My Best List for 2020

As 2020 comes to an end (FINALLY!), I decided to participate in the year end tradition of making a “Best List” of my own.  In this case, the Best Shows that I Saw This Year.  

Before I present my choices, I felt the need to present some caveats as to where my choices came from and how I came to pick what I did.

First, ninety-nine-point-nine percent of my viewing is through some streaming site.  I watch broadcast TV for one hour each week, and that’s the new show, “This Week” on Sunday morning.  So, there is no broadcast TV show on my list.  Nor anything that might have come out in a movie theater in the first three months of the year.  The streaming services I use are Netflix, Amazon Prime, Rakuten Viki, VRV, and YouTube.  Rakuten Viki is a site specializing in Asian movies and TV shows.  And VRV is a site for Japanese Anime.  

As one could probably tell from my selection of streaming sites, I watch more Asian shows, particularly Japanese and Korean, than most of the people I know.  You’d probably have to talk to someone who lives in Osaka or Seoul to find someone who watches more of these dramas than I do.  

My favorite genres are Science Fiction, Romance, Suspense, Fantasy, and some Horror, especially if it has zombies.  If your tastes run to something in another genre, then you probably won’t find much of anything here to like.  

I’ve decided to list my ten favorites divided into Movies, TV Shows, Animation, and Documentaries.  I picked the three best for each category and ranked them, presenting them in reverse order.  

These are not necessarily shows FROM this year, but shows which I’ve SEEN this year.  One of the benefits of streaming sites is seeing things that were made years ago, breakout shows for certain artists, the things that made them famous, and the like.  So if I list something from years ago, it’s only because I only saw it this year.

So, here we go. 

Movies

3) Witch: Subversion - Korea.  On Netflix, For Rent on Amazon Prime.  2018.

A High School student with a mysterious past has that past catch up with her after she appears on a televised talent show.  The movie is a comic book hero’s origin story, focusing on the main character’s efforts to deal with the effects of what was done to her in a secret government laboratory.  What makes this so good is the relentless sparkling actions scenes, and the performance of Kim Da-mi, the young actress in the lead role, who has gone on to do other notable performances, including a major role in one of my favorite TV shows below.  A sequel was scheduled to be made and/or released this year, but I’ve not heard what the pandemic may have done to affect that.  

2) Romance Doll - Japan.  Streaming on Netflix.  2020.

A sculptor looking for work gets hired by a company that makes life-sized sex dolls.  He meets his future wife there when she comes to model for the company’s latest product after she is told that the company designs breast implants for patients that have undergone mastectomies.  This is the story of their romance and marriage and what happens as he tries to keep the secret of how he earns his living from her.  This is a beautiful romance about how keeping secrets can drive two people in love apart.  Yuki Tanada, who wrote the book it’s based, also wrote the script and directed the film.  I was crying my eyes out for the last twenty minutes of the film.  I bought the novel to read in its original Japanese.  

1) Parasite - Korea.  On Hulu, For Rent on Amazon Prime.  2019

Class differences is a common theme in Korean movies and TV shows.  But Parasite’s examination of what these social structures can do to people is biting.  Deep enough that the imagines stay with you long after the movie is done.  It is always satisfying to see a Best Picture that really deserves the title.  

TV Shows

3) My Mister - Korea.  Netflix.  2018.

A middle-aged man who is going through the motions in his life and a young woman who is trapped by her life’s circumstances to have greater responsibility that she can handle become involved with each other when a package intended to frame and remove someone else in a company power-play is mistakenly delivered to his attention because he has a similar name to the target.  I call this show a “love story” though not in the traditional romantic sense.  It’s about how caring for someone else can help you learn to love yourself more.  It is tense, heartbreaking, and uplifting by turns.  The two main characters are portrayed by Lee Sun-kyun, who was featured as the wealthy father in Parasite, and the singer Lee Ji-eun, more commonly known by her stage name, IU, showing off her acting skills.  

2) Itaewon Class - Korea.  Netflix.  2020.

A young man named Saeroyi, on the verge of graduating from High School beats up the rich classmate that killed his father while driving drunk.  The rich classmate avoids punishment through his father’s connection and Saeroyi goes to prison for attempted murder, seemingly ruining his chances for life.  The show follows the young man as he fights his past and the efforts of the rich classmate’s father to keep him in his place to achieve his dream over the course of the next fifteen years.  Another Korean show with class differences as its theme, but one that is more inspiriting and uplifting.  The name of the show comes from a section of Seoul known for the wide variety of people from around the world that live there.  It also features Kim Dal-mi, the actress from Witch: The Subversion portraying the character of Jo Yi-seo, the brilliant, and somewhat psychopathic college drop-out that joins forces with Saeroyi to help him achieve his dream.  I downloaded the theme song, Starting Over, because I loved it and this show so much.

1) It’s Ok to Not Be Okay - Korea.  Netflix.  2020

A selfless care-giver at a psychiatric hospital, Moon Gang-tae, becomes the object of affection of a popular writer of dark children’s stories, Ko Mun-yeong, after he stops her from stabbing an escaped patient that ruined her public reading of her latest work.  Over the course of the sixteen episodes we see the two wrestle with their emotional and psychological problems as well as the relationship developing between them.  The backstory gets a bit “tangly” as the unknown connection between the two and their past loses comes to light, but Seo Yea-ji’s portrayal of the psychotically self-obsessed Ko Mun-yeong is mesmerizing.  And Oh Jung-se gives a standout performance as Moon Sang-tae, Gang-tae’s older brother with autism.  I’ve been wanting to write about this show since watching it since the story structure of the relationship between the two main characters is a near perfect example of a thematic relationship between the Protagonist and the Impact Character should be set up.  Look for a more detailed explanation in a coming blog entry.  

Animation

3) After the Rain - Japan.  Amazon Prime.  2018.

A young high school track start loses her sense of direction in life when an injury seemingly ends her running career.  Leaving the track team instead of going through rehabilitation, she develops a crush on the manager of the restaurant where she works part-time, a divorced middle aged man who has also given up his dream in life, which was to be a novelist.  She confesses her feelings to him, which starts a poignant relationship between the two as they teach each other to heal themselves.  I was a bit leery when I read the description of the story before watching After the Rain, but the story is very touching and sweet as it pairs Akira’s (the girl) damaged hopes with Kondo’s (the man) faded dreams.  The friendship they develop helps each of them to heal.   

2) Aggretsuko - Japan.  Netflix.  2018 to 2020 (continuing?)

The background characters from Sanrio’s Hello Kitty universe come to life as office workers.  Retsuko, an anthropomorphic red panda, is a stressed out mid-20-something OL (office lady) who is tired of her job but is too debt ridden to get out of it.  Her only release is to go to the karaoke studio after work and scream her lungs out singing to loud, angry death-metal songs.  The episodes are short, about 23 minutes each.  The stories are genuine, both touching and satirically funny.  The characters are cute and adorable.  There are three seasons on Netflix plus a Christmas Special.   I have heard of a fourth season being made, which I hope is true.  

1) Star Trek: Lower Decks.  CBS All Access.  2020.

The ninth series in the Star Trek universe, and the first animated series since the ’73-’74 Stark Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: Lower Decks follows the life and career of Becket Mariner, an trouble-making ensign on the USS Cerritos, and her friends and crew mates as they boldly go to places at least one other starship has gone before.  Becket’s life on board the Cerritos is complicated by secretly being the daughter of Carol Freeman, Captain of the Cerritos.  This show is a MUST WATCH for anyone that is a Star Trek fan.  It is well-written, drawing characters, races, and situations from all the previous Star Trek series, poking fun at the universe while paying homage to it as well.  This show alone makes the subscription to an extra streaming service worth it.  

Documentaries

3) Little Miss Sumo - Japan.  Netflix.  2018

A short nineteen minute film that introduces us to Hiyori, a twenty year old woman following her passion to become a sumo wrestler even though the traditions of the sport say that women aren’t even allowed to stand in the performance area.  Watching this film reminded me of the time I met a Japanese woman that came to the United States to learn to become a sushi chef because in Japan she was told that, because she was a woman, her body temperature was too high to properly make sushi.  A snapshot of someone trying to change the world to fulfill a dream.  

2) Queer Eye: We’re in Japan - United States/Japan.  Netflix.  2019

The members of the Queer Eye team go to Tokyo to help people there with their life style choices.  I never watched Queer Eye when it first became famous, though I was fascinated by the idea (and secretly thought from time to time that I would be a perfect candidate for the show).  When I saw the listing for this series where they go to my favorite travel destination I had to give it a watch and very much enjoyed it.  Style isn’t so much about looking a certain way as it is about expressing yourself openly in how you live.  

1) Pandemic - United States.  Netflix.  2019.

A six episode documentary made just months before Covid became a household world about how to fight the “next pandemic.”  I saw this early in the year, before the first set of closures in Los Angeles county took place.  It focuses on several different people dealing with some aspect of fighting a disease outbreak, such as a doctor working in a rural medical center, the woman in charge of coordinating New York City’s pandemic response, a man working for the WHO in Africa trying to curb and ebola outbreak, and a woman in Oregon trying to fight a law forcing her to get her children vaccinated.  In between, there are scientists and doctors talking about how and where pandemics start and what we need to do to prevent them from happening.  Watching this while the “next” pandemic was upon us, I wondered why it is that people only react to potential disasters when they become less potential and more actual. 

That’s it for me.  Let me know what your favorites were.