It's a special episode this week, we're looking back at our highlights of 2023 including Succession, The Bear, Loki and more.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Hello, and welcome to ScreenBabble,
00:14 your guide to what to watch.
00:16 We'll be tuning into hours and hours of TV
00:18 so we can tell you what you need to be switching on
00:20 and what's to be avoided.
00:22 I'm your host, Kelly Crichton.
00:23 And as ever, our resident TV critics, Stephen Ross
00:25 and Benjamin Jackson, are here.
00:27 And I'm delighted to say this is a really exciting episode.
00:30 We are looking back on the year that was,
00:32 considering our favorite shows, and potentially giving you
00:35 some ideas for some more festive viewing
00:37 if you have the time on your hands.
00:40 Remember, if you want to see our faces,
00:41 you can head over to Freeview Channel 276 Shots, which
00:45 is brought to you by a network of journalists
00:47 across the country who are transforming
00:49 stories at the heart of your community into great TV.
00:51 You'll find true crime stories, football news and analysis,
00:54 plus coverage of lifestyle, TV, film, and much more.
00:58 So this is exciting.
00:59 We get to talk about programs we love this year.
01:01 To be fair, this episode could probably
01:04 go on for like two or three hours.
01:06 But we're going to try and keep to normal time.
01:07 So we've decided we're all going to talk about two things
01:10 and then maybe give some honorable mentions as well
01:12 at the end.
01:13 And we're going to focus on things
01:15 that were new this year rather than like, oh, we
01:17 watched this really--
01:18 like, I wanted to do Yellow Jackets,
01:19 but actually I'd only seen the first series
01:21 and it wasn't new this year.
01:22 So I thought, I won't do that.
01:24 So yeah, as I say, new content.
01:27 Stephen, you're up first.
01:29 What are your two shows of the year?
01:33 OK, well, there's been a lot, hasn't there, this year.
01:36 There's actually been more good stuff than bad,
01:38 even though there's been a lot of rubbish shows as well.
01:42 But I think for me, The Last of Us, which actually debuted
01:46 in January 2023, so pretty much a year ago now.
01:50 I know, it's bizarre.
01:54 That was fantastic.
01:55 I think because it was a video game adaptation
02:00 and it was really good--
02:02 video game adaptations are normally
02:04 a bit of a cursed chalice, a poisoned chalice, even
02:09 Assassin's Creed, et cetera.
02:12 They're normally not all that good.
02:14 This one was actually fantastic.
02:16 Yeah.
02:17 Yeah, anything Paul WS Anderson did video game wise, maybe not.
02:23 But it's been a good year for video game adaptations,
02:25 really, because you had the Super Mario Bros. movie
02:27 as well, didn't you, which was--
02:29 Which was probably my favorite film of the year.
02:31 And one of the highest grossing of the year as well.
02:33 Really?
02:34 I loved it.
02:34 Got a lot of acclaim.
02:37 But yeah, The Last of Us, obviously,
02:38 a bit different to Super Mario Bros.
02:40 It's set following a global pandemic caused
02:43 by some sort of mushroom spore that turns people into--
02:48 well, I don't think they're actually called zombies,
02:50 but they're basically zombies.
02:53 Mushroom zombies.
02:53 Taken over by this mushroom virus.
02:57 And you have these two survivors at the center of it,
03:00 Pedro Pascal, whose daughter was killed very early
03:04 into the pandemic, who takes on almost an adopted daughter
03:10 in the form of Bella Ramsey, who plays a child taken
03:16 into his care who is immune, or seemingly immune,
03:19 to the mushroom spore thing.
03:23 And the series becomes a sort of American road trip
03:28 with Pedro Pascal taking Bella Ramsey under his wing
03:33 and trying to get her to a sanctuary
03:38 where they can hopefully use her to find a cure.
03:42 And by the end of the series, we're
03:45 left on a sort of quite a low note,
03:47 and we're waiting for season two, which,
03:51 because of the SAG-AFTRA strikes and the WGA strikes,
03:57 is not expected until 2025.
04:01 But the first season essentially adapted the first video game.
04:06 And the second season, when it does come out,
04:08 will adapt the second video game.
04:10 And for those who aren't familiar with the games,
04:13 I think the second season will be quite shocking, quite brutal,
04:19 and also very good.
04:20 But yeah, I think what I loved about The Last of Us
04:22 was the just performances from Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey
04:28 and Nick Offerman in the one-off episode that he's in,
04:32 probably my favorite episode.
04:35 They just-- they knock it out of the park.
04:37 And it's a really good soft horror series that's just--
04:42 yeah, it's got a bit of everything for that genre.
04:45 I think what surprised people about it is--
04:48 although it was hotly anticipated,
04:52 but I think what definitely surprised me about it
04:54 was that sort of stereotypical sort of blokey kind of video
04:59 game thing that you expect--
05:02 violence, shoot 'em up, misogyny, blah, blah, blah.
05:05 And then this kind of turned it on its head.
05:08 And there's so much more depth to it.
05:09 And I absolutely love the standalone episodes.
05:13 The love story right in the middle of it was so powerful.
05:17 It was so ingenious.
05:18 It was-- brought us back down to Earth about what
05:22 being alive is about, what living, truly living,
05:25 is about in the midst of all this action and zombies
05:28 where you can kind of forget.
05:30 It becomes sort of fantasy.
05:31 But then that sort of brought us back down to Earth.
05:33 Yeah, it was really powerful and absolutely
05:35 amazing performances.
05:39 Was this a game you would have played, Benji, before?
05:41 What was your take on it?
05:43 I mean, I loved it.
05:45 It basically gave me a newfound hope that video game
05:49 adaptations can be good.
05:52 Like I put in earlier on saying that it's not just
05:56 the myriad of Paul W.S. Anderson doing Resident Evil movies
06:01 or Uwe Boll doing that.
06:02 It was legitimately good.
06:04 And I think it also demonstrated that video games can be a--
06:10 saying this to gamers is like preaching to the converted.
06:13 Video games have always been a great source material
06:16 for fiction in terms of how the storytelling is good.
06:20 And I mean, for me, the biggest bonus with The Last of Us
06:24 is that a former video game producer called Hideo Kojima
06:29 saw it, realized, oh, it can be done really well.
06:32 So we're now going to get an adaptation of Death Stranding
06:35 starring Norman Reedus in the near future, which is
06:39 going to be produced by A24.
06:41 So thank you, The Last of Us, for that.
06:43 Another game I am not--
06:44 Basically reinstalling our faith.
06:45 Another game I'm not familiar with.
06:47 But hopefully we'll be talking about that next year, Benji,
06:50 and you can do a little preview for us on the deep dive.
06:54 Yeah, but I mean, ultimately, The Last of Us,
06:56 you didn't have to be a fan of the video games to appreciate it.
06:59 It was just such a good story by itself.
07:02 And just being a video game fan, it's
07:04 just nice that it was faithful to the source material.
07:07 OK, cool, great.
07:08 Yes, absolutely.
07:09 I think everyone, most people, 99% of people
07:12 are in agreement, The Last of Us is great.
07:14 OK, what else, Stephen?
07:15 What's your number two?
07:17 Well, this is actually probably my number one.
07:19 I think this is my favorite show of the year.
07:22 And it is A Small Light, which was released on Disney+ in May.
07:28 And it followed Mia Gies, the woman who,
07:33 along with a few others, helped to hide the Frank family,
07:36 Anne Frank, Otto Frank, et cetera, in Holland
07:39 during the Nazi occupation.
07:41 And god damn, man, it is an emotional, very moving,
07:48 very well-directed series about a character from history
07:52 that you don't necessarily know a lot about.
07:55 I mean, obviously, everyone knows Anne Frank.
07:56 But I think it's sort of assumed by people that haven't really
08:03 done any deeper research into it that the Frank family sort of
08:07 hid in an attic and would occasionally
08:10 like go out and forage for food.
08:11 And it was basically a self-contained system.
08:14 But it was very much tied into the resistance movement.
08:18 And they would not have been able to survive
08:20 without outsiders in the world helping them.
08:25 But I think the idea of the series
08:28 is very much about maintaining humanity
08:31 in a world of inhumanity.
08:34 And that's sort of the small light of the title.
08:36 It's very funny as well, which you wouldn't expect for an Anne
08:42 Frank drama series.
08:43 But it is.
08:45 And it looks at sort of the day-to-day of the family
08:49 as they're essentially holed up for years
08:53 in a fairly small space.
08:56 The bickering that goes on between them,
08:58 the sort of everyday conversations, the--
09:03 yeah, it's very good.
09:06 And you also see a bit of an alternate--
09:10 an alternate-- a parallel story with Miep Gijs's partner, who
09:14 is working for the Dutch resistance
09:17 and attempting to blow up Nazi archives and things
09:22 like that to disrupt the war effort.
09:23 And it's a very good look at how people that didn't need
09:35 to resist the Nazis because they were part of the Aryan lot,
09:40 they would have been relatively fine,
09:43 risked their lives to disrupt the Nazi regime
09:48 and to help their friends.
09:49 And it also looks at the people that
09:51 on the opposite side of the trap don't
09:54 feel like they can do that.
09:56 So it's a great, great, great series.
10:00 Oh, it is.
10:01 Fantastic cast as well.
10:02 Belle Powley is amazing as Miep.
10:05 Did you-- you're a bit of a history buff.
10:08 Like, do you think it sort of would appeal to history buffs
10:10 more, or do you think it's quite accessible?
10:13 I think it looks like it's quite hard to get into.
10:17 But it's not-- it's a very universal story of sort
10:22 of a friend who helps out her friends in the face
10:28 of massive cost and risk.
10:31 But you don't need to have a very coherent understanding
10:36 of the history of the time to understand what's going on.
10:41 And is it dramatized to some extent, obviously?
10:45 Yeah, I'm not sure how much Miep's partner, Jan Geis, is--
10:50 I think his story might have been somewhat embellished.
10:58 OK, OK.
11:00 I don't think he was a huge mover
11:03 in the resistance movement.
11:07 And how many episodes-- and is it still-- it's on Netflix.
11:09 Is that right?
11:10 Or no, it's Disney+.
11:11 Disney+.
11:12 There's eight episodes.
11:14 OK, cool, brilliant.
11:15 Also very different, so thank you for that.
11:19 My first show-- and again, I'm kind of cheating with this one
11:22 because I've not actually finished the second series,
11:25 so I'm kind of cheating.
11:26 But it's The Bear because I feel like The Bear--
11:29 I didn't watch the first series when I first came out.
11:31 I watched it this year.
11:32 And I'm nearly through the second series.
11:35 And I was trying to get through it,
11:36 but I just didn't get there in the end.
11:39 But I just love what they do in The Bear.
11:41 I just think it's so different to anything else that's on TV.
11:45 OK, we're going to go to a little break now.
11:47 And we will be back after the break
11:49 with more recommendations from me and Benji.
11:51 And we're going to do some honorable mentions to come back
11:54 after the break.
11:54 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:58 If listeners do not know what The Bear is,
12:06 it's an American comedy created by Christopher Storer
12:10 and it's--
12:12 first series came out on June 22.
12:15 And the main character is Carmi, played by Jeremy Allen White,
12:20 who is a young award-winning chef.
12:22 And he comes back to Chicago to run his brother's sandwich shop
12:28 after he dies by suicide.
12:30 And basically, he kind of inherits a bit of a shit show.
12:34 You know, staff who are kind of--
12:37 rule themselves.
12:38 And the business is in a major financial trouble.
12:41 And he's got all these interesting characters
12:44 around him.
12:45 And again, some stellar performances,
12:49 like really good acting.
12:50 You know when people get characters that annoy you,
12:54 like really annoy you, that is good acting usually.
12:58 So yeah, so his cousin is played by Eben Moss Backrack.
13:05 He is so annoying.
13:06 He's such a a-hole in the thing.
13:08 But I mean, that's kind of the charm, part of the charm of it.
13:13 And yes, episode-- or sorry, series two came back this year.
13:18 And the season finale of series one is outstanding.
13:22 I just loved it.
13:22 It was a little bit Hollywood maybe for some people,
13:25 but I absolutely, absolutely loved it.
13:26 And I don't want to give away too much in case
13:28 people haven't watched it.
13:30 But series two kind of feels like it's actually
13:35 grown a little, like it's moved on from series one,
13:38 where it's like situational and just trying to get
13:41 the restaurant back on track.
13:43 Whereas series two is kind of exploring the people
13:47 and their relationships.
13:48 And there's one lovely sort of almost standalone episode
13:51 where one of the chefs goes off to train as a patisserie
13:54 dessert chef in Europe.
13:57 And it's so gentle and insightful.
13:59 And it's such a different pacing change
14:04 to this first series where it's like, oh my God,
14:06 really intense kitchen drama, almost like Boiling Point
14:10 or whatever.
14:12 So yeah, highly recommend.
14:13 And really great music.
14:15 Oh, the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic.
14:17 And yeah, it's got it all.
14:20 It's got like money, drugs, guns.
14:23 But that's not really the main thing.
14:25 Food, love, family, all the stuff.
14:29 So yeah, highly recommend.
14:31 OK, so my second program is-- and this is probably
14:36 no surprise to most people--
14:38 Succession.
14:39 So Succession sadly came to a finale, a finish, an end.
14:46 It's over, done in 2023.
14:50 And whilst we were very sad to see it go, it was fantastic.
14:55 It was so good.
14:56 It was one of those endings where you're like,
15:00 it was always going to end this way, wasn't it?
15:03 Yeah, I love the fact that it was such a downbeat kind
15:07 of ending, where especially the final two characters holding
15:11 hands in the car and realizing, yep, we're
15:14 stuck in this position now, aren't we?
15:16 That could have gone with a super happy ending
15:18 for Succession.
15:19 But I love the fact that it stayed true to its roots
15:22 and decided, no, you're getting a downer.
15:24 You're 100% getting a downer.
15:26 Yeah, I feel like they maybe went almost back to the start.
15:32 They're almost all still in the same position
15:34 they are at the start by the end of it.
15:36 So spoiler alert, if you haven't watched Succession, people,
15:38 we are going to talk some spoilers now.
15:40 So basically--
15:41 Are we?
15:42 A little.
15:43 Oh, you better cover your ears.
15:45 Oh, come on.
15:47 Listen, I'm not waiting till next Christmas to do this.
15:49 OK, that's fine.
15:50 You--
15:50 I'll tell you what.
15:51 No, no, no, no.
15:52 No, I'll tell you what.
15:52 I won't give it away.
15:53 It's fine.
15:53 But I am going to--
15:54 you just have to not pay too much attention, OK?
15:57 I won't give you away the big spoilers.
15:58 Anyway, so we have the family.
16:01 We have the patriarch, Logan Roy, played by Brian Cox.
16:05 And yeah, essentially, the final series
16:08 is what you think is going to happen happens.
16:12 And the three kids are left--
16:15 well, he's got four kids, but his eldest, Connor,
16:19 he is kind of like--
16:20 it is never really properly explained
16:22 why he's kind of like the outsider.
16:25 But anyway, he's not--
16:26 it's the three kids.
16:27 I guess they had a different mom to the three kids.
16:30 And so you have Kendall, Roman, and Siobhan.
16:35 And again, just to mention, just the performances
16:38 are absolutely out of this world.
16:41 Jeremy Strong as Kendall, Ciarán Culkin as Roman,
16:44 and Sarah Snook as Siobhan.
16:45 And actually, do you know what?
16:47 It doesn't even stop there.
16:48 Like, Matthew McFadden, who plays Tom, Siobhan's husband,
16:52 is brilliant.
16:54 And the comedic role-- he's semi-comedic.
16:59 And then we've got Nicholas Braun as Greg, the cousin,
17:01 who is completely comedic.
17:03 He's Logan's grandnephew, also employed by the company.
17:07 But yeah, just outstanding.
17:09 And they were all winning awards, weren't they,
17:12 for their acting and whatnot.
17:15 But yeah, so I think there's not an awful lot to say.
17:19 Again, a bit like "The Last of Us,"
17:21 it has had huge critical acclaim for its writing, acting, humor,
17:25 music, directing, production values, everything.
17:30 Its examination of the subject matter, which is essentially
17:34 big, bad media company, people with loads of money
17:36 and no morals, these kids trying to impress their dad
17:41 and be the person to take over the company.
17:44 And eating themselves and eating everyone around them
17:48 in an effort to do it.
17:49 And in "Walk," various different characters
17:53 to try and be part of it or take it over or whatever.
17:58 And the last series is very much about this big, big threat
18:01 of the company being sold and the kids banding together
18:05 to stop it from happening, much to actually
18:08 their own detriment.
18:11 They would make a killing in this sale,
18:13 but they decide they want it.
18:16 And therefore, nobody else is going to have it.
18:19 They don't make an actual decision
18:20 based on financial gain, which just says it all, really.
18:25 So anyway, the last-- yeah, they go to kind of new lows
18:28 in the last series.
18:30 And particularly, the last episode is like a roller
18:32 coaster of what is going to happen,
18:34 what isn't going to happen.
18:36 So anyway, I had some stuff here that I
18:37 was going to talk about that I can't now because it's even--
18:40 so that's the end of that.
18:42 But they're my two.
18:42 Anyway, I absolutely love them.
18:43 And I'll give you some honorable mentions in a while.
18:46 Benji, over to you.
18:47 Tell us.
18:48 Well, I mean, we can't talk about 2023
18:51 without talking about the finale of Ted Lasso on Apple TV+.
18:57 I mean, I know that in some regards,
19:00 it was quite predictable, some of the ends of the storylines
19:04 involved.
19:05 But just because something is predictable
19:07 doesn't necessarily mean that it was bad.
19:09 And I love how it was just this incredibly warm--
19:14 it dealt with Ted this year dealing with homesickness,
19:19 also dealt with Nate's redemption arc.
19:22 It did feel a little bit like it was speed
19:25 running towards the end because we do or do not
19:28 know if there's going to be a new season,
19:31 if Jason Sudeikis is going to be involved in it or not,
19:34 or if--
19:35 the character of Ted Lasso, incredibly popular.
19:38 But it was the supporting cast as well that made Ted Lasso just
19:42 incredible.
19:43 Phil Dunster as Jamie Tartt, Brit Goldstein as Roy King.
19:47 Friend of the podcast.
19:48 Nick-- is he?
19:50 Well--
19:50 What, Brit Goldstein?
19:51 I met him once, so yeah, he is.
19:54 Hi, Brit.
19:55 Hi.
19:56 Thanks for listening.
19:57 And then-- yeah, I appreciate it.
19:59 Nick Muhammad, of course, as Nate the Grey.
20:02 And it was just such a real feel-good moment
20:05 that as much as I do want there to be a brand new season spun
20:10 off from Ted Lasso, maybe it's Roy King and Nate
20:14 trying to manage the team.
20:18 We'd love a spin-off.
20:20 Yeah, we do love a spin-off.
20:21 If it ended like that, I'd be more than
20:23 happy to end it like that.
20:25 So I mean, that was one of my highlights.
20:26 And the other one, amidst an absolute shower of problems
20:32 that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had
20:34 cinematically this year, Loki season two
20:38 was definitely a high point on the MCU calendar.
20:41 Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson returning once again this time
20:45 to try and solve the problem of the entire kind of universe
20:52 that the Time Variance Authority are based in
20:54 to stop it imploding and ending existence as we know it.
20:59 Controversially, Jonathan Majors was in it.
21:02 And he actually was quite good in that,
21:05 regardless of his court case and allegations aside.
21:11 Kang was still portrayed as quite a strong character.
21:14 And his variant, Victor Timely, was
21:16 portrayed as quite a sympathetic character.
21:20 K. Hu Quan, what a fantastic 12 months he's had coming back,
21:26 winning an Oscar for everything, everywhere, all at once.
21:29 And now one of the standouts in Loki season two.
21:32 But my MVP from that entire series
21:36 has to be Tara Strong, who provides
21:39 the voice of Ms. Minutes.
21:42 I don't want to spoiler it for anyone,
21:44 but who knew that an animated clock could
21:47 be just such a benevolent character in the MCU?
21:52 So Ted Lasso, unfortunately, you're
21:54 going to have to get an Apple TV+ subscription.
21:57 But many of you are probably getting Apple products
21:59 to share, sign up for the six month deal, and get it for free.
22:03 And with regards to Loki, it is currently on Disney+.
22:07 And there is my boy, Roy Kent.
22:10 There he is.
22:11 Thank you.
22:12 Thank you.
22:13 Bright Goldstein and me and my friends pointing at his crotch
22:17 after a very entertaining show at the Fringe
22:22 about 10 years ago.
22:23 Before he was famous, people, before he was famous.
22:26 That is amazing.
22:28 I feel like we're running out of time, which is a shame,
22:30 because we could talk about all these things for much longer.
22:33 But honorable mentions time.
22:35 Stephen, give us two or three honorable mentions.
22:38 Don't go into any details.
22:39 Literally the names.
22:40 Blue Lights, 100%, Best Interest.
22:43 Yeah.
22:43 OK, followed by House of Usher and Top Gun.
22:46 Oh, very good.
22:47 OK, what about you, Benji?
22:49 It'll be Monarch, Legacy of Monsters,
22:52 the Castlevania Nocturne series.
22:55 And one more, Sod It.
22:57 I quite enjoyed what I watched of I'm a Celebrity,
23:00 Get Me Out of Here this year.
23:01 It's not something I'd probably go into again,
23:05 but for research purposes.
23:08 Sorry, Mom.
23:08 I'm coming home this Christmas a changed man.
23:11 I actually dropped I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
23:13 I enjoyed Big Brother this year, though, I have to say.
23:16 And The Gallows Pool from Shane Meadows,
23:19 and Colin from Accounts, and Happy Valley.
23:22 There you go, people.
23:23 What a year.
23:24 We're looking forward to 2024 with much Augusta as well.
23:28 And next week, we will be here to tell you all about the big shows
23:31 that are coming in 2024.
23:32 Some of them, we'll have dates for some of them.
23:34 We won't for most of them, but we know they're coming.
23:36 Thankfully, even amidst all the strikes and crazy stuff
23:39 that went on this year.
23:40 So we want to say thank you so much for watching.
23:43 We will be back next week.
23:44 Have a safe Christmas in the meantime.
23:46 And yeah, keep listening.
23:48 Share with your friends.
23:50 Bye.
23:51 Bye.
23:52 Bye bye.
23:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]
23:55 (upbeat music)
23:58 (upbeat music)