Watch History Journal 1.1

When I released Watch History Journal, my shortcut for logging TV shows and films in your preferred journaling app, I had no idea if anyone else would find any use for it. To my pleasant surprise, a lot of people have reached out to let me know that they're using and enjoying the shortcut. Turns out, we love journaling about the shows and films we watch.

To help make that experience the best it can be, I’ve continued working on Watch History Journal, and I’m excited to release its first update today. Version 1.1 includes a few changes:

• Image Sorter: Title images are added to your journal app in watch order.
• Adjusted character counts for show and movie titles to allow for longer titles.
• Revamped time zone logic to work for all regions.

Image Sorter was the first thing I added to the shortcut after its release, and it came from my own experience using it. I noticed that my journal entries weren’t displaying title images in the order I watched them; in fact, they were showing in reverse. I added a small loop to reorder them, and now, shows and films appear in watch order as they should.

While using the shortcut, I also noticed that some titles were being shortened unnecessarily. It’s hard to know exactly when to cut off a title because not every character is the same width on the image. But there was certainly some wiggle room, so I upped the limit.

The final improvement in this version came after I mentioned Watch History Journal in my recent column for the Club MacStories Monthly Log. Club member Vlahn reached out to let me know that the shortcut wasn’t returning any results even though there were a couple of episodes logged for that day. Thanks to Vlahn's kind help, I was able to narrow down the problem to a time zone issue, and I realized that Watch History Journal wasn’t compatible with certain time zones.

This led to a complete redo of the way the shortcut handles time zones, as well as a thorough testing process. I wanted to ensure that no matter where you are in the world, Watch History Journal will return the titles you watch on a given day in your location – something it was intended to do all along. I believe this version delivers on that.

These are just a few little fixes that make the experience of using the shortcut a bit better (and a possibility at all for those in affected time zones). This update is an iterative one, but I hope it will be the first of many. I’ve never put out a tool for other people to use like this before, much less followed up on it, and I quite enjoy the whole process.

You can download Watch History Journal 1.1 here. Once installed, it will require you to go through the setup process again, so be sure to have your Trakt API information handy. (I suggest copying it over from the previous version.) If you ever wonder which version of Watch History Journal you’re running, just tap the … button on its listing in the Shortcuts app, and the very first text action will list the version number.

My thanks to everyone who’s tried Watch History Journal, and especially to those who’ve let me know how they’re using it. It makes me happy to know that other people are out there reflecting on what they watch, too.

I love working on this shortcut and plan to continue doing so. I’ve got a couple of ideas of thing I’ll try to add next. If you have any thoughts on what you’d like to see in a future update, be sure to let me know!

My Favorite Movies and Shows of the Year

Let the end-of-the-year lists continue! Yesterday, I shared my favorite apps of 2023. Today, it’s TV shows and movies.

I’ve already discussed my top film list on the latest episode of Magic Rays of Light, but Sigmund and I aren’t getting into our top shows until the podcast returns in January. I guess you can consider this an exclusive preview. 😉

Without further ado, these are the best movies and shows of 2023 according to yours truly.

Movies

1. Killers of the Flower Moon: I left the theater speechless after seeing this film. It’s a masterpiece—such an important story so well executed. By far the best movie I saw this year. Give Lily Gladstone all of the awards, because her performance was beyond compare.

2. Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour: Hard as we tried, my wife and I couldn’t get tickets to see The Eras Tour live. But thanks to the magic of movies, we now feel like we were there. The show itself was a spectacle, and it was captured beautifully by the team at Taylor Swift Productions. This is Taylor at her best, doing the thing she loves most, and I had a wonderful time watching and singing along.

3. Barbie: Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling embody these characters perfectly. They are Barbie and Ken in my mind. Diving into Barbie’s world was a lot of fun, and I laughed the entire time. I appreciated the movie’s message as well, reclaiming Barbie as the true icon of female empowerment she was always meant to be.

4. The Marvels: Two words: Iman Vellani. The superhero teamup was a good time, but Ms. Marvel stole show. She’s the future of the MCU franchise, and it’s a bright future indeed.

5. The Super Mario Bros. Movie: What can I say? It’s my childhood brought to life. My biggest hope with this one was that Illumination wouldn’t screw it up too badly; they far surpassed my expectations. Chris Pratt actually did a good job as Mario, but Anya Taylor-Joy’s Princess Peach had to be my favorite.

Shows

1. Lessons in Chemistry: I was expecting dry humor and the inspiring story of a woman overcoming societal expectations, but what we got was so much more than that. Lessons in Chemistry is about love, family, community, faith, and the way we’re changed by the people who come into our lives. And yes, there are a few chemistry jokes mixed in there, too. I was utterly surprised and delighted by this one, and I can’t wait to watch it again.

2. The Last of Us: Come for the zombie action sequences and post-apocalyptic landscape, stay for one of the most beautiful portrayal of chosen family I’ve ever seen. I went in with no previous knowledge about the video game this show is based on, but having seen it, I understand why people loved the game so much. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey give grounded, award-worthy performances against a twisted and chaotic landscape.

3. Loki: Everyone’s favorite antihero is back in what could well be Tom Hiddleston’s last outing as the god of mischief. Around him is situated a well-rounded ensemble cast including the addition of Key-Huy Quan this season. If you’ve been rooting for Loki all along or if you’re curious about the underpinnings of Marvel’s Multiverse Saga, this show is for you. (Note: Jonathan Majors does feature prominently in this season. After its release, Majors was convicted of domestic abuse and immediately fired by Disney from future projects. I applaud their decision and stand with all survivors of abuse.)

4. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: I still can’t believe they got the entire cast of the original film back together for this anime adaptation. It was so cool revisiting the world of Scott Pilgrim, and I love the new story the show tells featuring characters I’ve loved for years. I won’t say more because I don’t want to spoil it, but if you enjoyed the 2010 film, I think you’ll like this show, too.

5. The Changeling: This series debuted on Apple TV+ right after my wife and I came home from the hospital with our newborn son. The show features LaKeith Stanfield and Clark Backo as new parents trying to keep their son safe in a dangerous world riddled with dark magic. It’s an intense and difficult watch, but I resonated strongly with the main character, whose only motivation is trying to be a good dad. The Changeling a modern fairy tale worth watching to the end.

It’s always hard putting together lists like this. There are so many other titles I considered including, like The Crowded Room, Fargo, Silo, Flora and Son, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. But you have to draw the line somewhere, so we’ll just call those honorable mentions.

Do any of these picks stick out as something you enjoyed this year? What did I miss? I’d love to hear your favorite shows and films of 2023, so let me know in the comments section or on social media.

The Fast Saga Movies Make No Sense

I feel like I should start this post with an apology. This isn’t the sort of content you usually come here for. But I’ve had a rant building up in my head for years, and after the recent title reveal of the franchise’s final entry, I can no longer remain silent.

There is no logical coherence—none whatsoever—to the naming of the many, many sequels to 2001’s The Fast and the Furious.

My complaint is completely unrelated to the plot of the films, which I actually quite enjoy. Considering the series is a multi-decade action/racing juggernaut with a good deal of soap opera drama thrown in, we can forgive the odd plot hole, dropped storyline, or retconned fake death. After all, the main purpose of these movies is to have fun; narrative is secondary.

But the titles, they’re just unforgivably bad. And considering the fact that these names are how people will be referring to these films forever, you would expect the creative teams to have done a better job.

Let’s briefly walk through each entry in the series together and consider the franchise’s naming scheme, to the extent that there is one.

• The Fast and the Furious (2001): This is a great name for a movie. It tells you everything you need to know going in: There’s going to be racing, and there’s going to be drama. 10/10.

• 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003): The too/two pun is a little played out, but I’ll give them this one. At the very least, it’s clear that this is a sequel to the first movie.

• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006): At the time, this seemed more like a spin-off than an actual sequel. But Tokyo Drift is a pretty cool name for a movie, and this film gives us our first indication of what the series is called: The Fast and the Furious. Not bad.

• Fast & Furious (2009): This is where things start to go off the rails naming-wise. The fourth film in The Fast and the Furious franchise is called Fast & Furious? Like, the original name but without the “the”? Maybe it was supposed to be edgy or represent a new, more focused direction for the films, but to me, it just seems lazy.

• Fast Five (2011): We’re going back to the basics. No fancy puns, and no sharing names with a previous, separate film. This movie is about fast cars, and it’s the fifth one. Makes total sense.

• Fast & Furious 6 (2013): What in the world were they thinking here? They go back to the original movie’s title, drop the “the,” and add a six to the end of it. Is it the sixth movie following Fast and Furious? No, that one was only two movies ago. You have to add the silent “the”s back into this one to understand it. This movie name is stupid and should feel bad.

• Furious 7 (2015): Again, the movie titles work best when they are simple. You get some “fast” or some “furious” and a number. It’s all you need. Why mess with perfection?

• The Fate of the Furious (2017): The puns have gotten completely out of control. Someone figured out that an F next to an 8 kind of sounds like “fate,” so they ran with it. It’s not a good play on words, people. The title also implies that this is the final movie since it reveals the characters’ fate. But of course, there are three more movies after this. Or maybe two if you ask Vin Diesel, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

• Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019): The saga’s first and so far only spin-off. Hobbs & Shaw tells us who the main characters are, so that tracks. But confusingly, this film introduces a new name for the series. It’s no longer The Fast and the Furious, it’s just Fast & Furious. Okay then.

• F9: The Fast Saga (2021): This time, they didn’t even bother to pick one of their two F-words. It’s just F this time. You get it, right? The series is also now on its third title, switching to The Fast Saga. I have no idea what to call this loosely-related pile of movies anymore.

• Fast X (2023): As the series nears its end, the creators have decided to honor its legacy by switching to a fancy Roman numeral in the title. How many people are going to call this one Fast Ex? I do give them credit for not trying to make a “Fasten your seatbelts” pun, though. That took some self-control.

• Fast X: Part 2 (2025): And finally, we get to the last entry in the Fast Saga, and perhaps its most poorly-named. I guess ending a series on the number 11 would be awkward, so they decided to make Fast X a two-parter. Because what’s better than one number in the title of a movie? Two numbers.

It’s the second part of the tenth film in the most chaotically- and nonsensically-named franchise in movie history. If anyone remembers these films in 2045, it’s going to take ten solid minutes of searching to figure out which one we’re referring to in conversation. “Was that the one with the ‘the’ in the title or not?”

To be fair, it is very on-brand. The movies are stupid, fun, and shallow with no real message other than, “Cars are cool,” and, “Family is all you need.” But also, most of the villains are somehow related to the heroes, so maybe that last message is a bit murky.

I’m still going to watch the last movie though, both when it releases in 2023 and when it releases in 2025. Because if The Fast Saga—or whatever we’re calling it now—has taught me anything, it’s that explosions and car chases are awesome, and I’ll apparently watch them no matter what the movie’s called.

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Update on July 17, 2023:

During a discussion of the series on Mastodon, Marty Day helpfully pointed out that the Fast Saga films have completely different titles in Japan, and they are amazing. I wish they used these names internationally:

• Wild Speed (The Fast and the Furious)

• Wild Speed X2 (2 Fast 2 Furious)

• Wild Speed X3: Tokyo Drift (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift)

• Wild Speed MAX (Fast & Furious)

• Wild Speed MEGA MAX (Fast Five)

• Wild Speed: Euro Mission (Fast & Furious 6)

• Wild Speed: Sky Mission (Furious 7)

• Wild Speed: Ice Break (The Fate of the Furious)

• Wild Speed: Super Combo (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw)

• Wild Speed: Jet Break (F9)

• Wild Speed: Fire Boost (Fast X)

These titles are exciting and, importantly, distinct from one another. As long as they stick the landing with Fast X: Part 2—and I’m confident they will—these will become the canonical titles in my mind.

Just Mercy

This weekend, my wife and I went to see the new film Just Mercy, and I knew even before the movie was over that I had to write about it. If you take nothing else away from this blog post, please understand this: You need to see this movie. In fact, if you want to just stop reading and go see the film right now, I’m alright with that. That’s how important I think it is.

But in case you need a little more convincing, here’s my review of the movie and why I think it’s a must-see for everyone concerned about faith and justice.

Just Mercy tells the story of Bryan Stevenson (played by Michael B. Jordan) and his work with death row inmates in Alabama. Bryan is a Harvard law graduate who has dedicated his career to defending the defenseless and fighting to achieve justice for those our system has wronged and cast aside. He’s the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and a superstar in the world of criminal justice reform.

He’s also a professor and an author. In fact, this movie is based on Bryan’s book of the same name. The book is half memoir about his early days at the Equal Justice Initiative, half reflections on social justice issues in our country today. I’ve been reading it in preparation to see the film, and it is incredible. Of course, no movie adaptation can perfectly live up to the book it’s based on, but Just Mercy does an excellent job of portraying the book’s central narrative in a powerful, compelling way.

Both the book and the film center on one particular true story: the case of Walter McMillian (played by Jamie Foxx). While condemned on death row for a murder he did not commit, Walter meets Bryan, who offers to take on his case for free. Over the course of the film, the two unveil the many ways the system has failed Walter and fight to prove his innocence, an upward battle that will pit them against an indignant prosecutor, corrupt law officers, and a biased public more interested in their own peace than in the truth or justice for Walter.

The premise is interesting enough on its own, and it’s made even more so by the fact that this story really happened. But that’s not all Just Mercy has going for it. It’s also been created by some incredible people. In addition to Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx, the movie also stars Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, and Brie Larson, who each give beautiful, powerful performances that capture the passion and struggle of the real-world people they’re portraying.

The director, Destin Daniel Cretton, also co-wrote the screenplay with Andrew Lanham. Though they may not be household names like the stars of Just Mercy, you could be hearing about them again very soon. The two just received an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay for their work on this film. The possibility that a movie about criminal justice reform could win an Oscar this year is just amazing.

Star power and Oscar buzz aside, my favorite thing about this movie is the way that it invites viewers to empathize with a group of people they probably have no experience with: death row inmates. While it’s common to dismiss these individuals as good-for-nothing criminals, it’s important to remember that they are people. They have families, communities, feelings, and dreams, and this movie does a good job reminding us of that.

It also highlights the problems with capital punishment in the United States. While the main story is about an innocent man at risk of losing his life for no reason, the film also features the stories of other inmates, including one who admits to the crime that he’s accused of. But even his case is more complex than death row inmates are generally portrayed to be, and the film invites us to recognize the humanity even of those we may not want to.

Even though the story depicted in the film took place nearly 20 years ago, it’s still timely as ever. Debates over the issues in our legal system, especially when it comes to racial bias and capital punishment, are extremely relevant today. Regardless of where you stand on the death penalty—and I’m not shy to say that I’m opposed to the entire practice—this film is beneficial because it shares the experiences of people who’ve largely been shut out and ignored by society. It’s important that we recognize and value the humanity of every person, even those on death row.

And as Just Mercy points out, we’ve got some serious work to do if we ever wish to call our society just. I don’t think anyone wants to live in a country where an innocent man is condemned to death without recourse. If we want to avoid harming innocent people like Walter McMillian in the future, we need to face the mistakes of our past and learn from them so that we can do better going forward.

Just Mercy is a beautiful portrayal of two men working together towards justice. And it’s emblematic of a larger movement within our nation to create a more just and merciful future for everyone. I consider it a privilege to be a part of that movement, and the film invites everyone watching to join in, too.

I think that invitation is worth considering, and so I hope you’ll give this movie a watch.

Just Mercy is in theaters nationwide now. Please go see it and let me know what you think. I’m already planning to watch it again soon, and I’ll definitely be rooting for the filmmakers at the Oscars this year. We need to be support movies like this, because they do good for the world. I’d like to see more of them, and less of the incidents that inspire them. We can make that happen together.

Thanks for reading, friends! I hope you enjoyed this review, and I’ll see you next week.

Stunted Characters On-Screen (and Off)

There’s a reason we like coming-of-age stories. Something inside of us just loves watching the process of a character growing up before our eyes. Even more than our culture’s obsession with youth, I think this is the reason why the protagonists of so many films these days are teenagers. I must admit that I’m a sucker for these films as well. Some of my all-time favorite movies (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, even Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) fall into this category.

Another popular coming-of-age story: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. This one’s a little bit different because the main character is middle-aged, but the movie makes very clear from its first few moments that he has a lot of growing up to do. Walter has great ambitions and a vivid imagination, but he’s so afraid of the world around him that he avoids any sort of risk at all, to the point that it significantly inhibits his ability to live his life. I disliked the movie upon first watching it because I found the character of Walter to be so emotionally stunted that I just couldn’t relate to him.

But the more I paid attention to character development in both movies and TV shows, the more I noticed that almost every story’s protagonist is portrayed as significantly stunted in one way or another. Even characters who seem well-rounded and likeable at first turn out to be incredibly immature in a single area or trait, as if that part of their psyche suddenly stopped developing one day during childhood while the rest continued to grow normally. It’s easy to miss because we’ve grown so accustomed to it, but all you have to do is consider your favorite movie or TV show. How does the main character grow throughout the story? How far behind is he or she in those areas at the beginning of the story? If my experience with on-screen storytelling is any indication, the character probably starts well behind what would be considered normal for someone of his or her age.

But one has to wonder how realistic these portrayals really are. After all, we root for these characters because we relate to them. Nobody’s perfect, and we each have areas of our personalities and approaches to the world that we need to work on. It might even be accurate to say that we are each stunted in certain ways by negative experiences we endure growing up.

But do you know anyone who’s really as afraid of tasking risks as Walter Mitty, who at the beginning of the story is too scared to even fill out an online dating profile for fear of being rejected? Onscreen, it may seem endearing and even relatable, but in real life, someone with that level of fear would probably be considered mentally ill. In order to make Walter’s traits clear, the creators of the film have used exaggeration in his portrayal.

This exaggeration stems from a basic rule of storytelling: Show, don’t tell. If the narrator of the film simply told us that Walter was afraid of the world around him, we may not understand the depths of his struggle, and we certainly wouldn’t be as interested in his story. This exaggeration very clearly states what his problem is, making it all the more clear and satisfying as we watch him overcome these issues throughout the film.

Exaggeration is a necessary part of storytelling, but it’s a double-edged sword. Storytellers can rely on the tool too much and become lazy. Instead of showing us the story of a flawed person becoming extraordinary, they show us the story of an abnormally stunted person becoming normal, hoping that we’ll be impressed despite the low bar that they have set for their character. It’s not their fault, really. It’s become an accepted part of telling stories these days. But I think that this kind of storytelling can become dangerous when viewers are exposed to it over and over uncritically.

And this becomes even more of an issue with television shows. I’ve recently been binge-watching the Ryan Murphy dramedy Glee, which ran on Fox a few years back. The show centers on a high school show choir and the so-called educators who influence them. I can’t really call them “teachers” because it often feels like the adults on the show are less mature than the students, using the kids to fulfill their own lost dreams and to manipulate one another, often to the detriment of the students’ educations. They’re actually quite abhorrent people.

Until the season finale, of course, when everyone learns their lesson and emerges from their struggles having become a better person for them. This is typical of the storytelling style I’ve outlined above. But the problem with TV shows (and, to a lesser degree, with movie sequels) is that if a story resonates with a lot of people, the storytellers are expected to use the same characters to tell a similarly compelling story again. This means that the same characters the audience has watched grow over the past season must now start over in a new area of growth (or potentially fall back into the same old, bad habits from when the audience first meets them) and start the process all over again.

This cycle of going from stuntedness to growth back to stuntedness over and over might have the effect of further normalizing immaturity and selfishness beyond even the storytelling trope of exaggeration, and this could be a huge problem. We are affected, informed, and even formed by the media we consume. We aspire to be like our favorite TV and movie characters, and if we spend years watching them act in ways that are completely unacceptable and abnormal, we may eventually accept this sort of stuntedness as a normal aspect of life, which leads us dangerously close to simply accepting any stuntedness, immaturity, or selfishness we may recognize in ourselves.

Maybe I’m being overly dramatic. Maybe I’m thinking way too much about this, and it really isn’t as much of an issue as I fear. But as a massive consumer of media myself, I know that I’ve personally felt the effects of this phenomenon, and I don’t need any extra forces in my life pushing me towards complacency. Ultimately, the stories we tell and the stories we listen to form the people that we become, and I want to seek out stories that enrich my life and encourage me to be all that I can be, or at least learn to cut through the misused exaggeration and interpret stories in that way. I’d encourage you to do the same if you, like me, are concerned about the way that storytelling’s power is being used in media today.