and how none of these characters ever really thought  to sit down and ask themselves what they wanted. But I'm not going to try to sell this as a deep  show; it's very goofy for the most part. That's it. I actually didn't have a lot to say about  that. [BRIAN] I don't remember which episode I saw. I remember it was the one wher

e she was  picking a new pool boy. [SHAN] That's the first episode. Yeah. [BRIAN] Oh, well, that's the one  I saw. [SHAN] I also do want to say that I think what's cool is the concept was created by the  three actresses playing the Debras. They were a comedy trio, and they thought it was a funny  skit, and it just was so popular that it got the funding to become a show. So it's nice when the  writers and the creators are also in the show. All right. [BRIAN] My number four is MNS, M. Night  Shyam

alan's Knock at the Cabin, which did come out this year, 2023. It is hard to explain how I  feel about this movie because I've heard so much about the book now and what the story maybe  could have been, and I think to myself, "Wow, that sounds really better than what we got." But  the thing is, what we got I thought was actually really, really, really cool. I think he gets a  lot of heat, rightfully so for "The Avatar" one, everything else, you know, hit or miss. I think  a lot of storytellers,

whatever you want to call them, have a lot of flops; they have a lot of good  movies, and we kind of get to appreciate the fact that there's both. I think he got a bad reputation  even though he's done some really good work just because of a couple of movies or gaffs or  whatever you have and kind of became low-hanging fruit because of that. This movie really shows, I  think not a return to form, but at least for me, re-entered the concept that there's really some  cool stuff out there that he c

an make. And I would say that the parts of this movie that are  so cool are the unknown. So this movie is very straightforward in as much as it can be, where  there is a couple and their daughter who are going on a little vacation to a cabin in the woods.  Different horror movie but still really good. They're going to a cabin in the woods, and while  they're there they're visited by these four armed, kind of ragtag, miscellaneous group of people.  Like they don't really seem to have much knowled

ge of one another or any sort of set background.  And these four people tell them, "Hey, we've been visited by visions and kind of premonitions  that the apocalypse is going to happen, and the only way the apocalypse is going to not  happen is if one of you kills another one of you, more or less does like a blood sacrifice of like  your family member or whatever," and throughout the movie the cadence picks up because as more  and more things come into vision of it being like, “Oh, there’s this g

lobal phenomena happening.  Is that real? Is it made up? What’s going on? Are these people really seeing these events before  they happen? Is it coincidence? Are they making it up?" And I just think it really sells itself  on the character acting. Dave Bautista is in this one, and up until this movie not only was I,  again, being a little bit down on my boy M. Night Shyamalan, but I was also very much...not tired  of Dave Bautista...I just had seen him in a lot of movies and things where I felt

like, "Oh, like he  just kind of plays the same guy or whatever." His character is such a soft, charismatic, convincing  dude in this movie that I was just blown away. And I have to issue my formal apology to Dave Bautista  because I think he actually exhibited some really good acting chops in this one. I'm not going  to say any more because I don't want to spoil anything, but Knock at the Cabin is very obvious  by the end, what was going on and it doesn't really leave a lot up for interpretatio

n in that  way. [SHAN] Also, I already forget what number we're on. I'm so sorry. [BRIAN] Uh, I just did  four, so I think you're also on four. [SHAN] Four, okay. *humming* Durdurdurdurdur! Sorry, I had  too much wine. This was bad. Birdgirl! I wanted to do the tune. Birdgirl f*cks. [BRIAN] I  feel like you've entered a third item into the lexicon of things you shouldn't type into  Google because you'll be sad about what you find out. [SHAN] Oh God, okay. I'm not even going  to pretend to unders

tand the pre-existing content that led to this TV show. It goes all the way  back to Hanna-Barbera cartoons with Birdman, the character, and then that eventually created  Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law. TLDR, this is about Birdgirl, also known as Judy Ken Sebben,  whose father recently passed away. The only reason I watched this is because the titular Birdgirl is  voiced by none other than Frankie from Community, and she slays so hard. [BRIAN] I love Frankie  from Community. [SHAN] I think she

killed this role. But this is one of those shows where some of  the main characters do things that are not great, but the real gem of the show is Gillian with a  hard G, who is her valley girl assistant who takes the job way too seriously. [BRIAN] That's going  to be really funny when next year my top 10 list is just exactly your top 10 list from this year,  and I don't even have to do any work. All right, here's my three. Now Shannon, you and I had a  conversation about this movie before we hit

the end of the year, because I was like, "Hey Shannon,  I really am going to try not to watch this movie because if I do, it's going to have to go on my  list probably, and then it's going to knock other stuff off, and I don't want that right now." But  then I did not have any self-control and I watched the movie...I want to say with a week left of the  year probably. Godzilla Minus One, which I'm going to get the mucky stuff out of the way first.  Remember earlier when I talked about All Quiet

on the Western Front and I was like, "This movie  did a really good job of being like 'war is bad' and no one should be excited about that?" [SHAN]  Yeah. [BRIAN] The movie itself has a lot of that, "Ah, we're soldiers. We're guys who fought in the  war. We got this going for us." They kind of band together like that and even the United States  loves going crazy on their old war movies and are like, "Oh, we're American soldiers, we only do  good stuff." You have to watch out for that stuff, man

. That being said, you set that aside, this  movie f*cks. I want you to Google "Godzilla f*cks," Shannon, because that's what this movie  does. [SHAN] My hand was on my phone. I hate you. [BRIAN] You were going to Google it. [SHAN]  Well, I thought it was going to be like…Remember how last year you were like, “Look up 'Shin  Godzilla,' he's so cute with his guts coming out," and I thought it was one of those. [BRIAN] Okay.  Shin Godzilla is really cute and that's maybe an important contextualiza

tion is that that's still  my favorite Godzilla movie, but this one almost dethroned it. It was close. This is a much more  traditional film though compared to Shin Godzilla, which was kind of weird. It follows a pilot who  was supposed to be a kamikaze pilot during the final days of World War II, whose plans get  upended because, number one, the war ends, number two, Godzilla shows up. And this entire  movie is this guy coming to terms with how his life has impacted others, losing people around

  this time. And again, obviously there's also the civilian side of everything that happened  in Japan. I don't want to deface that either, and this movie really doesn't shy away from  that to its credit. And it's like this little inspirational piece and I just found it so  interesting because nowadays I feel like a lot of the western hemisphere Godzilla movies  are: Godzilla shows up, there's a lot of crazy monster fighting and then...it lacks scale  or maybe impact. I feel like in this one whe

n Godzilla shows up and is walking through a town  or activating one of his new abilities or shooting off a f*cking laser blast, the movie will take  five minutes just to make you know, "Oh, anything that gets in the way of Godzilla is f*cked." It is  this intimidating powerful feeling and it's coming out of what is one of the smallest Godzillas that  we've seen in recent times. He's not that big, right? But he feels menacing. [SHAN] How many  stories tall would you say? [BRIAN] Spoilers a littl

e bit again...some Godzilla size changes  and also some considerable time movement in the movie. It recurs a little bit. Looking it up, he  is about 164 ft tall, so we're going to say what, like 16 stories? So he is big, like he's still  a Godzilla-size Godzilla but I know for a fact compared to other Godzillas he's a little tinier.  He's a slimmed-down boy. But similar to Train to Busan, I'm actually going to say, it's a really  great movie because it doesn't put the Godzilla stuff first, which

maybe is more what I'm talking  about missing the mark with some of the newer Godzilla movies that have come out elsewhere.  It's more just about the characters in the movie, what they have going on, and what Godzilla  represents to them, specifically to the main guy. Some of the stuff they do in this movie to  Godzilla to try to stop him or the whole big plan they hatch is just this real just fun and engaging  final act. I really think that the movie is solid from start to finish, but it's one

of those ones  where it doesn't really lose you as time goes on; it keeps building up to the next thing. As an avid  Godzilla fan, I am biased, but I've talked to a number of people even outside of that circle and  everyone I know who's seen this did not regret it, so definitely worth watching. [SHAN] As long as  he's moderately cute because Shin Godzilla looked really cute. [BRIAN] Shin Godzilla is a  little baby and I love him. [SHAN] Did he kill people? [BRIAN] Oh yeah. [SHAN] Oh... [BRIAN] 

Loads. [SHAN] Hm...Well, I guess I can support a queen. Number three for me is BoJack Horseman. I  was putting off watching this for a while because I think I was wrongfully associating the show  with the few people who have seen it and maybe not defend all of what he does but some of it. You are  not supposed to watch this and root for BoJack; that is something you have to be aware of  going in. I think most people are. First off, the animation did worm its way into my heart.  It's nothing cra

zy but the texture of some of the designs is pretty impressive. The characters, both  good and bad, all work together really well. They highlight all of the different parts of Hollywood  and the effect that Hollywood has on people. The humor took, I believe, most of the first season  for me to get into, but after that, I feel like it was non-stop funny until the end of season 6.  It does a great job of, when we talk about reasons versus excuses, it gives reasons for almost  everything and it nev

er excuses behavior. That leads into my favorite part of the show, which is  any episode that relates to BoJack and his parents who are voiced by Will Arnett and Wendy Malick.  Here you see kind of how BoJack's upbringing affected the course of his life, but the show  again never fails to remind the audience that just because he has all these reasons to be sh*tty,  they are not excuses to be sh*tty. And his parents suck, but every episode they're in is so well  written. And there are also a few

uniquely framed episodes. It kind of reminds me of Community  and how they sometimes shift their medium to keep things upbeat. I know there's an episode  where therapists are discussing their clients but they're trying to keep up confidentiality  so they're talking about them as different characters. They have thinly veiled disguises.  There's one episode where the entire thing is just BoJack giving a eulogy and then there's an episode  where they don't use voice acting at all. It's all silent.

So it's very clever, it's very witty, it's  profound. I was getting so nervous at the end that they were going to cower away from what they were  going towards. I thought if they had it would have completely ruined the show for me but they didn't  chicken out and I think that's what made this so exceptional. [BRIAN] All right, you finally  made it Shannon, you got to where you wanted to be. [SHAN] Oh no. [BRIAN] Number two is Brian  David Gilbert in Dances Moving! [SHAN] Oh my God, I knew it. [B

RIAN] Actually, I want to make  sure I do appropriate credit. I'm pretty sure this was actually a series written by or at  least worked on by Laura Kathryn Gilbert, who is one of his siblings. So BDG obviously  plays the titular character and I'm sure had a hand in some of the stuff, but I want to make sure  everyone is credited here because this thing is a masterpiece and I am not using that word lightly.  For anyone who hasn't seen it or doesn't know, who might be familiar with Brian David Gil

bert  more through his work at Polygon or just general other YouTube shenanigans, it is a short video  series on YouTube and it's very clearly supposed to be a little funny like, "Oh, it's a short  video series, a couple of minutes per episode where Brian David Gilbert does a silly dance and  teaches you how to do dance styles," right? Like high knees or arm shaking or the worm or whatever.  So different little bits. But one of the things that's so cool is that it breaks its medium or  maybe you

could call it alternative storytelling. And it's one of those things, I think this was the  same as last year where the more I say about this, the more I'm going to ruin it for somebody.  You really should go in blind and take my word for it. So, anyone who wants to do that,  pause or jump to the next section. Shannon will put a time code in right here. Bam. Thanks,  Shannon. For anyone who doesn't care about that, it starts to tell a story in the background with  these characters who are in th

is silly YouTube video series that's supposed to just kind of be  dumb fun. And I don't know if I'm just blowing something that I shouldn't out of proportion,  but I found it to be so surprising. And I think that's maybe where it catches you off guard. Like,  you're instantly like, "Oh, that's weird. I didn't realize they were going to go in this direction.  That seems like a really weird take or choice." And then you get to the last episode where like  you kind of watch this small arc happen in

the background of this little dumb dance series and  you feel genuine emotion about it. It gets to like a really low place. And I think it does a really  successful job of getting to a really low place such that when you see the last video and you see  everything come together, literally and kind of metaphorically when he strings all these different  dances together and metaphorically when he strings all these different dances together and mirrors,  I think, some sort of emotional acceptance of

the character. You know, I don't even really know  necessarily. I'm just kind of spitting word soup because it evokes so many emotions all  at once. I mentioned earlier watching a full romcom and crying a lot at the end. I was crying  significantly at the end of BDG's dances moving, a stupid YouTube video by Brian Gilbert and  his sister Laura Gilbert, where I was like, "Oh, I did not expect that to come out of  nowhere." And the entire thing takes maybe 15, 20 minutes to get through. I was jus

t so blown  away and so caught off guard. And I love when certain mediums are taken and there's a bit of a  subversion or maybe a change in form or a breakage of form. And this did such a good job of that  and I really just could not put it right near the top of my list. [SHAN] You told me to watch  it and I threw it on. Tears were streaming down my face. [BRIAN] Alright, what is your number two?  [SHAN] Oh shoot, I didn't even scroll down. Oh, this should be number one. It should be.  Across th

e Spider-Verse. It is phenomenal. The animation...this is the prime example of  how waiting RWBY-length durations for certain things will give you great quality...unlike  RWBY. The level of detail included in the plot is impressive. There are callbacks to things  that were put in the first movie. The voice acting is amazing. The humor is amazing. The action.  It's like every aspect of it was fine-tuned to such an impressive degree. And everything they  added added. Nothing was added for no reaso

n. No characters were unnecessary. I loved the theme  and I feel like Spider-Man has been exploring the idea of being a hero in a way that not many other  movies have. I don't typically love Marvel films. I've seen some but the ones that I love the most  are Spider-Man because it's always just some kid who's trying to figure it all out. Should you have  to give up everything to be a hero? Should you have to sacrifice everything you love to fill that  role? And I feel like it was this whole conce

pt of Miles trying to say he could have his cake and eat  it too. And Mikaila actually pointed out there's that one scene where he wants to write so much  in the cake that he ends up having to get two cakes. Was it meant to be that deep? I think so.  I just wanted to brag that I got to see a live orchestra-accompanied showing of the original Into  the Spider-Verse and it was so cool. [BRIAN] As we spoke about previously, I purposefully did not  put this on my list or rather I felt okay not putti

ng it on my list to make room for others  because I knew you were going to, which feels greedy of me. [SHAN] I get it. I wombo-comboed  so you're allowed. [BRIAN] You wombo-comboed but I was like, "Oh, I should really get Across the  Spider-Verse in here." Then I was like, "Oh well, Shannon's definitely going to talk about it.  [SHAN] Well, did you have anything to add? We have the time. [BRIAN] This is going to sound  weird and I don't know if it's everyone's favorite take...and also I shouldn'

t say that. I'm sure  there are plenty of people who feel this way. I'm not special. But I still think at the end of the  day when more time passes I'm going to feel that Into the Spider-Verse is the better of the two  movies. Not for grandiose reasons or anything like that. I just think it's a more straight...I mean  it's hard when you have a story that's following up another story and then also you have to split  it into two because like we both know and everyone who is watching is probably kn

ows it doesn't just  end. It's going to be leading into a third movie. You have a lot more to work with. You have a lot  more hurdles to overcome. I feel like the first one captures like a bit more of a simple story.  It's more of an origin than it is a complicated, more emotionally demanding, complex-themed, this  big undertaking that they did. So, I loved Across the Spider-Verse; I thought it was amazing. I'm  also going to say that the animation and sound and design definitely even were impro

vements  upon the first. [SHAN] And here comes number one. [BRIAN] My number one is Joe Pera Talks with  You. Joe Pera Talks with You is written and made by Joe Pera. And it is just about this, like, I'm  trying to think of the best word to describe this man. I think he's just comfortable. It's just  this comfortable dude who's just telling you about stuff. Like, one episode might be about him  talking about breakfast, and the entire episode is just him talking about what you might order  at a c

lassic diner and why one option is good or another. And it starts out like that, and so the  first time my friend showed it to me, I was like, "Oh, this is funny." He's got like a kind of  awkward...I guess you call it like alternative comedy or something, right? Or awkward comedy. And  by the end of like the third or fourth episode, as is the theme with me, I was bawling, and it wasn't  even for story reasons because the show does eventually develop more of an actual plot. It's  just something

about this man and his appreciation or at least expression of appreciation for the  world we live in and some of the funny little bits of it that I don't think we really think about  that often. Something I'm going to circle back to...I don't know if it was something we talked  about during our anime rewatch...do you remember Non Non Biyori? [SHAN] Of course I remember  Non Non Biyori. [BRIAN] It's very clear that specifically the animators and artists who worked  on it had this love for the cou

ntryside that they really poured into the work and it was so apparent  even though nothing was ever really said about it, right? [SHAN] Yeah. [BRIAN] That's kind of how  I feel about everything in the show. Whether or not it's the character, whether or not it's really  Joe Pera, there's something about the way he just engages so earnestly and genuinely with everything  he talks about that opens the door for it to be funny, that opens the door for the eventual arcs  in the show to be heartfelt an

d heartwarming or maybe even a little sad. It's not really just on  the nose. Again, a lot of it's just left for you to read into and enjoy. And if you don't watch the  show, listen to his comedy, go find his specials or whatever. He has a podcast you should check  out. Everything he does is somehow in character but also never quite what you expect. And it's  just one of those things where it inspires me to maybe want to try to be a better person or maybe a  more engaged person. I don't really k

now, but this show was like wearing a blanket is the best way  I can describe it. And everyone should try it out at least a little bit. It's really good. [SHAN]  See, the problem now is that you should have ended because you just did a love letter to the mundane  and I'm about to do a hate letter to the mundane. I have actually Seinfeld as number one. [BRIAN]  Oh no. [SHAN] So obviously, this was in our house a lot when we were growing up. Our parents  both watched it, we knew all of the jokes f

rom it, but I never did a full watch-through. I haven't  seen all the episodes, and in the way that Three Busy Debras is about bad people who have brief  moments of genuine connection, that doesn't exist here. There is not one moment in this series that  tugs on any genuine emotion, and I love that. They commit to having the most surface level...It's  not, I would say, as intense as It's Always Sunny. They aren't that bad. But they're bad in  the sense that they are always so bitter about the mo

notony of daily life. It's about all the  things you hate that people do. The loud talkers, the close talkers, they do a whole bunch of  different things that are so specific, but the fact that this series came out in '89, I want to  say it ended in '99, so it was like a 9-season, 10-year run about. Some episodes obviously didn't  age well; that's going to happen with most older sitcoms, but compared to the other sitcoms airing  at that time, I think the content aged really well because it's not

about pop culture. It's about  things that are so inherently human. Obviously, things like tape recorders or not having caller  ID, those don't last, but you still get the humor behind it. The acting...We talk about the lovable  bastard archetypes a lot, it's very JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, but that's definitely the type of  characters working here. And I think what I appreciated was Elaine's writing was weirdly  ahead of its time. Not because she was so in-depth or interesting, but because they

made  her as reprehensible as the guys. And usually, the female characters surrounded by doofuses are  meant to be the responsible, logical, emotionally intelligent ones, but she's just as disgusting and  rude as the others. She does not want to have any deep relationships with the men she's with, and  I feel like to have a character like that, it's so refreshing. The delivery of the lines, there's  something just so unique about how the show only focuses on the smallest things, but they manage

d  to make like 30-minute episodes about it. [BRIAN] I'm going to just take one quick second and just  challenge you. [SHAN] Okay. [BRIAN] Because you said it was like a hate letter to the mundane.  I'm going to disagree. I think knowing is loving, and I think that this show kind of documents the  human experience so specifically in such a weird way where it's like, "Hey, here's that one thing  that if you think about it is kind of funny or dumb," and puts it in the spotlight because  otherwise

you never think about it or really give it the time of day, right? You said it kind  of takes these small little moments of the human experience and cements them a little bit more  permanently in comedy, which is always a good thing. [SHAN] That's a good way of looking at it  because it really does act as a time capsule for the '90s, but it also is something that transcends  time, and it really is just the everyday things, and I love everyday things. [BRIAN] Well,  Shannon, if one thing has beco

me readily apparent, is that we've become a lot less funny with  age. Dude, that really sobers a person up. I've been thinking it for a while, your YouTube  channel has just been on the decline. I really hope that my presence helps kick it back off.  [SHAN] You're the star, I'm just here for it.